This week at Taubman College marked the 2nd iteration of a new pilot program at the school, Masterclass or Expert in the studio. I am sure all of my dedicated and loyal readers will remember my post from our Alexander d'Hooghe charrette last semester, but for those you didn't read it (hard to believe I know) this began last semester with the idea of bringing in an "expert" in specific areas we are tackling in studio and holding a week-long, super intense charrette where nothing else in the world matters.
Free tickets to the super bowl, "sorry bro, gotta charrette."
Spontaneous call from Frank Gehry asking if I could fly to LA for an interview, "can't dude, charretting."
Anyways, for this semesters version of Masterclass Dan Wood of workAC was brought in to help each studio design a new masterplan for Seoul, South Korea as part of the Vertical Cities competition the school is participating in.
But here's the rub, the whole masterplan has to be completed in 4 days.
I will be doing another post shortly with a more in depth look at the masterclass charrette and our final masterplan ideas, but for now here are some images of our work in progress.
Final presentation...30 mins.
I am a graduate student at the University of Michigan school of Architecture where my studies are focused on the intersection between architecture, furniture, interiors, and larger developments with the idea that design has no inherit medium or scale. In this blog I will attempt to provide an in depth look at what it is like to be a graduate student at the University of Michigan. In addition, I will periodically share my thoughts on all things architecture and life (yes these are different).
3 Comments
As ridiculous as this sounds (Masterplanning a city in 4 days), it is really good as it prepares you for the real world. I've worked on projects where a whole masterplan + presentation package (with animations, renders etc) has been done in 4 weeks.
ya I agree, even as we were running around and throwing models together I couldn't help but think that things probably aren't that much different in the real world
Just because you can doesn't mean you should. While these exercises might be exciting and stimulating, masterplanning to the scale and scope suggested is modern day suburban sprawl for the urban realm. The 4 day exercise sounds like fun but what does it actually teach you. It tells me your program identifies cities as disposable objects and training you for jobs in China. Way to go.
Did you guys really go to school to generalize cities or make them functional and unique?