Well...

Its been a long time since I posted last, too long if I must say, and to be honest its just down to pure lazyness.

But once again with renewed energy and the start of my third year studying architecture part-time I feel that I should at least stick my neck out above all the newbies and make myself known as one of the 'old guard' of the Archinect school blog project.

I'm going to re-introduce myself, mainly to the new contributors but also to the past readers and new readers that lurk on this website when we all know that we should really be getting on with those details and not surfing the internet, seeing what journeys Oana has been on, or what youtube clips Vado is posting on Thread Central.

Ok...

Me...

Well I'm 24, and I am a fully qualified Architectural Technologist. I work full time in practice for a firm of Architects in Peterborough, UK, and I'm studying my BA(Hons) Architecture at the Lincoln School of Architecture part-time. Part time meaning getting one day a week off work to visit university and meet up with my lecturers and have some form of studio sessions. What it also means is that I study every god given hour outside of work. Something that even the most dedicated full time student will find a galling thought.

There are some setbacks, spending time in practice can effect your thinking and creative juices, but I'd only been working for three years before I started this course and while I have the advantage over the full timers that I understand how a building is and can be constructed, my mind is still open enough to take in the methods and ideas that we are taught and discuss. However, I have been accused in the past year that whilst definately on the right track I am too 'safe' in my designing and that I need to broaden my horizons and open my mind a bit more.

This is something I definately am going to embrace this year, and for some reason, although only had a few weeks break from finishing my second year project (part timers have the flexibility to work over the summer - well after the full timers have gone) I feel extremely enthusiastic for the coming year. Even if this year will involve the writing a 10,000 word dissertation.

Thats enough for today... I shall write again soon and post some of last years work.

D

Final project this year is for a Community Media Centre on a small car park in Lincoln. The site is fairly constrained both in plan and by other buildings which restrict its massing somewhat. Here are some photomontaged panoramas the site. Once again we have to try and generate our schemes using... View full entry

Second project of the year had its final review a couple of weeks ago, it went fairly well for all the part-timers involved. The reviewing lecturer say that I'm 'in the zone' whatever the zone is supposed to mean. I think I'm actually starting to understand what is required of me now, i won't say... View full entry

This will be of no relevance to any of you other than my peers who read this. Here you go guys and gals View full entry

Its funny, years ago when I was a secondary school I could draw quite well. I got an A in GCSE Art and most of my work was hand sketches, I can't paint to save my life. After that I didn't really do much drawing and sketching, my A-level subjects were all non-artistic. Maths, Physics, Computing... View full entry

I seem to remember seeing a thread in the discussions about when was your first ever built project... In my last post I eluded to some news, which i couldn't tell you about till its fiinalised. Well now its a lot clearer and now I can. Way back at the briefing for the Dundee House Project, the... View full entry

Well its been a little while since posting any pretty pictures, so I'm going to give you a quick precis of the year so far. The first studio project this year aimed to help us improve our spatial awareness, as well as how we deal with a site given to us. This is the first project.Dundee house... View full entry

OK, I haven't been able to post very regularly so far. I'm not going to apologise about it, I've been busy, what with work, studying and helping to build an extension. Spare time has been few and far between. So I'm going to write a quick update, and its back to work. I've got details to do... View full entry

Once again I made the usual new school year resolutions. Post more often, try and make them vaguely interesting, try to improve my speling etc. Well that went straight out of the window, I'm currently two weeks into my second year as a part timer at Lincoln. Already things are different, new... View full entry

OK, back to study in a weeks time. I've enrolled for my units this coming year. Which will be:ARK522 Design, Technology & CommunicationUnit Synopsis The aims of this unit are - - To explore the relationships between design, technology and communication by carrying out a detailed design project... View full entry

This was the final project for this year. The project covered two units of the course, a comprehensive design unit, and a technological unit...Brief The brief was to create an observation/information point within a nature reserve which is hidden within the suburbs of Lincoln. The name of the... View full entry

This project was split into two halves. Both halves linked by a given Designer(s) which we had to research heavily... Our given designers were MVRDV, a trio of Dutch architects who have a unique analyitical approach to design, and who are also not afraid to admit that they do not know everything... View full entry

This project was a very quick one, two/three weeks at the most...Brief To start of with we were tasked with watching Franco Zeffirelli's film version of Romeo & Juliet. This film is pretty much true to Shakespeares original, we had to take note of themes running through the storyline, as well... View full entry

My second project was one that was different to the full time programme...Brief Our first task was to research precedent in the form of silent movies, in particular the way that the actors expressed their emotions, without the ability to speak. We were told to watch a Charlie Chaplin movie 'Modern... View full entry

OK, one year down in my part time course... it has been very intense, because we've been working at quite a steady pace, and i've had a couple of setbacks including a bout of glandular fever. We're due to start the next year in a couple of weeks, so I've decided to showcase the projects I've done... View full entry

In some of my posts I have made comments about the structuring of my course, its initial disorganisation, reasonings about deadlines, and the occasional comment about my lecturer (none of which were derogatory). These posts were made towards the start of the year, and i'm pleased to say all the... View full entry

I am still here honest... No, to be truthful, the past couple of months have been a bit topsy turvy. The following things happened: 1. I was struck down with glandular fever for three weeks... which meant absolutely no studying or designing or anything was done, the only thing I did was drink very... View full entry

Well today I am ill, stuck down by the lurgy that is going around at the moment. Currently I am off work for today, try halfheartedly to work on our new project. Our mission this time is to design an observatory within a nature reserve in lincoln. The site is designated an SSSI (site of specific... View full entry

Not going to post much this time, I am extremely worn out and mentally tired after this project, so I going to just post some images of the final Gallery/Garden project model and presentation boards. The crit went well, no major problems apart from some issue with my graphical setting out... oh... View full entry

I have just discovered that Jelly Babies are an effective form of sustenance when trying to sort out images for your presentation work. Sugary and extremely addictive. Anyone else got particular foodstuffs that help them through the all nighters and the moments of brain disfunction??? Things have... View full entry

I am currently in a state of mental exhaustion, lots to do, so little time to do it. Why oh why did I decide to go part-time. Actually enough of the whining, I'm loving this and I'm not ashamed to admit it... This week I have been mostly working on the Gallery/Garden Project a very interesting one... View full entry

I don't know if any of your saw the occurance at IKEA's new store in Edmonton, North London... It was a rather scary situation to say the least. For those of you who don't check out this linkIKEA Chaos Anyway, my claim to fame is (no, I wasn't there) I was part of the project team during the... View full entry

In my previous entry I promised some images of our group project that we've just completed. So here they are:The Brief Working in a group of four, research the work of a given modern designer (MVRDV). We are interested in the context of "Modern Living". In what ways does the work of your chosen... View full entry

Currently working on a project called Gallery & Garden/Modern Living Exhibition. Both are tied into 1 particular Architect(s) work & design philosophy (along with a essay). Our given designer that we had to research was MVRDV, who I thought were a little weird until I looked into them... View full entry

Hey guys its a pleasure to be here. I've been a fan of the school blogs since the day they started, and now I'm one of the chosen few... I just hope I live up to my predecessors. I am a fully qualified Architectural Technologist working in the UK for a resonably big company (I may reveal their... View full entry