First day of studio for an informal meet and greet. Hernan and Elena seem to have a good balance of intensity and sense of humor. In short, all of our preconceived notions of architecture are going to be challenged: program, budget, etc. This semester will be an exploration in dynamic form using digital tools. Our first project, which is only touched on in a handout, involves the documentation of a flower specie of our choosing in a group of 2. We were encouraged to group up with some one very different from ourselves... so immediately I started looking around for someone not from the United States. Secondly, I know how differently my wife and I view the world, so I added being female as part of the criteria. (edited partner's name out -- she requested anonymity)

*Post-Script (10/12/04): This has turned out to be the worst way to approach finding a studio partner. I wish I would have just used only one of these criteria -- foreigner OR female. Effectively, we have not seen eye to eye on many things, including personal communication and design sensibility. On top of that, our studio teams are permanent for until the end of the semester! So now, I'm "divorced" and am forced to use the flower she picked. Hrm, I wonder if I can return to where I started from and pick a new flower?

1.A_RESEARCH

Working in teams of two, each team will need to organize a field trip to a botanical garden of their choice and select one flower specie.

- Bring the flower to class
- Research and diagram the morphology of the chosen specie through books and drawings, along with direct observation (morphology, process of growth, evolution of the skin color, habitat)

Sounds interesting enough... I've begun to research the roots of the Los Angeles Flower District and Floriography in general. I want to make sure that the project is rooted in both of our pasts and growing in Los Angeles. Initially, I'm thinking about making a link between how the Japanese in Los Angeles used the Flower district and trains to promote/deliver their goods -- just as our digital flowers from SCI-Arc can be promoted over the internet to the masses. Maybe not literally, but figuratively, people can begin to understand our investigation by seeing the "flowers of our labor".

Recommended Reading

Art Forms in Nature
Ernst Haeckel, Prestel


Heteroptera, the Beautiful and the other, or images of a mutating World
Cornelia Hesse-Honegger; Scalo