"Everybody was Kung Foo figh - ting..."

Sorry, one too many beers after 'Friday's @ 5' (a school bonding program setup by the student union for everyone to get 1/2 lit and discuss everything from the latest projects to who's sleeping with who). Needless to say, I have not heard too much yet about bedroom gossip, but my buddy Mark said he was going home last night and saw some car activity in the street adjacent of his loft on Traction (1/2 block from school). Apparently, some trashy woman's legs were in the air, and at 2 AM after a long day in studio, Mark observed a couple getting busy in 'broad moonlight'. This is the stuff that makes it into conversation over beers and would not be missed for the world. Everyone -- well, I speak for everyone here but I could be wrong -- really digs this weekly event (not the predawn exposure, but tilting a few back with studio mates). Magnetic glances from other studios is somewhat common (not to mention the sometimes unwarranted and deceptively cleaver glances from the same sex... doh!).

O.K. It has been a little bit since I blogged. Here's what's happened in a few days. Last night, we met Diego from Frank Gehry's office; He will be our instructor for HardTECH. The premise for the class, as I understand it, is that we will be grouping up to research and assimilate both existing and new materials in support of our design studio. Diego seems like another great addition to the program (this will be his second year teaching an M.Arch 2 seminar). My partner and I got assigned to the 'architectural group' where we will be researching new and existing materials common to the profession. Tonight we decided on glass. GO MOSS!

In concert with the rest of this week, studio has been rigorous... don't think anything different. Thank God I already have a handle on digital software; our program's premise is basically sans (without) manual technique. Anonymity and I decided on a native Southern California plant, the Antirrhinum Majus or 'Snapdragon'. She did the top, bottom, front & back, and I did the sections. From what I understand, we were to learn about the flower while producing the investigative drawings. I sat in on quite a few desk critiques and have to say that a few of the teams were a bit off track. Most of us felt a bit under guided in what Elena was expecting, but the end result of our team seemed to be a winning combination. Essentially, we get to skip a step and go right into unfolding the flower into a flat, paper, 'kit-of-parts' to assemble back into a paper model. We need to consider seam and tectonics, as this will be the first evolutionary step of our (to be determined) architecture.

So, Enter the Snapdragon...

Snapdragon Diagram | Print 1 - A for 1st Desk Crit


Snapdragon Diagram | Initial Longitudinal Section