a shorter entry this time...

i've been tasked by the ASO with sorting out a combination field trip to alvar aalto's library at mt. angel and frank lloyd wright's gordon house. they're both about 45 minutes SW of portland, an easy daytrip. i've been to the aalto library already and i think it's stunning. i prefer it to rem's new library in seattle by a long shot. the trip should take place some time before spring is over. trips to seattle and sf/la are also in the works but i'm not involved with those.

attended a lecture on monday night. ken yeang (t.r. hamzah & yeang architects, kuala lumpur) spoke at lincoln hall to a packed auditorium. yeang is interested in green design and planning and has "pioneered a new genre of tall buildings, referred to as the 'bioclimatic skyscraper'". ken wasn't the most dynamic speaker, nor were his powerpoint slides and the audio was so soft you could only make out every 3rd or 4th word. the 2 stella artois' i drank (while killing time after studio and before the lecture) took hold and i nodded off several times during the hour. had to leave before the end. i couldn't take it any longer... later discovered even people who hadn't had the stellas felt the same way.

this week has been start-stop in studio. our third project has been extended an extra 2 days (until next wednesday) and so even as we were beginning to narrow down the models/concepts in anticipation of a swift finish, now we're left with extra time and unsure what to do with it. nikola wants to see 10-15 perspectival sketches by tomorrow so i've been building my model in 3dstudio max. rendered out a few views from it already. i've only managed to build one side of it so far since my max skills aren't that sharp yet and the form is complex. max is irritating to me: i know if i were drawing the component shapes in macromedia freehand i'd have had it done (and precisely) in 10 minutes. in 3D world, i feel like i'm missing that level of precision, though more likely i just don't know how to find it or how to work appropriately in max yet. this weekend holds semi-final 1/4"=1'0 model building and then a final due next wednesday. i'm thinking of moving from foamcore and chipboard to plaster/concrete and basswood. who knows... i'd rather not fight materials at this point in the process.

since my last entry, i've experienced a few genuine "design moments"... working with a studiomate late in the night last week, we discovered a magical little space in his model that got both our sleep-deprived minds racing. sketchpads out and words spewing. not sure how far he'll go with it, but it sure felt right at that time. had a similarly nice feeling about the exploration i was doing on my own model over the weekend. numerous sketches and cogitations on a small portion of it led me to realise a solution that might otherwise have eluded me. it sorta felt like architecture for a brief moment.