Sep '06 - Jan '11
(Kent State University)
So I finally realized today that I am now in second year instead of first. I walk over to their side, see the projects””the abstract environments they're creating””and get a sense of nostalgia.
I was told in today's crit to find a graphic standards and look up auditorium seat spacing, find how many people I can fit into 2000 square feet. How are the stalls in the bathroom arranged? How many books can I fit on this bookshelf. How many mops can one janitor line up against the wall if he has 100 square feet of space to work with? How many steps will a child of age 5, brown hair, blue eyes, take to get from desk to desk?
What happened to ideas, concepts, and experiments? Are they not encouraged anymore? It's all about fitting this into this, making the set amount of square footage work. Why are we jumping so fast into this, I have the whole rest of my life to figure out what has already been figured out! I don't want to open up a book that restricts every possible chance of creativity.
Why can't we start with an idea. Invent the program, let the results from our concepts and experiments form the building. Find a process, invent a process. Study the site further than the amount of pedestrian and vehicular activity. I know the building has to “work,” but can't we define how the building works?
Please mind my ranting.. I just don't want to fall into a path where all studio is anymore is typing 12 X 30 into my calculator to find out that my auditorium has 360 square feet, divided by 4 to get 90 rows, divided by 3 to get 30 seats per row. 30 X 90 is a lot of seats.
I want to do something new, I want to think with more than the left side of my brain.
..so in rebellion I applied for a transfer to Cooper Union.
In other news.. I did happen to get this today,
as a prize for best first project. I just wish they would of given me the time to read it too..
10 Comments
how do you know if you are doing something new if you don't know what is old yet?
valid point..
new is the term i use when i'm lacking another word and rushed on time.
what i mean is new in the way that nothing is necessarily new, but at least not limited by a graphic standards book to tell us how to do everything.
2700 seats for a 360sq.ft. auditorium? Outside of 2nd year, you've just blown your FFE budget.
you know.. i was being facetious.. but now maybe i should figure that one out. hah
30 seats in a row or not will determine whether or not those people become friends for the rest of the night, 15 columns of 2 seats will ordain a competitive make out session and 30 columns of 1 seat will be manhattan
do you know if they're still doing the nine square grid problem at cooper?
probably. everyone's still doing it. it's fundamental!
Danny, if you're compelled to keep the exploration alive, do it. It may be that your critics are leaving that part up to you...perhaps since it was introduced last year they expect you to bring that to the table on your own, and add to it this new (less interesting?) layer of consideration...
That book is HOT!
Danny, I enjoyed your rant. Every architect has felt this way, but I can assure you, the technical demand of the profession will multiply exponentially from here on. The true test will be your ablility to maintain a desire to explore in the face of these restrictions.
thanks for all your comments.
AP, and santa monica.. you're right. If I want it to happen, I have to make it happen. But at the same time, it is hard for me to do it when they are pushing for a different direction. I push the boundries everyday, but sometimes it becomes too difficult to fight for all of this exploration.
In a way, AP, it was introduced last year.. however, there is still a lot to learn in terms of this way of thinking. They taught us how to get ideas and think spacially, but they haven't taught us how to investigate those ideas. After all, studio is an investigation of ideas. I just don't want to see it turned into a repackaging of already conceived ideas.
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