I stopped posting on my school blog 6 years ago when I graduated.  During this time I was a senior associate at a corporate office in London and teaching at Birmingham University and the AA.  2 years ago two colleagues from the AA and me won an international architectural competition in India for a 50.000m2 mixed used complex on the outskirts of New Delhi.  I quit my job this week in London to start a new post in China for a local Guangzhou company helping them leading one of their design studios.
I guess the purpose of this blog is to document my experiences in China both culturally and professionally as a total FOB foreigner….but before I get to Guangzhou I guess I ll do a couple of posts with some background about my 6 years in London….

I ll be TAing for Mark Rakatansky these Summer.... View full entry

here's some pics of our studio with Reinhold. There's stuff from studio space and stuff from the final rev.... first our top dog andrew... now his hommie sleepless Matt, or 20/4 Matt, or rush REM Matt... Windex Sabri Taji /// spotless corner turning My desk mate Pete ( and some of his wife's work... View full entry

So I just got back from our fancy graduation party downtown at this rooftop club. Since for the first time ever at GSAPP I have nothing to do tomorrow, I decided to post some stuff thats long due. During my winter break I worked for Mark Rakatansky, my summer teacher on a project he is developing... View full entry

As always am going to stick to my tradition of all images no explanation, because condensing all the thoughts of the semester would be impossible. So am going to attach to the new modus operandi of finals....dont tell us ur process just show us the goods...... Nevertheless I have to say that all... View full entry

Alejandro Zaera Polo's, dean of The Berlage institute, closing words after 3 days of lectures at GSAPP "I dont care about Utopia, I just care about the market" Very encouraging. Maybe they should teach a "market" class at Berlage View full entry

its been a long time. I did not have a f@cking vacation, just working on and on. Now its studio time again and I feel spent. I got into Reinhold Martin's studio. Since I am an architectural bimbo, I guess this was the best option to theoryze my stuff. We are reading Kant, Haegel , Marx and other... View full entry

living architecture link....http://lafa06c.blogspot.com/ View full entry

ok so, social pics....its holiday season agian. hot pot with friends Matty napping under the xmas tree TTX dead after he drank like crazy at the underground celebrating material potency's end Steven Holl's Xmas party....(cool office) some blury Steven holls, Lebbesus woods, and Reinhold martins... View full entry

well its always like this, am always here until Mark Taylor kicks me out and locks the studios. DAMN. Anyway some of my friends on the abstract have not posted yet so I' ll upload tonite whats available... first Waterman ( dude I know u but I dont know ur name, sorry i guess ur not part of the... View full entry

OK HERE WE GO AGAIN.... NOW ABOUT THE ABSTRACT.... Ok so I think they tricked my here at the archinect blog, I remember some dude commenting that everyone did the same mainstream thing here at Columbia. Then I get here and find 16 studio options plus 8 visual studies (funky computer shit) options... View full entry

hey, so today we have our living architecture final---responsive kinetic systems....sounds cool huh? like NASA shit huh? anyway I'll post pics later. Am just posting here while my friend John does everything. Since I have nothing better to do, I ll just upload pics from the Abstract server (... View full entry

well i ve been a total blog jerk. but i have to say they whip the shit out of us here so.....anyway, am kinda zombishhh right now so am doing some little comment on the final jury so we had, Lebbeus Woods (asked to peter peronally by urs truly) , a couple of other Cook friends, Hernan Diaz alonso... View full entry

well mid-term is on the 18th. I had to send these bunch of ideas to Cook, to get some feedback for the actual presentation. I am trying to look at a scenario where consumers will drive their architectural products by their personal needs/desires etc. (which I sum up in the word capitalistic, as in... View full entry

Ok, so after having researched about Archigram for my Metropolis paper last semester I was super stoked to have COOK for studio critic. Plus I wanted to do some parasitic-robotic-analogue-digital project, so its all good. As you would imagine, this guy is just hilarious. I dont know who makes me... View full entry

Well its been two hectic weeks. A lot of visitors from back home. Van Berkel was here giving alecture on his MB building. The thing was alright, altough many wanted to hear about some new stuff or some old unfinished stuff (Arnhem central). Anyway, the building looked amazing ($$$$). BUT, here... View full entry

Well its been a while, I kinda have been busy this first week...Good thing, I got all the classes I wanted except Tschumi's...at least his TA sent me a very nice generic "we liked ur essay" email. That was so sweet of her. Anyway, my classe are: Studio>>>Peter Cook Comp Crit... View full entry

Just came back form the lottery. Tough shit. I mean almost all of the options were just unbelievable this semester. Before entering Wood Auditorium I thought Karl Chu was going to be my first but damn. I ended up like this... Cook Couture Roche (tres cool) Hawkinson HDA Andrasek Chu etc etc.... On... View full entry

well we had some social life, though I am missing some party shots at Alan's and at Gil's... nice reunion in NY...AA summer school 2003....me, Nic and DaFool>>>>Tommy Wong my first desk...500's my second desk, after the exodus...600's (after the mixing up, got some cranky studio... View full entry

Ok, I am starting this blog in Fall, so just before I go much further into posting Fall stuff, I think a quick "Summer Semester Highlights" is appropriate... So, I took 4 classes, Studio, Metropolis, FUDD Maya/fabrication and Hernan's seminar. Metropolis turned out to be really good in the end. I... View full entry

Well, in regards to classes, the studio list goes like this: -Laurie Hawkinson -Gordon Kipping -Andrew MacNair -Lise Anne Couture -Karl Chu -Kazys Vernelis -Francoise Roche -Jurgen Mayer -Peter Cook -Yolande Daniels -Paul Byard & Craig Konyk -Alisa Andrasek -Yehuda Safran -Thomas Leeser... View full entry

Summer semester for the AAD pack was intense. Many complained about the short amount of time and the heavy workload ( some studios more than others). But in general I think everyone was happy with the outcome. I took Mark Rakatansky, and boy was that a tough studio. Mark was always there Monday... View full entry