Archinect - China: Adventures in Architecture

China here we go

2013-05-13T16:37:00-04:00

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….

GSAPP Summer Studio....Again

2007-05-30T22:27:05-04:00

I ll be TAing for Mark Rakatansky these Summer....

Empty Form studio mix pics

2007-05-21T17:21:05-04:00

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 too)

My left side man, Nick....

Kool shit Kai....

My shit...

my independent research on skyscraper modules etc etc...(evolo 2007 stuff)

studio mess....

(Real) Columbia projects

2007-05-15T02:57:17-04:00

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 for Queens College. It is a media center which is part of a bunch of on going projects at QC that he calls "recombinant campus". Its sort of a collection of DNA that he mutates according to the particularities of each specific site within the college / programmatic requirements / neighboring structure's tectonics etc etc. So in this case he his main concern was a spatial / volumetric negociation between an existing old-skool building, a horrible half-moon pavillion and and open theater he designed previously. On that open theater he had developed a tectonic shceme which consisted of small bundles of metal tubes which would create a responsive system that could congeal when punctual s...

Final final

2007-04-29T19:21:54-04:00

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 the work of the semester has being based heavily on Joan Ockman's, Pier Vittorio Aureli's and Mark Cousin's seminars. I have a couple of essays from these classes that might englobe the interests and doubts that were persued in this project. I really dont know where to upload them, so if anyone is curious, help me out there with some instructions.

On the more matter of fact side, since this was a theory BUT fabrication studio, I can summarize in a couple of bullets

*translation of digital modeling into concrete models via the machines

*requestioning the role of representation methods into the design process ( e.g. when Zaha used to paint)

*Bretch's epic theater, bearing the devi...

FOA

2007-04-13T21:18:08-04:00

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

Kant and competitions

2007-02-05T13:45:27-05:00

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 "dudes". Reinhold recommended that we enroll in Joan Ockman's rethinking form seminar, which is......pretty intense, I hope me provincial ecuadorian brain doesnt get fried with all these things.

Over the break I worked with a professor in a rather "cool" project, as soon as he puts it up on his website I'll post a link.....

My particular project this semester will be a house in Bangalore. Exploring form through aesthetic values alien to me. Is beauty truly "subjective and universal at the same time" as Kant says? (WTF does that mean?, does it mean that "COOL" is cool here and anywhere? lol)

And.....Congrats to my fellow Columbian's Somnath Ray and Jose Munoz Villers for thei...

living architecture link...

2006-12-27T01:12:38-05:00

living architecture link....

http://lafa06c.blogspot.com/

social NY

2006-12-18T00:24:30-05:00

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

and well only last comment.....Casion Royale, I have to say, its the best Bond movie.

abstract columbia 3

2006-12-17T22:51:30-05:00

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 chinese small eye brotherhood) and my hommy Li Xu, from the super productive Hawkinson studio...I think these guys' agenda was to drive the design process through experimentations with digital fabrication techniques....but i could be wrong

then from my studio, Sara Valente.....who moved from urban mazes to mmm I think using the materiality of the boardwalk to activate the vacant lot near the parachute tower....I might me wrong again so dont pay too much attention....

and finally the most impecable project from our studio.....Braddington ( or is the Bradley?) Prescott III. His stuff is a study on role revertion. An underwater aquarium where fish stare at people, pick the one person they l...

ABSTRACT COLUMBIA 2!

2006-12-15T13:17:24-05:00

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 and worst of all.....ALL DIFFERENT! how am I supposed to copy work from other people when the sources and intentions are so different? Damn thats why we have to work 16 hours a day on weekdays and 20 on weekends. Anyway, heres some imagnes I hijacked from the w server, there are more people with cool shit but, i dont know them so i dont wanna get in trouble....

so, ANGELA and SAAD's project with Lisa Anne Couture....

And here is John's stuff on Francois Roche's studio....

And here is the stuff I am submitting ( as always ....I'll explain the project later......or if you wanna see the vids....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo7ufM0RFSI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g9NDLK5n-w

or t...

abstract Columbia

2006-12-15T12:57:17-05:00

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 ( GSAPP's publication) and some images from the material potency project I was in with sensei Gil Akos and sensei Matt Utley.....ok, so first material potency......

The deal 4 us was to create a system using the dumbest (but at the same time most variable) "cell" (we love cells up here). anyway to a fabric with them and just mess around with parametric software in order to create disturbances along the field. Hmmm maybe that wasnt our deal but anyway heres the link with proper explanations

Group ka blamo

http://www.seedwiki.com/wiki/materialpotency_fall2006/ka_blamo?wpid=616217

http://www.seedwiki.com/wiki/materialpotency_fall2006

Ka-blamo's Dragon....

DUDE! AM TRYING TO UPLOAD THE ABSTRAC...

final review ....just perfect

2006-12-08T01:45:08-05:00

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 and Mark Wigley.
The review was very interesting, with a looooooooot of input from Lebbeus and a lot lot lot of very very very smart comments from Hernan. He never ceases to amaze me on how smart he is ( just in case, am not one of his grouppies) anyway, we got the whole 8 hours on tape so maybe i can post some higlights.

i havent posted anything since way before mid term so i ll just post my last shit and later i ll post process.

the project is basically a system for rapid urbanism driven by consummer demand.

man, i just cheked out the images on site....they look tiiiiiiiiiiiiny feaking

one quick pre-mid-term post...

2006-10-12T17:50:37-04:00

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 free market etc) And how this particular movements affect the built environmet on the site and the other nomadic units. Symbiosis is the condition I am "forcing" into the scenario ( in this case always mutualistic) and the effects I am developing ( cause it all comes out of my imagination, this is nothing more than a 3d novel) are modification of program, tectonic arrangements and material interchange.

Peter Cook studio, or: analogue vs digital at Columbia

2006-10-02T22:37:38-04:00

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 laugh the most, Frampton or him. Anyway, Cook comes in every other week, and the week when he dont come, we send him stuff over the net. His co-teacher Jeffrey Johnson is a pretty knowledgeable dude, so we feel well catered. The interesting thing is that our site, Coney Island is pretty complex, and to make things more complicated....there is NO agenda, NO program, No nothing, just come up with your own shit. And we all know that that is the worst case scenario. Therefore we have been struggling a little bit to get things moving but, we had a mini pre mid-term sort of crit today with some dudes from the Bartlett and an Aussie who won the Parachute Pavillion contest. Happily eve...

Ben van Berkel and other past due stuff...

2006-10-02T22:00:34-04:00

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 goes the comments. First he insisted that he wanted to achieve more than an extrusion of his triple-loop infinte diagram>>>I personally think he failed ( and why was it a 3 pointed thing and not 2 or 4?). Then some dude remarked that the building was no (seamless) "manimal" as he said he intended it to be, because it had constrcution "seams". To this van Berkel said that all buildings need this stitching. I agree with Ben, but dont you think that the Y strucutres that hold up the glass bands look and act symbolically as exactly that? as stitching? My point is that he shouldnt confine himself on trying to do the manimal all over the project, he could have a very interesting project m...

Columbia GRass

2006-09-14T23:25:47-04:00

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 Anal>>>Kenneth Frampton
Mat pot>>>Alisa Andrasek
Liv Arch>>>David Benjamin & Soo-in Yang (cool guys)

I dont know why but I have a feeling this is going to be a very ROBOTIC / HAND MADE semester, we'll see...

Aside from that we AAD are just begining to experience real Columbia. I mean summer was really DEAD, now the campus and specially Avery are FULL! but its good for us foreigners to get a feeling of big american university. One shitty thing is my studio space its all scattered, not concentrated as my summer class, but nothing is perfect...at least I seat next to a window which looks down college walk and Columbia's well kept green GRass...

So tough...

2006-09-06T20:37:47-04:00

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 a more stressing note, once again we are asked to summon a paper to be allowed the pleasure of taking a theory class. This time is with Kenny Frampton. So I guess Its competition till the end...

Pete

Karl on Speed

Lise Anne

Francoise Roche aka hello kitty

Francoise's passport after he turned it into a "grey" flower.

Speaking of Francoise's work, I couldnt help to notice how it formaly resembles HDA's stuff. And that whole robotic thing just blew my mind. Plus I was cheking his FEIDAD stuff, the 1:1 pavillion looked like some of last semesters 3d prints in HDA's studio. So I was wondering why is HDA more "known" .....mmmmmm maybe is US exposure, and maybe that is w...

some social pics...

2006-09-06T03:04:19-04:00

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 neighbors who dislike good old rock and roll)

my good buddy Georgy, cooking up the magic...

drinks at SIP's Jon, me, Alan and the rufian...

10 minutes later....DEA drug bust outside SIP's...

the UD party animals hanging out at a NY bar...which had a pool

Its backwards....

2006-09-06T02:21:15-04:00

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 got an embarrassing Fail/Low Pass grade on mid term, which made me go into overdrive for final, where I got a sweeeeeeet High Pass. I guess the Fail grade was due to the way in which we write papers down in
South America (Ecuador). But anyway, researching for the final paper was great, particularly using Avery, believe me it is a huge library. Fudd Maya I have to say seemed like a waste of time. I mean the people involved obviously are super knowledgeable in the matter, is just that the format is really kind of....stupid. Well, not integrated maybe is a more polite adjective. I only did learn Maya when I started to do my studio stuff with it. Fabrication was a pretty cool class. ...

Lottery at GSAPP

2006-09-06T01:55:25-04:00

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
-Richard Plunz
-Hernan Diaz-Alonso

The best surprises for me were Francoise Roche and Peter Cook (I hope it is Archigram's Peter Cook and not Christie Brinkley's )

Aside from that it seems that the most sought after elective this semester is going to be Tschumi's historical/theoretical, Architecture: The Contemporary (from 1968 to the present)

Supposedly 18 is the max capacity, we will see......

Today we start again...

2006-09-06T00:44:05-04:00

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, Wednesday and Friday, 2.00 to 6.00 (sometimes 7 or 8). And the one time he did not come ( his basement was flooded) he called us and gave us phone crits! carzy. So everyday was like a final, super sharp crits, so some of us became a bit stressed hahahah. Nevertheless in the end it was soooooooo sweet man. Everyone of us had super solid projects and the final review felt as a Jamba Juice strawberry whirl smoothie....
Crazy thing was that although we did good with the critics, none of us was 100% satisfied with the final presentation! Talking over that matter now we have figured out that there was so much work we did, and so many things we learned, that what we showed in the e...