Archinect - Illinois Institute of Technology (Max)

LECTURE: KENGO KUMA recent works

2010-03-24T00:43:30-04:00

this afternoon was the Kuma lecture, one that i have been highly anticipating. The poor guy was fresh off the plane from tokyo, must have been completely exhausted. He is a very low key accessible guy...i think if you saw him walking down the street he would not strike you as someone significant; one would not realize that they just passed a brilliant artist.

What struck me above all else was his incredibly unique vision of materiality. In a residence near the great wall (on the good side...as rodney dangerfield would say) he utilizes only bamboo throughout. As structure, he fills the interior of the bamboo with concrete, and facets metal bracketing on the outside. In the lotus house, he was asked to design something in the spirit of the Barcelona Pavilion...so he creates a checkerboard facade of thin travertine panels on the vertical planes. pretty incredible.

Much of Kuma's inspiration seems to come from nature, and existing conditions...all very site specific though. Thi...

A LITTLE HELP PEOPLE...anyone know about laminating acrylic???

2010-03-22T18:30:00-04:00

visual training: rest of the semester we will be laminating. it will be a material of our choice. i.e. they give us a long rope so we can hang ourselves with it.

i want to get started off on the right foot with this one, and i am interested in acrylic. i have not done any extensive work with it, but i love the properties of the material.

so.... who has significant experience with this material? knows how it behaves, what to watch out for, what you like about it?

in other news, i cut my finger with an exacto about eleven oclock last night and had to leave studio. i hate it when i do that.

thanks for the help.

max

wrap up midterms/switzerland/spain

2010-03-01T18:03:26-05:00

My midterm review haphazardly came and went on friday. Still dont have much of a building...thursday night i took two steps backward, in order to save myself from going down a path that would have lead me towards a theoretical building that didn't deal with its mixed use program successfully. Its refreshing to say that studio can be set aside for a couple weeks as our studio departs for switzerland tomorrow night. Five days in and around zurich, where our focus will be on zumthor, calatrava, herzog and demeuron. Catherine Wetzel, one of our professors was describing the different approach to the architectural and building process that the swiss culture has. an emphasis on the true meaning of craft. Construction as a methodical art form. It sounds like a polar opposite from modern construction practices in the u.s. (i shouldn't classify all building in the u.s. in that manner, just when we were talking about this, i couldn't get the image of a big ass stripmall out of my hea...

dynamic surfaces: chuck hoberman lecture

2010-02-25T19:03:12-05:00

chuck hoberman, from hoberman associates http://www.hoberman.com/news.html]link was a guest lecturer at the college this evening. He is responsible most notably for the monitor system used for U2's last world tour. But a more interesting exploration he is invested in is his organization ABI (adaptive building initiative) essentailly he is investigating smart mechanized building skin systems that deal with solar gain, and the ability to control that for optimum building performance throughout the year.

Really interesting work. Pattern based mechanized layers that move adapt according to the suns position on the surface of the building throughout the day, and through out the year. This is sophisticated to me because it is developing and very beautiful aesthetic in its dealing with light and shadow, and at the same time acting on an environmental level in reducing energy costs to shade/ heat/ and cool building.

the work is still on an exploratory level, however he sees a time in ou...

maintaining clear principles in your design

2010-02-25T01:32:23-05:00

our midterm project for studio: mixed-use residential in chicago. First mixed-use project i have experienced. It brings into play the role of development driven design. the idea that this model of urban dwelling really does follow a fairly specific formula. Bound by standard lot sizes, and the need to economize space. So as architects where do we find the ability to express creativity? Materiality can begin address this issue. But more theoretically, i find inspiration in an article written by Maria Alessandra Segantini "Contemporary Architecture"

She makes the argument that in the urban context individual creativity for the most part stops at the front door. We design these unique intimate spaces to dwell in; spaces that describe who we are, and are a reflection of our lifestyle and personalities. The urban fabric however does not allow this expression to meet to city. And we see a contrast with our interior spaces and the homogeneity of the city.

I propose we conf...