Archinect - Rhode Island School of Design (Amy Kwok)

final procrastination period

2005-05-13T21:49:18-04:00

yikes - i'm really behind on my posts so i'll try and run you guys up to date on what has been going on here.

our second project of the semester was a group building project. RISD is taking part in the Solar Decathalon in Washington DC in October...our second project was to build a shade pavilion for the house. We were given two quality materials: furring strips and tyvek. Working in groups of 15 students and each first year studio competed with one another. Here are some images:

CB's studio:

detail of tyvek:

winning shade pavilion:

sailing away:

last image brings me to our last project of the semester - designing a boathouse. We on a rowing excursion in the Seekoonk River and are now getting ready for our final crit on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, I've been spending copious amounts of time with the 3D scanner at Brown for my final Rapid Prototyping project. RISD's Digital Media department just got a ZCorp machine and makes mighty fine prints. Will post more images after finals.

Analogous Modeling

2005-03-12T12:31:04-05:00

We recently finished our first project, which was to create an analogous model of a detail of a certain building. Each studio was assigned a building and the buildings that were examined were: Gaudi's Sagrada Familia, Aalto's Saynatsalo Town Hall, Piano's Marie Tjibaou Cultural Center in New Caledonia, R.M.Schindler's house in Hollywood, and Jorn Utzon's Sydney Opera House.

Examining the catenary curves in the Sagrada Familia

More projects on the Sagrada Familia

The steps of the Sayatsalo Town Hall

From Piano's Tjibaou Cultural Center

Schindler's House in Hollywood

Sydney Opera House

My Sydney Opera House cake. mmmmm.....MDF with styrene frosting.

Providence

2005-03-12T11:56:22-05:00

Some pictures of studio and providence.

the day of our first big crit for the semester...everyone's downstairs installing

a frequent architecture student haunt

an even more frequent architecture student haunt. so HdM....but not.

Paris

2005-03-03T00:34:02-05:00

Photos d'une autre partie du monde:

Blunt, non?

A place to visit - Palais du Tokyo - very "Berlin", as my friends described it. The exterior looks proper and official, the inside is completely gutted.

Testing

2005-03-03T00:16:41-05:00

So in Hansy's class, we learned four different software: AutoCAD, VIZ, Rhino, and Dreamweaver. In the end, everyone fabricated an object. There were projects ranging from stereo speakers, a topographical shoe display, and even a motorcycle! So here's my best overall photo:

More photos to follow shortly. My Rapid Prototyping class took another trip to Brown's facilities and hopefully I can get those pics and post them.

en attendant....

2005-02-27T23:25:36-05:00

ok, sorry i've gotten so behind on my posts! call it jet lag. i will be posting up some images of final projects from Hansy's class soon...as soon as I can figure out how to post images. I know Paul has it clearly outlined but I'm new at this!

In the meantime, spring semester has just started for RISD. Second semester for the first year graduates (second year for undergrads) places you in the Architectural Design studio. For our first project, we're creating analogous models from the Sydney Opera House.

More info as the week progresses...in the meantime, I'm about two years behind and have just found out about Tokyo Designers Block!

motion sickness in the CAVE

2005-01-29T00:07:45-05:00

As part of our course, we have made a couple of visits to Brown University to see their engineering facilities. Today, we went to see the CAVE , a virtual reality environment that lets you explore 3D spaces. I don't recommend it to those who are prone to motion sickness but it was really neat to see paintings in 3D.

Besides being admitted into the CAVE , we also got to see their wind tunnel, race cars, wire EDM, metal CNC mill, and four rapid prototyping machines. To give students an idea of the cost of rapid prototyping in plastic at Brown, it is around $12/cubic inch. eek. Wire EDM is $30/hour. double eek.

Being a design student is not cheap.

winter wonderland

2005-01-26T12:23:36-05:00

We're in Wintersession right now, which means six weeks of taking class(es) in any department. The nice thing about wintersession is that it's a nice opportunity to explore the other departments at RISD - painting, sculpture, furniture, industrial design, etc.

This wintersession, I decided to stay in the architecture department and take Computer Based Representation with Hansy Better Its been a whirlwind of learning Dreamweaver, AutoCAD, Autodesk VIZ, and Rhino amidst design reviews. And that's just the first three weeks. At the end of the term, each person designs an object of their choice and fabricates it using different techniques such as laser cutting, 3D rapid prototyping, or wire EDM.