Archinect - University of Illinois at Chicago (Paulina)

"In general, serendipity is the act of finding something valuable or delightful when you are not looking for it."

2007-03-23T16:00:56-04:00

Do you think you know where it is that you are going? Is there a plan a picture a position in the field for which you aim? Do you find yourself one day obsessed, with articulating direction decisions days ahead. Do you find yourself the next, throwing all caution to the wind? One year laps the next and obstacles, successes tumble -amid tides of mutat interests. One year I think and the next I don't, the following is a year spent in reflection. At no one point does anything shift to "indefinite" but it inches always. Anxiety is exciting as much as it is a misarble emotion and love and perfection can be just as evil and comfort just as rigid and deblitating. When inside I feel myself fleeting, my participation flees. Everything inside wants stability and yet - Is it something of the human condition to always be driven to where? Collectively we fear we flee we say NO you have to go THIS way, and accomplishment meas THAT and where is the other? Is it in the decades to follow when you l...

Urban Planning

2007-03-10T20:26:53-05:00

Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky-tacky,
Little boxes, little boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.

And the people in the houses
All go to the university,
And they all get put in boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
And there's doctors and there's lawyers
And business executives,
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.

And they all play on the golf-course,
And drink their Martini dry,
And they all have pretty children,
And the children go to school.
And the children go to summer camp
And then to the university,
And they all get put in boxes
And they all come out the same.

And the boys go into business,
And marry, and raise a family,
And they all get put in boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they'...

Lo siento!

2005-10-20T12:52:30-04:00

I have returned albeit several thousand miles removed from UIC. Currently I am studying abroad for the semester in Barcelona, Spain. It is a trip that is proving well worth the money and time invested. I took last year off from my graduate program to be able to participate in this trip. We started off in Paris for two weeks and since September have set up shop in an independent space in a residential area of BCN. Our project is refreshing, the environment and culture challanging and the experience probabbly not as much appreciated as it will be once I return - hindsight is 20/20? Anyhow, I hope to return to blogging this properly and in the meantime let me dazzle you with some pictures.

Well... all the other pictures, if you are interested are located
http://public.fotki.com/paulinahtoo/spain_2005/

includes alot of other "architectural gems"...

www.urbandictionary.com

2005-06-21T19:23:39-04:00

architect
An overworked and underpaid employee - of a pretentious registered practitioner of the arts (a prat). Many years in tertiary education have left the 'architect' bitter and in debt - and unable to relate to the remainder of society.I am an 'architect' - the rest of you are unimaginative scum.

architorture
Slang term for the major of "Architecture" at most universities that offer the degree in the united states.
He's an Architorture major, that's why he never gets any sleep.

architorture
the bad bad thing that will happen to you should you wish to go to architecture school
dear architorture,

thank you for ruining my life

architorture
A term used to describe architectural works built after the mid-20th century which fail to adhere to conventional and historic precedent in terms of design integrity, scale, proportion, physical compostition and stylistic competence. "Architorture" is commonly found in contemporary "upscale" suburban developments (see McMansion). Comme...

My restless midwest

2005-06-09T10:38:51-04:00

OMG OMG OMG OMG

2005-06-08T19:56:00-04:00

http://www.merchandisemart.com/neocon/

UMPH.. going June 15th for student day.... im so excited.

Detroit's defibrillator

2005-06-08T13:39:16-04:00

I Fluff : Turn household garbage into building materials

2005-05-25T10:13:43-04:00

copied from another outside blog : http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/002733.html

Fluff is produced by the Bouldin Corporation, which is made up of three companies Bouldin and Lawson, WastAway Services, and Composite Products of America. Together this trio of companies takes regular unsorted household garbage which is then processed for thirty minutes before being transormed in a stable product they call "Fluff". Fluff is a pathogen-free material that can be used for soil amendment for land reclamation, a growing medium for plants but its most exciting application is that of an extruded material for use in the building trade.

Composite Products of America extrudes the Fluff into 8" x 8" tongue and groove posts or landscaping timbers for the building of retaining wall or small one room structures. There is even a bench made of extruded fluff currently located in the Tennessee State Capital Building - talk about adding waste to the government.

All this product needs now is a c...

Form follows Function?

2005-05-25T10:11:34-04:00

Last night I went over to the Gene Siskel Film Center and saw “Tall: The American Skyscraper and Louis Sullivan” . The film is touted as being “remarkably poetic” and I suppose a few of the final montages touch upon some social subtleties extensions within our architecture, but overall I think the general composition of the film was a bit dated, but that is because I really enjoy more rich and textural surreal depictions of our landscape i.e. Baraka than I do an archaically narrative film made with shots of postcards. Is history really limited to this? I dunno I guess I would hope to see some sort of progress in this typology of film.

Aesthetics of the film aside, it seemed very brief though it lasts 82 minutes. I really enjoyed the second half of the film, focusing during and post sullivian. The film used the relationship between Burnham and Sullivain and their respective styles as the basis for their question: what did we miss out on by turning a blind eye to Sullivains work? W...

Destiny's Child

2005-05-24T11:20:17-04:00

Picture a gargantuan shopping complex in upstate New York -- a so-called "retail city" big enough to make Mall of America look like a five-and-dime -- with thousands of shops plus restaurants, theaters, hotels, a high-tech research park for commercial R&D, and a sprawling, climate-controlled biosphere for recreation. Yet another environmental abomination, you say?

Not so fast.

Shopping-mall titan Robert Congel, one of the world's biggest commercial real-estate developers, is about to begin building a multi-billion-dollar, 800-acre shopping and entertainment complex with all of the above-mentioned amenities, but without -- and here comes the part that strains belief -- so much as a barrel of oil or a kilowatt of fossil-fuel-generated power. That's right, folks, a 100 percent clean-energy mega-mall. He vows that it will be the closest thing to an "Apollo Project" for renewable energy that America has ever seen -- one that grows the economy, strengthens national security by encoura...

Bruce Mau Lecture in Chicago

2005-05-23T11:35:53-04:00

Bruce Mau (born 25 Oct 1959, Sudbury) is a Canadian designer whose work addresses the design culture that permeates all aspects of everyday life and allows Bruce Mau Design (BMD), a Toronto design studio, has gained wide recognition for a broad range of projects, including identity articulation, research and conceptual programming, print design and production, environmental signage and wayfinding systems, and exhibition and product design.
In 1995 the studio released S,M,L,XL, a 1300-page compendium of projects and texts generated by a joint effort with Rem Koolhaas' Office for Metropolitan Architecture. In 1998, Mau wrote An Incomplete Manifesto of Growth which exemplified his beliefs, motivations and strategies. Life Style, a monograph on design culture and the work of the studio, was published in 2000.
Recently Mau's studio has extended into dance performances, video installations, and the fields of architecture, urban planning, landscape design.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bru...

Experiment at home

2005-05-07T15:07:19-04:00

Experiment at home

All you need is a friend, a freestanding cardboard screen, and a fake hand. It would be ideal if you had a rubber hand, such as you might buy at a Halloween store, but it will also work if you just trace your hnad on a sheet of blank paper. Lay your real hand on a tabletop a few inches away from the fake one and align them the same (fingertips pointed the same direction, palms either both up or both down). Then place the screen between the two hands so that all you can see is the false one. While you stare at the fake hand, your friend's job is to simultaneously stroke both hands at corresponding points. For example, your friend could stroke both pinkies fromknuckle to nail at the same speed, then issue three quick taps from the second joint of both index fingers with the same timing, then stroke a few light circles on the back of each hand, and so on. After a short time, areas in your brain where visual and somatosensory (body sensing) patters come together - "a...

"Being an architect is not about architecture, being an architect is an attitude ?"

2005-04-12T22:33:31-04:00

Excerpt from Being There by Felix Claus and Kees Kaan ... Found this while going through the readings I have collected over the last 5 years of school....

"The will to architecturei s tedious, even irritating. All that striving after originality is fatal. WHat would architects make if they were possessed of universal knowledge? If every architect were to be programmed with the compelte history of architecture, with an encyclopaedic knowlege of everything ever conceived in architecture? Concepts can be judged purely on the basis of intelligence and utility. Knowledge renders the idle craving for originality superfluous. In the Netherlands there exists an ideal basis for architecture without originality. Dutch development of our built environment is so organized that all the parties involved had a direct say in it. The architect has no special authority as creator but its promarlity a professional adviser in a team made up of all concerned. The design is the outcome of a process fo...

Roderick

2005-04-08T14:20:33-04:00

I met a man named Roderick yesturday at the Amoco gas Station on Ashland and 290. He sleeps in the doorway of the trucker's union building and used to briefly work for the gas station at the car wash before it got shut down. He asked if he could pump my gas for me - "can I earn the dollar?" After I just offered him whatever change there was. He wiped down my windows with much conviction and concentration and inquired "if you have any leftovers I would appreciate them." All my life I encountered a lot of homeless people. Living in the city that is just how things are. Sometimes I get good feelings from being approached by people in need and other times I am on guard, because you can tell they are unpredictable due to being high or mentally disabled. I still make the effort to say hello, to make eye contact. It isnt fair for me to treat them like animals, despite their choices. They still are alive and they all came from someplace.We all share a memory of childhood regardless.

Rode...

Not Architecture

2005-04-07T19:00:19-04:00

OBVIOUSLY this isnt architecture. Its still interesting nonetheless..

A photo of Civil defense training trip in Russia. Events like that took place mostly in the 30s-40s and some even in the 50-s. Most of the people pictured are actually children

a bit of a stream of conciousness

2005-04-07T18:44:15-04:00

My feelings about school. Honest here really this isn't a reason for myself to shroud my insecurities. I think everyone has them as much as they are confident, afterall what is the ying without the yang? Lately Ive been struggling to figure out how Id like to practice what Ive learned. Not just in a superficial “which firm do I want to work for” or “oh, dear how will I bind my portfolio” sortof way, but really in a manner attempting to connect this to a higher purpose. Something deeper not in the sense of self indulgion either, but I just want to practice in a manner that will best help me envelope who I am, and how I feel about life, my perspectives, my interests, my talents”¦ I don't want this profession to just become something that I refer to in my later life as a carreer, or a job. If I am going to do this I want it to be something completely me. NaÃƒÂ¯ve I know, in many ways Im sure.. but with the choices I have been making and having to deal with their consequences has mad...

Leftovers in the southloop.

2005-02-27T00:00:26-05:00

Wired picks on Rem

2005-02-26T01:26:06-05:00

from the Wired awards... (regardless to what you may think of Wired magazine post-op)

Latest hit: The new crown jewel of Seattle. Koolhaas and his firm, OMA, didn't set out to build a house of books. The architects wanted to crack a bigger problem: how to store information. "A library has to adapt to social and technological change and to the accumulation of books," says Koolhaas.

Novel solution: The Books Spiral, a continuous ramp of shelves winding from the sixth floor up. It holds the library's roughly 750,000 volumes in Dewey Decimal Classification order, and as the collection grows, books can be packed in more densely, maintaining the sequence.

Post-Pritzker: Koolhaas, 60, built a reputation - and won the prestigious Pritzker Prize in 2000 - with a series of head-turning designs in the 1970s and '80s. While very few of his early plans were actually built, no one can call him a paper architect these days. In the past 18 months, OMA completed eight projects and won seven more,...

American Mile Markers

2005-02-24T15:34:22-05:00

An interesting photography project. A photo for every mile in America? Pretty stunning.... this is one hell of an elevation/section ;)

http://www.kodak.com/US/en/corp/features/onTheRoad/home/index.shtml

Rooftop Landscape

2005-02-23T22:52:23-05:00

Studying at UIC always has had this overtone of urban planning. You do alot of site analysis and "spatial" studies that, after 6 years sometimes feel daunting and drab. Perhaps it is for good reason in the long run, especially for those settled into the big city, to build a general awareness of this thing they always call "fabric." Now granted that doesnt translate practically into the type of practice where you are in the office stamping documents and drafting up details, dealing with contracts etc. Maybe the cunning sinister intent is to shape the character, our character as human beings in the way we live through making at least a greater percent of the population responsive and then responsible for our environement as a whole?

...or maybe not. =)

Maybe last year...

2005-02-16T15:37:30-05:00

YOU KNOW YOU'RE IN ARCHITECTURE SCHOOL WHEN. . .

1. ...the alarm clock tells you when to go to sleep.
2. ...you're not ashamed of drooling in class anymore, especially in the Structures lecture.
3. ...you know what UHU tastes like.
4. ...you CELEBRATE space and OBSERVE your birthday.
5. ...coffee and cokes are tools, not treats.
6. ...people get nauseous just by smelling your caffeine breath.
7. ...you get surprised when you see a new building in your school.
8. ...you think it's possible to CREATE space.
9. ...you've slept more than 20 hours non-stop in a single weekend.
10. ...you fight with inanimate objects.
11. ...you've fallen asleep in the washroom.
12. ...your brother or sister thinks he or she is an only child.
13. ...you've listened to all your cds in less than 48 hours.
14. ...you're not seen in public.
15. ...you lose your house keys for a week and you don't even notice.
16. ...you've brushed your teeth and washed your hair in the school's washroom.
17....

Architext -ture

2005-02-14T00:49:17-05:00

Over the weekend I made it to the Art Institute to see the Ten Visions for Chicago Exhibit by local architects. Well it was very, "graphic" in ways that seem the fad as of late. Not that Im complaining because representing architectural ideas has come along ways in the last decade it seems... I especially liked Joe Valerio's interactive exhibit which placed you somewhere in between space and time of a forced perspective. 4 out of the 10 architects showing are also professors at my school so that made me feel proud. I liked how for each room there was also a book asking a critical question to which people could write their responses to... aside from the actual spaces this was the most accessible point of the exhibit. I am still weary about the language used to convey these ideas, and there were many great ones that crossed paths into other mediums and professions... its just the laguage used to describe them still seemed a bit lacking of a concious effort to get at the average joe.. ...

Late Nights or Early Mornings

2005-02-06T08:03:58-05:00

I miss being in studio courses.

Tonight in Chicago

2005-01-31T11:17:26-05:00

I would highly recommend going to see this author. He has in his books, brought the essance of life of this city into a very ernest illustration of how people appropriate and function in their environment.

A bit on Portfolio

2005-01-26T15:12:19-05:00

Philip Johnson died today, at the age of 98. That is pretty decent, I think”¦all the architects that are known, they live such long lives. Perhaps it is something to do with the kindof work they do? I don't know but its pretty amusing. Id like to think Id live as long.

Last year my portfolio was part of portfolio day, which is an event in the main gallery showing off and awarding the nicest prettiest images and book binding of our work. I never try to get into these kindof things, mainly because Id rather not be compared or more so because Id like to remain humble. Something I learned growing up in Poland when I was little to never boast or be proud of your own talent. Its relevant to my memories of home because of how poor and secretive we were in our lifestyle there. Anyway”¦. Last year, after the selections were announced we were given 2 days to tidy our portfolio's up. Of course my portfolio was something I had to put together the previous weekend. I absolutely detest how much...

Jumping Through Hoops

2005-01-25T12:49:42-05:00

It looks as if my trip for New Zealand has a greater and greater chance of happening. I have approached my company in an attempt to gain sponsorship and have spoken to several professors about various "earth-first" businesses to which I can pitch my ambition. I have one donation made and am keeping my fingers crossed that the owner of my firm will be willing to foot a large bill because of the reason that we are a 100% minority owned firm and we have a long history of contributing for non for profits and charities. Plus it is tax deductible to the business/individual.... Actually if anyone who comes across this would like to donate dowward this excursion, please let me know.

What I am involved in, is a international student volunteer program, which will take me for month into the South Pacific, working with the native Maori peoples, building small facilities and being involved in community development. At the rate that I have been pushing this, I am fairly optomistic this will ha...

CourÃ‚Â·teÃ‚Â·sy Joke

2005-01-24T22:26:49-05:00

"If an astronaut gets an asteroid, and a carpenter gets a hemorrhoid...what does the architect get?

..... a Frankenloid right?"

I don't know wheather to laugh or cry.....

This Is Spring Semester?

2005-01-24T02:10:48-05:00

Photo of developing block on Roosevelt & Blue Island, part of "Roosevelt Square" a consequence of the university's recent expansion into the near South Side. Located between the high end "University Village" and the Abla Fosco Housing Projects, its an interesting moment in development, a crossroads of fabrics of different times and social groups. Interesting to see if it will eat itself or actually exemplify some type of cosistant integration... but judging by how the University has steadily influenced the neighborhoods surrounding i fear the latter is a lost cause.... Starbuck's anyone?

Spring Semester has begun. Had I made different choices I would be graduating this April. However, because of the constricting rules of the university, and not the school of architecture itself... it seems as if I am not allowed to graduate following a semester abroad (i.e. my anticipated trip to Barcelona- Fall 2005.) Therefore I have to extend my stay here another full year instead of just ha...