Archinect - University of Oregon (Daniel)

Architecture's Version of the separation of Church and State

2011-04-15T19:09:36-04:00

So, I was riding my bike to school the other day happened upon this:

Now I recall reading here on Archinect a report about Piano's, Art Institute in Chicago being 'bombed' and actually submitted a comment; more as a reaction to the other comments than any strong belief about 'street art' and this reminded me of that instance.

This is a fairly new project just completed by Works Partnership from here in Portland and while not in the suburbs, certainly isn't in a rough part of town. It is right on my daily route to school and for a week it remained "unscrubbed" and I actually started thinking, that it was actually pretty aesthetically appealing... It's basically symmetrical, the white plays off the grey really well, and I would almost venture to say that someone who lives in a house like this, would probably recognize this, if they weren't just plain pissed off.

Then, one morning on my ride, scrawled crooked, and sideways at the end was added "in the anus" and by the time I was h...

Resilient Urban Morphologies

2011-03-24T12:50:47-04:00

Yes, a decadent sounding name that, when contemplated is easily deciphered to mean, how an urban area adapts and maintains it's vibrancy through the years.

Last term I started doing research with Professor Howard Davis, on this particular subject, and will continue looking at this through this semester and perhaps beyond. I hope to keep this forum updated with our findings/results.

The project is focusing on a snapshot of a very specific area that lyes just outside the downtown area, near a large portion of residential homes, and on a major E/W arterial connection. There is a good amount of history in the area and was one of the first neighborhoods to develop in the SE Portland area, so over 50% of the structures in the sample were built before 1920. It also lies on an historic street car line that has since been removed and is directly adjacent to the oldest cemetery in town.

While all these things are quite interesting, we are still grasping at what the research should ...

Kinetic Architecture #2

2010-03-29T04:17:34-04:00

Hello everyone out in the internets!

So I'm currently working on a precedent study for my upcoming trip to Vancouver, BC and thought I would put a few questions to the masses.

The project I've decided to look at is the Lanchid 19 Design Hotel in Budapest, Hungary; and specifically I'm looking at the kinetic glass facade that is on the river side. It's a fancy-pants project with lots of glitz and glamor, but this facade while rather superfluous has been a lot of fun to analyze and discover how it works.

I'm not at all familiar with mechanics (yet) and have been looking at this mechanism for a few hours now and feel like I have a good grasp of what is going on. Here's a video of the facade in action.

So far I've been able to determine that the glass does two things, first and most obviously, it spins. Second, and not so clear from some of the videos, it slides horizontally.

This system is made up of 150 glass panels, (all uniquely screen printed) 25 sets of 6 glass panels w...

Final Pin-up Tomorrow

2010-03-08T21:23:21-05:00

So I'm done... I'm now waiting for my boards to be printed up by the output room and working on a few models for tomorrow, but the winter studio, for all intensive purposes is finished...

Every time this happens it always amazes me how fast time flies. I'm really happy with what I came up with, though I do admit I got pretty bogged down in the computer and graphic rendering over the last week or so. It's strange to not have any hand work to show for a final project, but I guess that will soon be the norm. I think I like having a mix of the two though.

I really enjoyed this project and actually learned quite a bit about process, presentation, and produced a good amount of work. Thinking back on it, I think that a good portion of my time this term was spent on my Human Context and ECS class work, so I really don't feel like I spent as much time on this studio project as I had in the past. I still have work for those classes to finish though.

Here are a couple of shots of the c...

Preliminary Renders

2010-02-23T04:53:51-05:00

Digital Media at the U of O is something that we tend to have to explore by ourselves as there is a strange sort of veil surrounding it's place in the curriculum. While we are required to take a generic class that attempts to teach Photoshop, Illustrator, Sketchup, and Indesign all in a mere 8 weeks (unless you have a jump start on these programs) most people tend to get left behind pretty quickly. I think this stance might have to do with the pull back and forth between the traditionalists who have been there forever and the newer faculty that is using many of these tools for their research. Not to mention, this school is more focused on teaching you about design that works rather than how to use a particular software.

I'm not yet sure where I stand on this issue. While I don't think the school is responsible for training us on particular programs, it would be great to have more in house support for the students that might hit some bumps on the way. What I do know is that t...

Kinetic Architecture

2010-02-14T02:58:31-05:00

So I'm heading to Vancover, BC in the spring to do a semester "abroad" and study urban architecture, kinetic architecture and escape the mundane college town of Eugene. Until then I'm supposed to find a kinetic architecture case study/precedent to present once we get there. Does anyone know of any good buildings or examples to start with or any good places to start looking? I've got a few in mind like the Chicken Point House, and the new Dallas Theater, but if anyone has some other suggestions I'd be interested in checking them out...Thanks.

Conference Table Competition

2010-02-10T01:58:39-05:00

So I just found out I won a competition for designing a conference table for the DesignBridge Community Design/build club on campus. I decided to enter the comp a few weeks ago when I was uninspired to work on my studio project, and it paid off. The design is intended to be CNC routed out of a singe sheet of 1" plywood for the legs which interlock into one another, and create a rigid frame. Ideally, it will need minimal fasteners and should be able to brace itself. Also, it can be scaled up and down to different sizes very easily and once we get the measurements right it could be replicated indefinitely (theoretically). My main concern was ensuring that the legs and apron didn't impede peoples knees from going under the table because it is going into a very narrow office space so the shelves shown are removable. The table top can be anything from an old door to a piece of glass. I'm going to try to make a scale model with the laser cutter first and then move on to the CNC r...

Organizing HOPE

2010-02-08T12:52:31-05:00

Helping get together a panel for HOPES 2010

So I'm in charge of putting together a panel on CSA's, Urban Farming and Local Food Production for this years HOPES conference. This is a conference that the Ecological Design Center at the U of O puts on every year and stands for Holistic Options for Planet Earth Sustainability. It is a great way to get people together and exchange ideas and strategies for finding solutions to our current state of affairs. So far I've managed to get Rick Valley a pretty widely recognized Permaculturist to sit on the panel and I'm still waiting to hear back from a few other people. If you happen to be in the Eugene area from April 9-11 I would certainly recommend registering and attending this great event.

Halfway Finished

2010-02-08T12:45:48-05:00

Through mid-terms, now it's time to work on the ECS, and Human Context work.

This semester we are working on a Arts Academy in downtown Portland Oregon. My mid-term went well and I got a lot of great suggestions and criticisms which I'll go over as soon as I get ahead of my other class work. This third quarter of our first year is incredibly hectic with 3 class, 3 labs, and then studio on top that. It's rare that have a chance to take a breath so I took advantage of finishing mid-terms and headed up to Portland to spend the weekend and have another look at the site. This is my first real entry onto this forum, so I'll keep it short until I have something to show. I don't have any pictures of my mid-term pin up yet, but I'll get them up here soon.

Hopefully I'll be able to keep this updated and current as I find it really great to read all the other posts of what other students are doing.