Archinect - University of Washington (Yamani Hernandez)

in conclusion

2005-07-01T03:36:05-04:00

I think this might be my final post on this blog. I discovered that i can really only keep up with one blog at a time...kind of. and i got that email from paul today saying if you don't want to or cant keep going with it, then lets make room for some new folk. i don't really want to give it up, but realistically, i havent posted in like 2 months so....clearly.

Re: university of washington, i should give a discalimer about my "final thoughts"...1st, i based my entire expectations of architecture school on my husband's experience in architecture school at cornell university which was just plain foolish secondly, these final thoughts aren't so final...they change from time to time as having interdisciplinary interests, my priorities change from time to time . but i'm going to give you a brief and not so thorough personal and intelligent run-down of the school since the website ihas not been updated. what i have discovered amidst all of my bitching, moaning, disappointment, pleasant s...

tent city charrette

2005-05-18T01:01:31-04:00

boo. the sleep out would have been tonight if we didn't nix it in favor of putting our limited energy and resources toward the tent-city design charette on saturday which was a tremendous success. the issue is their kitchen tent.
the floor is a major issue. it is wood and sits directly on the ground...often in mud. its unstable. it has to be sturdy enough to stand for 90 days but portable enough to move that often too. anyway, teach said it was one of the best charrette's he ever seen. imagine that. one of the tent city residents said, no one had involved them in the process before instead of designing for them, we were designing with them and they said they wanted to come back for the build! (this summer, pending some donations!) i have to get some closer up pictures of the 3 groups alternative proposals to post. but a taste of what went down:
. i can't really show people...not TC residents anyway w/o permission.

i realize that tent cities are somewhat controversial even for ho...

back.

2005-05-05T04:59:56-04:00

playing serious catch up from the 10 day excursion with mutated strep throat from hell. but...

design activism project has gotten way unwieldly. henry sanoff, community participation guru came and laid the smack down b/c we met w/ him a little prematurely b4 our ideas and designs really got more developed...a little discouraging. then we got re-energized after visiting tent city witnessing their enthusiasm and hearing that actually a communal structure or a portable shower would be most useful rather than individual tents. still excited...TIC TOC time is seriously winding down and the pressure is upon us...to do this design charette for the structure. the sleep out on red square :
has raised some questions about whether it could jepoardize tent-city's chances of coming to UW. sooo...we might need to reevaluate that if its counterproductive.

thesis forms due next week. need to filter through my 20,000 questions. basically i want to continue the magic of design activism class. wha...

design activism

2005-04-17T04:03:44-04:00

on a more exciting note:

our project for design activism is growing. we are now a group of 6.
our project geared toward addressing homelessness is three-fold, beginning with designing low cost temporary shelter to be used by people who are homeless. Apart from “designing”, the effort is to engage in participatory public education and Action by holding a public + student workshop and collective building session. Additionally we are connecting this effort with the real life efforts to bring tent city to UW . Finally, the culmination of these efforts is the distribution of the shelters and the organization of a “Sleep Out” at the end of May using the shelters we design, and any others that people make or bring, in order to draw attention to problem of homelessness, spur action and a vision for tent city on the UW campus. This means a lot of WORK...but we are all so passionate about it, i think it can work...especially joining with other student groups to make it happen. we are c...

life:mixing oil and water

2005-04-17T03:47:53-04:00

..its an eyeful...

my earache intensifies. and since i won't be able to sleep well given the pain and my need for drugs...yet i NEED sleep to get better, i figure i will kill a little time with the connundrum that wrecks my soul lately...not that i shouldn't be finishing my portion of the site model that i should have finished yesterday =(.

this quarter is painful. yet, i'm getting so close to being done with this program (technically 2 more quarters one of which will be a kick ass furniture studio this summer the other quarter + is all about thesis baby)...that it in some corner of my mind its liberating.

first of all, my prof. is great...most notably in my mind b/c he was a community organizer on the west side of chicago (my hometown) many moons ago! a person after my own heart...social conscience AND design conscience. however, enter angst: on the most mundane level...there is nothing mini about the mini-muni+market we are designing. i know that the goal with this quarter is ...

super

2005-04-12T01:21:01-04:00

superpower:

we have a laser cutter

super weakness:

its kind of a secret

tube stake tent

2005-04-07T17:24:30-04:00

this was for our warm up project for studio. something portable to be used in the public realm i was trying to make a makeshift shelter for a homeless person. some people made stages, 3card monty tables, artist display cases...etc. this is also an exploration for design activism class. i have joined with some other people to design a product to be used in an activist act. perhaps to be joined with the current efforts to bring tent-city to UW's campus. the orange points are to be staked through the gromet holes on the tarp into the ground. i just tried it out in studio though...

things are a buzzin

2005-03-30T02:56:01-05:00

the spring quarter has begun. by hook or crook i scraped by the last quarter of structures and things are lookin up!

This is the quarter called the "comprehensive" studio where we are supposed to address the integration of all the building systems (HVAC etc.) this is the last "mandatory studio...the final two are completely up to us. many people take furniture studios or go to rome or china or some used to go to the mexico design/build program to fulfill the optional ones.

Anyway the 5 studio options this quarter:

Ferry Terminal with Karyn Thomas
Art Book Library with Anthony Pellechia
Design/Build (green house in UW arboretum) with Steve Badanes
which unfortunately does not count as "comprehensive"

Tidal Sciences Bldg (I think) with Dave Miller

and the studio i'm in:

the "mini-muni+market" with mark millet

which involves designing a neighborhood based city services building, public forum and neighborhood market place. a LITTLE bit too much in one building for my taste...b...

Question for School bloggers

2005-03-21T02:46:20-05:00

I am writing a proposal to develop a course at the university of washington's architecture department about critical perspectives (gender, race, sexuality/sexual orientation etc.) on architecture and space...as a part of a fellowship we have here aimed toward broadening the boundaries of teaching and learning.

do any of you have theory courses like this in your department ? if so can you let me know? i'd prefer not to go through 8million architecture school websites to find them. i thought i'd start with you!

we don't have a theory course like this in our department. and this is a topic i have a lot of interest in. i thought about doing an independent study, but, i didn't want to just read and write about what i was reading in isolation, but talk to other people about it. anyway, i'm writing this proposal, and i am at the point in my proposal where i'd like to talk about precedent....meaning other courses in other schools. there is already some precedent here, in that the geograp...

finals

2005-03-15T14:22:05-05:00

so much for staying on top of this thing.

our final review was yesterday. i'm sad that its all over. it was a really fruitful studio. both for the collaborative learning we did for the first half...all group crits all the time....and for the insight and direction of our prof.

it seems a long way from interim review

yet some of the criticism would have been nice to have had sooner in the process. interim review wasn't so helpful for me, and then this final review was just plain cryptic so though i enjoyed the studio and feel like i learned a bunch, the final product..........ummmmmm, i dunno.

among our final reviewers were george suyama from suyamapetersondeguchi, and lead pencil studio were also reviewers. after the structures exam wednesday morning(ick) we're done until march 28th (yay). when i'll try to make another attempt at regularly posting.

looking forward to the future, the thesis ball has begun rolling. we had a big meeting last week about understanding and declari...

convention

2005-02-10T14:47:53-05:00

oooh, is this model to scale?
me: why yes, yes it is.
great, lets see it with a scale figure in it
me: oh, ok
make it at 6'
me: actually, how bout i make it at 5'6"
umm, NO. how about you make it at 6'
me: well, i'm not 6'. are you?
no
me: why would i base this building off of how a 6' person perceives the space.
because its convention. thats how a building is judged. if you put a different size person in it it will throw the WHOLE thing off.
me: but per my manifesto, i'm trying to subvert convention to reflect real people. and what is that convention based on?

i do want you to pursue alternatives in design, but there is also a point in which you must use convention to study it. i think architecture and design is hard enough when you are investigating alternatives without changing the conventions to explain them. it's like writing a book or something to investigate new and very complicated issues that are difficult in themselves to understand and then adding ...

a taste of architecture hall

2005-02-09T01:25:50-05:00

corny name i know. but this is where our studios are held. there's a wonderful building across the street Gould Hall where all our other classes are held. i'll get some pics tomorrow.

since i missed the first month of the school project i now feel compelled to backtrack and think of some things of note happening at UW such as:

2002 Pritzker prize winner, Glenn Murcutt, teaching a tectonic studio, which i have heard nothing but good things about.

Tadao Ando comes on the 19th as a part of Praxis, our lecture series

i should think of an exaustive summary of things of note...

anyway, tonight was "pro-prac". me being me, i opted for the "ethical dilemmas in architectural practice" option. we've gotten all into the "main" (utility, virtue, deontological, social contract) ethical theories and how they can be applied to architecture through case studies. we've even read a little of the dalai lama's ethics and how we might think of those in relationship to architecture and the AIA code...

mic check one check two.

2005-02-08T00:49:38-05:00

Yamani Hernandez?....Present!

hmmm, so apparently i am apart of this school blog project thing. i sent in the request to participate, however i never heard anything. so i figured either i wasn't cool enough, or "UDub" wasn't on the radar and therefore deemed uninteresting orrr...who knows with these kind of things.

Well low and behold, much to my surprise today, my class mate KrisKess asked me today why i hadn't been posting! i was both excited to participate and excited that she was interested in what it is that i might have to say. in anycase my absence is hereby rectified starting...umm. now. yay!

interestingly enough, i sort of started documenting my experience, musings etc. in, about, around architecture and architectural education at the end of the summer in my own personal blog: strangebungalow. if interested in what i might have posted prior to to today, please visit. i will probably copy some of my posts from there over to here...b/c i would think they are highly relev...