Archinect - YSOA 2014

Building Project - The Aftermath

2012-04-26T10:07:02-04:00

We have now passed the final design review, and a decision has been made about which house will be built in New Haven. As we quickly attempt to go from eight teams of seven (or so) to one team of 54, the design chosen will go through a series of transformations. Hopefully this weekend one of us will have a chance to provide more information about the designs and the winning scheme - look for that in the coming days.

For now, we have partially put up our website designed by our classmate Bryan Maddock, who has done a fantastic job. Content will continue to populate the site as we move into construction this summer. If you are interested in seeing some more casual shots of us at work (and play), please check out and follow us on Tumblr. Have a great Thursday!

Our site:

http://www.architecture.yale.edu/sites/BuildingProject/bp12/index.html

Tumblr:

http://www.ysoabp12.tumblr.com/

7 on 6: Beyond Architecture

2012-04-14T10:19:00-04:00

Near the halfway point of our first year in the M. Arch program at the Yale School of Architecture, something became really apparent: even though we spent 20 hours a day together there were still so many things that we just didn't know about one another, the things that don't come up in studio or even over a beer. We realized that we all did really interesting things in our lives before coming to architecture school and why shouldn't we share that with one another? We wanted to give our classmates a forum from which to share all of those things which made us who we are.

So, 7 on 6 was born, piggy backing on the popular 6 on 7 social event that happens every week at the YSOA (6 o'clock on the 7th floor roof terrace), our event was at 7 o'clock in the sixth floor pit, allowing five first year students five minutes each to do whatever they wanted in a mini Pecha Kucha style format. Each and every week has given people the opportunity to show a side of themselves which normally does...

Archinect - We Haven't Forgotten

2012-04-11T23:01:00-04:00

The last month has been a pressure cooker at Yale : the second part of spring semester is spent on the Building Project - an intensive design charette in which teams of seven conceive, design, and detail a multi-family home for the city of New Haven in four weeks. Next Thursday, one of these designs will be selected to be built! The excitement continues to build as we all learn the fascinating, fruitful and frustrating process of collaboration.

Last week, we had midterm reviews, and this week (in fact, tonight (Archinect is my procrastination technique)) we are finalizing the designs to go into full production mode on Monday. It has been enlightening in learning about group dynamics (which has been supplemented by some carefully timed School of Management workshops) and introducing the importance of client (the Neighborhood Housing Services), budget, context, and constructability into the process. I think the strength in Yale's first year lies partially within this project, ...

Desk Interview #1--Evan

2012-02-18T12:55:00-05:00

Here at the YSOA our desks become quite cluttered as piles of models and drawings accumulate with each project. As a means to introduce our class and to document our own work, or detritus, we are presenting a set of interviews that both showcase the messiness of graduate school production and thought.

The following series of interview questions are taken from Log 23 as a way to contrast the current generation of aspiring architects with the responses of those already established.

Name: Evan

Place of Birth: Tampa

Nationality: American

Mountains or Sea: Sea

Beatles or Rolling Stones: Beatles

Lady Gaga or Beyonce: Lady Gaga

Mac or PC: PC

Do you ride the wave or do you resist it?: I don't do either, I'm ambivalent.

Do you spell architecture with a capital A?: Yes.

What is your favorite color?: Pink.

Plan or Section: Section.

Axonometric or Perspective?: Perspective

Plastic or Tectonic: Tectonic.

Is the architect a victim of circumstances?: No.

Can archi...

A brief (statistical) introduction

2012-02-06T08:31:00-05:00

As a blog written by 55 different people can seem anonymous, we thought we could at least provide some more information (statistically speaking) about the composition of our current M.Arch I class. Below you'll see some numbers (put together on DAYTUM.com) that approximates the composition of students.

Our plan is to start a feature where we interview a student every other week, and ask them a few questions that will hopefully prove entertaining for everyone. We'll try to capture the feel of a series recently run in LOG 23, where Luca Farinelli met with 20 architects and asked them the same set of questions. See below for a link to the interviews with Robert Stern and Preston Scott Cohen.

Happy Monday!

http://www.anycorp.com/anycorp_article.php?id=79 (Stern)

http://www.anycorp.com/anycorp_article.php?id=88 (PSC)

Is Drawing Dead? - Upcoming Symposium

2012-02-04T11:51:00-05:00

We thought we should make a quick plug to anyone who is free Thursday - Saturday, February 9-11. Yale is holding a symposium on the crisis of drawing and its place in architecture. Part of the draw for us is the poster, designed by Pentagram. From their website, "Pentagram’s Michael Bierut and Yve Ludwig have designed a poster for the event using the simple design parameters of the series of posters we’ve designed for Yale since 1998: black, white and type. Here, a broken pencil takes the form of a “Y.” And yes, the poster was originally conceived with a hand-drawn sketch"

There are some fantastic speakers/panels, and worth checking out if you are within a reasonable distance to travel by car, rail, bike, boat or jet pack. If there are any students who are planning to attend, and need a place to stay, please let us know, and we'll find a place in one of our homes.

We'd also like to know what your thoughts are on this topic - Is drawing dead? Is it in a moment of crisis?...

1/2 way there

2012-01-25T09:59:00-05:00

Our Sunday night/Monday morning model deadline has come and gone and the first half of reviews took place Monday afternoon, the second half to occur Thursday. While models were inventoried Sunday night the lack of a lock on the door might have encouraged a bit of extra work for some.

The snow that blanketed New Haven just last week has come and gone already and as we prepare for our drawing submission deadline (this evening) we're anticipating another powdery coating across the city. Second semester moves quickly and it seems we might have our second project introduced after Thursday's reviews. Below are photos from Monday, with more to come tomorrow after we end the first studio assignment of our second semester.

The reviewers were:
Alan Organschi
Jennifer Leung
Joeb Moore
Peter de Bretteville

Deadline: 1 hour

2012-01-22T23:29:00-05:00

Models are being finished as we approach the midnight deadline for our first project of the semester. Everyone operates differently under the stress of a deadline; some become silent with concentration while others walk around studio giving impromptu desk-crits. The images that follow are from that interesting final hour when decisions are made, ideas achieve material substance, and stress becomes productive. This is also when strong bonds are formed between members of our class, as everyone overcomes the same trials and challenges.

Deadline: 10.5 hours

2012-01-22T13:23:00-05:00

Here in Paul Rudolph Hall the 2014 class is not only buried under the recent snow but the increasingly nearing deadline for this semester's first review's models. Our current studio project investigates the cohabitation of a limited volume (16'x16'x14') by two people, including a set of constraints that are crafting quite unusual proposals. The first studio project leads into a multi-family dwelling, all in preparation for us to enter the Vlock Building Project after Spring Recess. More information will come on Vlock as we learn its parameters.

Below are a few images from around the 6th floor as we first years prepare for our midnight deadline.

Hello Archinect

2012-01-21T14:26:00-05:00

It's the weekend before our first review of the second semester here at YSOA and rather than meeting the impending 12am Sunday deadline for models, a few of us have decided to share documents of life inside Paul Rudolph Hall. Over the course of the next three years our entire class (2014) will participate in this blog, taking turns updating weekly and providing an internal climate report for those on the outside.

The images below are of our first Visualization III project review for the semester. Working in pairs we selected a medium-sized object that we then digitally fabricated as both an egg-crate model and a continuous surface model. Visualization III takes place in the second semester and focuses on fabrication methods.

Following the Viz photos are moments throughout studio as we all feverishly construct our 1/2" models. Review is split over two days next week, Monday and Thursday, and the models will be gathered Sunday night at 12am as part of the "pencils down" ...