Make it clear to your supervisor that you are in uncharted territory and, if s/he cannot help you him/herself, that you will need more time to research what needs to be done.

Then post on archinect something more specific so we can help you ;-)

i would, but it's really specific and i don't want to get fired (or do i?!?)

i did, however, ace my interview yesterday, so maybe i won't have to put up with this interiors b.s. any longer.

thanks for the advice (again)

holz.....you doing a Prison Cell Block.....and you want to know where to put the toilet paper holder?

I'm working on a project that is also uncharted territory, designing a building with components that haven't been used in this manner before - and these components are the basic building blocks of the structure, so pretty important. There are no books, references, precedents etc. We are making it all up as we go. The principal knows as much (or less) than I do.

Sounds like architecture!

haha... this is exactly what happened to me... except i asked for it... and it worked out great...

story time...

so i had started my new job (3rd year in school, had been working at another office doing franchise work since high school, so I had a lot of good experience with normal commercial construction)... and i was looking for stuff to do, had burned through the lame red-lines that people were throwing me... so i see a set of drawings on head of the building dept's desk, with some marks on it and a list of comments... he was on the phone and I picked up the set and asked are these comments? and he kinda nodded his head and stuttered a bit as the person on the line was stealing his attention... i said, i'll take care of it, turned around and went to my desk...

it turned out the building in question was a burn tower, a tower that firemen train on with a bunch of crazy details and requirements for machines that fill rooms with fire and smoke, doors they can break down over and over again, door latches they can pry open over and over, movable maze walls, just absolute wierd stuff that i had never seen before...

on top of that, the project had laid dormant for 3 years as the city put the project on hold... everyone that had been doing this type of building was gone... i was kinda on my own, because my boss would just look at me and shrug his shoulders with every question i asked him...

well, i worked through it and figured how to put that building together by calling a bunch of people and talking things through with everyone in the office... it was really fun and interesting... so with a little bit of checkin in by my boss, i took the project from 50% to an Issue for Construction... and that was it...even though i was still in school, i was pretty much a made man at the office...

so, my advice is, take the bull by the horns, you have an opportunity to make that project your own... there is a globe of resources out there at your disposal, it may take some long nights, but doing it is the best way to learn... and at the end, you'll be the master of whatever needs be mastering and next time that job type comes along, you'll be the office pro...

quit. immediately.

my response to uncharted territory....how did you solve brand new projects while in school: a sustainable dwelling for an artist and a poet...or an institute for scholarly studies, or a downtown open air re-development for the underprivileged?

You do research, read, think, and ask a lot of questions, then start drawing. if you don' draw, and you hesitate, you will not learn. Take a chance, go for it.

its not the cooper union take home test is it????

work is different than school... there are lots of resposibility when u make a mistake and there is a limit for trial and error due to budget and time constraint... also u will be leading the construction sites progress. lots of professional liability... if u can't manage it, tell ur boss and let me do the risk assessment.

typo>let him

no, it's not the coop-u take home test.

i think if this project had been a building, i'd take a different approach. i'm just really depressed and downtrodden over the work situation, and am really annoyed at being underutilized and misled on a number of issues. nothing i can't handle... ( i hope)

unfamiliar work seems like what i used to think of as 'sink or swim' work. you have two options:

1. turn your brain inside out figuring out how to respond as expected and succeed or fail,

2. make of it something interesting for you, an exploration of new territory, and succeed or fail.