Oh boy.. I know where this is going. Per, meet Dafer. Dafer, meet Per.

Per?

It's easy to knock out models on the CNC or laser cutter + people are lazy and sheeplike ( if you don't think about it too hard, there is something satisfying about a curvy egg crate model fitting together - making it full sized just masks the fact that there isn't a whole lot going on design-wise by adding an element of spectacle.

I think waffles are just a typical point of departure for many students. 

Like a grid problem, like a new dumb box.

I also thought this thread was going to be about real waffles, now that's a subject.

Nutella and berries is the way to go.

I really have no idea what you're talking about, could you word it in laymen's terms besides the word "waffle"? 

http://fabulouslyfabricated.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/opensystems_64.jpg

This is what I'm talking about

I don't recall a single student project where I went to school use that. And its probably popular among some students due to how easy it is to create from a rhino/grasshopper file for direct export to laser cut files. If you can't design something well, make it curvy.

I agree. I know its popular in schools like Penn, GSAPP and the AA in london. Here is an example from AA's website :

http://www.aaschool.ac.uk/STUDY/GRADUATE/graduate.php 

I agree with Metal above.  When I wake up Sunday morning to read a 'waffle' topic, I'm thinking 'waffles.'  I love waffle house.  Not the architecture necessarily, but the waffles at waffle house are awesome.  Maybe they can develop a parametrically based curvilinear waffle iron.  I haven't been there in forever.

I have seen this too and I think it happened after the Nicholas Grimshaw monograph came out in 1994 and a series of lecture circuits his senior staff did in 1999, also coinciding with the rise of fame of Calatrava.  But I think quite a few of these project’s curvilinear and “Organic” forms were mistaken for pure art and not the carefully calculated structural systems they truly are.

So this kind of work is an abstraction of these two prominent architects and possibly others, and only really came about once the architecture schools got lasers, CNC, and recently 3D Printing.  This is a case where the state of the academy caught up with the state of the practice. It also coincides with a major change in the academy where in studio if you showed a waffle blob thing you might hear a question about how you would build that, now that question is fading from popularity and I even got such mean scowls the last time I asked a student on a jury how they think this would be built, it was a blobachure with every window opening being curved and different, oh and it was a LEED studio too.

I love the creativity this offers but I am concerned with the academy further distancing themselves from the realities of constructability.

Peter N

@Dafer Haddadin

Oh, well in that case you have to look at the context of those schools and their faculty. But in terms of "popular", the theorist and technologist schools still aren't the majority. They represent architectural student bodies in the same way starchitects represent architects. Its usually now used as object architecture, and not the good kind of object architecture. But, that's why I have seen it mainly only used as pavillions or interior installations in small New York or LA retail stores.

I guess (this may be relevant to what Mr. Normand stated) this could be related to people looking at the structural form of a lamella structure and pushing and pulling points in rhino or entering a function with script/grasshopper, then export to a laser cut file (could take less than an a couple hours to "design" and cut it out). As long as it looks cool its good architecture right?...

the future is here.

we can even fashion them into bowls. oh the possibilities.

waffle slabs though, are not as fun to eat.

Thats exactly what I wanted for breakfast

put some fried chicken up on that bitch

@ Rand H, I would like a portfolio critique please! thanks

http://issuu.com/dhaddadin/docs/selectedworks

Haha why me?

Well:

• I would move your resume to the end personally (but that is strictly a personal preference)
• Some of the colors in your diagrams may need explanation (like right now I'm trying to figure out if those are PV panels and why they are waving on your ST.iching project. Its blue in your greenhouse diagram, but why is it a different color than the green?)
• I am a little confused as to why you places emphasis on the first letter or two of each project. It may be relating to something I am unaware of, but if it doesn't serve any purpose, then I would try to find one so that it doesn't distract form the actual portfolio (a person may spend more time trying to decipher what it means than focusing on the over all content)
• In terms of formatting, take notice that some section descriptions are in all CAPS (page 21) while others are not. You have some things justified strangely like  on page 26 Also some images may require text description (just a few words)
• The diagram colors on page 20/21 could be dulled some to reflect the other colors
• You've done a rather well composing your images in a logical manner that reinforces associated images and texts.
• Be wary of difficult to read texts that have a background of a similar color or are an image with similar colors.
• Your index doesn't feel of the same document due to it being focused around the interior margin unlike everything else
• And one of the bigger things to remember, the portfolio you linked is primarily meant for computers. Having such large areas of black or full bleed like that can become difficult to print depending on the quality of the printer, paper, and color mode. If a possible employer wants to print out your portfolio to show hiring managers/principals/partners they may not waste their money doing color prints, and as a result would be printing full ink pages. When the majority of a page is a color background or black that doesn't contribute to the project, it may be frustrating to waste the toner to print it.

That's just my two cents, but all in all you've done a good job I would say, better than most.

Well I picked you because it looks like your comments are all over Archinect forum, so I thought you would enjoy doing this. Anyway thanks for your comments, they were all right on.