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architectural dreams

bowling_ball

I just work up from a really weird dream, and I have to share...

I was a news reporter, visiting the university in order to cover the story of a student-led design competition. Except the competition wasn't about design, it was about overcoming the struggles of a restrictive method of design practice, as dictated by the provincial architectural board. I know. That's why it's a dream.

So instead of presenting a finished building, for example, students would present ideas on how to "get around the system." This was necessary because, as mentioned, the system was too restrictive. This event was part action, part protest, and part exhibition of very real creativity.

I interviewed the dean (?) but that didn't go very far. The punchline is that he couldn't comment, for fear of being sued, or liability or something - the "system" made him keep his mouth shut about a design competition aimed at getting students to get around that problem in the first place. It felt ironic and funny in the dream.

And then I woke up. Nothing else happened.

Oh, except my jaw was clenched tight and I had a raging boner. I wonder if that means anything.

I'm going back to bed now :D

 
Jun 28, 07 5:31 am
French

you should stop sniffing white stuff before going to bed

Jun 28, 07 5:42 am  · 
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Apurimac

LOL, Nose candy is dandy!

Jun 28, 07 5:59 am  · 
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Carl Douglas (agfa8x)

I dreamed about a great Schinkel building... in Mt Eden.

Jun 28, 07 6:21 am  · 
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brown666

i often dream flying around in a virtual rhino like 3d space, clicking around, drawing lines moving objects, all very intuitively... these are the moments when i know i need some serious vacation... click click

Jun 28, 07 7:20 am  · 
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myriam

i dreamed of floods last night. and my building was the only thing that rode out the storm, and i was in it, and we floated bouyed on top of the water and looked off in the distance and there was the ocean's shore with waves lapping against it and a woman in a rowboat coming out to get me.

Jun 28, 07 8:30 am  · 
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sometimes i wish i remembered dreams. but i don't. ever. [sigh.]

Jun 28, 07 8:41 am  · 
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trace™

I had a dream I built my dream house....then I work up


hmm, maybe that wasn't a dream

Jun 28, 07 8:51 am  · 
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futureboy

slantsix....sounds like your dream is a nice commentary on our present reality....as for your reaction to it....all i can say is you're obviously an idealist and a masochist. but then again, aren't we all?

Jun 28, 07 10:25 am  · 
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mdler

I have dreams that I am still in architecture school and it is the last week of finals and my thesis is no where near done and I am not going to graduate...this actually happened

Jun 28, 07 12:35 pm  · 
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PerCorell

Then I regret to dreams even vorse, I dream about nice cheap houses.
Millions of homes progressing a new way to see a building structure. Obscure Green , Honeycombers sold second hand at E-bay . Houses in 26 mm. steel frame lattrice allowing a retrofit by a matchstick. But I refuse to be a demolision tractor.

http://politiken.dk/udland/article333007.ece

Jun 28, 07 12:48 pm  · 
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KEG

*sigh*

Jun 28, 07 12:56 pm  · 
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simples

i once worked 36 hours straight in the office, so i can meet a deadline and still grab my flight to visit my then-fiancee...i was so jet-legged and confused when i arrived, that when i finally fell asleep in her house, my mind continued to dream about work...rethinking and redrawing the same plans...when i woke up, she told me that while i was sleeping, I kept asking her "what is the size of the offices"...and calling out miscelleneous squarefootage..."600sf" "1200sf"

hmm...architecture...so healthy!

Jun 28, 07 1:20 pm  · 
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rfuller

I was about 3/4 of the way through my final presentation for studio 3, when I suddenly woke up. I looked at the clock and realized I had dozed off, I was late for final review, and my phone was ringing. One of my friends had called me and handed the phone to my prof who said, "You know that nightmare that Architecture students have. The one where you slept through your final review? You're living it. Now get your ass out of bed and get up here."

I showed up 4 hours late, but he was gracious enough to give me a crit.

Jun 28, 07 2:11 pm  · 
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n_

I often dream in MicroStation (ex: I have to draw the sidewalk line before I can walk on it or I'll have to delete all my walls in plan to take me to a new location).

I feel that I should mention that I don't do drugs.

Jun 28, 07 2:19 pm  · 
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trace™

CTRL Z works in my dreams

Jun 28, 07 3:51 pm  · 
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Carl Douglas (agfa8x)

rfuller, that is hilarious.

Jun 28, 07 4:07 pm  · 
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I'll bet it wasn't at the time. But it makes a damned good story.

Jun 28, 07 4:15 pm  · 
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rfuller

Haha. Yeah. I've been on/off bloodpressure medicine since my Studio 1-induced siezure. Needless to say I went back on the meds the next day. Scary stuff at the time, but it made for a damn great story to share over a couple of beers.

Jun 28, 07 4:43 pm  · 
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bowling_ball

"I often dream in MicroStation (ex: I have to draw the sidewalk line before I can walk on it or I'll have to delete all my walls in plan to take me to a new location)."

Possibly the funniest thing I've heard in a long time!

Every single dream I have is an exercise in frustration. I don't like dreaming for that reason. Sleep stresses me out, and it shouldn't.

Whenever I have an architectural dream, I draw what I can remember the next morning (or right after the dream). Maybe someday I'll use my dreams as reference.

Jun 28, 07 4:48 pm  · 
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rfuller

I got to thinking about that whole situation, and its kind of funny. That instructor used to tell us these ridiculous things about Architecture and how to know if you should be an Architect. I vaguely remember one that was along the lines of "If you make it through these 5 years of school and never have a single dream about Architecture and the spaces you're creating and how the light affects them and what it would be like to walk through them, then you should get your MBA and go into banking." He said it with a straight face and moved on like it was nothing. To this day I can't figure out if he was trying to be funny or serious. Personally, I dream about houses and doing walk throughs, for some reason. But that was the damnedest thing I had ever heard at the time.

Jun 28, 07 5:02 pm  · 
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Neck deep in putting together a presentation, I've had dreams that were like moving through the half-substantial transparency of photoshop layers on multiply, or rhino objects in ghosted view: nothing solid, just milky washed-out abstract shapes and colors crossed by hard-edged autocad vectors ...

And yeah, I've had the project walkthrough dreams before too, those are dangerous because that's where you really fall in love with it.

Jun 28, 07 5:27 pm  · 
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simples - omg I've actually had that very same thing happen to me. It too happen when i was with my then-fiance (now mortal enemy)

Jun 28, 07 5:38 pm  · 
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the latest archi-dream is a little neimeyer'esque

I dreamt I was in my 90s, and some film crew from the bbx (a the new bbc for the genx'rs past retirement). They picked me up in a 30s mercedes (2030s) that had no driver. We drove around town looking my contributions to the city, and I had one entire street that had my work. With the except of one building that was done by someone, I told the reporter, was my bastard adopted son. It was a dream/nightmare.

Obviously the dream/my thoughts have been affected by the recent article on Osca(r/h)

Jun 28, 07 5:42 pm  · 
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simples

architechnophilia...sorry your then fiancee is now your mortal enemy...
my then-fiancee actually married me...she say i still talk architecture while i sleep from time to time...(always angrily...screaming number, complaining about materials...) / she is in architecture as well, so she understands!

Jun 28, 07 6:11 pm  · 
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bowling_ball

My g/f talks in her sleep every night. I've also heard her laugh quite a lot.

And one time she whistled. Whistled a song.

THAT was the most fucked up thing I've ever seen and heard in my life, though I admit it has nothing to do with architecture.

I am not a real insomniac but I don't sleep very much at all. One trick I use to help me fall asleep is to think about something semi-complex, but that I already know how to do. It's always a series of steps - it can be working through a series of functions in dream-autocad, or it can be performing suturing on an open wound, or even figuring out the exact steps of washing the dishes. It's weird, I know.

Whistling!

Jun 29, 07 1:27 am  · 
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Philarch

So in my dream I met a high school friend that I've lost contact with during college years. His father passed away and he got married during those years from what I hear and I've always felt guilty for losing contact because it was my fault.

In the dream he invited me into his place that was accessible only by this tall ladder and terminated in a low and deep space. This probably means something, but I have no clue. This is pretty typical for environments in dreams I think - difficult access, extreme shape of space, unusual lighting and awkward siting - but makes for a hell of an interesting experience. I even have recurring dreams in the same place where some things have changed and get lost because of it (its like they renovate while I'm away).

I don't think this is exclusive to architects, but I find it strange that most depictions of dreams tend to be of surreal characters and landscapes, not interiors of built environments (except for Science of Sleep, which I thought did an amazing job depicting surreal environments).

Jul 14, 08 11:29 am  · 
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Philarch

On that note, are there any architects that are surrealists?

Jul 14, 08 11:32 am  · 
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holz.box

i usually don't remember my dreams, but on the blue moon that i actually do, they usually scare the shit out of me.

Jul 14, 08 11:37 am  · 
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brian buchalski

i've been keeping a dream journal for about 4 years now. every dream that i wake up remembering is written down...it's a pretty fascinating piece of self-awareness and i'd recommend doing it

Jul 14, 08 1:26 pm  · 
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farmer

puddles: I kept a dream diary from 1990-2004; after that in 2005-06-07 my dream life faded away for some reason and they ceased to make sense or to be interesting

Jul 14, 08 2:09 pm  · 
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Last night, I was at the Campidoglio in Rome, and who should come swaggering alone but Elizabeth Taylor as Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf complete with cocktail tumbler and tinkling ice-cubes.

"Hey Swampy! Who's that up there on that horse?"

"That's Marcus Aurelius."

"Oh really....uuusss"

Jul 14, 08 2:16 pm  · 
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Apurimac

I very rarely have dreams I remember the next morning, I feel like most nights I don't even dream for that reason, but I know I do.

But whenever I do remember dreams, they're usually bad.

Jul 14, 08 2:18 pm  · 
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farmer, now I know who you are. I never even suspected, but I actually have a copy of your dream journal, don't I?

Jul 14, 08 2:20 pm  · 
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dia

I am constantly assuaged with visions of places and events when I am awake and asleep. There is always a strong sense of familiarity. It has happened for years. When I was a kid I dreamed of the same places all the time. Most of the places seemed to be set in the same city but I cant verify that. I would walk around the city, visit people, see the city from aerial perspectives. I often dreamt of a particular building which I have only recently drawn. It seems to be quite perfect. ps: I am not nuts.

Jul 14, 08 6:26 pm  · 
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I talk in my sleep and its usually work related. If I do remember my dreams its usually a project under construction (and me dealing with my fear of falling), its quite pathetic really. Where are the dreams of wild sexual fantasies??

Jul 20, 08 1:45 am  · 
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vado retro

i had a dream last night that i was working with my former supervisor and some other guy that i worked with. we were wearing those earprotectors that landscape workers use and we were strategically placing green plastic adirondick chairs along the highway. does this qualify as a nightmare???

Jul 20, 08 9:13 am  · 
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