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Lian (Harvard GSD M.Arch.I)

I graduated in 2013, but still blog here once in a while.

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    What should I ask Rafael Moneo?

    By Lian Chikako Chang
    Mar 29, '10 9:24 PM EST

    The lottery gave me one of two student seats at dinner with
    Rafael Moneo tomorrow night, after his lecture. What should I ask him?

    Lianimage

    [Addendum: The lecture was great. It was called "Design Conditioned by Circumstance: The Advantages of Obstacles for the Architect." Michael Meredith described it as taking Venturi Scott Brown's argument, which was "promiscuous" and radical in its context and making it into a moral argument. I saw it not so much in terms of making an argument about complexity or contradiction, but about making a building that is a good neighbor and a good leader, that respects its context while making the buildings around it better also. He looked at four American institutional projects and talked quite a bit about how his intervention related to the existing context in terms of urbanistic questions of paths through the site, creating linkages, doorways, and thresholds in a campus, and so on.

    The dinner was even better. I'll write soon...]



     
    • 11 Comments

    • for a job.

      Mar 30, 10 4:24 am  · 
       · 
      Lian Chikako Chang

      Ha! We'll see how that one goes over.

      Mar 30, 10 10:40 am  · 
       · 

      these after-lecture conversations are often most fun and memorable when kept casual. don't go in with your notes and your rehearsed question(s). propose a bourbon. start a conversation about something he's mentioned which appears to interest him, get him interested and engaged in talking to you. then just see what happens. [don't forget to have a bourbon yourself.]

      Mar 30, 10 11:34 am  · 
       · 
      Lian Chikako Chang

      A bourbon is a very specific recommendation! What about a gin and tonic? :)

      Mar 30, 10 12:12 pm  · 
       · 

      i'm a kentuckian, after all. i have to be patriotic.

      Mar 30, 10 2:19 pm  · 
       · 
      LOOP!

      That's exciting... Can't go wrong with Knob Creek.

      Mar 30, 10 5:10 pm  · 
       · 
      Lian Chikako Chang

      Knob Creek it is!

      Mar 30, 10 6:27 pm  · 
       · 
      ∑ π ∓ √ ∞

      i would ask him what he's reading. it's my go to question for any architect.

      Mar 30, 10 9:44 pm  · 
       · 
      dlb

      Ask him why the MFA addition in Houston is such a bad museum building.

      Mar 31, 10 9:46 am  · 
       · 
      danger

      hold up strange objects in his face and ask him how it makes him feel.

      or perform a myers-briggs personality test on him - 100 plus questions should take you thru most of dinner...

      Mar 31, 10 1:56 pm  · 
       · 
      Lian Chikako Chang

      Thanks, everyone! Unfortunately, bourbon was not available: the options were red, white, and sparkling or still water.

      Mar 31, 10 8:04 pm  · 
       · 

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About this Blog

This blog was most active from 2009-2013. Writing about my experiences and life at Harvard GSD started out as a way for me to process my experiences as an M.Arch.I student, and evolved into a record of the intellectual and cultural life of the Cambridge architecture (and to a lesser extent, design/technology) community, through live-blogs. These days, I work as a data storyteller (and blogger at Littldata.com) in San Francisco, and still post here once in a while.

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