The discussion in this thread brought up an interesting point - a project that gets bad grades in studio doesn't necessarily equate to a bad project.
I shared a link to a project that almost failed - I got a 4 on the Danish grading scale - equivalent to a B-/C+ or thereabouts.
I spent a lot of time sourcing rattan and learning to use the material. I also spent a lot of time prototyping this chair (two prototypes before the final) with very ad hoc resources, since the wood shop didn't have the equipment I needed. I built a stove-top steam box at home and used the gas flame to bend the rattan.
My studio instructor for this course derided my design as a "beach chair for drinking pina coladas in" (I still can't see the bad in this?)
Here's the kicker: in the very next semester that same studio instructor, seemingly 'inspired' by my (near-failed) project, went to the very same rattan workshop that I had sourced and bought up a supply of rattan for his whole studio. He then bought 10 gas torches for students to use and brought in experts to help them learn the craft of steam/flame bending.
I spent the next semester watching a group of students a year behind me get everything handed to them, eliminating the entire procurement/discovery process and allowing them much more time to spend working out the design.
I still think my chair was nicer. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Lets see some of your failures / almost failures!
DTL DWG
May 27, 15 9:08 pm
Stephanie I'm game, and that's not a bad fail. The following is an EPIC FAIL....I should be working but my 4 and 7 year old daughters are having technological emotional breakdowns now, damn free online games and the click bait - let's see how long Elsa's Stomach Virus game will keep them entertained...short of running to the nearest bar I can't think....sooo
Grad school at UPENN, first semester after working about 4 years. Had Winka Dubbeldam who was tasked with getting guys like me to break out of 4 years of working and to think outside the box...I did try but got ABSOLUTELY nowhere at midterm and frankly couldn't believe I had presented the following...short of running to the nearest bar I clearly couldn't think....
somehow I went from Cytoskeletons to Kilgore Trout winning a design competition. I learned Biology looks at biology based on standard geometrical thinking - disappointing...
the font sucks....graphics suck....the date is wrong 20006...and the conclusion is absurd...cited wikipedia....and the whole thing very embarassing....so i posted it!
enjoy!
and this clearly all leads to this \/
and now off into the deep end of NOT REALLY HAVING ANYTHING TO SAY! the above is mildly believable, but below....holy Shit!
to quote on juror "Why are you in grad school? RUN! RUN! RUN!"
Miles Jaffe
May 27, 15 9:47 pm
Can't find the pics but somewhere there are some of laminated chair parts in a roaring fire.
DTL DWG
May 28, 15 7:28 pm
come on kids......surely nothing worse than I posted......don't take yourself so seriously.....lets see some fails.
Wilma Buttfit
May 29, 15 10:41 am
I'm trying, but I can't find anything funny. The poorer grades I got were for not competing work or not following directions.
Chris, I have almost lost all respect for you. Wow. But I bet you learned a lot by doing that.
Stephanie, love that chair. Do you sit in it? Does it rock back and forth? Looks like a good time.
Wilma Buttfit
May 29, 15 11:01 am
I did have a real project that was dubbed "the two-headed pig with lipstick" or simply "piggy" by my colleagues, but since it is the client's real project, not just mine, I won't post pictures of it.
Miles Jaffe
May 29, 15 12:17 pm
I found slides but they won't scan. It was a neat idea that was domed to failure from the start.
Non Sequitur
May 29, 15 12:25 pm
^also have many slides... in a shoe-box lost in the abyss that is my parent's basement.
Not a project, but I do remember photographing a model using 35mm B&W film, processing the film, developing sexy photographs in the dark room, then setting up the print on the copy-work station to re-photograph it with the same camera but using slide-film instead for documentation.
Miles Jaffe
May 29, 15 2:33 pm
He stuff we did back in the day just for presentation. Graphic design all by hand, Letraset, celluloid film ... those were the days.
JLC-1
May 29, 15 2:54 pm
ZIP-A-TONE
Stephanie Braconnier
May 29, 15 5:43 pm
Chris: man. I am still not sure WTF just happened there. Kudos for having the strength of will to see that shit through to the bitter end.
Tintt: Do you sit in it? Does it rock back and forth?
I did and it does. With only slightly alarming creaks and cracks. I had to put it out on the street when I left Copenhagen in 2011. Who knows where it is now.
MORE FAILURES PLEASE
DTL DWG
May 29, 15 6:15 pm
it was Epic...and at 6am as you try to make since of the certain fail right before jury at 9am....what do you do? you stand up there and present it best you could, but i lost face somewhere around Kilgore Trout. tintt, come on, respect, thats a respectal epic fail, ha
Mr_Wiggin
May 29, 15 6:21 pm
Was that Comic Sans?
DTL DWG
May 29, 15 6:27 pm
looks like it....in undergrad it was all Bank Gothic (that techy looking font)
......i have professionally settled in on Ariel...........................................................if you can't post how about worst font ever used in a failed studio project?
DTL DWG
May 29, 15 6:28 pm
arial
DTL DWG
Jun 13, 15 8:07 am
still egging! more fails!
Donna Sink
Jun 13, 15 11:22 am
Pencil on vellum, 1987, design for visitor center for the Lehner Mammoth Kill Archaeological Site. I'm not going to say this project was a "fail", because it was my first actual building design as a second year student, so it was an idiotic design but a huge leap forward in my education.
I'm posting it because 1. it's funny and 2. everyone in the image is pointing at something! I'm guessing one of the professors told us that pointing people would give the sense of a more expansive space, or something. What are people in renderings doing today? Looking a their iphones.
DTL DWG
Jun 13, 15 12:25 pm
I like it Donna and the one dude just kicking back at the divider wall on the left side, I've never seen anyone do that because the security guy will come over and tell the guy to stop leaning on the wall....
Donna Sink
Jun 13, 15 2:13 pm
Yeah, I didn't really understand appropriate museum behavior yet. I was 19.
bowling_ball
Jun 13, 15 2:13 pm
I'd love to see current fails - but that might be risky to employees. I have a doozy where myself and a couple of senior architects were playing a game of "how ugly can you make it," which we thought was hilarious. Only to have the client love it and build the damn thing. And now I look like an asshole for this intentionally bad ugly project.
On the other hand, the owners have since returned with more work, but none of it's ever going in my portfolio. I wish I could share it, it's soooo bad.
The discussion in this thread brought up an interesting point - a project that gets bad grades in studio doesn't necessarily equate to a bad project.
I shared a link to a project that almost failed - I got a 4 on the Danish grading scale - equivalent to a B-/C+ or thereabouts.
I spent a lot of time sourcing rattan and learning to use the material. I also spent a lot of time prototyping this chair (two prototypes before the final) with very ad hoc resources, since the wood shop didn't have the equipment I needed. I built a stove-top steam box at home and used the gas flame to bend the rattan.
My studio instructor for this course derided my design as a "beach chair for drinking pina coladas in" (I still can't see the bad in this?)
Here's the kicker: in the very next semester that same studio instructor, seemingly 'inspired' by my (near-failed) project, went to the very same rattan workshop that I had sourced and bought up a supply of rattan for his whole studio. He then bought 10 gas torches for students to use and brought in experts to help them learn the craft of steam/flame bending.
I spent the next semester watching a group of students a year behind me get everything handed to them, eliminating the entire procurement/discovery process and allowing them much more time to spend working out the design.
I still think my chair was nicer. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Lets see some of your failures / almost failures!
Stephanie I'm game, and that's not a bad fail. The following is an EPIC FAIL....I should be working but my 4 and 7 year old daughters are having technological emotional breakdowns now, damn free online games and the click bait - let's see how long Elsa's Stomach Virus game will keep them entertained...short of running to the nearest bar I can't think....sooo
Grad school at UPENN, first semester after working about 4 years. Had Winka Dubbeldam who was tasked with getting guys like me to break out of 4 years of working and to think outside the box...I did try but got ABSOLUTELY nowhere at midterm and frankly couldn't believe I had presented the following...short of running to the nearest bar I clearly couldn't think....
somehow I went from Cytoskeletons to Kilgore Trout winning a design competition. I learned Biology looks at biology based on standard geometrical thinking - disappointing...
the font sucks....graphics suck....the date is wrong 20006...and the conclusion is absurd...cited wikipedia....and the whole thing very embarassing....so i posted it!
enjoy!
and this clearly all leads to this \/
and now off into the deep end of NOT REALLY HAVING ANYTHING TO SAY! the above is mildly believable, but below....holy Shit!
to quote on juror "Why are you in grad school? RUN! RUN! RUN!"
Can't find the pics but somewhere there are some of laminated chair parts in a roaring fire.
come on kids......surely nothing worse than I posted......don't take yourself so seriously.....lets see some fails.
I'm trying, but I can't find anything funny. The poorer grades I got were for not competing work or not following directions.
Chris, I have almost lost all respect for you. Wow. But I bet you learned a lot by doing that.
Stephanie, love that chair. Do you sit in it? Does it rock back and forth? Looks like a good time.
I did have a real project that was dubbed "the two-headed pig with lipstick" or simply "piggy" by my colleagues, but since it is the client's real project, not just mine, I won't post pictures of it.
I found slides but they won't scan. It was a neat idea that was domed to failure from the start.
^also have many slides... in a shoe-box lost in the abyss that is my parent's basement.
Not a project, but I do remember photographing a model using 35mm B&W film, processing the film, developing sexy photographs in the dark room, then setting up the print on the copy-work station to re-photograph it with the same camera but using slide-film instead for documentation.
He stuff we did back in the day just for presentation. Graphic design all by hand, Letraset, celluloid film ... those were the days.
ZIP-A-TONE
Chris: man. I am still not sure WTF just happened there. Kudos for having the strength of will to see that shit through to the bitter end.
Tintt: Do you sit in it? Does it rock back and forth?
I did and it does. With only slightly alarming creaks and cracks. I had to put it out on the street when I left Copenhagen in 2011. Who knows where it is now.
MORE FAILURES PLEASE
it was Epic...and at 6am as you try to make since of the certain fail right before jury at 9am....what do you do? you stand up there and present it best you could, but i lost face somewhere around Kilgore Trout. tintt, come on, respect, thats a respectal epic fail, ha
Was that Comic Sans?
looks like it....in undergrad it was all Bank Gothic (that techy looking font) ......i have professionally settled in on Ariel...........................................................if you can't post how about worst font ever used in a failed studio project?
arial
still egging! more fails!
Pencil on vellum, 1987, design for visitor center for the Lehner Mammoth Kill Archaeological Site. I'm not going to say this project was a "fail", because it was my first actual building design as a second year student, so it was an idiotic design but a huge leap forward in my education.
I'm posting it because 1. it's funny and 2. everyone in the image is pointing at something! I'm guessing one of the professors told us that pointing people would give the sense of a more expansive space, or something. What are people in renderings doing today? Looking a their iphones.
I like it Donna and the one dude just kicking back at the divider wall on the left side, I've never seen anyone do that because the security guy will come over and tell the guy to stop leaning on the wall....
Yeah, I didn't really understand appropriate museum behavior yet. I was 19.
I'd love to see current fails - but that might be risky to employees. I have a doozy where myself and a couple of senior architects were playing a game of "how ugly can you make it," which we thought was hilarious. Only to have the client love it and build the damn thing. And now I look like an asshole for this intentionally bad ugly project.
On the other hand, the owners have since returned with more work, but none of it's ever going in my portfolio. I wish I could share it, it's soooo bad.