Tag: Architecture

From the Eyes of an Architecture Student: Classwork Loads

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Hi Everyone! I know it’s kind of late, but bear with me! I’m suffering too :'(

I’m back again this week, with this week’s topic: Classwork Load!

A little off topic, but I caught myself reminiscing about my days back in grade school and high school, when I was practically praying I’d end up going to college here! It was a sort of bittersweet, unexpected flashback, and I can’t really remember what brought me back into those memories, but I think it was just me feeling really overwhelmed and pessimistic about all of the assignments and projects being thrown at me every single week! I had these flashbacks of me studying as hard as I could for my AP exams, and the awful ACT, and feeling like it would be the end of the world if I didn’t end up going to school for architecture here at Michigan. And now, here I am, begging the workload for mercy, and cursing myself for having chosen such an expensive, draining discipline. It’s just the awful truth, for me at least (honestly, it really depends on who you ask in the program). Architecture for me here has always had its ups and downs. I call it my love-hate relationship with architecture.

Many non-design people would ask me, “so what’s the workload like?” and after hearing me say something like “It’s quite heavy, I’m lucky if I get to work from home, but most of the time I practically live at my studio desk,” they’d say “wow, that sounds like so much fun, it’s arts and crafts in college!”

Yeah, yes but no to that statement.^

Do I enjoy architecture here at Michigan? Yes, BUT I also have moments when I’d say no. Usually, those moments are during the execution of my ideas (ideas, being the “yes” part of why I enjoy this discipline). I say yes for the brainstorming, imaginary fantasy moments of a project- where I’ve developed or am developing a proposal for the prompt’s concepts. Then no, for the execution parts- the actual virtual modeling of my sketches, making sure it’s physically possible and feasible to construct, or sometimes even I get designers’ block (like writer’s block) where I can’t think of any novel ideas!! But all of that was mostly about the studio work (which is a pretty big deal because these are the courses where you can grow as  a creative designer getting feedback from amazing faculty, and the fact that these courses cost your GPA 5 credit hours). The rest of the workload comes from the technical classes that compliment studio work (such as design theory courses, experimental courses, historical courses, etc), which honestly, despite knowing it’s knowledge essential to being a great architect one day, feels more like busy work compared to studio work. Often, I find I focus mostly on studio work, and that gets most of my free hours, and then, (thank goodness for planners) when I finally remember something is due soon or the next day, I’d hurriedly do those other assignments. In other words, to summarize, studio work, no matter who you ask, will tell you it is a heavy workload, and everything gets second priority (much like how you’d probably find your vegetables being pushed to the side during your dinner: vegetables- necessary and healthy essential nutrients, BUT getting ourselves to eat it raw is like pulling teeth).

“So how do you deal with all of this?’ you’re probably asking. Or maybe you’re an Mgineer and think “pssssh this ain’t nothing compared to what I have to do for my classes.”

Well, as I imagine several other students (of all disciplines) do, I definitely invest a great deal of my sanity and faith in my planner- yes, a physical, paper planner.

I don’t know about you, but I greatly appreciate physical editions of books and planners for the like- it’s like I feel more assured knowing I’m clutching the exact item which holds every possible thing that I need to do in a day (or the week), and I love physically crossing things the items on my list off as I complete them- it’s this feeling of a satisfying sort of crisp validation to cross it off and to see the item(s) crossed off. And it operates that way too, since I often find that when I check back with my planner to make sure I got everything done, or a reminder for what’s to come, if I find something isn’t crossed out, I feel guilty and pressured to get it complete! So, for me, a planner serves as a highly necessary device that keeps my tasks in engraved in the grains of its pages, it motivates me to get things done or even prioritize tasks, and helps me to prepare my life for the near future (especially helpful when booking appointments because then I’d just open up my planner and my planner tells me when I am free!).

The second part to my coping mechanism for this workload is to breathe. Yes, as simple as that. I really find it helps me relax a bit, and literally take some weight off my shoulders from the virtual burdens of life that I’ve created for myself. I inhale, exhale, as many times as needed (you can think of it as a sort of meditative ritual) until I feel better again and ready to take on life and classes again. Or if all else fails, I take a nap, since I find it isn’t unusual for me to get a headache or heavy eye strain by the end of my day. A warm cup of tea can help too, I especially love chamomile, black, and green teas! They smell so good, just inhaling the scent, beside a candle really makes me feel relaxed as though everything’s going to be totally okay, even if I have a project due tomorrow and I’m just halfway done as I am right now.

So, what do you think? Did my insight shock you? Enlighten you? And what coping mechanisms do you employ to help you get through life? Drop me a comment, I love hearing from you all! And I’m always willing for you all to pick each week’s blog subject- I want to know what you wanna know!!

And, another shameless plug, if you’re interested in seeing the work I do, or what kinda life I live, give me a follow on instagram at themichiganarchitect !

I look forward to hearing from you all! I love writing for you guys 🙂

Alrighty, I’ll write again next week, goodnight everyone! And hope ya’ll stay healthy cuz GOSH the weather here is driving me insane!!

Architecture and its Inspirations: from the Eyes of an Architecture Student

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Hi Everyone!

I’m back again this week’s topic: Design Inspirations!

So, I’m curious, what things or what places would you guess we as aspiring designers get our ideas (please don’t say “your mind” or anything of the like)?

Take a moment, think THINK, give a guess?

Well, I’m going to give an educated guess about your guess, and say that you most likely said something along the lines of something on this known universe!! Like, famous precedents of the past, or perhaps a current proposal from a starchitect? Or even mundane, everyday objects? Experiences from our own memories? Or maybe even something that happened to us, almost as though in parallel to Newton being hit in the head by an apple?

So, this is gonna sound lame, but I’d consider all of the above as listed, as a partially right answer. I mean, we’re still humans, and we draw our ideas from live experiences from our human minds, so yes, all of the above could serve as points of inspiration, since they are all valid sources of Earthly experiences that can feed into our designs.

But, I say partially, because, all of those things are just the factors that serve more like kick-offs to further ideas into our designs. In other words, they’re like the lighter to firecrackers- they serve their single purpose to ignite the flame, and the rest of the party happens a few moments later, after having had time to absorb and chemically react to the ignition.

***

As a design student, we are often given a relatively detailed yet open-ended prompt to give us some context and general guidelines for the proposal that we are to make. Usually, I read it over a few times and look into any words I find confusingly used or I’m unfamiliar with, then try to interpret the prompt as concisely as I can in my own way, as I often find this to be the best way for me to understand what is expected of me and narrows down my scope of research for inspiration for my proposal!

In my current studio, we are doing a partnered project and our prompt is to make a facility to allow for the storage and display of artwork/artifacts primarily, but we are free to add any additional programs as we see fit.

My partner and I came to a compromise and agreed that our proposal is to make a facility that primarily functions as storage for artwork and artifacts of any medium and size (with just the limit that it must be able to fit within our site, and estimated square footage), and it would be able to accommodate for pop-up exhibitions through proactively interactive elements from the infrastructure of our facility.

From this, our first assignment (under this overarching project) is to (as best) clarify and demonstrate our first-pass ideas to actually build such a facility. We call this phase another research process, where we gather what other information we need, and create concept drawings (usually quick sketches) to communicate our thoughts in how we imagine as “answering” this “question” of how to make a storage facility that can also have interactive elements that change the building’s function from storage to pop-up exhibition. And these concept drawings then lead to concept models, also known as sketch models, which are usually pretty ratchet, and serve as a first attempt for us to literally get our hands on our ideas, and it shows us what does or doesn’t work, and usually also functions as yet another source of inspiration for more of ideas, which then lead to an ongoing cycle of creating other concept drawings and concept models.

Usually, what happens after this is, we present our ideas through talking with our studio professor about the idea, showing him our concept sketches along with that, showing him our concept model(s) and then explaining what elements of our ideas worked/didn’t work from those first-pass models. The professor would then usually reword the purpose of your proposal, to verify that we are on the same page of what ideas we are trying to portray. Then, he will critique what you’ve just showed to him, and when things can be done differently to be more effective, he will suggest his own ideas and even insight on how to make such amendments to our initial ideas. Sometimes, this can be pretty frustrating and end up in tears and torn up models and drawings, and you end up pursuing a whole new idea. Other times, we get the “okay” and continue to build upon it, revising drawings to make them ultra-clear to read, and building further models if necessary to clarify or experiment on a specific topic from those previous models.

***

So, my partner and I each decided to make our own study models over this weekend (since we agreed that we may each come up with interesting elements that we can then combine to create a perfectly partnered proposal afterwards).

I chose to tackle our proposal by brainstorming three potential methods for the storage infrastructure to become pop-up exhibitions. I asked myself, how can I create something that can assume both identities as storage and interactive exhibition spaces? Naturally, I went on Pinterest, and got hooked on images of origami til parametric architecture; essentially the idea of folding elements to create a new object and or space- I was envisioning elements that could be folded to save space, but also add elements of surprise to the space, especially if they could be reconfigured, or we play with different colors, textures, or  materials.

And I came up with these three ideas, initially concept drawings, where I attempted to sketch what I was imagining, and then going back, scrutinizing that chicken scratch of a sketch, and writing down possible logistics on what would help it to function, and what would keep it from functioning well. In the image below, you can see I attempted to give each idea a sort of summary title (which helps to keep me focused on what the sketch should be and what purpose and elements it should have).

Then, I proceeded to look upon my leftover materials, and made decisions on how the heck I would construct a rough model to display these ideas best.

This is my first model (see below), which corresponds to idea #3 from my sketchbook, and I chose to just use Bristol- kind of like a fancier cardstock. I chose this because I like the clean look of white paper, but also it is a relatively easy-to-cut material that’s cheap, and that was really all I needed because I was just looking for a way to convey my ideas in the most affordable and decent-looking way possible! It’s a bit gnarly, but it serves its purpose (and ironically, it’s sometimes the ugliest of models that inspire the critics most haha).

The second model (see image below), which is meant to display concept sketch idea #2, I decided to construct from a mix of thinly sliced4-ply museum board, a hot-pink post note I found chilling around my desk, masking tape, regular tape, some white sewing thread, and scraps of trace paper. I was shooting for different materials that could suggest different materialities, and it was also just me trying to get a handle on how to best create these forms while attempting to maintain overall stability of the standing model.

Lastly, the third model (see below), corresponds to idea #1 of my sketches, and I decided to use a mix of scrap pieces of 3-ply cardboard, 4-ply museum board, and some bristol scraps. I was simply aiming for stable materials that wouldn’t be too much of a pain to cut and scour for folds, and they would be able to stand alone when re-positioned or refolded during demonstrations.

As you may have noticed, I took as best photos as I could of these ratchet models, not just for my own enjoyment as a photographer, but also since they serve as documentation for future mentions in portfolios,  and I’ve learned the hard way that anything (drawings, sketches, mental mindset, etc) you bring to a critique can be drawn over or torn up for the interests of pursuing another idea off of your initial ideas!

***

I’m a little nervous and excited to present these to my partner, classmates, and professor in class tomorrow, but I’ve sort of gotten used to this feeling, as these kinds of assignments happen all the time for class.

But thanks again, to all of you, who took the time to read all the way to this exact line!! I hope you enjoyed my insights! If you have any questions or comments, feel free to respond to this post, and I’ll be so excited to read it! And if you’re interested in seeing more of my work, in and out of the studio, give me a follow on instagram: @themichiganarchitect!

Ciao 🙂

Did you really want to be an architect when you were a kid?

themichiganarchitect 2 Comments
Taubman Wing of Arts&Architecture Bldg

Hi Everyone!
I’m back again, this week, to share some of my experiences as an architecture student here, at the University of Michigan’s Taubman School of Architecture and Urban Planning!

This week, the topic is introductions.

Yes, introductions…. like, Hi, my name is ____, I major in ____, how about you?

Ever since I started college here, I’d always say that line above, with “architecture” in place of the blank, and I’ve always gotten responses like OMG wow that’s SO cool! Is there a lot of math involved? or Wow that’s so cool, I remember when I was a kid, I thought architecture was so cool, and I used to want to become an architect too! And when I say always, I mean ALWAYS! I ALWAYS get such replies!

Ok, I get it, some people just say that since it’s a standard thing to say to express courteous interest in getting to know someone and their passion. But COME ON! I’ve gotten those responses, from mostly non-design majors, from at least A HUNDRED people now. To be fair, that’s a pretty small number in comparison to the total number of humans at Michigan. BUT, in architecture, which I find to be a very selective, niche field, that’s a huge number. I mean, maybe I just lived in a very sheltered environment as a child, but growing up, I was maybe aware of buildings, but I was probably only aware of architecture as  a  serious discipline by high school. There’s barely any architects in the world, in comparison to the number of people working in the other disciplines, so to me, when many people express that they “used to” want to be an architect, it’s kind of like the equivalent of saying “I used to like that flavor of soda.”

And then, the conversation would usually carry on to people asking me what kinds of classes I have to take (ahem, is math one of them?), where are my classes located, is it in LSA, if I enjoy them, and if they can see some of my work (which I’m happy to share with you!!).

So, as a first year (undergraduate), you will be taking mostly prerequisite classes, just like students of other majors, a “basic” drawing class (quotation marks because it was NOT basic to me, it was straight-up still-life drawing freehand, and some training to use design tools and training our eyes to recognize angles, and having a steady hand to draw straight lines without a T-square or erasure), along with a first year architectural seminar that started introducing some design terminology and attempted to teach us a first-pass way at reading building plans.

The second year, you may need to take a few more prerequisite courses, but you will be getting into some more introductory architectural courses, including introducing drafting (like scaled drawings) which naturally leads to first-pass at creating physical models in attempts to demonstrate specified concepts, and working with modeling materials and learning modeling techniques fit for ourselves. The semester after that, you’ll get introduced to virtual modeling software programs mainly Rhinoceros, along with the Adobe Creative Suite (mainly Photoshop and Illustrator), which leads right into learning how to use software along with our prior drafting knowledge to best represent our projects and their concepts.

Then comes the third year, where you’ll FINALLY get into a real studio- this is what people will usually refer to it as the weeder course of architecture, since you really put all of those design techniques and knowledge to use, and the curriculum of studio continues to pick up the pace, since you’re already expected to have learned and mostly mastered the skills you’ve picked up from the previous courses. I personally found the weeder course (it’s called UG1 and stands for undergraduate studio #1) intense, a ton of work, yet very rewarding, since I’d been itching to build models since my first day of freshman year! I’d also say that it really depends on who you get matched with for your instructor. I was lucky to have a really amazing instructor, Melissa Harris, who really helped me find my voice in representing architecture and what I liked or did not like to do, for my own modeling and representation methods. I definitely practically lived in my studio desk, I did my projects day-in, day-out, it was the center of my classes at the time. I’d get my other course work as quickly done as I could, as to make as much time as possible for studio. Of course, it was also my first time in such a setting, still learning what works and what doesn’t work for me.

But yes, time management has gotten better for me over time, and I am currently surviving my studio, and actually kind of enjoying my classes for once, since as a fourth year, you are required to take architecture electives along with a structures course (which is more like an applied-physics course), which I find I am really enjoying more than I expected! And if you’re a math-y student, you’re in luck, because you cannot ever fully escape physics or math, or even reading and writing for that matter. (Believe me, I’ve tried.)

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So I’m curious, how many of you, (be honest please) have caught yourself responding in such a way when being introduced to a design student? And how many of you actually literally meant it? And if you did, what was your exposure to architecture like from your childhood, and what affected your collage career decisions in such a way that steered you away from architecture, or just any design-related field in general?

And if you’re a fellow architecture student, or another design major, or prospective student, let me know your thoughts! I’d love to hear your thoughts! Follow me on instagram @themichiganarchitect ! I’d love to see your work as well! :0

Thank you!

Stay tuned for more architecture with me next week! 🙂

In The Eyes of an Architecture Student: An Intro

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As an architecture student, I often get questions on what that’s like, or people just looking at me differently because I am in such a different discipline than them.

Well, to answer that question, I’ve always felt that it is natural for me and my classmates to gravitate towards similar visual interests, and see the world in different perspectives than people of other disciplines.

The image above is a meme I found online, that perfectly sums up what exactly this looks like, and what it feels like when I step back to see the big picture, when I amuse myself, thinking back to the feedback sessions during class and how it must look to outsiders with their first architecture school exposure, or a conversation with a non-architecture friend about my projects who are genuinely interested in understanding my ideas, but sometimes just need a bit more rephrasing or adjusting their thoughts so they are able to comprehend what exactly I am talking about.

Literally, the other day in class, we were discussing the significance of a picture of a glass of water resting on a clean, wooden table. I caught myself, making detailed observations or odd questions, like, the water depicted is so clean, further reinforcing the photographer’s purpose to demonstrate the cleanliness of the facility that produced that water. Or, the glass has only been filled with x amount of water, could it be a symbolic representation of the photographer’s ideological bias?

Others would likely see this as me being an over-thinker, or just some strange girl who has an interest in finding beauty or extra, made-up meaning in mundane objects, but I think this sort of logic of thinking is quite typical of architectural education, for instance, when instructors are having a conversation with us, about a designer’s intentions, or when we are asked to interpret someone else’s work, and we try to relate to their design, making it a valuable experience which is able to contribute to our own future design-work.

I definitely find myself more in-sync with my abstract interests whenever I photograph. I’d just visit a place, or an object, look at it from different points of view, then capture the images through my camera lenses, and it’s only afterwards, when I’m looking back at the images, that I realize these must look like such random shots to someone else, or sometimes even I question why I first found that view so intriguing, or how I even got the idea to shoot in such a perspective.

I have many other experiences to discuss, but I won’t write your eyes out, so I’ll discuss more in the following weeks, so stay tuned 🙂

And if you want to checkout my abstract photography, follow me on Instagram @themichiganarchitect !

A chair versus a skyscraper… how different could they be?

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I was at the Start Up Career Fair last Friday, talking with a few representatives of the furniture company Floyd, and my conversation with them struck my interest in the question: how different are architecture and furniture, really?
People say that architecture studies humanities to build spaces for humans to live their lives in. Sounds good. But when it comes to furniture, it’s almost as if nobody really cares about it; we take it for granted.
To me, my conversation with the Floyd team resonated with our beliefs that architecture and furniture design are really basically the same thing- the only difference is their sizing scale. This is our argument, which I’d love for any of you readers to comment on whether or not you agree!
1. Both architecture and furniture deal with societies and their habits.
2. Both architecture and furniture’s goals are for the design and aesthetics to be one and the same thing within itself.
3. Both architecture and furniture have the power to change our lifestyles.
4. Both architecture and furniture require stable engineering and general understanding of physics in order to function.
5. Both architecture and furniture fields have the power to influence one another throughout history.

Let me know what you think! I’d love to hear some thoughts!

Favorite Places to Study on Campus?

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Which campus do you like to study at most? North Campus? Central Campus? Or do you not stay on campus to study? Either way, as exam season is here right before and after Thanksgiving Break, Let me suggest five great, non-obvious places to study!
Arts and Architecture building (North Campus): there are computer labs, if you are in need of using a computer other than your laptop, there’s regularly a cafe cart where student groups sell hot chocolate, coffee, juice, and bagels if you want food as you study, and there are tables situated on the second floor, and some on the first (ground) floor as well! You can enjoy the scenery as you work here, and it’s usually never dead quiet (unless if you are here at 3am).
Fishbowl of the M.A.T.H. Complex (aka Mason-Angell-Tisch-Haven Complex of Central Campus): there are computers here as well, and there’s many people here working of all backgrounds- architecture, Engineering, and English majors! This place is open 24/7 and is also never dead quiet! Also, there are convenient vending machines (for both food and electronics) around the corner 🙂 There are also tables and benches right outside of the Fishbowl. And if that atmosphere isn’t your thing, there’s the general Posting Wall space of Mason Hall that has electrical plugs, so if you just want a casual sit-down place that isn’t usually lonely, that’s a great place to stay! There are also random desks on each floor of any of the buildings in the M.A.T.H. Complex, so feel free to explore and find yourself a new place to study, as desired!
Dana Building Commons (Central Campus): If you’re an early bird, you’ll find that this building always has a seat to welcome you! The tables here are nicely placed so you should have a plug next to you, and if you need computers, they have a computer lab on the second floor!
The BBB of North Campus: This is a fun place to work in! There are several computer labs, so if you need computers, they’ve got you covered! There is also a mini arcade in the hallway, and there are also ping-pong tables in the main lobby area too! The main lobby area also has several desks and whiteboards, perfect for your individual use, or for a group setting. They also have group rooms with functioning whiteboards and projectors that you can use, if there are no reservations for it!
(May seem obvious at first but…) Any of the Dorms!! Yes, on both campuses!!: Generally, any M-card should let you into the locked front doors of any of the dorms (other than if you go to dorms that have dining halls during their designated hours) before midnight. Dorms are great because usually your friends may be there, so you all can team up to study (because two brains is better than one, right?!), or you can just study alone in any of the several lounges, or even in the dining halls- where you can just have unlimited access to cookies and tea and all that other good stuff!

Alright, well, hope you found that some of these study spaces were good ideas, or even just a fun place to explore if you did not already know that they existed! Happy Studying and have a great, safe Thanksgiving Break!