Internship opportunities

Hi All,

Firstly, it was a big day last Thursday ... the last studio before final submission. Sincere congratulations for getting this far!

Thanks also to Ally Bennett, the People and Capability Manager at the Architecture firm Populous, who came around and spoke with you about internship opportunities.

You can see more of their work at www.populous.com and follow them for news, updates on their projects, people and job opportunities at www.linkedin.com/company/populous

Ally's contact details are via the internship ads on Linkedin.
If you'd like to follow up with Ally, we've told her to expect an email with a link to your blog; yes, if you hadn't already figured that out ... your blogs are great ways to introduce yourself to prospective employers, it gives them great insight into how you work as well as the quality of your end results. Employers like to see both of these when determining if you are the right fit for their companies. 

If you are keen to explore internship opportunities (with Populous or any of the Architecture practices we have links with at the faculty), or would like to know more, leave a comment below.

And finally, here are some images of projects from Populous:

Regards,

Andrew and Russell

SquareHouse Plans

Hi All,

One of your fellow students requested plans for the SquareHouse (the building at the base of your Bridge/School) a few weeks ago. These might be useful if you'd like to integrate your designs with the current architecture. There is no pressure to do this, but if your developing theory points you in that direction you can find a link for them on the brief page for Experiment Three, or here.

Regards

Russell and Andrew

Inspiration from Chris Freeburn

Hi All,

Take a look at our tutor Chris Freeburn's blog for some inspiration regarding moving architecture; link to the right.

It's worth keeping in mind that each tutor runs their own blog for their studio groups. These are all publicly available; so you can take advantage of the unique resources they place up for their students even if you aren't in their group.

We would also encourage you to take a look at your tutors websites, Chris's company is Ironbark Architecture, website here: http://www.ironbarkarchitecture.com.au/ 

Regards

Russell and Andrew

Bridges

Hi All,

Two examples showing bridges and the power in our atmosphere:





Regards

Russell and Andrew

Sydney Light Rail Stops

Hi All,

Take a look at this short video explaining some of the thinking behind the design and materiality of the light rail stops on the way to UNSW.

Troy Donovan, speaking in the video, was trained as an Architect and has worked around the world specializing in facade systems. His Instagram account is @the_donnies ... there you'll see loads of beautiful drawings of architectural details, well worth a follow; we do.

Regards

Russell and Andrew 

Digital Models and Plagiarism

Hi All,

This is very important, so please read the below very carefully:

Please be aware that using someone else's model in your work without referencing them is considered plagiarism.

Also, you won't be credited for that part of your work, so limiting it to supporting models (such as people, vehicles, furniture ... i.e. things to reinforce scale and give context) is advisable. In other words, if a model that was created by someone else is a major part of your design it's unlikely that you will pass, even if it is correctly referenced.

Finally, if you plagiarize and are caught the consequences are very severe. So please, if you are tempted, talk to someone to get help or find another way.  

Regards

Russell and Andrew 

Sketchup Plugins Students are Using

Hi All,

Here are a few plugin's for sketchup you might like to try (we've not used them all, but some ARCH1101 Students are using them to create curving/intricate shapes):

1. Soap Skin and Bubble (Extension Warehouse ... under Window > Extension Warehouse > Search)

2. Bezier Curve Tool (Extension Warehouse)

3. 3d Trusses: A student in James Pedersen's group last year, Jason Yan, shared how he created the 3d trusses in his designs here: http://whatsupjasonyan.blogspot.com.au/2016/04/trusses-tutorial.html

You can get JHS Powerbar here, and s4u to Components at the Extension Warehouse.

Regards

Russell and Andrew

Inspiration for this weeks drawing

Hi All,

Take a look at this video discussing the production of one of Sol Lewitt's artworks from 2007


Lewitt worked in the office of Architect I.M. Pei before becoming an artist and is famous for inventing Conceptual Art. In Conceptual Art the idea, or concept, of the work is in some ways independent of its materiality; in this way Lewitt can specify the end result and employ others to realize it.

An example of this is “all combinations of two lines crossing, placed at random, using arcs from corners and sides, straight, not straight and broken lines” from 1972.

While these works seem totally deterministic and under complete control of the artist Lewitt recognized that people understood words differently and made lines differently. 

Your task this week, to draw 36 textures from dark to light follows this tradition.

(Another of Lewitt's works, a series of sculptures called Incomplete Open Cubes, is also worth taking a close look at).

Regards

Russell and Andrew

EXP2 Theme on Sustainability

Hi All,

The second theme presented as an option for EXP2 is Sustainability, below are three examples for inspiration:

Achim Menges - HygroScope - Here the timber is laminated in such a way to replicate the way plants naturally open and close due to the sun. His research is based on studying systems found in nature and recreating them with robotic fabrication - so it's a bit of a mix of sustainability and technology. 

Menges is from the Institute of Computational Design in Stuttgart and is giving a (free) lecture at UTS on April 24; see further details here.

On a larger scale and mechanical... the Al Bahar Towers in the Middle East. Here you'll see a fully responsive operable facade.

Finally, and back to the small scaled end of the spectrum again, below is a video about a project which my colleagues did in London last year - Circular House. It explored the concept of the Circular Economy, where all materials are re-used, recycled, upcycled, and constructed in a way that it can all be reused again. 

Regards

Andrew

Class is still on the week!

Hi All,

Just a friendly reminder that class is still on this week (we started a week late, so we're making up that class in non teaching week).

There will be another task for you to do as normal.

If you'd like to get ahead you might like to download and read this article on laziness.

Regards

Russell and Andrew

Robotic Building

Hi All,

One of the themes for EXP2 is Technology. With that in mind we ask if Robotics might be the future of construction ... or if they are the present of construction?

Here is an Australian firm with an approach that mixes the old with the new.



Wolf D Prix is one of the founding partners of Coop Himelblau a firm that has been at the cutting edge of Architecture since the 1980's (when many of their early contemporaries have become quite conservative).




And finally, a super fast 3d printer; imagine this scaled up to building size!


Russell and Andrew

Film, Animation and Machinima

Hi All,

Below are a few videos to inspire your animated sections this week:

1. This clip shows you some of the editing techniques used in feature films. Kill Bill was directed by Quentin Tarantino who worked for a long time in a video rental store (which became DVD rental stores and now Netflix) and developed an encyclopedic knowledge of popular films. This might explain why he uses so many editing techniques, and consequently why his scenes are useful to film students for demonstrating how each technique might be used.  It's wise to consider the point of view shown in your animated sections because, as you can see below, point of view can radically transform our appreciation of the space.



2. The making of the animated film The Third and The Seventh. This clip shows the different layers that go into creating a photo-realistic digitally created scene. The take away point here is that you should think about post processing your still images and even videos captured from Sketchup to give them more richness in terms of materials and atmosphere.



3. The game Red Faction Guerrilla is famous for its in game destruction. It's still a classic today. In this clip you'll hear one of the developers talking about the levels of material/structural realism and making the observation that their level designers are becoming "less and less a 3d structure artist and more and more an Architect". This says two things ... visual realism is increasingly supported by physical realism in virtual environments ... and, you might think about a career in designing Architecture in a virtual world.



4. Extending the notion of real time physics interactions, see the clip below by Nvidia. It shows their FleX system and asks you to imagine how you might use it in the future. The air flow around the sports car makes us think about air flows around and through buildings; a key ingredient for comfortable and sustainable Architecture. Obviously the applications for real time design in Civil Engineering are also very exciting.

Student Rep Meeting

Hi All,

As you might remember there was a student rep meeting during last weeks class.

It was pretty early on in the session so not a great deal to report, but below is a list of the issues raised and our responses to them (in no particular order):

1. It was noted that the Sketchup resources provided are a little basic, your reps asked for further resources to bridge the gap between their modeling capabilities and aspirations. 

The most popular Sketchup plugin that deals with designing complex curves and geometry is called Artisan Tools. Many students have used it in the past to great effect.

https://artisan4sketchup.com/  here is a pdf user guide and a link to some video tutorials

We'll publish more advanced tutorials as they come to hand ... or if you can recommend some please let us know in the comments below. 

2. Brief ambiguities were causing some confusion.

Our response here is that if anything is ambiguous run it past your tutor, and if they agree it could be interpreted in multiple ways then you are free to choose which way suits you. To help we will explicitly link the marking criteria to each specific task in EXP2. The student reps felt this will help to resolve the issue. 

We note that the Marking Criteria has been available from the beginning of Experiment 1 and will also be available from the beginning of EXP2 and EXP3. 

3. The student reps noted that the additional material (pdf / lecture / links to tutes on the blogs, etc) have been a useful and welcome resource during the studio session.

We will keep doing this; we added an ARCH1101 Pinterest page recently. If you have other suggestions for good was to get resources to you please let us know in the comments below.

With that in mind ... is anyone using https://ask.fm/?

Regards

Russell and Andrew 

Material Sections from previous students

Hi All,

Here are some Material Sections drawn by previous students:

Maryam Osman's blog

Hi All,

One of our tutors, Maryam Osman, has been posing some useful readings on her blog ... and a nice project by BIG Architects which shows their innovative approach to designing and communicating design through diagrams; here's another one from the website  DesignBoom

Regards

Russell and Andrew

Super Materials

Hi All,

If you'd like to get ahead for studio this week take a lok at this article on Super Materials:

http://gizmodo.com/beyond-graphene-6-supermaterials-that-could-change-our-1681845262

Russell and Andrew

ARCH1101 on Pinterest

Hi All,

For a curated set of links relevant to your studies in ARCH1101, take a look at ARCH1101 on Pinterest: http://pin.it/MfRRaWT

Feel free to follow if you like.

Regards

Russell and Andrew

Some Architecture Instagram accounts

Hi All,

We are firm believers in the old saying that "You are what you eat". In other words, if you spend time considering great architecture then some of it will sink in unconsciously and you'll become a better designer yourself.

So the key question becomes; where can I find examples of great architecture to consume!

One option, Instagram.

Below are a selection of Instagram feeds that aggregate images from all over the net. There are a few more good ones we'll point you towards in the next few weeks. In the meantime, if you have any that you follow and can recommend, let us know in the comments section below.

Regards

Russell and Andrew

Today's task is up on the EXP1 Brief webpage

Hi All,

Today's task is up on the EXP1 Brief webpage, here:

 http://www.russelllowe.com/arch1101_2017/experiment1/brief/brief_exp1.htm

You'll see a link to a PDF file with a selection of stairs on that webpage as well, it's integral to the task, so take a look!

Regards

Russell and Andrew

Before the first class...

Hi All,

Before the first class, follow the steps below...

Step 1: create a blog at http://www.blogger.com/

note: use your own name to name your blog, use “awesome inc.” as a default template…

Step 2: post three images ...

a: your best piece of creative work before coming to this course, think laterally if you have not done "conventional" art or design work
b: an image of a great piece of architecture
c: an original photograph of something beautiful

Step 3: write a paragraph under each of the images that tells us something interesting about them.


Step 4: find an image showing a creative work from each of the companies/designers below (they will be your clients in experiment 1) and describe it using a noun, verb and adjective; see below for examples.

note: be creative with your selection of words, this will help!

Magnus Walker (www.youtube.com): Noun, Verb, Adjective

Issey Miyake (http://isseymiyake.com/en/): Noun, Verb, Adjective

Louise Bourgeois (http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/louise-bourgeois-2351): Noun, Verb, Adjective

Step 5: purchase a 0.5mm black pen (artline or similar), and a squared cahier pocket moleskin notebook (you can get these from the unsw bookshop).

Step 6: if you would like to get ahead, download and install the latest version of the modelling software "sketchup" on your laptop.

Welcome to ARCH1101!

Hi All,

Welcome to the blog for ARCH1101, the first year architecture design studio.

Please back regularly as this will be the place for updates and additional information regarding the course. Feel free to leave comments below a post if you've got a question or would like to add something yourself.

I'm looking forward to another great year!

Regards

Russell