Anyone else obsessed with the chapel roof designed by the architect who came to speak to us on monday?
His inspiration, craftsmanship, and dedication to documenting the process really gave me an idea of the level of work expected from older students. I hope I put as much work and thought into my final project as he did.

Examples of familiar diagrams

If you are having trouble finding, or thinking of a diagram for wednesdays lecture, here are some familiar diagrams they may help spark an idea.

As I briefly discussed in studio, during break, many people would ask me about industrial design. Though I would thoroughly explain my major to my friends and their families, it was interesting to see that one of my friends was unknowingly dabbling in ID himself. He started a company called Eden Racing a little over a year ago. As a professional skater, it became his goal to manufacture products for other skaters at reasonable prices. His hand-made boards are a perfect example of the industrial design process. Recently, he enhanced his CNC machine process for one of the Eden boards which can be viewed in the YouTube video below.

Here's a couple finished views of his Maple Sparrow board (Links attached to each image). The entire process from inception to the final product is industrial design. Even though many people are ignorant to ID, it seems to be everywhere.

CUBE and LIGHT

hey guys,

while looking for some inspiration I found this building designed by Takato Tamagami and Be Fun design. Check it out!

"Origami" House

I found this house called the "Klein Bottle House" based off the Klein Bottle mathematical principle that deals with "a continuous volume with no inside and outside" and " a surface with an indefinable left, right, top or bottom". The house has "origami-like facets and folds" and reminded me of the paper structures we made showing open/closed. I also thought this related to what we are talking about in class in the sense that it is supposed to have no true inside and outside with questions it's containment. It clearly has some inside volume, but the many fold does make you question the inside/outside Klein Bottle principle that it addresses. Both these articles talk about the house: here and here.

Photographing metal

Helloooo fellow studio mates,

this is a link to an article i found about photographing metal. metal is one of the hardest materials to photograph because it is so reflective and that can throw off the focus of the camera as well as pic up reflections from behind. Just a few tips that may help your photos be the best quality. Its a short article so definitely check it out!

http://www.digitalfieldguide.com/blog/183

Light/Shadow

Here are two light-related links:
http://www.npr.org/2011/12/28/144385288/in-philippine-slums-capturing-light-in-a-bottle
An article about a unique form of solar lighting
http://thatsdopedaily.com/2012/01/21/shadow-photography/
Some really cool pictures dealing with shadows, includes a picture that was already posted

Light and black holes

This idea of bending and capturing light that we are supposed to be studying, reminded me of a black hole. Though it has little relevance to design, the video does describe the process of bending, redirecting or capturing light, which does relate to how we are supposed to think about going into our design.

It also mentions a bit about space, which in my opinion space, gravity, and what not have a lot to do with containment. Earth contains conditions possible for human life, stars contain radioactive gas that cause for reactions letting off heat, and space it's self contains gravity which holds all planets, stars, and life in balnces. It's kind of a tangent but it's an interesting view on light and containment, I think.

I came across the artist Rashad Alakbarov, who has done some amazing work using shadows.  He creates a shadow drawing on the wall using objects that can be easily found or regarded as trash.  At first look at his installation, one might be puzzled as to what it is that he's trying to portray, but once the light is on, the shadows depict a clear drawing or a message.  I'll print out some of his work for the working document wall, but I wanted to share this on here too, so you guys can enjoy more of his work and research him on your own!

http://issuu.com/phillipsdepury/docs/contemporary-art-from-azerbaijan-2012
(page 81)

lighting terminology

Hey everyone! so thinking about the upcoming lighting project, i found this glossary of lighting vocabulary, specifically architectural lighting. I highly doubt anyone will go through and read all these ridiculous words, but taking a glance at a few of them could really spark some motivation or inspiration for our metal project. It could also add some new terminology to our vocab for when we have to talk about our projects!

http://www.schorsch.com/en/kbase/glossary/

Design

Over the break I was talking to a friend of my parents' who had heard I am studying Industrial Design. He told me about a friend of his, Fredrik Magnussun, who was an industrial designer that initially worked at the well known appliance design company Electrolux, and then went on to start his own company, Propellor, which is now a world-renowned design agency. He sent me a link to a page describing Mr. Magnussun, (http://www.futuredesigndays.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=391:fredrik-magnusson&catid=41:speakers-2004&Itemid=105) which in turn prompted me to start browsing industrial design firms and websites. I found a lot, but by far my favorite was this one: http://www.industrialdesignserved.com/. It isn't especially informative, useful, or definitive by any means, but it has a regular stream of industrial design projects by semi-amateurs and professionals alike, from finished products to prototypes, furniture to futuristic cars. It is fascinating and not reminds me of how exciting the potential at this school is. I know it is somewhat specific to my major, but they also have projects relating to interior design and the occasional architecture/landscape architecture piece as well. There are also many other sites hosted by the same provider, two of which I think are somewhat relative, http://www.photographyserved.com/ and http://www.toydesignserved.com/. Enjoy!

Sketching

Over Christmas break I spent a lot of time sketching faces. I have always had difficulty drawing eyes and I found a really great video that explains how to draw them. I learned that I definitely rush my shading. The man in the video spends hours just in his shading alone. Everyone could benefit from watching it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ25OngOLts

photo from: http://www.onlypencil.com/blog/tutorials/drawing-the-human-eye/

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

Over break I visited many of the museums in Washington D.C. but I went into the Hishhorn Museum for the first time. The museum is filled with many interesting sculptures ranging from materials. One exhibit that stood out to me was that of Andy Warhol's titled Shadows. The exhibit consisted of a repetition of what seemed like the same painting just in different colors.

Here is the link for the exhibit too: http://hirshhorn.si.edu/exhibitions/view.asp?key=22&subkey=511

Open to closed dilemma

All of these are examples of open to closed or closed to open obviously. But what's not obvious is how to go about making it abstract, and not just a literal translation with our bristol board models. I had this image of open and closed in my mind that were all so literal. I had to think of what open and closed actually meant to me, but the only way to do that without thinking about the opening and closing of a door was to think of the root definition of each word in its simplest form. Open- allows movement and doesn't allow restriction. Closed- restricted area, or blocking movement. After that, I could get away from the popular open square to closed square, and move towards something more unique. I suggest for your remake, if you're still having problems deciding what you want to do, give what I did a try, and just start sketching!

El Pimientera Elementary School

Over winter break, I traveled to El Progresso, Honduras. For 8 days, I as well as 22 other Virginia Tech students laid the foundation for an elementary school in the village of Buenos Amigos just outside of Villa Soleada. Before we arrived at the village, the school consisted of a tin roof and a dirt. When it would rain, school would be cancelled for the day. Together, we dug a 4 foot trench, constructed rebars, mixed and poured over 50 bags of concrete, and began to build the walls of the school. My service trip to Honduras taught me a lot about the actual construction and execution of a design, and what it takes to make a sketch come to life. I attached photos I took of my experience, and a before and after shot.

Pittsburgh

Over break I went to Pittsburgh, PA to visit my grandmother. Pittsburgh is notorious for the many bridges in throughout the area. I found the detail and timelessness of the bridges very interesting. Since first semester I pay more attention to the little details in my surroundings. Signs throughout the city use texts that grab attention. The tall buildings are amazing structures. Pittsburgh has so much architecture I've never noticed before since this semester of studio.

cool sites

Alright so I found a few sites recently that have lots of really cool art/design/architecture, and I figured I'd share them in case anyone wants to check them out. They're updated pretty regularly and you can also follow 'like' them on facebook and follow them on twitter!

Colossal (blog for random art and design projects, ideas, etc...)

here are a few examples, but the site includes tons of different types of media

design boom (publishes art, architecture, design, etc...)

this is pretty cool because the site actually tells you a lot about the projects and shows process, etc...

the images here are from the designs proposed for the dalian museum in China.

hope you guys find it interesting!

Park City

I spent a couple days snowboarding in Park City, UT over christmas with a group of guys with my family. The space of the mountain is open and free. It felt great to be alone in the mountains separated from the mundaneness of what everyday societal life brings.

SCUBA Diving Key West

Over the break my family and I took a trip to Key West to enjoy some warmer weather and a change of pace from our usual lives. While on the island, my step brother and I took several daily excursions into the deep blue abyss, exploring several ship wrecks and reefs off the coast.

The pictures my brother took with his camera don't really do justice to the atmosphere and the experience of diving. As a marine biologist, he was more interested in the local wildlife. I on the other hand, more enjoyed the act of exploring decrepit ships and immersing myself in that eerie, almost ghostly, atmosphere.

It was a wonderful experience and I kind of expect us to take trips such as these on an annual basis. If you'd like to see the rest of my brother's pictures you can see them on facebook here. (NOTE: he might have his privacy settings to where you won't be able to view them)

3d painting

i just happened across this and thought it was really cool. Riusuke Fukahori uses resin and paints in layers, sort of like a 3d printer. there's a video of how he does it if you wanna check it out!

The Biltmore Estate

When I got home from school, it just so happened that my mom was already planning a trip to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. The Biltmore Estate was built by Goerge Vanderbilt between 1889 and 1895, and the architect hired to design the house was Richard Morris Hunt. It is the largest privately owned residential home in the U.S. The house is 135,000 square feet and has 250 rooms. We were able to take a tour through the house and it was absolutely amazing to see. Every single room was full of intricate designs and details. Fire places where large enough to stand in and the arches on a bookshelf/mantel were at least three stories high. The house really belittles its viewers. The design was beautiful in so many different ways, but the tour was not nearly enough to enjoy all of the detail in the house. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the house, but here is a picture of the outside.

Epworth United Methodist Church

Epworth United Methodist Church Norfolk, VA

The other day my mom and I went walking in downtown Norfolk and came across this beautiful church across the street from the Freemason Abbey. This church was built with granite and sandstone in 1894. Then when you walk inside, the front of the church is lined with hundreds of organ pipes, there are angelic figures in each
of the four corners, the back and the sides are covered in intricate stained glass windows, and the high-arched circular ceiling allows for a large number of arching pews. It was so interesting to see this church and take in how much thought was put into every detail. What I thought was even more striking was that when you see architecture and design like this, you automatically assume (and usually correctly) that its an older building. You just do not see this kind of detail anymore. Yes, style has changed and a refined, streamline approach is more desirable in today's age but at the same time we cannot deny the beauty of this type of work.

Chihuly Exhibit

One of the many benefits of having a father who works at the VMFA virginia museum of fine arts, is that I get classified information about upcoming exhibits! This coming year, from October to March the VMFA will be exhibiting Chihuly.

Dale Chihuly is an american glass sculptor and entrepreneur.

I, for one, am extremely excited for this exhibit. I was able to do a little glass blowing over break and it is difficult!

Here are a few examples of his work:

Baskervill

On our way back from vacation, my family and I passed through Richmond. I saw a sign for a design firm called Baskervill, and while we did not get to stop and visit, I did a little research on the place. It turns out that it is a certified architectural, engineering and interior design firm that is licensed in 29 states participates in projects throughout the united states and the world. Their site is pretty interesting.
http://www.baskervill.com/Default.aspx

Wild and Wonderful

While on break, I have taken my cultural retreat in the mountains of West Virginia. Nature is a vital spring feeding our creativity; it's beauty surrounds us, everywhere. I have had time to reflect on our fall semester and am looking forward to a productive spring semester together. I hope that you are rested and rejuvenated for a fresh start. See you in Blacksburg soon.

Downtown Charlotte

So I had some time to spare when I was in downtown Charlotte and I decided to explore. I went to the building my dad works in, which is LEED certified. It has a green roof, and its exterior is almost completely glass. There trees growing inside and you can easily taste a difference in the air. Unfortunately you aren't allowed to take pictures so the security guard yelled at me but if you're ever in Charlotte you should check out this building- half of it is a hotel and you would probably have better luck with picture taking.

After that I walked to the Mint Museum and Bechtler Museum of Modern Art. The architecture of these both are quite interesting. The Bechtler's exterior is covered in ceramic tiles. Here are some pictures I took along the way:

This is the Bechtler Museum in the background