ARCHICULTURE DOCUMENTARY

I was fortunate enough to see a sneak peak of the documentary Archiculture back in the summer of 2013 in the AIA building in Washington DC where I attended the AIAS Grassroots conference. 

Archiculture takes a thoughtful look at the architectural studio and design education. Hours and hours of film was condensed into this 25 minute film which follows the lives of students at the Pratt Institute completing their final graduate thesis project. 

The film also features several interviews and commentaries by Shigeru Ban, Phil Berman, Ken Frampton and Annie Choi just to name a few. 

If your interested in Architecture and want to know what the studio experience is really like, I suggest you watch the film below. Enjoy!

Morphology Final Project Video

aaaaaaaand finals week just keeps on going. 

Today I built the final elastegrity model with my morphology group. This is the largest scale we've built it in. On the corners of each hinge are springs and elastics that hold it open in a sort of equilibrium between being contracted and extended. Below is a timelapse video we made to document the project. We present in Providence on Sunday! 

Final Crit 12/9/14 FA14

Yesterday was my final undergraduate studio critique, ever!! I presented my project title Shifting Minds first to my studio group, and a panel of outside judges who are all involved in either architecture or healthcare. 

I was asked by a judge "What was your biggest challenge completing this project and what are you most proud of?". I replied that my biggest challenge was taking my concept/idea of shifting and making it work on the site. I had an idea in my head and I just wasn't manifesting it right at first, but after lots of sketching and thinking I was able to transform my building from something that wasn't working to a solution that worked on our site. 

What was I most proud of? I said this whole project. I was proud of the work that I presented, and also the process it took to get where I was. This was the first project where we had to figure out the program our self. After doing this I felt much more connected to the project and felt that I really had an understanding of the program and the clients needs. I felt that this would greatly benefit me in my graduate studio next semester and in my future career. 

Below are photos I had a friend take of me presenting. Take a look!

-A

Shifting Minds Presentation Sheets and Models [amandarapson]

Shifting Minds Presentation [amandarapson]

Shifting Minds [amandarapson]

Shifting Minds [amandarapson]

Shifting Minds [amandarapson]

Shifting Minds [amandarapson]

Shifting Minds [amandarapson]

Shifting Minds - ARCH 413.02 Final Presentation PRE VIEW

Above are my sheets for my final presentation in my studio course tomorrow afternoon. The bottom sheet is slightly distorted on here, it should be just as wide as the top sheet. 

This is the first time ever I am done a full day early. I printed my sheets on Saturday, and my digital presentation is done. I also have two models for my presentation below!

I'll post some photos from the crit tomorrow afternoon. 

-A

Sections, Sections, and More Sections!

My final project is due in exactly one week. As of right now, I'm in pretty good shape. I just finished up rendering four sections of my building. I got most of my scale people for the images from the website http://all-silhouettes.com/. This site has the largest collection of silhouette images I have EVER SEEN. Seriously. They have everything from people walking, to people scuba diving. 

I took each section from my Revit file of my building, I exported tham as PDF's, one image with shadows and one without, and added color, textures and the scale figures in Photoshop. 

Let me know what you think!!

West/East Section Through Circulation Zone and Shared Spaces

West/East Section Through Entrance Level and Units

West/East Section Through Unit, PikU & Gym

North/South Section Through Units

Laser Cutting

I took some videos today of the laser cutter at work cutting out and etching pieces for my Unit Model. 

The laser cutter works off of the lines in a CAD file. If you want a line to cut through or etch your material, then you assign the laser the strength and speed required to do so, and tell it which color line is which. 

This is the first model I've ever made with pieces made from the laser cutter, the detail looks awesome. I can't wait to put it all together tonight! 

Below are some videos of the laser in action. 

Area 51: Pin Up Presentation 11/21/14

Above is the sheet I have pinned up for an individual presentation crit today at 4:12pm. The original poster is 36"x48", I had to shrink it to fit on here. Overall, I'm happy with the work I've produced for today. The sheet has a new updated site plan, the three renders featured on my last post, and two new sections I created last night. It also shows the extensive program list and some of the projects goals and metrics. 

I'll update with how the crit goes later!

Area 51 Renders

Its 1am. I got to studio at 11am yesterday.... but I got three renders for my project done! 

Below are the the "before" and "after" photos. The before photos are renders straight from Autodesk Revit, and the after photos are after I tweaked them in Adobe Photoshop. I'd say these are the best renders I've done on Photoshop since I started using it two years ago. Let me know what you think!

Main Entry Before

Main Entry After 

Exterior Main Entry Before

Exterior Main Entry After 

Interior Unit Nurses Station Before

Interior Unit Nurses Station 

Maybe I'll post a tutorial on how I did these renders sometime over winter break? Thoughts?

Area 51 Update: Construction Team Meeting

Above are the sheets I prepared for a meeting later today with my construction management team. As of right now, I'd say my project is about 80% complete. I will take today's meeting comments and make any changes/edits to the project by this weekend and then start final presentation production. 

Below are some of the views from my Revit model that can be seen on the sheets. 

Main Entrance View

Main Entry Approach

View to Exterior Courtyard Space

Noisy Activity Space on Unit

Current Site Plan 

George Lucas Museum - Graduate Studio - Brendon Roderman

I finally get to share some work from the other "r" in [rr]architecture! Below is the Mid Review digital presentation done by Brendon Roderman in RWU's SAAHP ARCH 515 Graduate Design Studio under Professor Andrew Thurlow. 

The studio project is to design a museum/community center on a piece of land in San Francisco CA, that Star Wars creator George Lucas has been interested in purchasing. 

This intensive studio utilizes a program called Maya. Maya is an animation, modeling, simulation, rendering, and composting software that offers a comprehensive creative feature set on a highly extensible production platform. Maya provides high-end character and effects tool sets along with increased productivity for modeling, texturing, and shader creation tasks. It has been used in movies, video games etc. 

All below images belong to Brendon Roderman and showcase his design ideas for a George Lucas Museum in San Francisco CA. 

Any questions please comment below!

ABX 2014

Yesterday I was lucky enough to attend the ABX 2014 Expo at the Boston Convention Center.  Architecture Boston Expo (ABX) is one of the largest events for the design and construction industry in the country, and the largest regional conference and trade-show. It reminded me of the camping trade shows I used to go to with my parents as a kid. The RWU SAAHP provided transportation for myself and 20+ other students to attend the Exhibition and then an RWU SAAHP Alumni event after. 

It was very interesting to see all the different products and technologies that exist today and how/where they have been implemented. I FILLED my bah with pamphlets and brochures that i hope will give me some inspiration on my studio project. 

Take a look at some pictures from the Expo below!  

ADD Inc Instillation

3D Color Printing

ABX Exhibition Hall 

ABX Exhibition Hall 

ABX Exhibition Hall