Cabilla Feasibility Study - T minus 7 days

Currently we are still working on the project. Personally, I am putting together all the research into a comprehensive report with a colleague. Meanwhile, we are sketching designs and really just trying to pull it together.

Just a snapshot into what we are doing!

T- Minus 7 Days

With only a week to go, this project is feeling very real. It is a very scary thought that this project is worth 40% of  the year. Ahhhhh ahhhh aaaaaaahhhh!!!!

The brief:

• Build a holiday cottage for at least two people without using any fossil fuels.
• All services must be incorporated into the design (eg drainage, heating etc)
• The Landscape must be a key point of the design

In today's tutorial, for which I stayed up working until gone 3, I was told that my scheme 'just doesn't work', and that I have to re-think a lot of the design. Since I'm not a fan of flogging a dead horse, I think that I may just start again. 

Wish me lots of luck!

A great house.

This is the hobbit house that I read about in a daily mail article. It was built by Simon Dale and his family, at the cost of around £3000. Which is not bad at all I think.

I really love this little house.

 

Who wouldn't want to live here??

The original film version of Bilbo Baggins' house 

Simon Dale's project can also be found on his website.

In fact, I was so inspired by this project, that I have just put myself forward as a volunteer on the Lammas Project.... how exciting?!?!

Black Framed Glasses

The Architect Stereotype is becoming more and more obvious to me now. Our lecturer said a while back that the architecture course will lead us to become intrinsically part of an elitist group formed of 4am working people who "wear black polo-necks and drive around in Audis."  Though I thought it was an exaggeration initially, I am beginning to see the 'cult's' look when I am researching architects.

When we arrived at uni, one of the first things we found was a 'instant architect kit' which consisted of a cut out pair of round, thick black framed glasses. Now this is a funny joke once you start to become one of 'them'. The most famous architects  to wear these funny things are as follows:
(I've also noted their most famous buildings too)

Le Corbusier - Villa Savoye, which inspired
 those white box houses we see today

Peter Eisenman - Parc de la villette, Paris
 ( I actually went there on our study trip !)

Peter Cook - the Archigram* daddy - Kunsthaus,
Graz (austria)

Eero Saarinen - TWA terminal at JFK airport

Daniel Libeskind - London Metropolitan University.

Admittedly, Libeskind does not have rounded glasses, but you see the pattern here? Some of the greatest architects of all time are on this page.

I think this means that I need to lose my sight promptly and get myself a pair of these glasses in order to have fantastic sucess.  










* Archigram is a movement which looks like it could have been thought up whilst HEAVILY under the influence. It is a concept that thinks of the city as a movable beast, which can be added onto, changed around and then can just get up and go at will. 

Very yellow-submarine-on-a-big-trip, isn't it?

Updates...

I haven’t written in a while; I’ve been busy as a bee.

We had project 4 to contend with, which was a mind-pushing struggle.  Our brief was to create a device which would simulate the movement of a personal daily ritual. I chose cutting a lemon (for morning tea), so I explored the movements involved in that. I looked at the leaning and the pressure. I took this further to create my device which was a foot pedal mechanism, which tilted you forward and a hand pad which you pressed down into to release a lemon fragrance.

I shan’t bore you with any more than that; it was a whimsical project, heavily based on the ‘body’ and the emotional qualities that accompany movement. We even had a choreographer come in...

Which has all made us think; “this is not what I expected to be doing.” We expected to be drawing buildings and learning of the inner workings of walls, not thinking about concepts and ‘feeling’ ideas.

I think this is a good thing. As the saying goes, “form follows function”, but what if we looked at how things affect us before thinking of build cost and technicalities? How the proportions of a room affect our mood, how social situations call for architectural help... surely the built environment would be a better place.

A great use of the deserted Dulux building

My daily walk; beautiful bit of plymplom

The charity shop I volunteer in got a psychedelic makeover

A short trip home included baking a cake...

... and seeing my beautiful dogs (and the family of course!)

Model showing the travels around the kitchen 

A bit of festive procrastination

exploring tilt and pressure

a mock up model

buffet at the charity shop christmas do

demo of my final device.

More internet finds... again

This is from a site, named ungraphic, and this post caught my eye....


When you’re an architect
· you spend hours looking at & buying arch books but never have the time to actually read them
· your closet is mostly full of black clothing
· there are no people in your travel photos
· you will go into an off-limit area to look at a construction detail
· you have carpet sample doormats and tile sample coasters
· you can buy glossy coffee table books and claim them as a work-related tax expense
· the most important date in your calendar is your next deadline
· your vacations always become research.
· you see the sun rise… and set… and rise…
· the statement “It’s only 1 A.M.” seems perfectly reasonable
· you visit an art museum and take pictures of the building
· you slice your finger and the first thing you think is “don’t bleed on the model”


There were a LOT of these statements on this thread, but the ones I loved are here. Beautiful. Maybe I will do something this one day if I have a spare moment...

A beautiful result of a bit of a study break...

I have come across a site called Catalog Living, a brilliant site which considers the absurdity of catalog photos.

Gary and Elaine’s Thanksgiving guests knew the drill by now: approach the host table and say what you are thankful for. If Gary and Elaine approve, grab a bale of hay and have a seat.

See? It's brilliant! have a look about on it and and you'll find gems like this.

Stress and Strain

It's been a toughy of a week already. I have been putting myself under too much pressure and so, I have got a lovely coldsore.



However this(above) is making me feel more positive. I need to stay creative. I need to stay passionate. I need to want to be doing what I am doing. I need to be able to take a step back, see how lucky I am, and then carry on. I need to remember that no one is going to kill me for not doing things perfectly, or if I haven't gone over and above the task. I need to remember that the easy way is not the boring way; it might just be the way that stops me killing myself with stress.
As my physiotherapist once told me that our bodies are weak things; they need to be looked after.So, whatever material object you break, ruin or project you fail, remember; your body is made of weaker stuff. It needs to be cared for. It needs to come first.

x

Things are starting to get a little heavier....

Right now, I am on top of the world; today has been amazing. Leaving the idea of Uni for a moment, I took a lovely run today out to entirely unknown territory. I went to the greengrocer's with my housemate in the afternoon to get myself a potato (amongst other veggies) for my beautiful 8hour slow cooked chili. Beautiful dinner which has left me full and very, very happy. Instead of going out tonight, I'll be going to the library with my course friend to do work. I think I've given up on the club scene. My reasons for this can be better articulated in Charlie Brooker's article, "Clubs are Hell"

Anyway, back to reality....

We have a new project, whereby we have to create a 'device' which emulates the body movements and reactions to coming into your home. No, this doesn't make sense to me either. Which totally sucks. I am really well and truly stuck with this one. The deadline for this beasty is the 7th December. Very close indeed.

We also have our technology assignment drafts due. One of those things no one has taken all too seriously as the deadline was so far away, but suddenly, it's looming and it coincides with the aforementioned project.

Aaaaand another..... The architectural theory side of the course has kicked off with a bang. We now need to write critically about the buildings viewed in Paris (it wasn't all fun and games). This one can't be a last minute job like my usual strategy, the essay in question holding  50% weighting of the year.

I would also like to note that I have not drunk any alcohol for almost a week now, and a late bedtime to me is about 10.30pm. The 'Fresher Spirit' has definitely left me.

Mount Edgecumbe

On Monday (10th Oct) we went as a class to Mount Edgecumbe by ferry. It was part of our container project, whereby we took our object inside its container and 'sited' it. The idea of place and site has been a reoccurring theme through the last couple weeks, and the lectures and points that have been made in lectures and workshops all clicked into place with this task.

Anyway, on with the pictures....

My placement - reflecting the recycled nature of my
container

Drake's Island

Ducks!!!

There is a new bike on the block and it's amazing. You can see the write up here.

I think the striking design has to go further than it's current trials - the idea has great potential
x

coolhunting.com

I love this site. It has a great way of picking up on awesome things.
Such as a lovely idea from designer Sarah Canner, who has designed a way for reflective clothing to be feminine, and actually desirable rather than a frumpy necessity. As it says on her website, Being seen is the best way to stay safe on the road. But most of us wouldn’t be caught dead in the typical crossing-guard vest.  I 
I couldn't agree more! Now, if there was a nice helmet that doesn't make me look and feel stupid, then we could be sorted on bikes!

More internet finds

My housemate (after discussing the lego house of yesterday) has just introduced me to an amazing concept; filing in cracks with lego. The artist, Jan Vormann, has inspired me with his "dispatchwork" project; its juxtaposition and mix of the seriousness of structure and the childlike colours of the bricks is something I have never seen done in such a way.

Personally, I will be finding out where these still exist and going to see them. Failing that, i'm sure plymouth has some holes I could fill.

x

This 'fill in the gaps' is from Tel Aviv