Critical Study.

Handed my dissertation in today. Overall I think I'm happy with how it went, I think theres a couple of really insightful and interesting pieces of writing in there. I'm really pleased that I managed to interview two MP's to get their views and I think that it really helps to add balance and opinion to my argument.

If I was doing it again however I think I would have chosen a more publicized topic, as I found it hard finding sources to use for the study, apart from that I think that it was a really interesting topic a and a great learning experience helping me to have a greater appreciation of how polotics effects architecture in this country.

Istanbul Final Review

After my final review for Istanbul I was generally disappointed, I felt that the tutors refrained from looking at the overall design scheme in order to focus on some images and diagrams that they felt were drawn incorrectly.

They felt that i wasn't properly drawing the car park structure underneath the designs and spent 5 minutes talking about this rather than giving me feedback and constructive criticism on my design.

I'm just going to try and move forward from their comments and try and see my tutors on the design again so that I can get it done and out of the way inorder to focus on the latest project.

Sections

I've been experimenting with different sections, looking at both line drawn and photoshoped ones.

Personally I prefer the line drawn section and I will seek advice on them from my tutor ahead of the final review.

Square research

I felt that I was somewhat neglect the design of the square so I went on a visit to Manchester to look at the successful public realms in the city centre. Heres my findings.

Looking at the square in a more analytical way I decided to make some changes to it shown here, helping to open it up and allow access through it.

Volumetric Development

After using the mapping project to look at the location of my scheme I then used volumetrics, moving from a simple cube to a design that had the corners removed replaced with glowing sections that represented the cinemas.

I was really happy with the way that the photographs came out for these models, again using LED's to light the models and log exposure photos.

I feel that my model making skills have really started to come on this year. In these I looked at casting different materials in different shapes which was a new and interesting experience.

I generally felt that my model making skills were good but looking round the year I really feel there is room for me to improve and and trying to get there now....

Back to work....

Back to work after the Christmas break, I'm trying to focus on getting my dissertation done while not neglecting my design work. The way the deadlines line up with each other is really hard work it feels as though theres constantly pressure on in some way or another.

I know that whats to be expected doing an architecture degree but I really dont think the tutors help us out with it at all.

Interdisciplinary design project.

This week we've undertaken the interdisciplinary design project, looking at redeveloping the Tetley's brewery site on the south edge of Leeds city centre.

This is the project that we came up with.

I felt that the 3 days were quite an interesting learning experience, it was good to see what other courses did and how they worked however I did feel it was flawed.

There were too many architects in our group meaning that people were arguing with each other to try and get their own way in the design process, mean while the project managers, who were suposed to be in charge of us failed to have any real valid input in the design.

Overall I found the week useful but did finish up wanting abit more from the experience.

Tech hand in.

Handed our tech project in, the total slide count came to over 500. I felt that it was probably about as good as it could be.

We had some problems with our group, several members decided they didn't want to work with all of us and said they were going to continue alone only to form a separate group away from the rest of us.

I felt that that was a pretty underhanded thing to do and it definitely pushed us back abit, we just got on with it and did the best that we could so hopefully it turns out ok.

Personally I was happy with my contribution I was building up the details and looking at the programme of accommodation and was really happy with the way it turned out, there were members of our group who didn't pull their weight though which was disappointing.

Tutorial - Cube

After having a tutorial I decided to look into designing a square design that would fit around the existing grid laid down by the car park. I made a steel model to reflect this.

I first made a jig inorder to ensure that all the pieces of the frame were square, I then went on to build the model up step by step.

I really enjoyed using steel as a modelling material and felt that by physically welding the frame together I had a better understanding of how the structure works.

This is one of the most enjoyable pieces of work I've done this semester and am happy as it was well received by both my peers and my tutors.

Light Drawing.

As I've been using LED's in my earlier work I wanted to look at light drawing and have tried to do some light drawing in section.

I felt it was quite a successful exercise and it helped me to better understand the effect that small hand movements can effect a drawing or image.