Wettbewerbsposter für das Protohaus

Another 1,0... I was on a roll with my übungen, which is good 'cause I didn't do so well in the exam.

Final Presentation Design 4: Urban Interfaces

Myself and my team mate, Jiaozheng Pan, spent a lot of time (and very little sleep) on this! We presented this as well as a site model (which essentially looks like the large image on page 2). Our presentation went very well, and we were praised for that, but ultimately torn to pieces over landscape design, something I admitted to knowing nothing about (we'd never been taught, sooo... but I'd like to think I'm better now, so in that sense I am very glad I took this studio). We ended up getting a 3,0 which is pretty bad I reckon, but oh well, I learnt something ^^ (Plus they marked harshly, no one got 1,0!!!

Review of Number 69

A review of another student's work. She was in masters, and spent about €700 from memory making this... she did get sponsorship however, and in the end sold it, so it was very successful!

Number 69 (Pipes)

Reminiscent of pieces by Matthew Warren and perhaps even M.C. Escher, Number 69 (Pipes) appears to defy structural and logical laws, as it seemingly twists and bends for infinity within the strict confines of an invisible box. Number 69 is a stunning example of an everyday, industrial, and often hidden object, turned into something beautiful.

Created by welding and bending together small pieces of pipe in a manner similar to those executed by Matthew Warren, Number 69 appears to almost rise up from the ground in an elegant symphony of seemingly floating pieces. This is enhanced by the shadows created on the ground: linear webs of beauty that make it appear as if the solids of the piping are dissolving into the semi-transparent fragility of a shadow, and floating away. The structural load has been distributed across the piping pieces, creating a freestanding, ethereal cubic form with pieces that seem to individually defy gravity. This box-like form is perhaps metaphorical, showing the connections within a brain, the thoughts trapped within a box, bursting to get out.

The confined chaos within the rigid structure of the box could also be related to the bending of perception. Generally, we think of pipes as linear and functional objects, however within Number 69 they are flowing and beautiful. Pipes of different diameters are also used, creating flow in all directions: vertically through the bending of the pipes, and horizontally through the constantly varying sizes. Moreover, the careful joining of the pieces creates what appears at first sight to be one continuous, flowing line of piping, which seems to go on for infinity and is almost optical illusion like in quality, calling up images of M.C. Escher’s illusionistic and impossible drawings.

Number 69 is successful because it not only brings to mind many conceptual ideas, but also causes the viewer to question how the artist managed to form such a structure. One can clearly see the effort put into this piece, and can imagine that many drawings that would have been produced prior to its construction. Perhaps even calculations and a CAD model were made, similar to the workings of Matthew Warren. This piece appears almost perfect, but some of the pipes are still off-colour, and some solder has run down them and stuck to the floor. This human error perhaps even adds to the piece however, reminding us of the pipes’ industrial links.

Generally hidden between wall planes and flowing with waste, pipes are not usually regarded as the most attractive of objects, rather they are seen as fairly industrial. However, through an equally rough and manufactured process of welding, bending and shaping the pipes, Number 69 defies the notion of what a pipe should be, and instead creates something more abstract and beautiful.

Experimentelles Gestalten Submissions 1 and

Sheets detailing the two installations I created during my semester in Munich. The latter was exhibited at the end of semester.

Haus Freischutzgasse

Our final submission for Hüllkonstruktion und Bauklimatik was 3 A1 panels with drawings displaying how we thought the façade functioned both in terms of constructions and building services, as well as a 1:20 model (only part of the façade needed to be modelled). 

The building we were researching was Haus Freischutzgasse, by David Chipperfield in Zürich, Switzerland.

Honestly, we had a really bad experience with this class. There were hardly any lectures, so I didn't feel like I learnt much. The lectures we did have weren't really related to our project, and it was difficult to get the lecturers to discuss the project. Since we had to hand in the project early, it was also due right when everything else was, so we didn't sleep for two weeks (just 30 min naps every now and again) trying to get this (especially the stupid model... which unfortunately ended up being very badly made) and all our other work done.

When we finally did present, the critics (including the female head of the Lehrstuhl!) were very rude to us, making sexist comments when we were telling them about how part of the façade opens to enable cleaning (apparently because we are women we know all about cleaning... how on earth are comments like that appropriate ever, and certainly in an academic setting?!?). We felt terrible, defeated, and like we would fail, because the critics made it quite clear they didn't like us (especially me it seems... well, perhaps they seemed to be directing all their negative comments at me in particular because I spoke the best German... indeed they didn't realise I was an exchange student until that very day, when I told them I was from New Zealand...) However, surprisingly we ended up getting a 2,3. 

I'm personally just glad it's over.

Yeah, I enjoyed TUM, but certainly not this paper. I wish they did course evaluation at TUM, I would have given a scathing review.

Intermediate Review 2 Powerpoint

Intermediate Review 1

Our first review of our urban design scheme near the Hirschgarten in Munich. Work done by myself and my teammate, Pan Jiaozheng. 

Kurzentwurf

A brief study of the Kultfabrik area of Munich. This is a former industry area that is now mainly known for its events and nightlife. I loved the street art!

Übung 1

So for one of the classes I am taking, Digitale Formfindung (Digital Form finding) our first exercise was to learn how to use 3DS Max, and produce a rendering of a free form pavilion. So I spent an entire weekend basically solely looking at YouTube videos, and after some fixing up, this is what I came up with.

I spent ages yelling at the poor woman, hahaha... I simply couldn't find stock imagery that really suited exactly what I wanted. I have two free stock websites I rely on pretty heavily, and they have never failed me before yet, but... like all of their images of seated people looked way too summery!

I also got really annoyed because it's pretty obvious (in my opinion) that the pavilion isn't truly part of this scene. It simply isn't photorealistic enough. However, for a first proper rendering attempt, I guess I'll forgive myself  Also, I wanted the metal to reflect the scene around it... but instead of becoming reflective, it just became slightly transparent. O.o Hmm. I added the background as a bitmap environment map, so it was part of the render, but...

Oh and I would never actually design something like this... especially since I don't really think it could be constructed. I played for ages with the stupid splines but couldn't get them to go in a way that both looked good and looked constructible.  In the end I picked the 'looks good' option, because this is a rendering assignment... however I will most likely lose marks for this.

Closing public blog access

Dear readers (if there are any of you, haha. I admit I made this blog mostly so I could keep track of things myself), I will be closing public access to this blog.

Unfortunately, a piece of my ARCHDRC 202 work was stolen off my blog last semester and used by another student in their portfolio. Therefore, I sadly need to close this blog to most users. As much as I love seeing what gets looked at the most, and getting feedback every now and then, it is not worth the risk of having my work plagiarised.

Anyway, to the point of this post: if you are interested in continuing to see my posts, you need to send me your email address. Then I can save your email address in the settings here, which will allow you access. You can send me your email address either in a comment on this post (if you are comfortable posting such a thing on the internet... although it's true that once I close public access to the blog only other authorised blog readers will be able to see the comments) or in a message on my facebook page. I'm afraid, that since I don't want to risk this happening again, I will be limiting blog access to people I personally know (not including the other student who took my work, obviously haha). But I doubt that many strangers look at this anyway :P (Although sometimes I'm very surprised by the page views! O.o)

So, how long do you have to request access? Well, actually forever... once it is closed blogger will still give you the option to request access. However, I will be leaving the blog open for now so this post can be seen. Since I am currently on an exchange in Germany (oh yes... had this not happened I would have already written a post about this, I guess I will get to that later!), I don't actually start university until October 1st, so it's unlikely I'll want to post any work until then. Therefore the blog will remain publicly open until then, and you can comment on this blogpost until then (although obviously you can send me a message on facebook after then too! :P)

I hope you are all well, and viele grüße aus Deutschland :)