I met Frank Gehry once

Imagine my excitement.  An aspiring architect about to meet one of the world's most famous architects.  Granted, I have never been his biggest fan, I hate all the useless, jagged corners and jutting construction his buildings have, but I was still very, very excited.  What architectural wisdom would he shed upon me?

It turns out none.

He was giving a private tour of his Lewis Library at Princeton University to a group of scientists from the Institute of Advanced Study.  It's a library for integrated sciences but I'm not sure what good a tour of the building was to them or why Gehry would make an appearance for them.  I was not part of this tour but managed to get myself cordially invited to come along by someone.  Happily, I followed the group into an elevator, in which Gehry promptly looked at me and asked "Who are you?" in a somewhat accusing tone.  I said I was an architecture student and was invited to join. He didn't respond.  Miffed, but still hopeful, I continued along on the tour. Gehry didn't say much as he led us from one floor to the other.  He would comment that the light in the space would change as the day went on, and that was about the most enlightening thing he said (no pun or irony intended).  I know my architecture education may be incomplete, but I believe the light in every space with a window changes as the day goes on.  Rising and setting of the sun, it happens.  By this point I was rather disappointed with the Great Gehry, but the cherry on top was when he hadn't a clue where he was going in his own building.  It was like a child finding out his hero was really a bum, but less dramatic because I'm not a child and Gehry isn't my hero.  You get the point.  Gehry is too big to design his own stuff, he has underlings and his name is a label, he doesn't need to know the details of his work.  And he's just old.  Old.  I hope I never get old.

The only Gehry work I could even begin to say I like is his jewelry line with Tiffany's.  It doesn't look like something messily collapsing in on itself.

"The Simpsons" seems to share a similar opinion. 

Sexy architects

I'm not sure where this is originally from; I got it via Mirage Studio 7's blog. Have a laugh, I did.

Back to Blogging

So I passed my first year of college (hooray!) and have emerged all the wiser. Perhaps. I definitely have a better understanding of the ways design fits into the world. I attended a graphic design conference where graphic designers talked about their work and the purposes behind them, from social and political to just pure marketing. It really opened my (little Asian) eyes to the reach and range design has. I'll be sure not to sleep in and skip out on the first half again next year...

I also really enjoyed my freshman seminar class. The 3 hour evening classes were absolutely no fun to sit through and I admit I made good use of my phone's many features during that time,
but I learned a lot from the assignments. Design exercises like creating building facades that respond to not just aesthetics but also the surroundings and planning a residential college in the middle of campus taught me to pay attention to the interactions between building and environment. Now a lot of building dements don't seem so random. Some still do though, and they probably are (Gehry, anyone? More on him later).

A more unpleasant contribution to my architectural experience however was a class I took on the history of modern Western architecture, "The Experience of Modernity: A Survey of Modern Architecture in the West". Just like it's name, you put in more effort than what you got out. While I found it very interesting, I could have learned all the material from reading a book. Even precept was students repeating information from readings. The class got real though, when, on the last day of lecture, the professor gave a very inspiring speech about how we, the class, were the ones in line to make change and bring about a better future. There was no more typing and Facebook was temporarily ignored as she spoke about us and architecture carrying social, environmental, and moral responsibility. It was cheesy but it was also the most meaningful lecture she gave.

Now, looking back with my newfound knowledge, past projects I've designed and previous posts I've written seem close to atrocious to me. Though I'm always harsh on my own work regardless of when it was done, let's look at what's to come as new and improved. I'm like technology, always getting better (and more costly, as my parents would like to point out).

Nap time

Melted pool noodles, right? Just because I asked that, you already know you're wrong. 

These are Phat Knits. Designed by Bauke Knottnerus, they are literally giant threads knitted by giant needles that can be knitted into anything you like. These are not for your faint-of-heart grandmother. It's probably not good for her back either, but it certainly looks cozy. 

Something else that would make a fun alternative mattress? A 6' Ugly Doll. It might be a little creepy waking up to one of these though. 

High School and College Architecture

I'm not talking about campus buildings, although college and university buildings tend to be far more exciting than those run-of-the-mill prison boxes called high schools; what I mean is education.

I have taken architecture courses in my school where I generate houses such as the one in my previous post. At the time, the class seemed fairly in-depth, although it mainly focused on the design of residential homes; it taught students the program Auto CAD Architecture, the historical styles of architecture (Egyptians developed the post and lintel system), the appropriate room placements in a house (living room is always near the front entrance), as well as the basic skills of sketching (use multiple overlapping short strokes).

Then I went to Cornell University Summer College to study architecture. The instructors told us students immediately and bluntly to forget anything we ever learned about architecture in high school. "Nah," I thought, "I learned so much I bet I'll have a leg up on everyone else." But, I was so very wrong. In my high school architecture class, we began designing homes and floor plans on the very first day. At Cornell, we never designed cubes and vessels, but not buildings. In high school, we thought about walls and stairs. At Cornell, we thought about space and dynamics. In high school, we did everything on the computer. At Cornell, we made everything out of chipboard and glue.

There are countless other things. I do not feel like going over it all. I will end saying that CUSC was an amazing experience for me.