Project 3, year 2
The last project for this year is done! What a wonderful feeling! It feels good to finish with this project, I have learned more about materials, construction and details during this project than I did during the two last years. I still don't know anything, though... Today's architecture students, hehe. As usualI, I will post my posters and some model photos here.
I must say that I am pleased with the pictures, they are good for being done the old fashioned way, without 3D modeling programs. Okay, "old fashioned" may not be the right expression, they are not drawn by hand, but it's simply photos of my model that I photoshoped into the photos I took of the place we were allocated. And then I added some people, shades and greenery - summer sells better. HERE you can see the original photo, not much to cheer for.
It took me three whole days from morning to night to build this model, but it was worth it. Tomorrow it's time for the presentation, which I don't want to devote a single thought to right now. I just want to sleep for a few hundred years, and for once not dream about houses, model building and construction drawings.
Work in progress
It feels like this project just started, but yesterday already it was time for discussion about what we have done so far. I'm still doing rough drafts and I've realized that a month left to deadline is too little time. There is a lot to think about, everything from construction to design and what materials I should use, and the materials life cycle. We go deeper into the details for each project, but I think this project is the most exciting so far. We'll see what I say when I start tearing my hair off in a few weeks, haha.
Patterns and Watercolors
Art week always comes as a break after the projects. This time we were making patterns, with watercolor as a tool. Perfect for me who wanted to practice watercoloring but never take the initiative myself. Then we got a few hours to build a 3D structure inspired by the pattern. I also spent a bit of spare time to paint at home. I'm still a beginner in watercoloring but practice makes perfect.
Project 2
Project 2 was short but intense, not as tiresome as the previous but still a difficult task to solve, and I wasn't looking forward to do it. The task was to make an extension of the Great Church in the Old Town. 1. How the hell do you do an extension of a medieval church, without it looking brutally unfitting? 2. The church has been rebuilt several times since the 1200s and has no precise drawings, which meant we had to measure out everything ourselves, and I should add that it's crooked and uneven in all directions. 3. The spiritual and religious is not my thing. 4. Not the constructional either. But as an architect, I will not always get assignments I like, so I just had to bite the bullet and do it, and it went well in the end. Looking forward to the next project!
Project 1, year 2
It's been two days since I finished the project and that's also the time it has taken me to recover myself and all my lost sleep, and mentally return to normal life. We got very little time for such a big project as a whole fire station. The whole project with all research and studies has been going on for a long time, but I got barely three weeks to design my own fire station. You have no idea how little time that is. But wow, I have done and learned so much, I am so proud of myself! The presentation in front of teachers and critics also went better than expected.
Working with this from waking up until going to bed sure makes you a bit mentally disturbed. I had the fire station in my head when I sat om the train, when I went to the bathroom, when I was dreaming. Not to mention how weird my brain got without any sleep the last two days. It wasn't until I handed in the project that I realized that I have had the same t-shirt on me for three days (worked at home since I've been sick). It was like waking up from a hypnosis.
I'm so glad it's over but since I've been so into it, it's a bit hard to let go of it. I have thought of every corner of this building and imagined what happens inside it, and then - nothing. But one day, aBd... It's so fun to work with this, the only thing that makes it tough is the time pressure and stress. Apart from it, this is the best profession in the world according to me and I was made for this and nothing else, and I get more convinced about that for every project!
Drawings
When I'm feeling restless during lectures, or when I just get the urge to draw something but can't find anything else but marker pens to use. Everything works fine when you're feeling creative.
School of Architecture B&W
Some of what I have been up to in school lately. In black and white.
School of Architecture
History of architecture, engineering and representation, this is what we have been doing the last weeks. Although the first project has not started, it has been pretty intense in school with shorter tasks that take up much of my time. This week we have been working with the 3D software Rhino. Time to learn that too.
This is an example of how it looks. I played with it a bit during the lecture and it feels like I'm getting a hold of it. It's easier to learn a new program, the more programs you already know. I will try to do my next project in 3D.
What we're doing now is however more fun than what we were doing last week in technology. I prayed for that week to be over as soon as possible. It's really hard to do something when you don't have a clue about what the hell you are doing. But I am learning... Hopefully.
During Technology Week this giant moved into my bookcase. A very much needed "handbook" (I can barely lift it, but okay) with all about construction and how to draw it. In other words, all I need to learn... *Sigh*.
During Technology Week this giant moved into my bookcase. A very much needed "handbook" (I can barely lift it, but okay) with all about construction and how to draw it. In other words, all I need to learn... *Sigh*.
Project 3 - Done!
Project 3 is completed! The last part of this project focused on construction and on Friday we had our last presentation. I held my presentation two times since a constructor from England along with all the teachers selected about ten projects of hundred to bring up and talk about in front of the whole class. I begged for mine not to be one of them, but as usual it turnes out the way you didn't ask for. I was really nervous, I must admit. I have no problem talking about my project in front of others, but to present it in English in front of hundreds of people and all the teachers on the front row, with a constructor who ask questions when I don't know all the technical terms in English, felt a bit worse. Once I stood up there I was, however, surprisingly calm, considering how nervous I was before. It went well in other words. And this time I feel no emptiness after a completed project, but rather relief to get rid of something that I've gotten tired of after six months. It's over now! Yey!
Some pictures of the construction model.
Work in progress
The update will probably stand still these days. I'm trying to finish my first year, there are only two weeks left and I have so much to do. The work hasn't gone very smooth during these construction weeks. I get stuck all the time, I am behind my own schedule and the allergy/disease/orwhateveritis makes it hard for me to concentrate. I even had a little meltdown last week, it obviously couldn't go a whole year without it, haha. It happens sometimes that several troublesome elements gather under the wrong circumstances (for example, during my PMS) and then the last straw makes you go crazy, like when you make a clumsy mistake and can't blame anyone but yourself. At that moment I just felt like going into the bathroom to ventilate on my own way - by crying a bit. Who comes in just when I wipe my tears if not my teacher who asks about how I feel, which is the worst thing anyone can ask in that state. "I'm just fine. Or okay... or... wuääää". God, how silly. But it felt better afterwards. The best thing she said after her pep talk was: "You're not in Afghanistan, it is not war. And you'll finish, if not in time then a week after." A very true sentence.
I finally started building my construction model. If someone asks what I have learned from this project my response would be never to design a skyscraper again, especially not one that is leaning. Maybe after a dozen years of work experience, but not before that.
Project 3
The project is not over yet, we will proceed with the construction technical part later, but a big part is finally done! I am very pleased with my project and feel that it is the best I've done so far. It is wonderful to feel a great development for each project. There are a lot of ideas and concept behind this project, a lot about social integration, but I won't go into it any deeper right now. Instead, it's time for me to get the project out of my mind and concentrate on packing for the trip! No time for recovery here. I have not had time to either think about the trip or be happy about it, much less about when, how and what to pack.
Touch the sky
Once again I have the feeling that I'm in over my head with a project. I know that once again I will stress to the end and still not finish everything I want to in time. Why am I doing this to myself? Why do I choose the biggest possible challenge? My first project was a four-story building with spinning floors, my second project was a luxury hotel and now I have chosen to make a... skyscraper! More exactly, two crossing skyscrapers. It will be a new landmark in Stockholm, a building higher than Kaknästornet, and it's a very fun project, except that I halfway realized how little time I have. Story of my life... But it is also the story of my life to always make it in the end. To the right you can see the shape of my building.
Art Week
This art week in school, the second and last of this year, we focused on sculpture, instead of drawing. IKEA sponsored our class with wooden chairs, and we were supposed to make them into something other than a chairs. Some sawed their chair into many pieces, some made experiments with their chairs, some did a little more "crazy" works of art, but most of it looked like chairs in the end anyway. I have never been much for woodwoek, but it has been fun to play around in the workshop and have a calmer week. I made this flag-like sculpture of the chair's side parts, don't ask me what it is since I don't know myself, but I like that it's colorful. Typical me.
The chair to the right I thought was very clever made. He who made it had to saw each piece in half, make them hollow to make them lighter and fill other parts with iron for the chair to maintain balance.
Another classmate asked us all to smear our butts in different colors and make our mark on the chair. You see me on the second picture, wiping my aZzZ.
This was also very clever made! It works the same as Ikea's toy "Sampo" (bottom left), when pushing the chair down it breaks into pieces and when released it stands up by itself!
BIG lights will inspire you
First day of school after a week's illness at home was not easy. But I think I have things under control again, if I'm not fooling myself. At five o'clock it was time for Bjarke Ingels, who is kind of a "super architect," to lecture at KTH's largest lecture hall. His architects Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has designed amazing buildings. He was also a very entertaining speaker, and I was as usual just as excited and reminded of why I love this, sitting and watching all the pictures. Here is an example of a building to be built in New York. Click on the link to see more from them, if you are interested (you are probably three people I guess, haha).
Random from school
One of the many lectures we have had recently. This was about Vision Stockholm 2030.
The game "Skyskapa" that my group made the second week after starting school in September. The task was to create 3D-games. It was a very fun week, we got to play a lot. Our game was also really fun!
Process photos from when I drew the large cardboard animals we built during the art week, if you remember. The drawings can be seen here and the big animals here . Wouldn't mind having another week like that one.
Last week we wrote manifestoes about future Stockholm and made manifest posters. It shouldn't be hard to guess which one is mine, I'm the only one silly enough to make hearts out of the metro system, haha.
Old notes from a lecture. It's supposed to be messy! I just wonder if I can read what I wrote.
Speaking of paper folded animals, earlier you could see some different animals on display at the entrance, including this rhinoceros.
Recently, we read books and wrote articles about them. I read Small Images, a book by a Japanese architect which is full of beautiful, small images - like the title says. Very interesting, Japanese people are crazy... And we are still fighting for a trip to Tokyo!
This is what I have been doing yesterday and today - I have measured and drawn our own apartment. It's a small task we got to train ourselves to perceive the size and scale of the drawing, and it is easiest to relate to our own homes.
I had forgotten how much fun it is to draw by hand. Screw the computers.
Last project
Last week we started with the third and last project in year 1. We will design homes for the year of 2051. Right now we are dealing with a lot of information gathering, problematization, analysis, discussion and so on. Unfortunately I am not the only one feeling unmotivated to do certain tasks, probably because we don't get to be as creativity as we are used to at the moment. However, I think the group discussions we have had has been very rewarding. I am lucky to be studying with these intelligent people who I can learn a lot from by just listening to their thoughts and opinions. I absorb everything like a sponge. I also try (when I don't fall asleep to say) to absorb all the interesting lectures we have now (if you only knew what amazing, inspiring and crazy buildings I see every day) but I've really missed to sit and work with my own projects. It's crazy how the projects suck every drop of energy from you and you can't wait to finish it, and then when you're done you miss it.
Another thing I thought of during all the discussions we have had is how much architecture is all about politics. In a larger scale, you can't talk about it without getting into politics. Future construction, urban planning, environmental management, planning permission - politics, politics, politics. People are surprised that I didn't study the nature or technology program in high school, but the social program. The funny thing is that we're talking more about society and politics than math and physics.
Speaking of politics, I also thought about that the most of us have very similar political views and position, at least according to my experiences. It's almost fascinating. It has not been a single hot political debate yet *disappointed*.
Workshop
Besides the lectures in technology, we have spent most of the week in the workshop. We have worked with different constructions and we have been building models in groups. Woodwork has never been my favorite thing, therefore I mostly played the role of the camerawoman. Nice week and a nice start after the break. Next week we will start with a new project that will continue the rest of the semester!
Back on track
Christmas break is over and this morning it was time to get back to the School of Architecture. Although I've missed the people I felt anything but alert this morning. But then, as always when I feel tired of it, someone or something at school reminds me of why I do this and why I love it. This morning the inspiration came from a funny, German lecturer who began the introduction to this week's workshop by introducing himself, talking about all the cities where he has studied and worked, and some of the projects he has done. And I sat there and thought "I want that too!"
My dreams are many and they are big, but that's the way it's supposed to be!
Project 2
I AM DONE! Project 2, which I have been working with for over a month, is finally finished! I'm very happy and feel so proud over myself every time I look at my hotel and think of how much effort it is behind it, behind all the details that some people will never even notice. But I know, and it's all worthwhile and worth all the late nights. Today I had my presentation and I must admit I was a little nervous because it was the first time we had guest critics who don't work at school. But it went well and I am super happy about the criticism!
I have learned many new things during this project, and I feel I have come a long way since the last one. Each project brings new experiences and lessons learned, and I am already looking forward to the next one! ... Although I could use a rehab before that.
This is what my presentation looked like. For 20 minutes you stand in front of about 20 students, some teachers and guest critics and talk about your project and receive criticism. I get a bit nervous, but it's not nearly as bad as I thought before I started at the school, haha.
From school
1. Study visit at the castle. 2. Lunch at Vapiano in Old Town. 3. My desk at school, with cookies as usual.
4. A break from work playing four in a row, which I kicked everybody's ass in, hehe. I actually had the highest rank in this game at blip.se once upon a time. Just for your information...
