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Posted by Tess |

I'm in Berkeley at the moment for a mini-vacation of sorts. This particular day was set aside as a lazy day so I've treated myself to reading by the poolside and doing a bit of swimming and... well that's about it. I've just finished the second book of Terry Brooks High Druid of Shannara Triology. I thought I had the third one so that I could finish the triology up before heading home, but alas I grabbed the wrong book. At least it's the first book of a different trilogy, so I won't feel completely disjointed should I decide that I don't mind switching between eras in the Shannara realm of things.

I haven't done as much reading as I thought I might be doing this summer, but the books that I have plowed through so far have been quite a trip. Buckminster Fuller's (the guy that made the geodesic dome popular) Critical Path presented an a lot eye-opening ideas about sustainability, technology, and why Spaceship Earth carries 6 billion (4 billion at the time the book was written) billionaires who don't realize their wealth. Of course you can label and dismiss the adoption of all Bucky's ideas a utopia, but you can't discount that fact there is a lot to be learned and borrowed from the amazing things this man presented in his lifetime. Also while reading this book I kept thinking how his philosophy, even though based on the service of ALL mankind rather than oneself, seemed to resonate so well with many of Ayn Rand's Objectivist philosophy, since the both paint a picture of a possible world where creativity and ingenuity flourish and are rewarded. Then again, many utopias paint that kind of picture. This also leads me to think that on the surface, each utopia isn't that different, it's just in the details that you find that each just require specific types of people. That's where the realization of these ideas runs into trouble. Either there's a problem finding enough people to fit the profile or other issues seem to get into the way; call it human nature, upbringing, ambition, or whatever else you wish.

I've also been trying to get some Russian into my blonde nogin. With Rosetta Stone and somewhat successful speaking attempts, I'm making some progress. I'm also interning at an architecture firm, where I'm learning how much paperwork goes into a building. It's quite funnily impressive how detailed instructions get in the specifications for the building things. Care for some light reading on how exactly cardboard is supposed to be disposed of on a job site?

But for now, I'm going back to vegging and maybe starting that other Terry Brook's book if daytime television fails to satisfy.

Labels: Ayn Rand, berkeley, books, Buckminster Fuller, reading, Russian, summer, Terry Brooks

Posted by Tess |

There's a bit of a gap of information since I haven't reported in since March. And there's a lot to say about shtaplers, monopoles, and chip board. But, it's summer already so I'll some pictures do the talking. Here are some pics from architecture and some pictures from summer so far. :)

Posted by Tess |

:)

Posted by Tess |

This was my clay wall. But it was too blah.

So I mashed it and cut it and threw paper and chip board boxes at it until I got this.

What a mess.
But a fun mess at that.I promise, it makes much more sense on Sketchup.

We'll see what happens. 0.o

Labels: 4.111, boxes, models, photos, projects

Posted by Tess |

So, in that architecture class that I'm taking (4.111 - Intro. to Architecture Studio, see studio above) we've begun building models for our first project - building a reading and writing space in a 10' x 16' x 2' wall where a lush meadow meets a calm beach. The material we are "using" to create these spaces in the "heavy" wall is thick insulating foam wedged between two planks of plywood, so it's very rigid and planar. Here are my first four models:

Model #1:

Front (Beach side) - The reading space would be the more angular cut in the 2' wall (right now everything is in chip board so it is a bit hard to tell what is the "wall" and what the added components are, so just trust me on what I tell you.) so the person can recline. And the writing place is the platform where the person can sit on the seat cut into the wall or sit on the platform itself. This design really didn't fit the project goals. Instead of creating a place to enjoy the outdoors if was more like a house and a unnecessarily big one at that.

Here's the open back (meadow side).

Model #2:

This is my transition model. It doesn't look pretty and it doesn't look terribly coherent, but at least I started thinking more about using the wall for creating my spaces.


From the front (to the left) you see the writing area with a cut in the wall so that a person can either is with a desk built to be infront or recline into the wall.


From the back you can see the reading space which is accessible by a ladder that leads up to a little room (one that you can just crawl around in but not stand) with a window that overlooks the meadow.

Model #3:

Here's where I begin to get a bearing on the concept of my design. I started using graph paper to fold identical boxes and then placed those boxes within the wall. Each box is average out to be about 6' x 3.5' x 3' (life size scale, this model is at 1/2 scale so 1/2'' = 1 ft.)


From the back (meadow side) you can see both the reading and writing places. The reading place is elevated and once again accessible via ladder. The person is also once again suppose to recline. The writing space, which opens up to the beach (I just didn't want to cut holes in the boxes in case I wanted to use them differently.)


From the front (beach side).


Model #4:

I made this model today after we had our in-class "pin up" (when everyone presents to their groups their current design and ideas). It's very similar to Model #3 just with more boxes, an additional cutout of the wall, and no ladders.


From the back there is a block to hop onto to get into the reading space (elevated once again, and once again I haven't put holes in the boxes where they will go in the final model). There is also the entrance to the writing area which will be a seat in the wall that can be hopped over to access the beach. Lots of hopping and climbing in this one, like climbing boulders at a rocky beach. The third hole in the wall is intended for direct access to the beach, to add yet another place to sit, and to make it a bit easier to climb up to the reading area if one is not up to climbing up 3'.


From the beach side we see the other half of the writing area set on top of another box that acts as a patio and a way to access the beach.


And from above:


That's as far as I've gone so far. I'll post the Google SketchUp version once I have that in the works around next week.

Gotta go study for by 18.03 and 8.022 exams for this week. Ciao!

Labels: 4.111, boxes, MIT, models, photos, projects

Posted by Tess |

- this title refers to either my on going conundrum of whether I'm destined to be a physics or architecture major or the fact that I'm totally procrastinating because I'm writing this instead of practicing my bass.

Regarding the physics vs. architecture conundrum:
So it turns out that majors have a lot of required classes, so many to the point that it would be quite difficult to double major. Technically (in the very technical sense) it is possible as are most things, but I'm pretty sure that I don't want to put myself through the 6 typical sophomore requirements of architecture and the 4 typical sophomore requirements of physics. That's already a more than hefty load which would leave absolutely no room to take Russian or 18.06 *cough* linear algebra *cough*!

Speaking of Russian classes. I went to Russia this winter with my (several loving adjectives) boyfriend. See the pictorial proof of my presence near Red Square below:


I would have to use a triple integral to sum up how much fun this trip was. To save the sanity of any math-phobic persons reading this I will poorly sum it up in a few words: BEST TRIP EVER.

Getting back to physics and architecture, I happen to be taking a physics course (8.022 - Physics II - E&M, with a bit more emphasis on yelling at math) and an architecture course (4.111 - Intro. to Architecture Studio - don't know enough yet to joke about this course but I'll let you know when I do), which should help to give me a better idea of where I'm going with my academics.

Now regarding, the procrastinating...

which we can totally get to later....

I mean, there's no rush, so I might as well spend some time clicking around facebook, pacing the halls of my dorm, and other avoidance techniques...

I'm sorry what were we talking about? Oh, that's right procrastinating practicing my bass. Well, you see this so happens to be a three day weekend and this practicing bass stuff is actually quite a daunting task.

Let me explain.

I just auditioned into MITSO (MIT Symphony Orchestra), which I am totally excited about. It's been really fun playing music with others again. We're currently practicing for our March 13th concert (in the Kresge Theater on campus at 8pm, for Boston bound and bounded folks) which will consist of Nielsen's Sinfonia Expansiva, Haydn's No. 102 Symphony (It always amazes me how many symphonies that guy wrote!), and John Harbison's (MIT prof.) Canonical American Songbook. All amazing songs and all of them I really really really need to practice so that I can actually play them. I've been playing upright bass and classical music for about a year now and still have quite a ways to go before this orchestra stuff gets more easily managable. Meanwhile, I really should go practice.

Anyway, enough with this typing! I must go and stare at dots and squiggles and try and make sense of them while moving my hands around a very large hollowed out piece of wood.

Happy 3 day weekend to those of you that have it.

Posted by Tess |