chair cards : team by team

[compilation image from chaircards.wordpress.com]

chair czar BRIAN PECK has requested the teaching assistants in the class to report their top four chairs in the group....the results have been posted on the chair cards blog.

buildings of rome featured in smithsonian magazine

[image from smithsonian magazine]

thanks to TOMMY LAMBETH, who passed this article along to me, we see history has relevance in the current age. SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE poses the query about the long-lasting power of roman buildings in this feature story...(it's about concrete).

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/The-Secrets-of-Ancient-Romes-Buildings.html?utm_source=smithsonianinsider&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=201112-insider

greece in the headlines for more than its debt

[image from nytimes]

someone slipped this news article under my office door in a VERY timely fashion. we JUST talked about the acropolis last week and this article indicates a way for architecture and design (in this instance, the acropolis) to make money for the country.

read more about it....

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/24/world/europe/debt-ridden-greece-turns-to-sacred-sites-for-cash.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=debt-ridden%20greece%20hopes%20ancient%20sites&st=cse

week three summary in 140

[a couple of sketches of the acropolis from a trip to athens in 2006]

the buildings atop the athens acropolis serve as archetypes for all western architecture + design; elsewhere, humans expand groves + stacks.

BEFORE & AFTER--

This is a mid-century modern renovation on a Bungalow style home in Austin, Texas. I thought it was fun to see how the stories of its 'past' are still ingrained in the bungalows new story. It keeps it great architectural features. And they have become even more highlighted by the new design elements.

http://www.designsponge.com/2012/01/before-after-modern-bungalow-renovation.html

when you need a little laugh...

ryan gosling meets architecture...and some very clever quips. do enjoy.

http://architectureryangosling.tumblr.com

acropolis + xianyang : blog post 3

using the sheet provided in class, take a position about whether the ACROPOLIS + the XIANYANG compare or contrast. provide design evidence for your position by considering space, power, experience, principles, precedent, site, scale, technology, surface, and order. use at least one sketch or diagram on your sheet.

design throughout time : groves

circles + groves + stacks are three pure forms that are prevalent throughout time in design.  they can be found in their singular form, but are most likely found paired with one or the other.  as we learned, groves represent groups of trees/people, reaching vertical.  this timeless form is shown a variety of ways, and used for both  structural and decorative purposes.  here are some examples of this basic form shown throughout time, by ways of the column:

egyptian columns

greek columns

italian renaissance columns

modern columns

futuristic columns

Penny for Your Thoughts

The U.S. penny has been around for hundreds of years, and just like architecture, the penny is a designed object. There have been many different looks to the penny that have each emphasized an important fact that the designer wanted to show case. For example:

 

The wheat penny was designed over 70 years ago and features 2 wheat stalks embracing the text in the center. The wheat, when combined with the curved text of "E.  Pluribus Unum", makes a complete circle, which we have learned in class provides importance and emphasis on what is in the center. This design wants to emphasize the worth and value of the penny first, and the place of origin second.

 

The Lincoln Memorial penny highlights Lincoln's life and service. It has a detailed image of his memorial, in which Lincoln is in the center. This memorial was dedicated to him for his work with freeing the slaves and changing our nation, and this is exactly what the designer of this penny wanted to do. This penny is the only one to feature an image of Lincoln on both sides of the penny. In fact, Lincoln was the only person to be depicted on both sides of a coin until 1999 when George Washington was on the New Jersey state quarter.

 This penny from Lincoln's Bicentennial collection pinpoints Lincoln's birth and early childhood in Kentucky by featuring a log cabin and his birth year, 1808. It was designed by Richard Masters and sculpted by Jim Licaretz and shows his humble beginning.

 

 This penny, also part of the Lincoln Bicentennial collection, was designed and sculpted by Charles Vickers. It shows Lincoln as a young boy, taking a break to study while chopping wood. This depicts Lincoln as being a model citizen and shows what he stood for.

 

This penny shows Lincoln as an adult in Springfield Illinois, standing next to the state capitol, which is where Lincoln started his professional life.  It was designed by Joel Iskowitz, who made Lincoln's scale so much larger than the one of the capitol to show Lincoln's grand impact in compared with the government.

This penny was the last of the Lincoln Bicentennial collection and features the White House, showing Lincoln's influence over the entire nation.

 

Design Food for Thought- Making the world a better place through using everyday material and objects

Have you ever heard of the saying, "One man's trash is another man's treasure"? As a designer, we can take objects and materials considered to some to be garbage and no longer usable and make into a piece of art, a structure, and a useable thing again. 

Below are some unbelievable facts about how much we as Americans waste a year... take a look!

"Americans represent 5% of the world’s population, but generate 30% of the world’s garbage."

"In a lifetime, the average American will personally throw away 600 times his or her body weight, which for an average adult would leave a legacy of 90,000 pounds of trash at the end of their lifetime."

"Of the garbage Americans throw out, half could be recycled, which is enough to fill a football stadium from top to bottom everyday."

In looking at American Waste facts, I want to emphasize the importance to recycle and reuse cardboard. Take a look at how much cardboard saves...

"Cardboard One ton of recycled cardboard saves:

•        390 kWh hours of electricity. •       46 gallons of oil. •         6.6 million Btu’s of energy. •       9 cubic yards of landfill space.

Cardboard and paper waste make up 41% of the municipal solid waste stream.

Recycling cardboard takes 24% less energy and produces 50% less sulfur dioxide than making cardboard from raw materials."

 As you can see, saving cardboard helps out in many ways. Recycling also....

 •  It saves money. •  It improves efficiency. •         It reduces energy use.

•        It reduces fuel use. •     It saves landfill space. •         It improves air quality. •   It  improves water quality. •    It reduces the rate of global warming

So what can we as designers make out of cardboard? How can we reuse and recycle this material to make something for someone else or our self? 

Here are somethings people have done with reusable/recyclable cardboard...

  To take a closer look below are the links as well as some more that are not shown. Hope this inspires you to take trash and make it a treasure!

http://www.greatinteriordesign.com/edge-cardboard-interior-in-greece/edge-cardboard-interior-in-greece/ 

http://architecturehomedesigns.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/interior-from-cardboard.jpg

http://www.designmena.com/inspiration/pictures-cardboard-office-interiors

http://inhabitat.com/the-pupa-pavilion-is-built-entirely-from-office-waste/

http://biosarch.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/cupwall-1.png?w=455&h=354

students.arch.utah.edu/courses/Arch4011/Recycling%20Facts1.pdf

   

exemplary work : reading response

take a look at beth lowder's dynamic and well-designed reading response. WOW!!

exemplary work : blog post

with this post, i highlight the exemplary work of cat wilson and her documentation of circles, groves, and stacks on the uncg campus. check out her blog!!

http://catherineleighdesign.blogspot.com/2012/01/circles-groves-stacks-blog-post-2.html

week two summary

circles, groves + stacks stand as humanity’s first elements + principles of design throughout a world populated by diverse human expression.

making history active

at the end of the second week of school.....and under the leadership of their teaching assistants...students in my history and theory class hit the streets to MAKE HISTORY ACTIVE. today, students searched for circles, groves, and stacks as basic design elements using the buildings on our campus.

week one summary

week one : looking in + outward, humans materially encounter the cosmos + construct inhabitable signs + symbols as objects, spaces, buildings + places.

lascaux archeology evidence yields new findings

as we delve into the objects, spaces, buildings, and places of the first human inhabitants on the planet, we visit quite a number of sites around the world. recent archaeological information sheds new light on the caves as LASCAUX, enclosures that i often equate with the first interior design. it turns out that the spiny ridges on the horses depicted in the famous cave drawings may be more documentary than we first assumed. new evidence indicates that horses with spiny ridges actually inhabited the area in and around the caves.

read more about it here...

http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/11/2011/a-question-of-style-reading-rock-art-using-art-history

image source: same website.

processional : reading response iii

Yet another example of a reading response. This simple version was done in Word, andexplores the primary function and human interaction with the

ancient architecture at Giza.

stonehenge : reading response ii

adapted from work completed by iarc history/theory course veteransJEN YANCEY+CATHERINE YOUNG, this stonehenge reading response offers yet another option for students in the current course to report on some of what they are seeing in our new textbook (A GLOBAL HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE) and in the ever faithful text (UNDERSTANDING ARCHITECTURE).

sources for images on this post :
http://celticmythpodshow.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/stonehenge-wallpaper-4.jpg http://crystalhatchlings.com/EasterEggs/Images/Stonehenge.jpg
http://www.viajesmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/stonehenge_closeup.jpg

heliopolis : reading response

in providing different kinds of reading responses, i drafted this hand-drawn READING RESPONSE on the KHUFU pyramid in egypt at giza.

stonehenge : reading response

i fashioned this simple slide show to give students in my history/theory of design course an opportunity to see an example of a reading comprehension. students work through the assigned readings for the course and select one particular object, space, building, or place in the reading and report on it. they are to include a title, concept, a minimum of three images, and writing to document their understanding of the assigned reading. here's my effort...

Examples for Design Autobiography 1

be creative-- clocks and phones are off limits!

blog post for 17 jan 2012

on your own blog, post an image of yourself along with a meaningful, well-designed object that tells something about you as a designer or an appreciator of design. also include an easily legible graphic of your name in the image. write a post about the object from both a cultural and sub-cultural point of view.

you must submit two physical copies of a 6x6" clear image for this assignment. you must also place your image on your blog along with your post. the physical copies are due friday, 13 january 2012 at 12noon. the digital post is due 17 january 2012 by 12noon.