final blog post (for 27 apr 12)

taking up the theme of a design autobiography, select an OBJECT, a SPACE, a BUILDING, and a PLACE, each of which encapsulate your own design sensibilities.  for each image you include (and there should be a total of four), provide a substantive annotation that connects the selected artifact to your world.  make explicit connections to your understandings of design as it has unfolded during the course of this semester.

blog post for 16 april 2012

select an object, space, building, or place that you believe to be modern and explain why this might be the case. illustrate your blog post with your selected artifact.

blog post for 09 apr 2012

in light of our discussion in class this week, select and analyze an object, space, building, or place that embodies the idea of "good design for all."

blog post for 02 april 2012

considering the idea of style + substance introduced in class, analyze a present-day object, space, building, and place. link your exploration to your understanding of the rise of modernism in architecture + design. why do you think it was so important for people by the beginning of the twentieth century to be working so hard to be modern?

blog post for 26 march 2012

select a designed object in your everyday world that you believe carries messages of revolution. like the dollar bill, deconstruct the design elements of the object and illustrate them on your blog, so that a reader might make sense of your thinking. you must explicitly state why the object you selected is revolutionary as well as supply the design analysis to suggest validity for that assessment.

architecture (or design) parlent

provide a present-day example of an object, space, building, or place that speaks a particular language. explain the language that you see, using the evidence in the visual image you provide.

blog post for 06 feb 2012

of all the spaces we visited on campus during the field visit on friday, 03 february 2012, justify the single space or moment where you believe commodity, firmness, and delight are at their highest achievement. use details about materials, light, color, experience, and understanding of the principles + elements of design in your response. in that we understand circles (and their corresponding 3D forms) as marking sacred spots, explain whether or not the space or moment you selected achieves this approach to design. in other words, does the space or moment mark something of significance or value in our understanding of the campus and who we are as a university? as a final gesture of connection and understanding, dial on to the designcosmology blog and look at the many posts of 2012 from your teaching assistants. make at least ONE meaningful connection from the single space or moment you selected and link back to the post on designcosmology blog.

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.

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.

blog post for friday, 29 april 2011

how does design influence you? taking the cue from patrick's top 10 presentation, select an object, a space, a building, and a place and write/visualize about them on your blog. you should carefully include four images and about 250 words of text to complete this entry.

blog post topic for monday, 18 april 2011

write about the importance of the legacy of scandinavian modern to design today. use a specific object, space, building, or place to center your argument.

blog post for 11 april 2011

select an object, space, building, or place and SPECULATE why the selected artifact represents "good design for all"

blog post for monday, 29 march 2011

select a designed object in your everyday world that you believe carries messages of revolution. like the dollar bill, deconstruct the design elements of the object and illustrate them on your blog, so that a reader might make sense of your thinking. you must explicitly state why the object you selected is revolutionary as well as supply the design analysis to suggest validity for that assessment.

blog post for monday, 21 march 2011

speculate on what do you believe to be the implications of colonial expansion on architecture + design. drawing an example from any time period, explain how an object, space, building, or place represents colonial expansion TO the united states. drawing an example from the present day, explain how an object, space, building, or place represents colonial expansion FROM the united states elsewhere. how does “language” fit into your analysis? recall the grammar + lexicon lessons from in-class work as you undertake this illustrated blog post.

blog post for 14 march 2011

the nautilus shell provides a metaphor for us to think about design as a series of episodes all strung together and riding atop our design consciousness. working with this idea, creatively fashion a nautilus “shell” of images and ideas, using at least three examples from three different time periods. the purpose of this shell-making is for you to demonstrate connections among more than one time period and across geographic space. carefully select and annotate images to provide breadth and depth to your hypothesis.

blog post for monday, 28 february 2011

debotton suggests that there is an architecture of happiness. what do you think it means to have an architecture of happiness? how does the idea of happiness tie to “rules” about architecture and design? profile a happy space and a happy place on campus, with knowledge from your experience and from the campus reconnaissance you undertook as groups. illustrate your blog post with an image of each, being careful to link the images to the idea of rules.

blog post 6 for monday, 21 february 2011

working from the ideas addressed in class and those you uncovered in the readings, take a position regarding whether the specific cathedrals you investigated in your discussion group in class today can be defined in terms of region. in that cathedrals represent both local and universal concerns, speculate a bit about how you can see expressions in design that address both the lofty ideals and the real circumstances of construction in their context. finally, in dealing with the idea of buildings as maps, fashion a cognitive map that tells something of the medieval world from which the cathedrals have been drawn.

and for you, at no extra charge, an example of a meaningful annotation. PLEASE NOTE : your cognitive map should be an original idea based on your understanding of the medieval world as you have encountered it this week.

medieval citizens stayed bound within the limits of their understanding of their world. this ideal vision stood in opposition to the realities of medieval life, one shaped by the church and limited further by local governance. gothic cathedrals suggest key moments on this map (and many others like it) through scale and placement near the center of this idealized world.

blog post for monday, 07 february 2011

of all the spaces we visited on campus during the field visit on friday, 04 february 2011, justify the single space or moment where you believe commodity, firmness, and delight are at their highest achievement. use details about materials, light, color, experience, and understanding of the principles + elements of design in your response. in that we understand circles (and their corresponding 3D forms) as marking sacred spots, explain whether or not the space or moment you selected achieves this approach to design. in other words, does the space or moment mark something of significance or value in our understanding of the campus and who we are as a university?

blog post for monday, january 31, 2011

following the in-class exercise to compare the acropolis with the xianyang palace, take the collective ten ideas generated (space, power, experience, principles, precedent, site, order, scale, technology, surface) and apply them to the uncg campus. this post should contain at least one photograph, at least one diagram, and writing to support your thinking. label each idea by category and HYPOTHESIZE how each of these has been expressed in material form.

blog post for monday, 24 january 2011

report one image each for a circle, a grove, and a mountain (at least one must be a drawing for all majors, encouraged for non-majors); write about the use of the environment as a concretization of ritual and how an environment impacts ritual.