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."

unit two [reverberations] 140 statements

i've pulled all of the summary statements for the six weeks of unit two here...be sure to consult the comments from unit one summaries as you make these summaries for unit two.

week 05 : eyes dance across surface, music enfolds, light washes from above. worship spaces stand as tangible expressions of faith in glass and stone.

week 06 : the first millennium ends, the modern world map unfolds: we see more enlightened places + people than previous notions of the “dark ages.”

week 07 : making rules to break with gothic ideas and re-link to the ancients of the western world : observing continuities with the past in the east.

week 08 : as western rules made + written, designers work across genre + scale to bend + break them; eastern designers maintain a continuous approach.

week 09 : colonial expansion brings ideas + people around the world. in these encounters, emulation and maintaining difference both become important.

week 10 : architecture and design obscure significant political, social, and cultural change brought by revolution and invention throughout the world.

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.

sketch : photo : blog

on wednesday, we gathered in the alumni house for a special presentation linked to the honor's college FOOD FOR THOUGHT series. during that session, i presented drawings in five of my sketchbooks to students. in addition to looking at florence through my own lens, i asked fourth year students, REBECCA LADD and DANIELLE WAYE, to also share their views of florence.

rebecca's gorgeous blog and danielle's beautiful photography certainly showed all in attendance the importance of recording and remembering the places we visit.

chair card showdown

our chair card czar, brian peck, prepared this "throwdown" for students in iar221 today.

working to gain a bonus point for their groups by identifying the four chairs in question, brian called forward top chair card students laura belding, tereasa douglas, claire drug, matt wallace, monica clendenin, cat wilson, + april johnson (some pictured here) to identify the chairs on the screen.

week 5 in 140

image from : http://www.nriinternet.com/NRIhindu/MALAYSIA/Malaysia-demolshing_Hindu_Temples/Malaysian_Mariamman_Temple_1.JPG

eyes dance across surface, music enfolds, light washes from above. worship spaces stand as tangible expressions of faith in glass and stone.

campus walk : 03 february 2012

as we considered circles + axes from class this week, we took to the walks of campus to observe them in our everyday environment. lane ellison's funky photo shows us as we conclude the field session in the undercroft of the music building. just as he looked through his lens, we looked around and recorded our thoughts. in sum: rome is still very much with us.

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.

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.

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.