m.arch in a strange land

Week 59

I have been told I have a very businesslike demeanour in studio, maybe not once you get to know me, (I am actually a pretty big softy) but on the onset I try to give off that impression without even thinking it sometimes, maybe because I want to excel or try to avoid drama. I’m almost ashamed to admit but on more than one occasion I have said to myself “you’re just going to focus on you work this time” and there is always a distance I try to keep with other students. However that never really pans out, and the more time you spend with people and the better you get to know them, they become your friends and even sometimes something like a family member.  

Well Steph has left for Japan. It was at a really weird time, that small amount of space between pens down and pin-up but we did get to spend some time together before she left and I got some time to say goodbye.

I especially like this photo, she looks like she is listening to what I am saying, but even if she wasn’t, she was pretending to, which is just as good.

Miss you roommate!  

Week 58

My final vertical studio at UBC SALA was an interesting one. There were obvious deficiencies as any initial offering of a course would unfold, the best part about it though, it was all done together.

I was quite upset the day of the final crit, up until right after my presentation. Our professor did not let us know the order until right before, which she had a reason for as she explained quickly to all of us; I remember something about not worrying about who goes where or something like that, either way I didn’t really buy it. But even in the few prior days before pens down, I was not happy with the amount of work I produced. The only explanation I have is there were a lot of other things other than studio which I was committed to do, T.A.ing, being a tech, blah, blah, I hate to make excuses but time just seem to get away from me, and some of my peers really turned it on and produced some great things I did not think they were capable of. Kudos to them, needless to say my wall was a bit scarce (I focused intently on a few drawings, but lacked a scope of drawings) c’est la vie.

I was scheduled to go last in the morning which I was happy about since we decisively had much better and well known crits in the morning session. However because some of my fellow students went long and the professor did not keep to her duty as time keeper, (sounds trite, but it is an important aspect of a design prof in a final crit. Am I wrong?) I was pushed to the afternoon, where my crits were our resident structural engineer and a recent grad of the school from 2ish years, and someone who was late who didn’t even see my presentation. What made it worse was after I was told we needed to break for lunch, and I would be going in the afternoon, we had a 45-minute talk with the morning crits, more than enough time for one more presentation in the morning (maybe it was 1/2 hour whatever I was pissed).

Anyway, all of this led to me being a bid of a princess that day, but whatever I worked my ass of this semester, so I presented, and it went well, they had points about things that I could have done, but I took it a different way, honestly I didn’t get anything from the crits I would have not gotten from my fellow students, which either speaks well for them or disparagingly of the crits. After the presentation the next student started to present and Avery handed me the notes he was taking for me. This is something the school does (assign students to take notes for others) which really helps as you cannot always process the entire conversation during a crit.

Needless to say all the bullshit of time and which crits for who melted away instantly, realising this was my last vertical studio with the same group of students I came in with and just a year ago suffered through Culture of Making with. Thanks for the perspective Avery.

I have probably written this many times but nothing bonds friends like the studio, the small group working on the same issues, there is a great safety in it, one that fades as I take on thesis and probably will not re emerge until I find a practice I feel a kin to, but one step at a time. It kind of feels like you’re faced with a lone battle, one large project you have to face alone, after having the benefit of fellow soldiers to watch your back.

Don’t get me wrong I am excited for thesis, it is just a bit sad to think that part of that shared acedmic studio experience is over.                        

Week 57

My students just had their final design exam for the Thinking by Design class and I think a good time was had by all. Everyone was told to bring a variety of materials and tools to manipulate the items they brought to the exam. They knew they had to create something but did not find out what until they sat down. The only rule was no internet, students were encouraged to talk and were allowed to make noise and trade an discuss, the class writing a biology exam beside us got really angry, sometimes the dremel motors and hammers were a bit too loud, but it was amazing to watch.

It was quite something to see 150 students confronted with a problem and try to solve it in three hours. This reminded me of Ryerson and the “sketches” I did in first year. Quite similar except were quite limited in which materials we could bring. I remember as we were all working away, I could over hear professors “now we’ll the real work” and other talking points, I didn’t really understand until much later on.

What I got from these sketches is that really anyone can produce anything with enough time (notwithstanding concept), and that great designers and thinkers think quickly, make a decision and go for it. Architecture and design is not simply ideation concept or analysis and synthesis.

If you have been following major architectural essays throughout the last year, you have read the architecture meltdown, architecture for the 99%, and other offspring articles that have been generated as a result. I enjoyed this latest article and a quote that accompanied it.

“If you focus on design, you can call yourself a designer, if you focus on the implementation of your design, you can call yourself an architect”

- Cameron Sinclair

Whether you have 3 hours or 3 years to produce something, it seems that focusing on the design of a thing is not enough anymore, but how something comes to fruition is the new architecture.

Week 56

As this last studio of my M.Arch journey winds down I am becoming increasingly aware of how I want to position myself in architecture. I realize my strengths, my weaknesses, what I am interested in and what I am not. This is really what I was hoping to get out of a masters education, and it seems to be materializing. It feels like the right head space to be in while solidifying my thoughts for thesis in September. It feels that way, whether it is or not is another matter entirely.

Throughout my education I have never excelled at directing the experience of architecture. I have an analytical mind, the majority of my first degree was technical, I do not mean it was lacking in history and theory, there was plenty of that. What I mean is that thinking of how someone feels in my spaces or impressionistically how spaces are experienced, has never been at the forefront of my process. There is often not enough time in an academic setting to get this level of design, but that is not really an excuse, when you know that is a weakness. I have always found the crits go well when you can take your jury of architects through your project an discuss your hypothesis, analysis and synthesis of your decision making that constitute your designs, and almost nothing could be said of how spaces feel except for renders done at the last moment as a proof rather than a design tool on its own. I did however have a crit last year where something was said that really stuck with me “Anything you do, it has to be compelling, you can through all the process in the world, but if it is not compelling, that it is irrelevant.

I am getting in to all of this because I have got that stage in my studio project where my thinking has lead to a building that is functioning, understandable, been edited after that too far designing moment and still working with my concept stage. If I am lucky I get to this stage just as I am about to present, but somehow I have managed to get to the stage with 3-4 weeks left in the semester and none of this thinking dawned on me until my prof asked quite simply “what are your spaces like?” and I had no answer.

This bothered me for three days straight, because I had no system of designing this way, no approach to solving this quite indispensable question of architecture. Which in an academic studio is one thing, but in the world with clients and money and contractors where people have to live with this thing, is quite another. Architecture and everything else for that matter has a experience associated with it, whether it has been done purposely or not.

I wish I could say I had a eureka moment, where the heavens opened and instantly knew how to design experience by reading a passage from Zumthor (which I did try). However for the last few weeks I did explore how intensity and amount of light play a role in my building, which did not even come up in the final crit of course. But it felt like a huge learning experience and at the very least I realized how much I still do not know about architecture.

Week 55

If we accept that the UBC SALA curriculum will stay as is for the time being, after 5 studios students are required to take on a masters thesis. The following description can be found the SALA website

“The Graduation Project, consisting of ARCH 548 and ARCH 549, provides an opportunity for students in the professional M.Arch program to identify, delineate, and explore a topic of their choice leading to a proposal for a specific architectural project clearly situated in a fully articulated context. Students are required to demonstrate their ability to define an architectural project, to acknowledge the varied scales of resolution appropriate to the task, and to take responsibility for the management of the process to complete the project on schedule.”

As any student knows the little blurb describing the course usually have little to do with the methodology and spirit of the course itself, but it does give an object definition of what I will be doing next year.

It is quite interesting being a student going into GP 1 as we call it, everything about UBC SALA in terms of procedure is very controlled, we have meeting for the vertical studios where everyone hands in a ballot in a well ordered manner, multiple emails go out once a day to remind us of events and goings on in the school, professors in our studios email us and remind us things to see and projects to look at. But after your last studio you are kind of left in no man’s land. To me the thinking runs parallel to setting up your own project, being responsible for your last year. No emails are ever sent out regarding time to get a mentor or set up your committee, professors never (rarely) ask students what they are doing for their last year, only if a student brings it up. It feels like the seedy underbelly of UBC SALA. Vague emails have to be sent asking to have a meeting outside of normal schedules; it is always a bit uneasy, you do not want to tip your hand, but want to learn as much as you can from others.

The students always have some small cloudy idea of an area they want to look into if they are lucky, and the professors have to decide on if and how many students they would like/have to take on (at no extra benefit besides the work itself). Without fail about halfway through every semester student’s start to whisper and talk about possibilities and professors, “Have you talked to anyone yet?” “Yeah, I heard he is full” I am not any better mind you; I saw how things are early on and have got things going. Perhaps I am a bit too worried about it all; some of my fellow students have a very relaxed attitude to the whole thing, but either way, it is a very weird transition into the final year, but on a positive note one that adds a bit of drama and mystic to my final masters thesis.

(I still get chills saying that)

Week 54

Another issue that is happening in and around reading week is that UBC SALA is going through the accreditation process. A team of practitioners, professors and other representatives have descended upon us, taken over our reading room and are going through everything with a fine tooth comb.

Which is both good and bad. Since the last time the school went through accreditation (5 years ago) a lot has changed and shifted from original intensions. It seems the Culture of Making studio never really solidified its place as the comprehensive studio the school needs or the Density Housing studio we all just went through, perhaps housing is already too loaded as an area of study to add comprehensive components to. But either way me and my cohort have gone through two comprehensive studios and we are ready to be done with all that.

We had a Q & A session with the accreditation team with the benefit of having no professors in the roof and I was quite surprised at how my fellow students want to take the conversation. I really question as to whether people actually know what it means to be a professional accredited school or architecture and what entails for the curriculum. A small number but some students feel constrained by the inflexibility of architecture school to develop their own ideas and pursue interests. While this may or may not be true, (I am definitely not the best person to judge this, since I have only ever studied architecture) it is not only a UBC SALA problem. It is a problem of all architecture curriculum; studio, theory, history, tech, professional, etc, this is how architecture schools are organized. Luckily other students feel the opposite way that they have more than enough freedom to explore, our many international programs are testament to that, which I certainly agree with.

An official report will be released sometime this summer, I am very curious to see the results. 

Week 53

By the stack of my paper on my desk, you can tell it is reading week. I have never spent a reading week actually reading, and I suspect I will hardy make a dent in this pile.

In nine years of education this has easily been the busiest semester ever, it has been a rush, and everything has suffered a little, but I have been taking on a ton of things and ideas that will help with my thesis and years beyond, not to mention that I will only have my thesis and T.A.ing which will be a definite change of pace compared to this semester.

Having to assign grades to my peers is a very weird process and one aspect of T.A.ing I do not like doing. I can understand how some professors distance themselves personally so you do not let emotion or subjective judgements cloud academic conduct. However, like so much of architecture, grades do not mean a thing (per say) and perhaps I need to think of it as just a minor aspect of the process. Regardless I need to go through stack on my reading week to catch up…

I was asked before if I ever feel “on the ball” when it comes to architecture school. I can confidently say no.  If you ever feel like you have total control over all your classes, then you are not designing, researching and investigating enough.

week 52

When it comes to architecture (or anything else for that matter) my roommate and I hardly agree on anything, we have both been studying for a long time and are looking to get specific things out of our education. There is a mutual respect for everything that each of us are engaged in and accomplished. With such a thirst for architectural experience we tend to butt heads from everything to our professors and classes to entire careers and approach towards design. This comes as no surprise to people who know me in the program but for all intensive purpose, she is a sister to me. This valentine I received was a very nice sentiment.

In a month’s time she will be traveling to Japan to study abroad for the summer, I couldn’t be happier for her and sad she is leaving for the summer. But I know it will be the best for her education and I need to learn to cook on my own.

Coming to Vancouver a year and some months ago was the scariest thing I had ever done, moving across the country, leaving all my family and friends for this adventure you have been reading about. But I took solace in the fact that there was one person I knew who got accepted into the program as well as me. This honestly made all the difference in the world to me in the first initial weeks, and still does on daily basis.

We have different ideologies when it comes to directions of architecture, and that is all right. You learn more from your peers in architecture school than any professor, and someone who challenges you is a rare and wonderful thing.

EDIT:

It occurred to me today that I broke a fundamental rule that I set out for myself when I came to do my M.Arch some time ago. Shame on me for letting it happen twice.

Week 51

I have taken on way more than I can handle this semester; comprehensive studio, one seminar, one core course, two T.A. jobs (totalling over 16 hours a week), laser tech and archus stuff (student society). I am doing my best to keep a brave face, but it is affecting me. I can see it and others close to me have told me as well. I have been angry, angrier than I have ever been while at school.

Not at anything or anyone in particular, it just seems like I never have time. I am always telling people ‘I don’t have time’. Not enough time to take my projects where I want to take them, not enough time to research. Just not enough time. Not even enough time for tumblr, and those who know me, know that is me being busy.

Anyway I am feeling better now, a few weeks later. But while I was in this rage, Cassandra visited. She is thinking about UBC for advanced studies and she wanted to come and check out the program. I was happy to put her up for a few days as she explored and snowboarded. We had dinner a few time, but again, I felt like I had no time to spend time with my first visiting friend from Ontario.

A wonderful gift was given to me towards the end of her trip, and the anger has just melted away (for the most part, a little rage is a good thing). It was just a nice reminder that there are people rooting for you out there. Cass I hope you decide to come back to Vancouver permanently, and I will choke down some of the hottest food you can find when you come back.

Week 50

Aside from the infamous housing studio, one really great thing that is happening this semester is the T.A. ing I am getting to part take in. It almost feels like I am running a studio.

The students have a lecture once a week of 1.5 hours then a 2.5 hours tutorial session in which we discuss the projects in a typical pin up fashion. Some students have really taken to it, and some are really not. Which is expected I guess, it is not a required class so students are taking it as an elective, and there is quite a range of effort being put into it.

I hope the students are getting a lot out of it. I am certainly putting as much energy as I can into it, but I am incredibly busy this semester, busier than I have ever been.

I have said on more than one occasion on here that I really want to teach architecture in the future, sometimes I think more than actually designing but that is for another entry. Either way I look forward every Wednesday to my two tutorial sessions.