Structure vs Skin system
PRACTICE #1
Tower
GOAL:
Explore steel structure and skin systems. Form and circulation.
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The tower was my first project at Cal Poly, and I fucked up.
Unfamiliar with the imperial system, I accidentally made a mini-version of the required scale...
You literally did THAT?
Unaware of my mistake, I took my baby tower to the studio next day. A girl next to me scorned and said,
"You literally did THAT?"
I ran to my professor Nadeem before class began.
"Nadeem, something horrible happened." I gasped.
Nadeem looked afar and mumbled,
"Your model fell on the floor?"
"No, I fucked up the scale."
He turned around and grinned.
"Nah, you'll get used to it after a while."
Both haunted and motivated by the girl's words, I went back home and stayed up all night to come up with this project which was later selected during the parti.
Hand Drawing vs Virtual Design
Professors among Cal Poly were debating if digital design tools such as Revit and Rhino were taking student's creativity away. To ensure our free hand skill is intact, they required everyone to do a in-scale section drawing of the tower for our first exercise.
I have always find sketching more liberating when it comes to depicting an image I have in mind. However, with the help of Revit, all drawings (floor plan, section, facade) are in sync and come together effortlessly-- Instead of looking at each one of the drawings as individuals, Revit has reminded me that these drawings where meant to portray one single object.
Therefore I would say, familiarity and practice decides wether we are the Master or the Servant of the tool.
