blog post for april 16th

This is a MacBook Pro laptop, my laptop to be more precise.  When i think of modern things i think of something oozing with technology and filled with meaning and purpose multi functionality.  This Apple product is what I would consider to be a pinacle of modern design, sleek and elegant with a sort of sensuality among it giving an almost erotic feeling to the user that comes from the raw power and infinite amount of knowledge that can be obtained or manipulated from just a swipe of your finger or the punch of a key.  It is ascetically hideous to me yet beautiful in its purpose sort of the appeal of a dump truck an ugly lumbering mechanical beast but beautiful in its purposeful design.

Blog post for april 9th: good design for all

One such object comes to mind when thinking of good design for all and that object is dum dum dum A CAR!!!!  Yes the car, having evolved from the most simple of rotary engines to the now ever complexing collage of metal and electronics, is an object that I deem as being well designed for all persons.  The car can accommodate you weither you are short or tall, skinny or wide, and cars are now being designed or have been for almost a decade that can park themselves and soon will probably even be able to drive themselves with the help of global positioning satellites.  Oh the automotive industry is a world of change to better meet the needs and wants of those who would be using them.

reading response 12: Fall away sweet darlin'

Reading Response 11: Trapped like a rat in a box!

Unit summary 2

“The world changes” barks the raving politician.  “Does it really?” Questions the Architect.  The world is both if you look at it from a broader view than most will care to admit that they do.  If you just step back from your desk, computer, book, or whatever implement is currently occupying your attention you may come to realize that the world does evolve, more specifically architecture does evolve.  This like one of my other favorite arguments can be linked back to nature, does the world change yes it changes and then reverts after a certain amount of time to a previous state which is either a positive or a negative depending on your flavor.  We see in the world of architecture that there is a continuing growth of technology, design, and how those two things interact with each other to become a thing of beauty, sometimes completely by mistake. 

With changes in design come changes in almost everything that has something to do with design which is pretty much everything man made to this date there has always been a person who has taken a look a need,  or a want and who has designed a better way of making things work or make them work “better”.  Getting a little out there, back to the point I am making from our past weeks in class, CHANGE , IT IS EVERYWHERE AND IT IS EVERYTHING! That is the message that I am gather and or trying to convey from my observations in class.  We see the world of architecture constantly evolving from fad to the next and then several fads later reverting or taking extreme precedence from an older fad to bring a new life to it.  We are supposed to illicit change in our profession yet all we seem to do at times is copy from what we have seen in the past, or take tiny details and plaster them on a fake façade that doesn’t fit in the context of the space that you are trying design or the feel that you are trying to evoke from those that pass by.  Even the most radical designers or architects have taken some sort of inspiration from previous designs and or nature “COPYING!” and thus we come up with a new movement or age of design.  We as architects consistently come back to two main civilizations for inspiration or means of tracing those two are the Greeks and the Romans.

If you were to ask me what “art deco, or victorian styles are” I would blunt say to you that they are a Ford model T with a fresh paint job, there by stating that they are nothing new just a spruced up version of Greek Architecture or Roman.  Now I am not stating that there aren’t variances in all ages of architecture, rather I am stating that nothing is really new just a better way of doing something through evolution in both man and evolution in technology.  I will give Gothic its own little section of architecture because I simply adore the cathedrals, the contrast of light and dark, is such a beauty.