CDP 2012 - Post Script

International Juror Prof. Don Gray's post CDP 2012 eight pointer to ponder;

1. CDP's lined up with the Dissertation: Would be better if can be done. 
2. Watch-out the 'extent' (ha, the length and breadth) of drawing display: Carefully 'edit' to preserve high-quality, potent substance and avoid repetition of information
3. Time for Research vs Time for Design: Carefully manage both and identify important aspect without allowing 'Paralysis by Analysis'!
4. Precedent Studies: Look for relevant precedents.
5. Using physical models to develop schemes: This is still and effective and powerful method as proven once again.
6. Presentation: Rehearse, prepare, appropriate techniques, effective speech training may be good for better design presentation.
7. Structural Resolution: Provide useful information to immediately understand the structural scheme and systems used in the designs.
8. Theatres on the top floor of buildings: 'Why?' this fascination. Rethink the strategy when locating theatres in buildings.  

This year the projects were of higher standards as compared to the last year according to a crit panellist who was there over the two previous years. 

silent action

...it's the spirit of the the age...!

Architecture for All...

උසස්‌ පෙළ කලා අංශයේ ප්‍රථමයාට සරසවි වරම් අහිමි වෙයි

නිලන්ත මදුරාවල

පසුගිය වසරේ අධ්‍යයන පොදු සහතික පත්‍ර උසස්‌ පෙළ විභාගයට කලා අංශයෙන් පෙනී සිට දිවයිනෙන්ම ප්‍රථම ස්‌ථානයට පත්වූ කෑගල්ල ශාන්ත ජෝශප් බාලිකා විදුහලේ සචින්තනී කෞෂල්‍යා ශිෂ්‍යාවට මොරටුව විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයට ඇතුළත් වීමට නොහැකි වීම නිසා මෙවර (2012) යළි විභාගයට පෙනී සිටියි.

එම විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයේ ගෘහ නිර්මාණ ශිල්පය හැදැරීම සඳහා සිසුවිය අපේක්‍ෂාවෙන් සිටි නමුත් ඇය පෙනී සිටි භූගෝල විද්‍යාව, චිත්‍ර හා සිවිල් තාක්‍ෂණය යන විෂය සංකලනය අනුව එම පාඨමාලාව හැදැරීම සඳහා ඇතුළත්වීමට නොහැකි වී ඇත.

සිංහල, සංස්‌කෘත හා පාලි වැනි විෂයයන්ගෙන් උසස්‌ පෙළට පෙනී සිටි සිසුන්ට පවා ගෘහ නිර්මාණ ශිල්පය හැදැරීම සඳහා මොරටුව විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයට ඇතුළත් වීමට හැකි වුවත් එම පාඨමාලාවට සමීප විෂය ක්‍ෂේත්‍රයක්‌ වන සිවිල් තාක්‍ෂණය හැදැරුවකුට ඒ සඳහා ඇතුළත් වීමට නොහැකි වී ඇතැයි උසස්‌ අධ්‍යාපන ඇමැති එස්‌. බී. දිසානායක මහතා පැවසීය. මොරටුව විශ්වවිද්‍යාලයේ එම පාඨමාලාවට ඇතුළත් වීම සඳහා ප්‍රායෝගික පරීක්‍ෂණයකට පෙනී සිටිය යුතු යෑයිද සිසුවිය විභාගයට පෙනී සිටි සිවිල් තාක්‍ෂණ විෂය ප්‍රායෝගික පරීක්‍ෂණයට පෙනී සිටීම සඳහා සුදුසුකමක්‌ නොමැති බවද කී දිසානායක මහතා විවිධ පාඨමාලාවලට ඇතුළත් කර ගැනීම සඳහා ප්‍රායෝගික පරීක්‍ෂණයන්ට පෙනී සිටීමට සිදුවීම සිසුන්ට හිසරදයක්‌ මෙන්ම අසාධාරණයක්‌ බවද කීවේය.
 
as appeared in Divaina 16.05.12 


http://www.divaina.com/2012/05/16/news22.html

shutting down...

National Inventor of the Year - 2010

blind leading the blind...

for those who believe aromatherapy works in architectural education...

Architecture, unlike other arts, does not find its patterns in nature.

G.Samper, 1834 inaugural lecture, quoted in H.Samper, 1880, 7

What man makes nature cannot make. Nature does not build a house, nature does not make a locomotive, nature does not make a playground. They grow out of a desire to express.

Louis Kahn, 1969, quoted in Wurman, 75

We should not then be surprised that architects have been working with colours again for sometime now. But their spiritual and creative poverty, their total lack of plain humanity is, at best, depressing. Today colours serve only to disguise their incompetence...

Potlatich, F. 1954, 46

... architectural discourse that it too often imitates or caricatures the discourse of power, and that it suffers from the delusion that ‘objective’ knowledge of ‘reality’ can be attained by means of graphic representations...

Lefebvre, H. 1974

It becomes problematic when leaders continue to think that there's only one way of doing things, that the relationship is hierarchical, tat positions aren't constantly changing. It's always been the younger people who bring about change...

Eric Own Moss

find yourself where you started, when blind leading the blind...!

MDP 2011: Major Design Problem

MDP 2011: Notes

You see a disproportion between the vertical scale and the horizontal scale in most design schemes. In other words, most of the schemes look visually distorted. This visual disproportion is clearly evident in schemes with more than two floor levels and schemes that are dealing with double height or multiple height spaces.

What’s going on here?

At present most design schemes are drafted using CAD software using desktop computers or laptops. Here, all drafting is viewed through wide computer screens with different aspect ratios. The screen aspect ratio is the proportion between the screen height to its width.

At present you see screens that are with differing aspect ratios 4:3, 5:3, 16:9 and many more. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_display_standard )These are based on various standards in the computer industry.

For me the root of the problem seems to lie here.

When the drafting is viewed without ‘correcting’ the aspect ratio of the screen to give 1:1, the drawing content and everything that is viewed will naturally be with a definite visual distortion. In other words, if you draw a square, it will appear as a ‘rectangle’ and a rectangle standing up will appear as a ‘square’, a circle will be a ‘ellipse’ because the ‘visual height’ is reduced due to screen aspect ratio.

Often this visual impediment will go unnoticed at drafting stage because;

Students are unaware of the issue with the screen aspect ratio.

Often the drafting is done by someone other than the designer. Hence errors go undetected.

The final set of printouts are often the first time the designer gets to ‘see’ the ‘correct’ image without any distortion. It would be simply ‘too late’ to change anything at that stage due to deadlines and cost issues

The CAD drafted drawings go through a process of Photoshop image rendering and other presentation processes. Therefore, it would be practically impossible to make any changes once you have manipulated the drafted image for presentation.

Architecturally this is huge design problem. A series of final year design projects clearly shows a serious fault in their spatial and visual proportions.

The solution would be a simple one. That is to adjust your screen aspect ratio to give the images or drafted content, equal height: width visual ratio. In other words, adjust the screen so that the the user can see the ‘correct’ image as and when drafting is done.