6.28.2005

big ideas in small packages




congratulations to Dave Sarti, (a former coworker from last summer's job at environmental works) on finishing his house! what an exciting and inspiring notion...maybe when i grow up i will design and build my own house too!...

6.23.2005

...

on another note, i just picked up my studio evaluation from last quarter somehow i managed to not only survive but get one of the better evaluations i've gotten in my time here. mind-boggling i tell you. a running theme in all of these evaluations "yamani seems less confident than her design work suggest she be" i'm not sure what to do about that except keep practicing. orcas was kewl...i'm a nerd because going to the top of mount consitution was by far my favorite part...besides seeing family of course. meanwhile, furniture design has begun...whoa nelly. the ass-kicking has commenced. models due on the first day of class and everyday thereafter for the next 2 days? dude. WTF. i haven't even had time to process comments from each day. particularly with trying to work...yeah 2 jobs now one quite flexible, architecture related and both fun and frustrating b/c i don't know what i'm doing and one non architecture related but involves community assistance out in my student/family residential community and getting free rent! (in other words i'm LOCO) to sum up, i'm doing the same thing i always do, not taking a break, not allowing any time for rest and taking on WAY too much. i was at this point a few months ago when my body shut down and unleashed that $1400.00 tonsil situation...so on august 20th i just might collapse and sleep for the entire 6 weeks until fall starts. my tuesday night theory class with JenDee looks quite promising...

studio 804

this seems to be a really exciting design build program in kansas. i read about this while reading john hill's article in ten by ten about dan rockhill. not that i would want to be in lawrence kansas but i really wish i had researched this design build thing a little more thoroughly a few years ago. there seem to be a lot of exciting design build programs at schools around the country. too bad UW seems to have really started to marginalize this part of their curriculum. it seems steve badanes who's amazing but also close to retirement (i'd add a link to his bio on the UW architecture website but that website is so atrocious and dated that i refuse to direct people to it) is like the lone soldier pioneering this cause. which really sucks. a lot of students come here specifically for that experience but it seems to whiddled away and there's not much of an effort to rebuild. but that's just my little opinion...obviously they are doing a lot with this Yakima design build thing which which is a collaboration with folks in landscape and the revered pyatok.

6.20.2005


Extreme Home Makeover UW style (build a house in 10 weekends)

This upcoming weekend 6.25-27.05, UW Architecture students (and anyone else who wants to help out!) will commence the building process of the single family residence for a family in Yakima Valley. some of the people working their butts off on this all quarter are close friends. i think its awesome work to design and build a place for a family that really needs it. i plan to get out there at least weekend a month to help out...i'll try to post the schedule...in case you want to too!

6.13.2005

tollbooth gallery

in my inbox this morning:

The Tollbooth Gallery will be putting together some ex-stallation projects involving architecture students or recent graduates. This project we hope, will dialog the merging between architecture and contemporary art. Additionally, it would be a great opportunity for experimentation of forms and concepts. Selected participants would build off of the Tollbooth structure in conjunction with videos and paper works from well-know artists.

Tollbooth Gallery seeks architects / designers interested in creating ex-stallations. Works should be in response to the Tollbooth structure, as well as any ongoing exhibitions. The Tollbooth Gallery is the worlds smallest gallery dedicated to experimental video and wheat pasted paper fine arts. Interested applicants please contact karen@artrod.org. No Deadline.

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm......fun maybe i can come up with something.

6.09.2005

Community | Architexts

Yay! they FINALLY got a website! i interned with them for a like a month or so 5-6 yrs ago...working on the early stages of this project. they are definitely one of my examples of the kind of work i could see myself doing. i was younger, and even less clear than i am now about where i was going with this interdisciplinary thing so i don't think it turned out to be a mutually beneficial experience but i have kept them on my radar...and wished it had been more or that i could somehow get back involved.

anyway, i'm contemplating coming up with an echoing green application to start a public art/architecture/service/advocacy org like some of the ones i've mentioned in previous posts but with a 'twist'....but there's always the dilemma, what's the best use of your energy? do you start something new, or join the efforts of something existing.

2 chicago related posts in one day. my roots must me calling me...

CHAOS

i've seen this on two different blogs now. being a native chicagoan, i can't emphasize enough the IMMENSE satisfaction i get from seeing this organized widespread appropriation of exisiting Chicago Housing Authority ads to counter and criticize the their plans for "transformation" which is the bigges euphemism i've ever heard. those not from chicago or not up on public housing history...should know that there was about 30 straight blocks of public housing approaching downtown from the black, i mean, south side of chicago about half of which was high-rises. in 1997 when i was doing public allies, and working in the grand boulevard/bronzeville area in stateway gardens community doing youth development, organizer training at centers for new horizons , small business development training through mid-south planning and development and WSEP and supposedly doing public health education as a part of our team 'service project' i came to love this community and this issue struck me deeply. it was really heating up even back then. we were trying to figure out how to extend the scope of our "public health" project to include housing voucher education and tenant advocacy. right before i left 2 years ago 90% of these buildings were completely razed. i've been back about 4 times since 2003 and everytime, i'm speechless and damn near brought to tears when i see the vast expanses of vacant land and all the corny ass supposed "less dense" 'mixed-income' development planned. WHERE ARE THE PEOPLE??? where did they go? i would get freaked out back then when i would run into a family in one of the eleven homeless shelters i was working in that i had just met at Stateway weeks or months before...now i can't imagine where all of them are. this is pure Chaos indeed. my experiences in homeless shelters and public housing were a large impetus in my interests in architecture...wanting to design truly affordable well designed housing for the people who need it most. but i'm getting to the end of architecture school and it sometimes just seems plain frivolous. advocacy and organizing seem to be more of a vehicle to solving this problem than architecture. there are so many emergency housing needs that architects are doing nothing en mass to address. there's no doubt, that having such concentrated spanses of public housing and the condition that it was in was extremely problematic but just whole scale destruction of people's homes, history...lives...that is just wrong.

6.06.2005

architecture + cobbling=cydwoq

this is what happens when architects design shoes =). these are my recent frivolous preoccupation. if only my level of employment sustained this level of shopping...but ebay is really a beautiful thing. a couple months ago i found a new, never worn pair for like a third of the $.

2more days till freedom (from finals,19 credits and a quarter from hell) and perhaps a more regular posting schedule.

4 more days till beaux arts ball.

and next week? catch me on orcas island baby!