Paraphrasing assignment (For ACADEMIC GIANT)

Three Museums –

The big idea talked about the new expansions on 3 different museums throughtout boston, created by Piano. The 3 Museums are; Museum of Fine Arts, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and The Fogg Art Museum. Each addition brings in something for the museum. What was common with all museums is that each was designed specifically with the sun because it was used to enhance the art inside the area. Each Expansion to the Museums made it so that there was another accessible entrance into the Museum. Each addition was made to emphasize on the different areas on art and history. Also with the new areas in the museum it created more circulation throughout the building so it wouldnt get so cramped. They were great additions to the museums and it continues to help the museums strive. 

Functional and poetic –

Creating relationships in Architecture is important. These "friends" may not be people you persoanlly know however. These friends can be made by studying and understanding other architects works. With many friends, one can become a great architect. These friends that you gain can help create what we see as architects and help influence our designs. While having friends such as those in the videos shown can be important to understanding yourself as an architect, your personal friends can be helpful as well. Having friends in architecture can help give you critiques and share ideas with. I reall took away the idea that architecture is truly for people, and not for books or life. These people expierence architecture even though they are not architects themselves. Its through our architect friends that we make that we can design not for look but for the feeling that one gets when walking on the site.

Diagrams / Concepts –

In this lecture, we explored the works of Piano, Khan, and Ando and how diagramming further helped the architect develop their ideas. Essentially, we concluded that diagramming is a useful tool, especially in analyzing and discovering what works and what doesn't. I got a better understanding of what kinds of diagrams that could be made in this lecture. These topics include plan to section diagrams, geometry, additive and subtractive, and symmetry and balance. Especially in diagramming the symmetry of a space, it helps everyone visualize what is happening. The last meaningful idea I got from the lecture was about the Modern Art Museum. The architect of the Modern Art wanted to "offer respect and gratitude" to Mr. Khan through his own work. In a sense, there's a communication that happens between the adjacent buildings.

Week 5 NEC with Robert Cogan –

Having Robert Cogan as a guest speaker gave the audience an insight of his work with the New England Conservatory. He was the first person who mentioned the Boston Avenue of the Arts, which was a key part of the development of my ideas.  Cogan’s mentioning of the connection between architecture and music was a connection I have never personally made. Both are needed and have been needed throughout history, but what’s great is that they can be explored creatively as well. In other words, some things seem creative and pleasing to look at or listen to isn’t necessarily practical. Overall, I think Robert Cogan’s lecture gave us a lot to work with with our new project.

Urban Design –

This lecture, by Mr. Lawrence A. Chan, was about Urban Design and he showed us work going on in China. The main point I got out of this lecture was about the context of the building. While designing a building, an architect can't just design whatever building he wants to and just roll with it. Instead, they must first look at the surrounding area and see what the other buildings' appearances are. For example, if the surrounding buildings are all brick, it would look out of place to make a metal or a concrete building. Or if a modern building was placed into a more historic area, it would just look out of place. An architect needs to study the surrounding area and make choices based on that, so their design fits into the site and does not look out of place.

Stability/Movement –

This weeks big talk we led by Jay Weber about the topic of stability and motion. In the talk We talked about several buildings, them being Notre Dame, the Dutch Embassy in Berlin, the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, the Spanish Steps, and the Parthenon in Greece. All of these places have several things in common, They all guide you to where they want you. In the Dutch Embassy your sight is forced outward into the city at specific structures and your walking path is around the outside of the building and very exposed. In both the Pyramids of Giza and the Parthenon you are led up to them in a specific way to sort of showcase it before you get inside and once inside it is a straight shot through. In the Spanish Steps they are connecting two neighborhoods through this massive staiway that represents the two countries coming to peace with each other and the Spanish Steps make you admire them because of the route you are taken through. When on the steps you are not taken straight down the middle but a slow spiraling descent or ascent into the nieghborhoods and this just helps you admire and respect it.

Ann Beha NEC proposal –

During this weeks’ Big Talk, we got to see the actual design and design process of the NEC proposal for a new building by Ann Beha Architects. This is actually the part of the site that we are working on to create our own design also. This made it very intriguing to see all of the sketches and renderings of what the building will become. It gave me some insight on some things that I could possibly add to my own design to really make it stand out in the city. I also learned that a lot of planning and detailing goes into the process of the actual building. It was nice to see the different phases and how each building in each phase will coordinate with one another. The most interesting part to me and the most innovative was the idea of a shared street. Adding that shared street will bring both Jordan Hall and the new building together and it will really create one campus that is connected in a way that brings the school to the city and the city to the school.

Mechanics of Layering in architecture –

In this weeks lecture/”Big Talk” we had a discussion about the mechanics of layering in architecture.  Layering in architecture can be categorized in three different but similar categories.  There is Temporal layering which is through sedimentation, an additive or subtractive process adding or revealing planes over time. This is normally explored in urban planning and in landscape architecture.  Next category is Spatial layering is layering of different spaces, which allows the co-existence of multiple spaces of different character, function, and quality.   An example of how you could use this idea in a project could be the idea of Public vs. Private. The last is Material layering which is the additive configuration of planes for compositional, programmatic or technological reasons.  This can be seen a lot in the facades of buildings and remodels of buildings. Overall this lecture got me thinking even more about my project and maybe how I could use layering in the design at New England Conservatory.  It also got me thinking of how buildings are designed all around me.  The lecture itself was very I formative and loved the fact that there was a lot of examples of places to describe the layering categories, helped a lot with the visualization of the ideas.

Mixed Media –

  In this lecture, we learned about mixed media, which simply put mean using 2 or more different materials in one work.  Tradition material choices include but are not limited to: acrylic paint, chalk, charcoal, colored pencil, marker, pastel, and pen & ink.  Perhaps the best part about mixed media is that it can be anything; there are no structured rules.  Mixing medias allows people the break the standard conventions of size, which is highly suggested to make the work more interesting.  Carrying over from the last lecture, layers also have a place in mix media.  They can show material, time, and even more.  Mix media begins to incorporate visual art with not visual art such as sound, literature, or dance.  Using multiple materials allows one to tell a story through their work.  The work can imply feelings and appeal to senses, in the way that a narrative would.  It is very useful and powerful if these ideas are woven into a design.