No more exams

Yiphee, i have a weeks holiday.

I thought i'd write this posting while waiting to play badminton (part of the post christmas exercise routine which has been hampered by the exam period) then going out in town to celebrate the end of the exams with a few mates from the course. Its been a busy few weeks which is why i'm looking forward to having some spare time to write a few architcectural things on this blog. (I have lots of ideas just have not had the time to write them down.)

I thought I'll tell you about the last studio project I had to complete as I'm sure it will be mentioned in some of the later ramblings.

our last project was to design a housing development for a village near where I study. the site was a on a south facing slope however it was very exposed and the village was quite historical so it was very important to study the village in context and make sure it fitted in, both socially and environmentally. It was very interesting as it was only about the third time since starting the course that we've had a real site to explore. We also spent also of time at the start of the project analysing the village, its growth and characteristics. I feel often in modern architecture that we don't think about how buildings should fit into our environment. Instead we aim more and more for buildings which stand out and shock people (the Selfridges building in Birmingham, uk is a prime example, a building which I quite like but it has no thought for it's surroundings.)

My thought for the day

Venturi said in "Learning from Las Vegas" to look at the "ugly" and the "ordinary" buildings, the everyday run of the mill buildings. Wacky is good but some times it pays to be a bit more respectful of the surroundings we build in. This last project has been an example of that. I promise tomoro to show you what I did.

off to badders now. laters