Thursday, March 26, 2009

ATLANTA trip












I really enjoyed out trip to Atlanta, the companies we visited were extremely helpfull, and I've learned a lot. I hope to build a business relationship with these companies in my future, it would be my privilage.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

BOOK READING CH 4+5+6














4 Nest

"...Men can do everything except build a bird's nest." Bachelard is stating that men, with all their wisdom, tools, and power are incapable of building a nest. "According to Michelet, a bird is a worker without tools." Bachelard mentions Thoreau's theory of the tree becoming a nest for daydreamers to hide away and be able to dream and make memories. "A tree becomes a nest the moment a great dreamer hides in it." Confidence is introduced as a means to build a shelter. Bachelard poses the question," Would a bird build its nest if it did not have its instinct for confidence in the world". "Mankind's nest, like his world, is never finished. And imagination helps us to continue"



















5 Shells

Bachelard begins by explaining that shells are constructed by some kind of transcendental geometry, which stands out from the disorder of most perceptible things. Creatures hide shells for shelter and an area for meditation just like homes provide the same for us “To emerge”

















6 Corners
Bachelard presents corners, as the providers for the daydreams, and all those warm, comfortable feelings we get in our home, the feeling of protection. “Every corner, of a house, every angle in a room, every inch of secluded space in which we like to hide, or withdraw into ourselves, is a symbol of solitude for imagination; that is to say, it is the germ of a room, o tog a house.” The creature retreats into its own private corner, a corner which assures immobility.

OVERALL THOUGHTS : Northern Guilford Schools




  • Signage is an issue in H.S.

  • Hallways need tacable surface in M.S. and H.S.

  • Pictures on walls needed, and in scale to the space

  • Address Color in both buildings, mainly in M.S.

  • M.S. is a fixed place, while the H.S. is non-fixed [how do we address this]

  • M.S.-communal spaces (hallways/courtyards) need to be addressed

  • Individual classrooms need to be addressed

[BRING LIFE + VITALITY TO COMMUNAL SPACES]


[ENLIVEN CIRCULATION SPACES TO ENGAGE STUDENTS WITH ONE ANOTHER]


[CONNECT INSIDE WITH OUTSIDE, CONNECT STUDENTS WITH ENVIRONMENT]

what i have learned this far in the semester!


I've learned that a GREAT IDEA can come FROM something SMALL and SIMPLISTIC. Sketching is a great way to play with ideas, forms, colors, and shapes, that lead to something big. This reminded me of a drawing class I took a while back ,where we had to draw a certain image upside down, it was as if I was drawing blind, BUT it came out looking excellent, without thinking, or focusing, so hard on what it is that I was drawing. It is the same way with design, sometimes, it is good to design freely, no boundaries, and without thinking, and GREAT is what's going to come out.

[something interesting] BARBIZOL SCHOOL


A French school of the middle of the 19th century centering in the village of Barbizon near the forest of Fontainebleau. Its members went straight to NATURE in disregard of academic tradition, treating their subjects faithfully and with POETIC feeling for COLOR, LIGHT, and ATMOSPHERE.

BOOK READING CH 2+3















2 HOUSE + UNIVERSE
“House and space are not merely two juxtaposed elements of space. In the reign of the Imagination, they awaken daydreams in each other, that are opposed.” In chapter two Bachelards describes the connection/disconnection between a dwelling and the universe. He suggests that all really inhabited space has a notion of ‘home’, that when a human being finds shelter it comforts itself with the notion of protection. “Heavy draperies that hung down to the floor. Behind dark curtains, snow seems to be whiter. Everything comes alive when contradictions accumulate”, this quote really caught my attention, it is such a fact that I never thought about puts in such simplistic words as he does. He continues with this interesting quote, “But we are told nothing about the strength of the walls, or the walls, or the fortitude of the roof. The house puts up no struggle. It is as though Baudelaire knew of nothing to shut himself with but curtains.” The house is seen as a material figure in which we store our treasures from previous years.

















3 DRAWERS, CHESTS, and WARDROBES
“..images of intimacy that are in harmony with drawers and chests, as also with all the other hiding-places in which human beings, great dreamers of locks, keep or hide their secrets. Bachelard suggests that in the wardrobe there is a center of order, which prevents the house from disorder; it possesses such intimacy to an individual that it has affectionately cared for. He believes that small boxes and chests show need for secrecy, locks keep possessions guarded but are also are an invitation to thieves. “there will always be more things in a closed box then in a open, box.” Bachelard explores the psychology of houses, for example a door knob is used to close and open doors, as is a key, however the key is seen by people as something which is more often used to close and the door knob often used to open.

BACK TO YOUR ROOTS

After picking 2 objects to sketch in variety of ways, we are to relate these sketches to the book "The Poetics of Space" by Bachelard. I picked 2 different size boxes as a visualization of education, by layaring and stacking the boxes, just like we go through school in layers and stages.

This model is a representation of all the sketches, nad the relation to the book.

  • Positive-Negavite
  • It is dominated by straight lines, discipline and balance
  • Geometrical object, which we are tempted to analyze rationally
  • DRAMA/CONTRADICTION

Memorable Teacher

My 1st grade teacher, has always been the one I remember the most, in 1st grade is when I discovered my love for art and drawing, and he encouraged that even at my young age. I remember him always correcting the way I held a pencil. He seemed to be very found of me. After the 1st grade a war started in Bosnia, I had to leave my birth place and move. After 5 years, my dad found out where he moved to, and we went to visit him. I was in 6th grade at the time, and he asked me to write down our contect information. So I got a pen and started writing, when I was done I looked up at him and he was smiling. He said "you still hold a pencil the wrong way".