Design/Build project delivery methods offer a ton of benefits to both architects and their clients. Architects skilled and interested enough to deliver services on the construction site are all the more informed the next time they sit at the drafting board. Clients who hire these architects don’t lose invested project knowledge when a set is handed over to a third-party contractor.
Professor Ford and I just presented “Simulating Paradoxes” at the ACSA Fall Conference. I am very proud of what we wrote. I am equally proud of the discussion we encouraged amoung our lovely peers.
My teaching schedule for the Fall has been set for some time now. And its pretty encouraging that a elective I wrote last Spring Survey of Parametric Design Tools for Architects has filled to capacity and has another semester to waitlist. I think I love teaching that class.
In several public presentations, Philosopher Daniel Dennett has offered his own description of the meaning of life. Paraphrasing, he advises to find something “bigger than you,” and to dedicate your actions to that purpose, that idea, or that inspiration. That’s hard.
In the Spring of 2015, Prof. Ford and I prepared two abstracts for the 2015 ACSA Fall Conference (themed “Between the Autonomous & Contingent Object”). The two abstracts were intended to take debating positions about the role of simulation in architecture, and both positions advanced the debate-style organization of the conference. One abstract was named “Simulating Paradoxes.” The other was named “Simulating Criticality.”
I was an artist presented a few days ago at the Byrdcliffe Open Studios. It was a exciting, loving, and humbling experience.
The premise of my Byrdcliffe Fellowship, and my subsequent work, is that architectural documents are an invaluable resource for forming a cause-oriented non-profit organization. Specifically, architectural products can be used to build a Board of Directors, to advance fundraising objectives, to galvanize volunteers for the mission, and ultimately to win the support of a community.
The other night, most of the Byrdcliffe Fellows decided to head off towards Overlook Mountain for a night hike. Fellow James Adelman brought his camera. There was a full moon. We could hike without flashlights, hopping over brooks and logs — even in the ambient darkness that stuck under the tree canopy.
I’m already off to a summer of research, testing ideas, and re-jiggering assumptions. There’s no better place to do that than in the woods – with very little internet access.
After the Fellowship, we’re traveling further afeild to research more land. Further afield is even more distant from 21st Century communications technologies.
Please forgive any delay in messages that result.