wang shu - architecture on zhongshan st

if you are searching for contemporary architecture in china i will suggest works by wang shu. he practices in hangzhou and is the prizker prize 2012 laureate. while i was in china i had the opportunity to see some of his works, namely the chinese academy of art and zhongshan st.

in particular, this photo dump / post is of a project situated in the historical area of hangzhou. the area contains markets, boutiques and restaurants, and many examples of traditional architecture. zhongshan st is located around this area, and was formerly a road that has recently gone through a renovation (urban regeneration to use a architect-y term) through converting a traffic passageway to a pedestrian only way. the project was carried out in between 2007 to 2009. It is unsure/unclear who did what part of the buildings or the design of the road, and i would say that it is unlikely that this is a solo project by wang shu. i also was told that there was little documentation on the project in books and also on the internet (i might be wrong on this though). the photos after the break are of zhongshan st and various buildings along the street especially the ones believed to have been designed by wang shu('s firm). the buildings i think were designed by him has the typical interesting use of materials, layering of tiles and wood that is typical of his work. in particular, a small house jutting out on top of some buildings, a bamboo structure named the exhibition hall of the imperial street of the southern song dynasty, and a weird gate made out of tiles and concrete, which i am very unsure as to what the structure really is for. the last three photos are before and after photos inside the exhibition hall, which i have included as it is very interesting to show how much the street has changed. the hall istelf also contains documentation, maps, and architectural model of the project.

ATR RESULTS

• milked off around 10+ H leads and 3 B leads
• 4 hours of sleep
• 6 sheets, 2 ripped ones, 2 water-damaged ones
• didn't touch any CAD programs. I myself am impressed

However, never doing this. Ever. Again. Oh wait folio crap.

Reward: you get a picture of me in a giraffe onesie

ATR torture

I keep seeing much more impressive models and work that people in the same year of study put up on the internet, makes me feel like a failure. Anyway; major casualty of the day while cutting balsa wood:

The shelves I made were really crappy and half the members broke off and were unusable. On a brighter note, the next day's effort was more successful.

And here is the building so far:

GIRL, CALM DOWN. PLEASE.

NO THE WALLS ARE MOVING ON ME CLOSINGINONMEOHMYGOD

via archdaily

2 drawings, 17 more to go. Prepare to die.

comic book thesis: via

also see interview

(found on Tumblr)

The 13 Most Useless College Majors (As Determined By Science)

alittlespace:
newsweek:

1. Fine Arts
2. Drama and Theatre Arts
3. Film, Video, and Photographic Arts
4. Commercial Art and Graphic Design
5. Architecture
6. Philosophy and Religious Studies
7. English Literature and Language
8. Journalism
9. Anthropology and Archeology
10. Hospitality Management
11. Music
12. History
13. Political Science and Government
(Ed: Your primary tumblrs majored in two of these and now work in the field of a third.)

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It reminds me of this:

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A Myer flagship store in Melbourne.

via design milk

I can imagine playing The Modern Architecture Game, only to be put to shame by drawing out some card with a moderately obscure architect which I don't know, but probably should know. Or probably some really glaringly obvious other house of Frank Lloyd Wright like the Robie House or something and I will be hitting my head on the wall while my archi friends laugh at my stupidity.

I think it would be useful for second years doing that history unit. Those poor people having to remember 5 different FLW houses, or the spelling of that cathedral Alvar Alto built. I probably need a revision of my architecture history anyhow.

New Year's Resolutions (of an Architecture Student)

1. I will get better at drawing buildings. In perspective.
2. I will finally apply for an internship, even though I think it is kind of impossible
3. I will learn how to detail and find out how s**t comes together in buildings
4. I will add more long big pretentious words to my vocabulary
5. I will raise enough money, go overseas and go look at awesome buildings
6. I will read up on favorite architects
7. I will learn to use 3dsmax/Rhino/Autocad/Archicad/Revit/Adobe Creative Suite/Sketchup (OH GOD)/ 'insert other programs here'
8. I will finally read up on that reading list my last year tutors gave me
9. I will exude confidence!
10. I will detoxify my body and attempt to live healthily by getting enough sleep and drinking less caffeine wait scratch that, that's impossible.

(Don't get me wrong I think new year's resolutions are absolutely pointless.)

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Old news: A competition for designing zombie safehouses

In other words, that sounds like a potential design studio, albeit one of those fun pointless ones where you swear you're not learning anything that's going to contribute to your future career unless you really believe the zombie apocalypse is going to happen.

Today's 11/11/11 on 11:11 post brought to you by...

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a UFO hotel room. A very expensive hotel room. In Sweden.

Rachel's Guide to Discouraging People to Take Architecture

So someone asked me about this. So I shall try, although I think a meanly short annoying loud jerk of a studio coordinator can do a better job at me than this, but ok.

Why should you not take architecture? A rather straight forward guide

1. Equipment is sold at ridiculous prices (drafting pens, boards, special paper that they make you draw on, and you think, what the hell, why can't I use this paper or that pen. NOOOO, you have to use the most expensive implements there is existing)
2. Your stress levels will hit through the roof, and at some point inevitably in your life several times you will become so depressed, angry and frustrated at yourself.
3. You will be relying on some sort of caffeinated drink to keep you up in the morning and through the day, which is bad for your health
4. You will be hunched over a drawing board, or over a computer screen (pick your poison) for inhumane amounts of time, doing horrible things to your muscles and back which is bad for your health
5. You will also undertake copious all-nighters, which is bad for your health
6. You will be sleeping in the weirdest positions you could possibly conceive
7. People will not/never understand why you put yourself through so much stress
8. Your social life will dissipate because you're too busy in studio. You will deny copious amounts of party invites. You will disappoint all your friends and become a hermit, only to reappear from the cave that is the studio when the semester finishes
9. The only people you will be talking to will be your computer, your drafting pens, your paper, your lecturers and your studio friends occasionally. Oh, and the other thing you will be yelling at is the printer, the most unreliable thing in the universe.
10. There will be teachers who you will encounter which will put you through emotional scarring telling you that you're worthless and you should quit
11. Speaking of which, they are usually the most egotistical, pretentious pricks you will ever know.
12. Just because you know how to draw, doesn't mean you know how to design
13. Just because you're good with the computer, doesn't mean you know how to design
14. Just because you heard that being an architect makes you look cool and allows you to earn lots of cash, doesn't mean it's true
15. The construction industry is so reliant on economy; if the economy crashes (and given the instability of European and American economies at the moment) you're going to have no luck finding a job
16. Being obsessed/passionate about architecture is a must. If you don't have it you will never survive (there's a reason why roughly 50% of people quit in their first year)
17. You will start having to change your wardrobe to entirely black and start wearing glasses

Actually surviving the uni course is not as hard as you think. I was a very naive day dreamy teenage girl who didn't know what she wanted and somehow managed to float through three years. So if I can do it, you can.

But please, don't go floating around like I did. Do figure out if you want to do this in the long term in your future, and think about how you can contribute to a better world.

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Oh yes. Die all-nighter, die.

And seriously, they should really redesign those ugly A4 posters that the department put up a month to folio (I call them foli-lolcats, because of the tendency for said posters to contain cats).

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um...awesome?

Set in Radiant City, a dystopian municipality influenced by Bauhaus and Fritz Lang's Metropolis, the series concerns a mysterious figure who purports to be its architect. His radical theories of "psychetecture" cause the citizenry to go mad, just as he did, and he takes on the mission to repair his creation.

In order to accomplish this he remains awake twenty-four hours a day by means of the drug "insomnalin," all the while coping with a Dick Tracy–like rogues gallery and supporting cast including his long-suffering ex-girlfriend Mercedes.

- Mister X, Wikipedia

The architect as tragic hero, and I'm sure there's a few real life architects floating around having related fantasies like this and obviously, it's not me. This is the most funniest part, 'remaining awake twenty-four hours a day'. Sounds like a typical folio week to me.

via architizer

Ahhh, from ARM Architects, the architects I love to hate.

I think I'm extremely socially awkward, but sometimes when I have a conversation with someone they usually resort to the old 'what do I study' since they don't know where to begin. So almost every conversation I have with somebody usually resorts to 'so what do architects do?'. I'm not an architect. But I continue on a limb.

My typical conversation with an engineering student goes like this:

Engineer: Oh you study architecture?
Me: Yup.
E: Oh, the dudes who make buildings pretty?
Me: Yup.
E: Architects are so unreasonable eh? That's what they tell you in Engineering. They make those annoying structures that hardly stand up, and then we engineers are told to make it stand up. Sigh.
Me: Yup. I know. In architecture school, the teachers couldn't care less. They just tell us we can design anything we want as long as it looks good, and they tell us we can leave the engineers to do the rest.

Back to Procastinating on Design Websites

Besides sleeping off my cold, it is a known fact that I love procrastinating by looking at design websites. For example, I was parading lurking around on swissmiss when I saw this beautiful looking thing that holds trace.

Description:

The ubiquitous roll of trace has long adorned architects' desks. As ours inevitably wound up in a drawer, only to succumb to marks and tearing, we had in our minds that there should be a better place for such an important tool. The result is Place for Trace.

Yes, you know why I want this right now. My poor roll of trace (also known as Mr Tiger Paper) is hiding underneath my drawing board, waiting to be flaunted on a piece of wood.