Just like me.
9.29.2010
My trusted steed
My main mode of transport during the week is somewhere between 20 and 30 years old.
Just like me.
Just like me.
9.28.2010
Tuesday & Thursday
Are studio days. My space looked like this at 7am this morning:
It actually looks like this all day every day. Here it is again five minutes ago:
Which is why I sketch rooms meant for jumping in pools of plastic playpen balls.
It actually looks like this all day every day. Here it is again five minutes ago:
Which is why I sketch rooms meant for jumping in pools of plastic playpen balls.
9.27.2010
The smell of curing concrete in the morn'
Mini concrete sketch model factory in the bathroom of my studio apartment. Final product(s) later this week.
Jealous?
Many thanks to the five days of rain RI is having this week.
*Production note: The black melamine/particle board/crap material for the mold came from a piece of abandoned furniture someone left near the garbage cans of my apartment building parking lot. For two weeks it made parking in my assigned space inconvenient. As soon as this assignment came along I raced home to hack the entertainment center apart before repurposing the pieces into the high tech mold (held together with clothesline and shot glasses and love) seen here.
Jealous?
Many thanks to the five days of rain RI is having this week.
*Production note: The black melamine/particle board/crap material for the mold came from a piece of abandoned furniture someone left near the garbage cans of my apartment building parking lot. For two weeks it made parking in my assigned space inconvenient. As soon as this assignment came along I raced home to hack the entertainment center apart before repurposing the pieces into the high tech mold (held together with clothesline and shot glasses and love) seen here.
9.26.2010
Gropius House
We have a group project on the Gropius House in Lincoln, MA. Yesterday we peeled ourselves away from the studio space and drove out to the country. We took a tour of the house, surveying the building materials and their link to the surrounding landscape.
Anyone know where I can get a sample of Caffelite, a resin popular in the 1930s made from coffee beans? Me either. Maybe I can make some...
Anyone know where I can get a sample of Caffelite, a resin popular in the 1930s made from coffee beans? Me either. Maybe I can make some...
9.25.2010
Swimming = Thinking
I swim at the Brown University pool three days a week. It's a great autopilot activity when I need time to think about a project.
Also, who can resist an Aquatic Bubble?
Also, who can resist an Aquatic Bubble?
9.24.2010
Field Trip
My Building Materials class visited Cardi Industries, a concrete plant in Warwick, RI.
Cardi supplies concrete and asphalt to the D.O.Ts for Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
When a concrete mix is rejected from a jobsite, Cardi casts the material into these blocks. The blocks are stacked around the yard as barriers for separating aggregate piles. Voila! Reuse.
Cardi supplies concrete and asphalt to the D.O.Ts for Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
When a concrete mix is rejected from a jobsite, Cardi casts the material into these blocks. The blocks are stacked around the yard as barriers for separating aggregate piles. Voila! Reuse.
9.23.2010
9.21.2010
9.18.2010
Glean Baby, Glean
My first Intro to INTAR project is really fun.
The definition of "gleaning" is to gather laboriously, bit by bit. Historically, gleaning dealt with the collection of leftovers after a harvest. Whatever fruits and vegetables pickers or machines missed, people were welcome to glean for themselves.
Our challenge is to gather a dozen found objects. We must then closely observe their characteristics and properties, log the information, and assemble the objects within a 24" cubic space. We need to consider partnerships, groupings, etc before presenting our process in class.
I started my glean-stroll this morning on my bike. I went up to the Brown campus looking for anything interesting. I found some snack trash, a few pieces of discarded chairs (which reminded me of the time I ran to jump up and sit on my mother's lap and the chair she was sitting on split into a million pieces underneath us as we crashed to the floor), a pinecone. Then I stumbled on a construction dumpster outside an old building. My former life in the construction industry told me I needed to jump into that dumpster. And at 7am this morning, I did.
When I emerged from the dumpster with a few pieces of ornate moulding (so sad to see them head for the dump), a dog had joined me in the parking lot. He appeared to be a goldendoodle, albeit a dirty one that's been wandering the streets for a few days. But, he had a collar on. He wouldn't come to me, but I chased him down the still sleepy neighborhood streets and through people's back yards for about 30 minutes. Then I lost him. I felt terrible and my gleaning was definitely off-track.
I flagged down a police car, let him know about the pup and got back to gleaning. As I peddled around thinking about how the interaction with the dog had redirected my path-o-gleaning, I noticed a sign for an estate sale and biked to the location. There wasn't much left to purchase in the 100 year old home, some housewares and clothing. But that's not all a life leaves behind is it?
With that, I'd like to introduce the Pinderhughes.
That picture above is of some of the objects I gleaned from their home on Olney street in Providence. Though the objects had no monetary value, they've quickly become priceless in the development of this project.
Stay tuned. It's due this Tuesday.
The definition of "gleaning" is to gather laboriously, bit by bit. Historically, gleaning dealt with the collection of leftovers after a harvest. Whatever fruits and vegetables pickers or machines missed, people were welcome to glean for themselves.
Our challenge is to gather a dozen found objects. We must then closely observe their characteristics and properties, log the information, and assemble the objects within a 24" cubic space. We need to consider partnerships, groupings, etc before presenting our process in class.
I started my glean-stroll this morning on my bike. I went up to the Brown campus looking for anything interesting. I found some snack trash, a few pieces of discarded chairs (which reminded me of the time I ran to jump up and sit on my mother's lap and the chair she was sitting on split into a million pieces underneath us as we crashed to the floor), a pinecone. Then I stumbled on a construction dumpster outside an old building. My former life in the construction industry told me I needed to jump into that dumpster. And at 7am this morning, I did.
When I emerged from the dumpster with a few pieces of ornate moulding (so sad to see them head for the dump), a dog had joined me in the parking lot. He appeared to be a goldendoodle, albeit a dirty one that's been wandering the streets for a few days. But, he had a collar on. He wouldn't come to me, but I chased him down the still sleepy neighborhood streets and through people's back yards for about 30 minutes. Then I lost him. I felt terrible and my gleaning was definitely off-track.
I flagged down a police car, let him know about the pup and got back to gleaning. As I peddled around thinking about how the interaction with the dog had redirected my path-o-gleaning, I noticed a sign for an estate sale and biked to the location. There wasn't much left to purchase in the 100 year old home, some housewares and clothing. But that's not all a life leaves behind is it?
With that, I'd like to introduce the Pinderhughes.
That picture above is of some of the objects I gleaned from their home on Olney street in Providence. Though the objects had no monetary value, they've quickly become priceless in the development of this project.
Stay tuned. It's due this Tuesday.
9.17.2010
A brief history of INTAR (interior architecture):
Though the word "interior" was coined in the English language during the 15th century, the meaning was attached to spirituality, not buildings. In the 16th century Descartes came along and said "I think, therefore I am" - that our existences comes from our "interior".
Fast forward to the 18th Century and the idea of the individual/inner character emerge. People are defined from one another due to personality, which lends itself to a sense of freedom. People begin to relate themselves within their interiors. This = happiness. Also during this time people became concerned with hygiene and privacy (in the middle ages whatever happened did so in front of everyone because building did not have corridors. those showed up in the 17th Century).
Anyways, all of these things lead to the establishment of permanence in floor plans. Instead of the King saying "I'll have dinner in x room, bring everything and everyone there - rooms were engineered (plumbed/etc) to stay put.
In the 19th Century "interior" begins to mean the inside of a building or room. The great thinkers of this time focused on the idea that people define their personal selves with traces in their dwellings. During the industrial revolution the Bourgeois were living in apartments and model homes with permanent interiors. They couldn't put a stamp on their own personal space if they couldn't change the "bones". Enter upholstery, furniture and the like.
Luckily by the end of the 19th Century a change occurs from this sort of let'sdressthehouse idea towards the architectonics of a building holding it's own personality. Enter INTAR.
Though the word "interior" was coined in the English language during the 15th century, the meaning was attached to spirituality, not buildings. In the 16th century Descartes came along and said "I think, therefore I am" - that our existences comes from our "interior".
Fast forward to the 18th Century and the idea of the individual/inner character emerge. People are defined from one another due to personality, which lends itself to a sense of freedom. People begin to relate themselves within their interiors. This = happiness. Also during this time people became concerned with hygiene and privacy (in the middle ages whatever happened did so in front of everyone because building did not have corridors. those showed up in the 17th Century).
Anyways, all of these things lead to the establishment of permanence in floor plans. Instead of the King saying "I'll have dinner in x room, bring everything and everyone there - rooms were engineered (plumbed/etc) to stay put.
In the 19th Century "interior" begins to mean the inside of a building or room. The great thinkers of this time focused on the idea that people define their personal selves with traces in their dwellings. During the industrial revolution the Bourgeois were living in apartments and model homes with permanent interiors. They couldn't put a stamp on their own personal space if they couldn't change the "bones". Enter upholstery, furniture and the like.
Luckily by the end of the 19th Century a change occurs from this sort of let'sdressthehouse idea towards the architectonics of a building holding it's own personality. Enter INTAR.
9.15.2010
It's day one. I am officially a grad student in pursuit of a Masters of Interior Architecture at RISD. Welcome to my BLOGfolio project. Over the the course of my time here (Three years. Yes, three.) I hope to document projects, influences, and travels that illustrate the heart of my academic program, reuse.
Artists and designers use portfolios to present their work to the rest of the world. Portfolio = lookatmeiamgreat. But what about everything else? Exploration, behind-the-scenes, napkin sketches...what happens to it? I'm keeping it here. I can't bear to part with the opportunity to savor the process. Three years of it.
Welcome.
Artists and designers use portfolios to present their work to the rest of the world. Portfolio = lookatmeiamgreat. But what about everything else? Exploration, behind-the-scenes, napkin sketches...what happens to it? I'm keeping it here. I can't bear to part with the opportunity to savor the process. Three years of it.
Welcome.
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