Center for Democracy and Reconciliation in Southeast Europe has published 4 Workbooks are now available for free download, have been made through the Joint History Project. The books have been produced in the Albanian, Bosnian, Croatian, English (with the 2nd edition published in the summer of 2009), Greek, Macedonian, Serbian and Turkish languages. In addition, an edition of the books in Japanese is underway.

"The goal of the Joint History Project (JHP) is to encourage debate, celebrate diversity and recognise shared suffering and achievements through a participative approach to history teaching, in order for students and teachers to develop the understanding and skills needed for sustainable peace and a democratic future.

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Twenty one students, two professors and I went to chicago. The scale of the city immediately makes me realize how Boston is truly a European city. It shows what a blank slate, waterfront, and endless space can materialize into. A little bit of planning and a strong architectural fetish yield a spectacular city. I appreciate the space that is the new park, walking through and finding all of the interventions was refreshing. Even Gehry's bombastic pavilion finds its place within the park. The Cloud Gate must be experienced in person. The immateriality of the piece is stunning, it acts as a form for your view of the city, park, and waterfront to blend and change. We were allowed in SOM at the last minute. Amazingly clean for such a busy firm; I think they put on a nice face. I would love to see the dirty room where everyone yells at each other and skyscrapers are created to be built in far away lands. Next post will be a recap of our inter-school competition for a funerary chapel and memorial garden.

I thought it'd be fun to give everybody a tour of TCAUP's studio environment, so I did it at the most appropriate time: 4:30am. Now, our school isn't normally a ghost town as these image might depict, but it was during the last weekend of spring break... so I'm kind of a nerd for being there. this is one of two lounges for sleeping laser cutting some work of the first year undergraduate students (juniors): (it's always christmas at michigan!) and here is some work from my classmates (seniors): We also share a floor with the grad students, but I'll leave some phototaking for another night.

The Cornstarch Monsters fall down like cymbal crashes two blo-wn speakers

Our task for theory this week was to create a visual polemic based on an assigned critical text. Earlier in the semester we worked in groups to analyze and present the text, but now we're on our own to develop a list of terms and a visual means of defining them. My text, Nic Clear's AD issue Architectures of the Near Future, relies heavily on examples from science fiction to comment on conceptions of potential futures for the discipline. I chose rather common terms purposefully to able to draw from a wide variety of other texts. It's a collage that unfolds to reveal more terms, definitions, and external references. And a few others... Katie Cressall's work on Flesh Sarah Petri's work on Greg Lynn's Form

I had one person who was interested in my automatic trussing script from the previous post, so I'll post it below. It's for Rhino, so the language is pretty much VisualBasic. Please not that, in my experience, copying and pasting code from blogs often results in syntax errors, particularly with punctuation characters (e.g. quotation marks get all messed up). This script definitely works, so if it doesn't work, it'll be simple character fixes rather than real code flaws. Option Explicit 'Base triangulation script written by www.supermanoeuvre.com 'Edited for 2 surfaces, cross-trussing and changeable U & V values by Peter Jenkins Call srfPanelsTriangles() Sub srfPanelsTriangles() '------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ' USER INPUT Dim strSrf1 : strSrf1 = Rhino.GetObject("First surface object please", 8) If IsNull(strSrf1) Then Exit Sub Dim strSrf2 : strSrf2 = Rhino.GetObject("Second one please", 8) If IsNull(strSrf2) Then Exit Sub Dim numUSpans : numUSpans = Rhino.GetInteger("How many surface spans in U direction", 15, 6, 50) If IsNull(numUSpans) Then Exit Sub Dim numVSpans : numVSpans = Rhino.GetInteger("And in V direction", 15, 6, 50) If IsNull(numVSpans) Then Exit Sub '------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ' SCRIPT BODY Rhino.print "Yeeeeeeeah Boi!!!" Rhino.enableRedraw False '------------------------------------------------------- ' Get U vals Dim arrSrfDomU1 : arrSrfDomU1 = Rhino.SurfaceDomain(strSrf1,0) Dim uMin1 : uMin1 = arrSrfDomU1(0) Dim uMax1 : uMax1 = arrSrfDomU1(1) Dim uStep1 : uStep1 = (uMax1-uMin1) / numUSpans Dim arrSrfDomU2 : arrSrfDomU2 = Rhino.SurfaceDomain(strSrf2,0) Dim uMin2 : uMin2 = arrSrfDomU2(0) Dim uMax2 : uMax2 = arrSrfDomU2(1) Dim uStep2 : uStep2 = (uMax2-uMin2) / numUSpans '------------------------------------------------------- ' Get V vals Dim arrSrfDomV1 : arrSrfDomV1 = Rhino.SurfaceDomain(strSrf1,1) Dim vMin1 : vMin1 = arrSrfDomV1(0) Dim vMax1 : vMax1 = arrSrfDomV1(1) Dim vStep1 : vStep1 = (vMax1-vMin1) / numVSpans Dim arrSrfDomV2 : arrSrfDomV2 = Rhino.SurfaceDomain(strSrf2,1) Dim vMin2 : vMin2 = arrSrfDomV2(0) Dim vMax2 : vMax2 = arrSrfDomV2(1) Dim vStep2 : vStep2 = (vMax2-vMin2) / numVSpans '------------------------------------------------------- ' Create nodes Dim i,j,l Dim k : k = uMin2 Dim arr1EvalPt01, arr1EvalPt02, arr1EvalPt03, arr1EvalPt04, arr1EvalPt05, arr1EvalPt06, arrCnrPts Dim arr2EvalPt01, arr2EvalPt02, arr2EvalPt03, arr2EvalPt04, arr2EvalPt05, arr2EvalPt06 For i = uMin1 To uMax1 Step uStep1 l = vMin2 For j = vMin1 To vMax1 Step vStep1 ' Triangulating first points on surfaces arr1EvalPt01 = Rhino.EvaluateSurface( strSrf1, Array(i,j) ) arr1EvalPt02 = Rhino.EvaluateSurface( strSrf1, Array(i,j+vStep1) ) arr1EvalPt03 = Rhino.EvaluateSurface( strSrf1, Array(i+uStep1,j) ) arr2EvalPt01 = Rhino.EvaluateSurface( strSrf2, Array(k,l) ) arr2EvalPt02 = Rhino.EvaluateSurface( strSrf2, Array(k,l+vStep2) ) arr2EvalPt03 = Rhino.EvaluateSurface( strSrf2, Array(k+uStep2,l) ) ' create surface triangles ' first surface Call Rhino.AddLine(arr1EvalPt01, arr1EvalPt02) Call Rhino.AddLine(arr1EvalPt01, arr1EvalPt03) Call Rhino.AddLine(arr1EvalPt03, arr1EvalPt02) ' second surface Call Rhino.AddLine(arr2EvalPt01, arr2EvalPt02) Call Rhino.AddLine(arr2EvalPt01, arr2EvalPt03) Call Rhino.AddLine(arr2EvalPt03, arr2EvalPt02) ' create trusses between surfaces Call Rhino.AddLine(arr1EvalPt01, arr2EvalPt01) Call Rhino.AddLine(arr1EvalPt01, arr2EvalPt02) Call Rhino.AddLine(arr1EvalPt01, arr2EvalPt03) l = l + vStep2 Next ' end j loop k = k + uStep2 Next ' end i loop Rhino.enableRedraw True Rhino.print "!!! SCRIPT COMPLETED !!!" End Sub

THE FORMAL ECONOMY OF LAGOS IS 80% INFORMAL Lagos, one of the fastest growing cities in the world with population of 10.9 million in 2007, and is expected to rise to 17 million by 2015 which is an increase of 36% in just 8yrs. It's fascinating the unplanned nature of this growth, and the ability of the city to cope with the influx of people without visible mechanisms to deal with the outcome of the growth. According to Lagos state's ministry of finance the FORMAL ECONOMY OF LAGOS IS 80% INFORMAL (indirectly it is the formal economy). Most employment / trading areas are informal and not structured, and its 85% of total employment force. This informal economy usually takes place on Lagos's traffic ridden 'chaotic' highways. These highways are no more like usual western highways, but rather its highway, come market, come shelter / residential, come prayer places. This project is about exploring and expressing this 'chaos' as a Productive Chaos which brings opportunities, employments, shelter and economic income to the state. "Like in the 'Bridge Trilogy' where Oakland Bay Bridge which was abandoned in an earthquake and has become a massive shantytown and a site of improvised shelter. The bridge community was not planned or authorized, developed quickly and brought radical chnage." Lagos Island is the centre of commerce, and is circled by a ring of highway. Below are Proposed inhabited highways at various level startind from 6m to 25m high with 6 highlighted hotspots.

More developments in attempting to embed some sort of anatomy into the bodies. They are still simple, but each chain/creature, start to act as a collective, which was mainly enabled through using a physics engine, pbox2d, and exploiting its springs and collisions. Another biweekly review explains my desktop background, and I have no idea why I do not have another prnt scrn on the last day. I guess I'm getting lazy. Also, we keep on talking about starting a website so we can start to share the code(s), but I guess it'll happen over Easter break, or maybe summer break at the latest. On another note, our studio trip - sometime during easter break - is headed towards Tokyo. Other studios are going to nyc/boston, tokyo(different studio), and a eurotrip/roadtrip across germany, italy and some other places. prnt scrn 17 - because some days are simply disastrous. prnt scrn 18 prnt scrn 19 prnt scrn 20 This was an interesting moment. These "creatures" have no desire for locomotion - no flocking behavior embedded in them - but rather continuously start to reorganize because their internal structure is continuously in conflict. There are more circles than can exist in each creature, so through collisions, they start to reorganize. They are still uncontrollable, but it was an interesting moment in the week nonetheless. prnt scrn 20b prnt scrn 21 - biweekly thursday review. prnt scrn 22 - more self structuring creatures, sometimes amongst themselves, and sometimes between each other. This is dangerous to say out loud, but they are fun to watch. prnt scrn 22b prnt scrn 23 - I have no recollection. p.s. All studio work is done with Tyson Hosmer, Michael Dosier, and Ryan Szanyi.

As a second entry I belive a preface is required before I jump into a full on school Blog. I have an additional blog that I may refer to where I am currently documenting a project for my sophomore studio, that has an interiors concentration. if there are any confusions regarding my posts, please refer to the provided link or shoot me an e-mail. http://archisult.blogspot.com

An overdue update on what has been happening with my thesis. The theme generally is "control" in society, in this case implemented through the control of knowledge, with the design for a brain library. First of all, here's a few images of the "graphic novel" developed using puppet photography and photoshopping into scenes: For the design, then, so far I've been working from the inside out. I wanted the brains to have some kind of autonomy, rather than be trapped in an array of pipes and wires. Heres version #1 of the Cerebot: After criticism of this version being too meccano, and after learning more in Rhino, it involved into version #2: The home for these critters is based on the structure of a wasps nest I found in my loft and it ends up looking a bit like this from the outside, the patchwork effect caused by the stitching together of various slices of reclaimed flesh: Some physical models I made in the generation of this form. I wanted the unpredictability of analogue processes to feed in, so I used balloons and expanding foam: Inside here would be a collection of nested papier mache catenary domes, giving order to the Cerebot housing. Papier mache was chosen as a recyclable from the confiscation of literature in the controlled society: These flesh pods would be multiply hung from a triangulated bone roof structure, which takes on an overall morphic form based on the concentric growth patterns of the flesh pods, emanating from the structural corners of the "site" (Coventry Cathedral Ruins). This is an early version of the roof form, still in development: As an aside, I wrote a script in Rhino to automatically create the triangulated trusses for that form. So you just start with two surfaces over each other, then run the script and it gives you all the vertices which you can then panel like glass or pipe like a structure. If people are interested in that, leave a comment and I'll post the script; don't want to use too much space on here otherwise. Think that's all for now, currently working on the public and production program elements so this becomes more than just a parasitic infestation. Let me know what you think.

So I'm done... I'm now waiting for my boards to be printed up by the output room and working on a few models for tomorrow, but the winter studio, for all intensive purposes is finished... Every time this happens it always amazes me how fast time flies. I'm really happy with what I came up with, though I do admit I got pretty bogged down in the computer and graphic rendering over the last week or so. It's strange to not have any hand work to show for a final project, but I guess that will soon be the norm. I think I like having a mix of the two though. I really enjoyed this project and actually learned quite a bit about process, presentation, and produced a good amount of work. Thinking back on it, I think that a good portion of my time this term was spent on my Human Context and ECS class work, so I really don't feel like I spent as much time on this studio project as I had in the past. I still have work for those classes to finish though. Here are a couple of shots of the culmination of my semester in a few brief pictures. SITE CONTEXT DELICIOUS CONTEXT MIDTERM WHAT??! REFINEMENT INSPIRATION INSPIRATION LIGHT BULB NO LONGER ARBITRARY INSIDE SUPERMODEL REVERT MAGICAL MACHINES OF MAGICIANESS Pictures are better than words... My concept is in an earlier post I think. Here are my boards though they are rather useless at this scale: dc

I am building a machine for refining jet engine sound. [enlarge]

Ok, a quick round up of what ive been up to since way back in November! I finished writing and designing a graphic novel with the brief synopsis of creating a virtual gaming environment for lost souls. The arrangement involves people physically connecting to a living organism in order to experience a completely parallel world whilst in suspended animation as an escape from their daily lives or problems. This idea stems from my initial films of capturing a soul without a body and vice versa. This also combines with how fractured and disparate people are becoming socially, spending more time in confined spaces, communicating at distance and experiencing more feelings through synthetic and anonymous means. I have found a particularly relevant site in my hometown of Bristol, UK where the privileged and deprived rub shoulders, gentrification is chased away and derelict buildings form key social and political hubs to peoples' everyday lives. Below is a stream of various early work I carried out to expand on my theory and direction. They also show site context, materiality and attempt to capture the mood of the project: More will follow over the coming weeks and next weeks crit sessions....

Ok, so here's the dealio on our final semester competition thing: Michigan's undergrad arch program is a Bachelor of Science, meaning it is a pre-professional degree, and we MUST go to grad school before we can even consider becoming a licensed architect. Because of this, our program is only 2 years long, your junior and senior year of your undergraduate career. So the first two years you take the general electives to get them out of the way, and then the last two years are design studios, intro arch. theory, structures, construction, and environmental technology. Each semester you take a design studio, which, as most of you know, this begins your long journey of becoming an insomniac. The final semester, we take the Wallenberg studios, named after alumni Raoul Wallenberg. Wallenberg came to U of M to study architecture in the 30s and then went back to Europe to the start of World War II. He took up a job at the Swedish embassy, where he used his design skills to make fake passports for Jews and other minorities so that the Germans officials couldn't harm them, saving thousands of lives from extermination. In considering these great deeds, we are given the task to define architecture that is humane and benefiting society. At the end of the semester, outside critics judge the work and award traveling scholarships to the winners. The focus this year is "Architecture as Infrastructure", and each studio is focusing on something different. I really appreciate the way my studio critic (Vivian Lee) has set up our studio. Because she didn't want our thesis in graduate school to be the first time we ever attempted to tackle a thesis, we are given the task of choosing a specific site and thesis within the larger framework that she already did all the background research for. Basically, she narrowed things down to "New York" and "water infrastructure" and we have room to choose our program and specific sites within New York. It's great because everybody in the studio is really excited and we all have extremely different sites and program ideas so there's a lot of diversity going on even within our own studio. By our final semester, I think the independence and expectations for us to do the leg work is important in preparing us for the world--to put it as cheesy as possible. :) I suppose to delve in deeper, I can explain my project. It'll be good practice for mid review next week anyway... My research led me to an interest in the Combined Sewage Overflow (CSOs), where Manhattan basically dumps fecal matter and other waste into the rivers whenever the sewers flood (ie every time it rains) so that it doesn't end up on the city's streets. This is problem #1. Problem #2: the piers along the Hudson River are no longer in use because different industries have left the city, and the long term effects of piers are actually detrimental to Manhattan's shoreline, for reasons of erosion and decay. #3: Because these industries have left, the shoreline sort of acts likes this line of infrastructure that is separate from the rest of Manhattan. To deal with all of these issues at once, I'm basically suggesting to take the piers and turn them to create a wall between the city and the river. This wall will act as a filter of the water and a stronger reinforcement of Manhattan's shoreline to stop the island from falling into the water. It is also creating a third zone between this "wall" and the city that can be taken advantage of for new programs to bring new industries and social relationships to the shore. these drawing came after many formal studies of how to treat this line of infrastructure as a way to plug in to existing conditions... i'm not going to go into detail explaining all this unless somebody wants me to... for now please enjoy the pictures! 4 of 13 quick studies of zones for implementation, based on constraints such as connecting to the grid at parks and major streets, lifting out of the water to allow for passenger freights to gain access to the shoreline, etc... shoreline model extending from the hudson river at 55th street all the way around the coast to the east river at the manhattan bridge. Originally I was including this whole area as my site, but I have now zoomed in between 55th street and Canal on the Hudson River.

Today was a day of recovery from a midterm thesis binge that was immediately followed by a Korean BBQ/karaoke binge in Oakland. By the way, Koreans can lay down some legit rap. And typos in the lyrics also significantly boost the entertainment value. Now that I have a chance to breathe, I can mention that Linda Bennett, author of the razor-sharp archi-ninja blog, has posted a piece that I wrote. It's a Soundscraper manifesto, beginning with my interest in the passive ninja-defense system of the famous Nightingale floors at Nijo Castle, Kyoto. I talk about recording the sounds of cities in Morocco, and then I go into some detail about Rafael Moneo's LA Cathedral where in 2004 I experienced a 'shower of sound'. Have a look, or should I say, have a listen.

At this school, most final reviews happen in the lobby of the third floor of the Foundation Building, where several arteries of the school intersect and come in contact with one another. The square elevator, engaging in a conversation with the round elevator directly across the space, stands next to Dean Vidler's office and the office of the administration. Around the corner, students enter from the curved fire stair, carrying their latest wooden or steel model from the 4th floor shop.. or carrying their quickly grabbed lunch or coffee from St. Marks below. Some choose to enter into the hallway next to the fire stair, which runs down the remainder of the length of the building, off of which the studios, classrooms, and faculty offices are connected. Others choose the more scenic route, a stroll through the work pinned up in the lobby, until they reach the door at the very western end, behind the round elevator, which opens to the studio where mostly all of the five years of students work. This is a space, designed by our late Dean John Hejduk, where, for the past 40 years of its existence (and more contextually a space more than 150 years old), thousands of students under this school have passed through every day, and on average seen the product of one or several students hanging on the wall, or a tediously labored over model resting on the floor. I bring this up to illustrate two important things that have happened today: 1. Anthony Vidler, our Dean, assembled the entire student body into one classroom at the end of the hall. In what was advertised as a meeting to discuss the upcoming NAAB accreditation visit, turned into a chance for him to express his deep love for the school and his students.. explaining that the traveler that he is, the renowned lecturer and critic who has visited countless studios across the globe, has yet to visit a school that can top the amount of dedication, passion, and quality of thought and work he has seen presented in the space I described above. I cannot explain the importance of a school's solidarity and pride in an ethic of working, but we left the meeting with a strong sense of our duty in earning our full-tuition gift, and preserving this, dare I say, legacy of Cooper. Our task in the next few weeks in preparation for the accreditation visit is to be understood as a chance to reflect upon the quality of work produced at this school, and a positive understanding of the work to continue. 2. Raimund Abraham passed away Wednesday night, in what I find to be a tragic and severely saddening event. Prolific people such as him should not die by such democratic events like a car accident. In my education and time at Cooper, Raimund no longer taught the studios. His presence was no longer daily, and was felt only once by me, during a final review of Lebbeus Wood's first year Architectonics class, in the lobby of the 3rd floor of the Foundation Building. This moment, and the moment I have described above, are two of the most memorable moments I have felt a strong sense of collective among the students. Because the lobby is an artery for all activity among the school, every student and faculty member who walked through the reviews stopped, went silent, and listened to the words being spoken by Raimund, and were moved.. if not by his words, but also the shear fact of his presence in the room. Every student who was there, from all five years, felt a sense of connectivity with the body as a whole, and an importance to pursue work with the amount of integrity Raimund asked for, and himself worked with. And in looking to the future of this tragic event, one would only hope that upon remembering the work and life of Raimund Abraham, whether it be with intense familiarity or a new spark of curiosity into the work of a man who may not be well know to all, a sense of duty would be understood. A duty to uphold the sanctity and power of architecture, and to work with an amount of rigor and self-respect that defines the discipline of architecture to be understood as one of the most powerful tools to shape the human condition.

This is my first entry on archinect's school blog project. I'm an undergraduate at the University of Michigan (TCAUP=Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning). I thought it'd be cool to start an archinect blog because Michigan didn't have an active member--at least not when I originally e-mailed them, but now I see I have a graduate cohort (hi dorothy!). It's also my final semester at TCAUP, which is a competition semester, so it should be fun to document all the excitement. It's spring break right now, and I am in New York. Mid reviews are the day after we get back, which is terrible. It will be a fun & caffeinated weekend! For now, though, here's some architecture that I saw today:

These are a little overdue. Spent a big chunk of last week preparing for a seminar presentation where I had to present a reading on Donna Haraway's work, which fell within the context of other related work presented on that day including readings from Norbert Wiener, Heinz Von Foerster and others. prnt scrn 10 prnt scrn 11 - an image of Stelarc's "Third Arm." I had fun finding imagery for the seminar presentation, but I am a little worried now that I approached the readings a little too literally. prnt scrn 12 - Moving back to studio, this is from a reading of Karl Sims' Evolving "Virtual Creatures," found at http://www.karlsims.com/papers/siggraph94.pdf prnt scrn 13 prnt scrn 14 prnt scrn 15 prnt scrn 16 - This, and the above are the early attempts at trying to articulate the single pixel seen in the earlier prnt scrns into something that starts to show anatomical features. Ofcourse, it's still a circle. I should be getting images from my teammates, as they are doing more interesting and tangible work. p.s. All studio work is done with Tyson Hosmer, Michael Dosier, and Ryan Szanyi.

We just got back from Wintersession and our semester has begun. At RISD, we have a unique schedule. In between semesters, during the months of January and February we have six weeks to take classes outside of our major or do study abroad. Hannah was in San Miguel, Mexico for a design/build studio. They began construction on an adobe community center. I was in Paris studying photography and print media in the digital age. Hannah mixing mortar Lucas at the Louvre We just had the lottery to select our advanced studios. This is the first semester where we were able to pick which design studio we wanted to participate in. This studio is the main focus of the semester, with most time being devoted to this class. Choices were as follows: 1. WRITING THE CITY: ISTANBUL: MAPS, STORIES & BUILDINGS The organization of this course will operate on a model of a treasure hunt, first with maps, studying, then making, then through stories and their relationships with maps. Finally, a design of buildings that respond to those findings. This studio includes a spring break trip Istanbul. 2. UTOPIAN CITY: PROVIDENCE After studying architect's visions of utopia, one will design places to live, work and play in the later 21st century. 3. NEW PUBLIC (SQUARED) After food trucks converged on the an empty lot in Santa Monica, an instant buzz of activity began until the city shut it down citing zoning ordinances. Taking a cue from this event, we will create a new public square that takes advantage of ephemeral experiences and a choreographed public life. A week trip to LA will take place to visit the site. 4. TROJAN HORSE: CAMPUS IN HIMALAYAS Sponsored studio by Bon Shen Ling Education Fund to build a vocational campus in Northern India for the Tibetan diaspora. Designs will take advantage of terrain, climate, history and culture of the area. A trip to India during spring break will take place to visit the site. 5. VERNACULAR CONTEXTUALISM Starting with the researching of boat building will provide a framework of tectonic language. The studio will design an addition to a museum in Woods Hole, MA. Space will include exhibition space, archives and offices. This studio will involve a real client and the potential for one of the designs to be constructed. 6. WITHIN WALLS: CONSTRUCTED DISCOURSE ON ARCHITECTURE, ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY IN THE MEDINA OF FEZ After mapping and documenting existing conditions and focusing on the potential of walls, we will make proposals for additions and alterations that speculate on and address these conditions. Working with KILO Architectures as clients there will be a trip to Morocco over spring break. 7. PROGRAM AS A SOURCE FOR AN ARCHITECTURE NARRATIVE This studio will engage a program for a large urban medical research facility to be built in the Jewerly District of Providence. Working with Boston-based Payette Architects we will examine a complete research facility program and develop strategies for urban form and density all while organizing architectural elements to sustain the life of Providence. 8. SKIN DEEP: TILTING THE FIELD: EXPLORATIONS IN VERTICAL FARMING This studio will look at the capacity of the skin of a building to nourish life within, resulting in case studies of a new building typology: the vertical farm. They will also look at real world constraints and partner with local institutions to explore possibilities. Trips to local farms as research will take place to learn farming techniques. 9. URBAN SYSTEMS 2010: EARTH UNIVERSITY Working with RISD's Landscape Architecture Department, this studio continues the work of last year's studio to design the entire second campus for this international campus devoted to the sustainability of the tropics. Research will focus on campus precedents, architectural and land use typologies and an understanding of geology, ecology, hydrology and sociology of Costa Rica. A spring break trip to Costa Rica to visit the university will take place. We both had fairly good lottery numbers resulting in each of us getting our first choice. Hannah is in the Morocco studio, while I am in the studio to Los Angeles. Check back later for photos of our studio spaces and current work.

Any attempt at writing a cohesive narrative at this point would be fruitless, therefore I'll save myself the trouble and resort to a bullet-point list of updates. The following takes place between January 16th and March 2nd, 2010. > Began class six (quick) weeks ago with Kent's Florence Program. I thought I was only taking one class on the Renaissance, Italian Art from Giotto to Bernini...but I was mistaken. All of my classes seem to stress the Renaissance to such a degree that differentiating between them can at times be difficult. One class, Forces that Shape Cities taught by the program director, became Forces that Shaped Cities when we got to Florence. Needless to say, that 'd' makes a world of difference. > Studio has been somewhat of a disappointment. Our project is a new mediatheque (defined as a modern library, or a new media library) within the Fortezza da Basso, a Renaissance star fort built for the protection of the Medici family in 1534, now a prominent exhibition venue. So far, I've made a diagram exploring the analogies of the wall as a barrier and assembled these precedents. That's it. I'm really missing the process based intensive exploration of last semester's studio now. > Traveled to Venice, Pisa, Rome (with the school), and Urbino (also with the school most recently). > Broke my camera after the Rome trip. > Visited Berlin on a long weekend and saw a few films at the Berlinale film festival, checked out some of the architecturally significant buildings there, went to starbucks not enough times, the bauhaus museum (recommended), and fell in love with the city. > Resolved to attend more film festivals. > Taking a freehand sketching class. Other than learning how to sketch loggias and church facades, it's been nice to be required to work on freehand drawing skills and really hard to not be tempted to use my straight-edge. > The first lecture, a part of the florence program's spring design lecture series, was tonight with more to follow. Anyone in the area is welcome and encouraged to attend. Catch the official poster here.