I N T R O D U C T I O N

Welcome everybody to the PSU arch 282 studio blog. We are proposing a unique approach to a typical second-year undergraduate architecture studio, so we figured we would open our progress up to the public realm. What makes this studio unique is that the clients are real, as is their vision for this community. As such, the students are afforded an opportunity to get input from and make proposals to these people, knowing that they are contributing to an actual, tangible, eventual work of architecture. Another departure for the students is the fomat of collaboration. Over the course of a short, ten-week quarter, sixteen students are working sometimes together, sometimes in small groups, sometimes individually to create a single coherent project. All the individual features of this ever-unfolding drama are organized in the main posts, and will be updated as the work progresses. Stay tuned, and let us know what you think of the progress. -your faithful servant, Garrett

B A C K G R O U N D

A small group of lifetime friends are approaching retirement. Their children are grown and gone. Through a wish to simplify their domestic surroundings and strengthen the social bond between them, they wish to discard their individual family homes and join resources to create a collective living community.

ORGANIZATION

As with all blogs, this one is organized from most recent to least. So you will see the latest progress on this main page, in three posts going backward in time from top to bottom. To get a better understanding of who we are and how we got here, just click on the post titles over there on the right. They are also organized backward in time, from top to bottom.

Monday, April 23, 2007

MID-TERM CHARRETTE - update


Last night's (Wednesday, May 2) charrette went very well for all involved. While our client-attendance was a bit thinner than expected, the triumvirate of Mary Ellen and Wilf Pinfold and Cody Curtis spoke intelligently and passionately on the behalf of their absent comrades. They saw a variety of ideas presented by the students--which will be posted under 'Mid-term Site Strategies'--and led quite a spirited discussion, which has given us all a good direction in which to progress.

Ultimately a single winning scheme was not chosen; but we identified postitive elements of many schemes to develop into a strategy that can be divided in to individual components to be developed by the students in the upcoming weeks.

Most importantly, everyone was quite happy to maintain a great deal of room to move, to change, and to discover as the students start in on the details. The clients are ready to be enlightened, and the students are ready to sink their teeth into some very provocative propositions. Right? Your devoted servant yours' truly will provide a template site strategy--incorporating all the issues raised--which will provide the basis for the individual parts to be developed.
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4 comments:

Nathan Garvison said...

I was very pleased with the way this midterm charrette happened. While our design was not incorporated, it is quite informative in how this actually works and that clients really often have no idea what they want. Architects have the ideas and the client will either like them or won't like them. I think having as many ideas as possible is important. This clearly demonstrated that.

The most intriguing part of the charrette was that none of our designs was specifically chosen. Some strong ideas were taken from a few, but for the most part we are going to be forced to make all new stuff for the next few weeks.

Good job everybody,
N

May 2, 2007 at 11:28 PM
garrett martin said...

nathan, you beat me to the punch, and said it better than i could have.

well done, studio.

and big thanks to Wilf, Mary Ellen, and Cody!

May 2, 2007 at 11:31 PM
Mary Ellen Pinfold said...

We enjoyed the charrette last night very much. The creativity, and thoughtful presentations from each group were impressive. It was obvious that much effort was employed to intriguing ends.
The addition of 4 more living units and some programed community space may have come as a surprise to all of us, but I think it will make the project more tenible. I'm looking forward to seeing the results of your work in this next phase.
m.e. pinfold

May 3, 2007 at 6:11 PM
Dalatowski said...

I would just like to once again thank the clients for taking time out of their schedules to meet with us.

It was a great experience to have someone there to let us know what they envision and what things they would like to see change or improved.

Great Charette overall, tons of useful information.

-TD

May 4, 2007 at 6:47 AM

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