Charette: Sustainable Home

Thursday I attended the Eastern PA chapter of AIA's design charette for students (and architects) in the area. I served as a "sketchup facilitator," which meant my sole job was to create a sketchup model of whatever design my team of 15+ students and professionals came up with. I wasn't allowed to participate in the designing portion. I will offer that 15+ people in an hour and a half wouldn't have afforded me much opportunity to participate anyway! However, it was still interesting. My only qualm was the communication that seemed to lack between my group and I, for example literally 2 minutes before the models were "due," some of my team members came up to me and said that we needed some skylights on the roof... And of course they weren't just ordinary skylights, they had to be some funky shape. Needless to say, that did not make it into the model.

I will admit it was kind of fun to fiddle in sketchup, and as a bonus I received a Dunkin Donuts gift card as compensation for my services. As another bonus, I can hopefully count the experience as 4 hours towards community service for my IDP.

I have included some screenshots of the model below for your viewing pleasure. To give you a sense of the design challenge, the teams were to design a home for a group of 4 (college students, family members, roommates, etc.) incorporating various sustainable technologies. This challenge was inspired by the Decathlon. The site was an open lot on Hamilton Street in Allentown, PA. My team decided on a mixed-use facility where the family who lived upstairs owned and operated the bike shop/gym downstairs. Part of their design was the implementation of stationary bicycles rigged to generators to produce electricity... I swear I had nothing to do with this concept!






For the record, my team was a "close second." Out of 3 teams we received Gold (as you know, with LEED the ratings are silver, gold and platinum).

Black Sheep Come Home

Sir Norman Foster (Also known as the Baron Foster of Thames Bank), The Mozart of Modernism, was on Charlie Rose tonight. Why do I know that? For the sake of my wallet, sanity and soul, I have decided to stay in on a Friday night for the first time in about 3 months.

http://www.charlierose.com/guest/view/6986

For the most part, the interview was pretty softball, as most interviews of this nature are. It’s not the blatant pandering you get in the New Yorker, but the tone is something more akin to “How I Spent My Summer Vacation”.

That being said, it’s easy to be impressed with the ego-less nature of Foster, and Charlie Rose at least credits this to his roots. The documentary “How Much Does Your Building Weigh Mr. Foster?” paints him as a local boy who makes good, which while both diplomatic and manipulative, is true. You can sense that guile in Foster’s persona and his buildings. This is a man who comes from the school of Hard Knocks, also Yale. Like a much less depressing Jude the Obscure. (pfft. More like Norman the AWESOME)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6N34a8qk0o

A few years ago, I was in London and was lucky enough to stop by the Gherkin.

It’s a building whose simple brilliant design is painfully obvious afterwards. (Like watching The 6th Sense the second time) By using the wind as ventilation, Foster uses the tribulations that come with the development of an urban high-rise (mostly HVAC) to his advantage. The problem becomes the solution.


He pulls the same tactic in the Sperone Westwater scheme


Art Galleries in Elevators. It’s gonna be big.

For my closing – Here’s an excerpt from the Wikipedia page for the SNF.

“A qualified pilot, Foster flies his own private jet and helicopter between his home above the London offices of Foster + Partners, as well to his homes in France and Switzerland”,

Somehow this movie creeped into my head

Edit: This post has been dedicated to David Z. Sucharski, the man, the myth, the legend.

You should give him a job.

that is all.

Happy 10th Birthday Dwell Magazine

This may be shameless plugging - but I like Dwell.


Architectural writing is often difficult to read, as most architects are under the absurd delusion that they are great writers. This theory has been proven false countless times.**



By my count, there have only ever been two great architects who also wrote well. I'll let you guess which ones. (Hint: John Ruskin is not one of them, I'm sorry he's just not.)



With Dwell, you get the most bang for your buck

-The writing style is accessible to both the architectural professional and the layman. Also, unlike other architectural magazines, it doesn't take itself too seriously.



The only real criticism I can give Dwell is that is does have a clear sense of self-satisfaction in the crispy cadence of its articles. Dwell is designed for a very specific clientele: someone who is interested in the appearance of looking like they know good, modern design. Dwell could also be called IkeaFancier.


That being said, if you're looking for a solid architecture periodical without too many made up or obscure words - go with Dwell

For an example, see this article regarding licensing:


http://www.dwell.com/articles/to-be-or-not-to-be-licensed.html


** Architects also think they are good at the following:

- Music
- Sports
- Film
- Drama
- Fashion
- Politics
- Economics
- Business
- Romance
- Everything

AutoCAD for Mac

Recently I have been thinking about "moonlighting" to scrounge up some extra income and to do some actual design work (rather than monkeying around with someone else's design). Anyway, the problem I am facing is that all of my trial/student-licensed software has expired or ran out. Therefore, even if I can get the work (I have 1-2 prospects right now), do I really have any way of doing it? I was contemplating working by hand, which I obviously will do anyway in the sketching phase, but in this tech-savy world, especially when everyone wants to see tons of options/variations, there are obvious benefits to some computer aided drafting.

Forgive the rambling, let me get to the point. I was thinking about getting ArchiCAD, since I'm semi familiar with it and it crosses multiple platforms (I use a Mac and most folks around here are PC). I used the student version in 2009 and it's ok, but I would probably need to get super savvy in it, or also get some Adobe software like Illustrator or PhotoShop so I could spice up certain drawings like if I want to show materials in floor plan or light studies in section. But the program with which I am most familiar is AutoCAD, which has always been a strictly PC program. Until now (or very soon).

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/index?siteID=123112&id=15421056

I'm hoping that soon truly means soon, like maybe a month. But who knows. I signed up to be notified when the trial version is available. I await with a bated breath!

P.S. The video doesn't really show much about the program, but it still gets me fired up!

The debate rages on...

Click the image for a larger display.

Love Letters to Dead Architects: Driving Determination and Damned Dissapointment

My Dearest Fazlur Khan,

They call you “the Einstein of structural engineering” and while it may be true, I find the “Einstein of the human-heart” to be more correct. You understand that the height of a structure is not enough to compel the soul – though it helps – the real influence comes from stepping out of your self and looking through the unengineered eyes of a viewer. Never refusing the question “what was it like the first time I saw it?” and then re-creating that moment again and again. Take the framed tube, take the trussed tube, take the bundle tube, take the X bracing, take the concrete tube, all your creations, in the end they are all just burned rocks. You know that, and you love them, and all of us regardless.

So I guess I just want to say I love you back,

Retly Corm.


“The technical man must not be lost in his own technology; he must be able to appreciate life, and life is art, drama, music, and most importantly, people." Fazlur Khan

Mi Caro, Antionio Sant’Elia,

The say the good die young and I can say that the great die even younger. So how does it feel then, bright star, to be the John Keats of Architecture? Rather than the name writ in water, you wrote your monogram in raw, bare and violent colored materials. Or at least you would have.

This world was too small for you, my love, you who saw the world as the interweaving and overlapping of excitement and prosperity taken to the epic scale. Planes that park in garages, skywalks that are suspended over depths as daring as any tight-rope walker could imagine all nourished in your fertile brain. The future was within your grasp, tragically however, so was the present and it eventually claimed your life.

Now all I can do is sit in your future and sigh about our past.

With Love,

Retly Corm

Hello Bruno Taut.
Again, we find ourselves alone. You for your religious and social leanings, and me, well, me for my own reasons – do you remember not so long ago how it was, the sun would shine, the birds would sing and we would just lay around the garden city waiting for the earth to be engulfed in flames.

All that time, you would have thought we would have been prepared when it eventually happened.

We spent all of our time in brightly colored glass menageries- pushing the boundaries of the material. Back then we thought that the bright yellows and pastel blues and sharp reds of your Weissenhofsiedlung house would protect us. We laughed at the all white entries. But it seems the days of exhibition 19 are over.

I hope you make it out – I’m not sure I will.

Yours Affectionately,

Retly Corm.

Hermann, Hermann, Hermann,

Oh Hermann Finsterlin, what am I going to do with you? Not evil enough to be vilified, not virtuous enough to be deified. The right man? Possibly. The wrong time? Absolutely. You had so much potential:

Your sketches for a glass pavilion are worthy of post-post-modernists, paintings that almost smolder with passion, insightful writings, inspiring music, all of it unique and deeply personal. You are an expressionist thinker somewhere between art nouveau and something else, not defined quite yet.

Hard times became the crux of the problem, I suppose. Who would have seen the World War coming? You staved off the Nazis as long as you could, but you knew that couldn’t last forever. They would have you and your art eventually; and when that happened I was already long, long gone.

I understand, I do, you did what you had to in order for your life’s work to survive, but then the bombing took most of it away anyway – what was it all for Hermann, was it worth it?

-Retly Corm

Jokes? I Like Jokes

Since work has become for better or worse, completely insane - I have opted to pull a PJ and submit the brilliant work of others filtered through the blaaaahg.

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=999
-PHD comics: Campus Architecture-

http://www.viruscomix.com/page450.html
-Subnormality: Paint it Grey-

http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=141
-Hark! A Vagrant! : The Greatest Engineer in the World"

http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=266
-Hark! A Vagrant!: Brunel is Tired of these time-traveling Assholes"