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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781482861402 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Partridge Publishing Africa |
| Publication date: | 04/30/2016 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 114 |
| File size: | 9 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Guide for Architecture Students
By Kahina Ferreira
Partridge Africa
Copyright © 2016 Kahina FerreiraAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4828-6139-6
CHAPTER 1
Draw, draw, draw
You know that a movie is just a set of multiple images sequentially assembled that pass through our retina at high speed right? Same applies to a line, but instead of images, are points.
Now imagine yourself drawing each image, with a first, second and third plans, perspectives with infinite vanishing points and angles, shadows and with different intensities batten and textures of objects that are in the foreground. Wwwooowww, tiring? It feels like a rush of adrenaline right? Oh, don't forget the details. They give the magic to your drawing, they are the soul of any image. It brings an emotional power of architectural size. Therefore the more time scooping exploring the various ways of expressing, representing, sketching a drawing, the greater will be the chances of your drawings to become a masterpiece.
You can even ask yourself, "do i have to do this with all drawings?" Of course not, because you have no time, only priorities.
Express yourself, break down all your feelings about that image of Luanda's bay at 6:30 pm summer time, with beautiful people doing exercises, jogging from side to side, having spontaneous encounters with strangers. How does this image make you feel? Now, transfer all those feelings and emotions to your wrist and let it flow, let yourself be guided by a well sharpened 3H pencil on top of your biggest obstacle, the blank paper.
Is that a good image to draw? Am I on the right angle? How many scape points should i use? SSTTOOOPP. Stop everything and turn off the "complichometer". Blanc piece of paper, image and pencil, it's all you need. Now, focus, commit yourself 'till the end and start sketching.
Now comes the most beautiful part, more personal, more sensible and thus the most difficult. Drawing facial expressions, but don't worry because the process is the same, you just need to apply yourself coz no one can do that for you. More important then everything that I've been saying here, is not to forget to enjoy yourself along the process. If you can, do beyond what your teacher asks you to do and innovate, share your research and create a debate amongst the class, as it's the best way that we can learn. Remember this: if it's too easy it's probably because you're not doing it right.
Architecture is the world's best course. Do you know why? Because GOD is an Architect. It's not just a professional graduation course, you learn a lot about life, humans relations, society, you learn to build and define your character, to learn who we are and who do we anxiously want to become.
CHAPTER 2The Shape
It is very important that you know and understand the shape of artificial things, things we find in nature and the shape of people. Is it circular, regular, convex? Maybe it doesn't even have a shape. In order for you to really understand these concepts and definitions, you need to first understand geometry. Learning how the points are joined, where are they located in space, if they are folded points and so on. Can we alter the angle at which the shapes touch each other? What about changing our perspective of the shape? We can do many experiences which will result in new shapes, from the simplest one to the most complex and each one will stimulate a new emotion, a new feeling. This new shape will force you to think in a new way, following a different line of thoughts and seeing all that surrounds you in another perspective.
Now you begin to understand that the standards can be redefined and elevated to a higher level. Most of all, you realize that you now have multiple possibilities in hands and it doesn't stop there.
You say you're an architecture student? Dare yourself, be bold and an activist, be interesting and a pain in the ass, in a good way coz no one wants a pain in the ass classmate or pupil. There's a line between being a pain and being persistent, otherwise even though you might have the most interesting question ... but all the time, people won't like you plus you'll look like a complete idiot. Remember, it's good to be great professionals but it's great to be good friends.
CHAPTER 3The Force of Gravity
Travelling, dreaming and staying on the moon is what we do best. It's our essence, really, there's no other way of being creators, inventors, solvers if we don't imagine how it could be, "what if we add or subtract that volume?" "how about inverting it?" We always have lots of "ifs" that only through imagination we are able to reach this architectural orgasm. And that is AWESOME. We are awesome coz we were chosen by the world's Architect to be His disciples here on Earth due to the gift of imagination and creation that He has blessed us with. BUT, we also get to get awesome problems. We think and see what others don't. But i got bad news for you: the world's Architect thought to be funny putting us on Earth where there's the force of gravity that pushes us 24/7 to the epicenter of this enormous green and blue, EVERYDAY.
As a result, we have to think of ways to keep the object created connected to the ground, stable and static so that it doesn't fall nor cause damage. In other words, floating in space. Keep in mind that you can indeed fly with your imagination, but you need to necessarily land well, thus you need to calculate the vertical, horizontal and other charges in order for the object or building to be in balance.
Everything you create is subject to force, pressure, tension and the three laws of Isaac Newton learned in high school. EVERYTHING. Does it have weight? How was the distribution of loads in order to keep it from falling? Does it need some support? Is it in balance? How does it react to the momentum? So start thinking of technical, static and mechanical solutions to this problem that the Architect of the world gave us, the force of gravity.
Has it begun to get tough or are you with mental laziness? This is how life is. In fact, this course is the best example of life it has highs, very highs, lows and very lows ;-). Be careful with your life, especially your health. ALWAYS have three meals a day at least, you will not produce much in 10 minutes, rest and eat for 10 minutes, you will not miss anything. Instead, after eating and resting you will have more energy. The equation is simple, "why the hell you wanna make things so complicated? – Rihanna", plus you have to stick to the time you gave yourself to eat and rest.
This is the course that you'll need to research and read a lot, attend lectures, participate in forums and seminars, be updated on the urban issues and what is being done to solve them in your town. That's where good ideas arise, solutions and motions for the citizen's quality of life.
Be practical and put feelings apart because here everything has to go right and be correct.
These are things that you'll gain working, calculating, observing and exercising it. Do homemade experiments if you don't have a lab so that you can gain practices not just theory. You can ask me "where do I start?" Well, you're an architecture student right? Look around ... are you in your room, garage, in class or on site? It doesn't matter. Resources are something that you don't lack, but I warn you that you won't get it right on your first time, second, maybe the third time you will not get it right either, but know this: the result of the forth will be much better than the first. I call it the architectural learning process. Keep that in mind, always have the will and humbleness to learn, to improve and surprise yourself, know that you will fail, just don't make it permanent. Sapere aude.
CHAPTER 4The Material's Consonance
Whatever you're creating, is made of feedstock, has a structure so that it can stand, a mass that gives volume, a weight and a skin cover. Seems that I'm talking about anatomy, but in this case we can consider as the anatomy of architecture, that is made of materials that structure, sustain, protect and give body to your master piece and together irradiate the atmosphere. These materials communicate with each other and everything around. What I feel inside an adobe built wall space is different to what i feel inside a curtain wall space. The materials embody human feelings, provoke different emotions, awake a fantastic sense and react with the environment creating new materials with new aspect evoking new emotions. For these and other reasons it is VERY important that you know and own your materials.
What is its composition? Color? Reaction with other materials? And most importantly, is it green?
Look for aspects such as durability, workability, the composition possibilities, make the materials become in harmony, give it rhythm, now play around with light and shadow. Does it shine? Reflects light? Does it have a shade with an interesting figure? How does all this make you feel?
Get to know the terminology of the course, in addition to being very good, it shows others that you know what you're talking with property and it puts you in a level of respect and consideration. Do site visits, ask your teachers to schedule periodic construction site visits in order for you to be in contact with the real thing and with the techniques to apply the materials.
In case your university doesn't arrange such visits, you can do it yourself. Remember to be bold, come up with a story, especially if you're talking to the "boss", the security of the place, do whatever it takes to get in and take pictures. But beware; I've had colleagues that got in real trouble.
Formwork, shoes, foundation, beam, pillar, slab, cover, know the stages of the construction process, alternative materials, construction details, advantages and disadvantages of that or this material, create a small vocabulary to help you learn the terminology. New construction materials are always popping up on the market. Stay updated, search, do your homework about these new materials and know up to what extent are they viable, never forgetting of the old and conventional building materials.
Propose them in your project, ask your teacher about them, take risks and don't be afraid to fail coz no one is born knowing about the world. We are all learners, there were thousands of experiments, attempts and failures to get to where we are today, so stop mumbling and start failing while you can because these errors help us grow and sometimes reborn. You are an architecture student and not a professional service provider, yet, this is the best time to make mistakes and learn. That's life.
CHAPTER 5Contemporary Thought
Jean Piaget, E. Husserl, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Jacques Derrida, Karl Marx and many more, are names you should begin to familiarize yourself, as well as their works and dates because it will help you understand the basis of their appearance and understand the sequence of this spectacular film of the architectural currents like deconstruction, structuralism, rationalism and others, which led to its evolution and how did we get to today's date.
"All the knowledge possessed is provided with sensory experience", "If anyone knows anything, than he cannot be wrong." Phrases such as those ones should be known by you to distinguish empiricism from rationalism and understand the relation that exists between Man-World-Science.
I'm sure you have heard of the Eiffel Tower, but may not know that this work exceeded ALL limitations that determined how tall a building could be at that time and at the same time enabled an environment for urban life. Today it is one of the symbols of the modern movement. It was a bold move at that time right? An Architect who is a real architect acts like that.
Awaken the philosopher inside you and reflect on the ideas and thoughts of the great historians, philosophers, epistemologists and other thinkers of modern science in the field of literature, art, design, painting, sculpture, music and modern architecture. This psychoanalyst exercise will help you read and understand the human mind, including your teacher's, understand various projects of other architects and their justifications and most importantly, to really understand what a prospective client wants.
I'll give you a hint on how to study the theory subjects more efficiently. Create a scheme on blank paper with the title in the center of the paper and the subtitles around it with each own content with key-words that have different colors, arrows, lines, showing important aspects, make miniature drawings related to the subtitles to help you remember. Yes, it's a mind map. With it you'll truly learn, opposite to memorizing. You can even do gestures when you study your mind map coz it also helps to remember, especially if you over do it and it can be fun ;-). Do your work categorically. Ask yourself what is my theme, how should i approach it, what's the objective, where and when did it happen? When you answer these questions, congrats, you're half way done.
If it's a group work, please, don't wait for everybody, i suggest you start asap, after all you'll also be individually evaluated. Schedule a hand-in date prior to the real date and organize yourselves how you'll proceed to avoid delays. This is very important. Get used to this rhythm of work so that when your done with the course and start working professionally you won't have many issues with team work. Be cold and objective, don't waste time finding the blame rather finding the solution for now. After that you'll know who can you count on. Oh, it's nice that you know your share of the work but it's great that you know the whole work in general so that you can always save someone's ass and more points for you. Don't ever let the presentation die.
CHAPTER 6The Origins
Before speaking specifically about this chapter, I would like to invite you and encourage you to get books on what interests you but also about the history of architecture and urbanism. Books like The Atlas of Contemporary Architecture- Alex Sanchez Vidiella, The Barefooted Architect's Guide- Johan V. Lengen, Ideas and Forms-Le Courbusier, Atmosphere- Peter Zunthor, How to View Architecture- Bruno Zevi, and many more that you will discover. Ask for references from your teachers, talk to higher grade students. Some web pages can help you such as ArchDaily, Architecturendesign, scribd (will help you with digital books), Facebook and many others. Attention, Facebook is a great tool and few know how to use its real potential. There, you'll find MANY firms, companies, stores of architecture, planning, and you'll realize that the world is not only what Your sight can reach.
From now on, your favorite channels should be Discovery, NatGeo, History, FLN and other channels that have building programs. Do not forget to watch movies, preferably historics such as "Pompei and Agora", watch, documentaries about historical + origin of humanity (youtube can help you with that) and of course a good live concert.
After all how did it all begin? What is the origin of cities and architecture? Since man began to inhabit planet Earth, he needed to overcome the barriers imposed by the climatic conditions, protecting himself from the rain, the weather, the animals, and also having a place where they could store their food. Thus was born the first idea of "shelter".
Let us travel to the V century, medieval times. Cities arose between the rivers and roads that were later protected by walls thus determining its limits. Activities such as politics, trade, religion and others were developed at its center. Our differences are up until now the biggest reason to make wars and also why cities were built and fallen apart, forcing people to seek shelter along the pathways where they were gathering creating small villages. People of all levels could socialize here and so arises the square.
Cities were only able to exist after agriculture and after the criteria to build were reviewed and it has been used up until today: accessibility and safety. Uruk, was the first town in history and it is where civilization was born. Later, democracy in Athens due to the defense for freedom. In Rome the question for public health, personal hygiene began and later on the road network with the Cardus and Decumanus axis.
The Islamic city arises in the VI century with Maumee based on religious beliefs. Thus the Mosques, domes and other features that identify these cities were built. In the XIII century the Renaissance cities were born looking at art, humanism and conscious resurrection. With the stroke of Renaissance foundations, comes the Baroque town at the end of XVI century bringing the fountain, statues, concave shapes, perspective, wider and straighter streets that converged in churches, monasteries in a radial layout.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Guide for Architecture Students by Kahina Ferreira. Copyright © 2016 Kahina Ferreira. Excerpted by permission of Partridge Africa.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
Acknowledgement, vi,Preface, vii,
Draw, draw, draw, 1,
The Shape, 10,
The Force of Gravity, 14,
The Material's Consonance, 22,
Contemporary Thought, 30,
The Origins, 38,
Computerized designs, 50,
It's Art, It's Culture ... It's Architecture, 54,
A good that sometimes makes me sick, 68,
Architectural terminology, 71,