Skipping way ahead in the chronological order of this blog, Yuji and I have finished our degree show installation! It will be in Cranbrook Art Museum until May 11th. After that it will probably be permantently reinstalled in Cranbrook's Brookside Elementary school.

Here is a practice version we had done a few weeks earlier:


I'll have more images of the finished piece later, for now here are some photos from Yuji's Flickr site:







A Nest
A collaboration of Yuji Hsiao and Doug Johnston

A Nest invites all visitors to enter inside to find their own comfortable spot. Furthermore, it is an invitation for people to find comfort together; a space of relaxation, contemplation, and conversation that is simultaneously public and private.
A Nest is honest. The shell is transparent and the materials are visible and used candidly. The shell is made of polyethylene tubing, formed into a web structure that invites visitors to explore its lines. It provides a open yet clearly defined space, which curves in response to its situation in the gallery. The materials used are commonly available and the method of construction is relatively simple, yet results in a complex self-supporting surface. The construction method allows shell spaces to be built in many forms and sizes, and in a short time, while the material is suitable for interior or exterior applications and is reusable and recyclable. The shredded paper inside is all post-consumer, gathered from the Art Academy and from SOCRRA, a nearby recycling organization.

Polyethylene Tubing, Zip-ties, fabric sleves, shredded paper

hey! Its been almost an entire year since i've posted to this school blog. sorry to anyone who has been wanting more info about life at cranbrook. Today, after a few months of snow, ice, grey skies, and below-freezing temps, its 72degrees, slightly breezy, and sunny outside. I'm working in the... View full entry

so the annual chair show is this month: its called "Chairspray" which was Eric's brilliant idea. Its at the P.F. Gallery at 14 mile, just west of Main in Clawson for those who live in the area. The open show at the Forum gallery was great - lots of really great chairs from most all departments... View full entry

I mentioned that Shan is taking over the trailer and adapting a design he has to the trailer. Its a huge water tank that will travel across the country. Today i saw him at the 4th semester reviews with a large (i think 1"=1') model of the trailer/tank made from laser-cut 1/4" steel and acrylic. it... View full entry

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } cranbrook advice, originally uploaded by estimmel. eric found this in one of the thesis books View full entry

This is a project i did at the end of last semester which originated in the Charrette we did for the Fanfare fundraising dinner. I basically took my original placemat and rotated copies at 90deg. until i had four interconnected placemats. I modified the model a bit in sketchup and rhino so that... View full entry

So buzznet now hosts video (awesome) so i thought i would try this out. This is a video of an 8'x8' section of 3/16" treadplate that we ripped off the deck of the trailer. View full entry

This is my new studio space, shared with john. My space is on the right. the walls are folded out all the way now - this is how the rest of the studio looks. this huge space is shared by yuji, mike, and casey. lots of room for them to build things, and for bill to store his materials. Its really... View full entry

today was the first day of class at CAA, although 3 of my housemates are still not back yet. Each department does things a little differently around here. Architecture tends to be the play by the book/traditional department when it comes to scheduling. I got back on in town on wednesday after... View full entry

so besides the trailer project (see previous posts), and fanfare, I've done a few other things this semester which i'm excited about. I made a 4-person pencil, which was a sketch model for a 6-person pencil that i want to make next semester. I learned how to use the vacuum forming machine in the... View full entry

sorry i didn't post last week, the network was down for testing for 5 days and then i went out of town for a bit. anyway... the following is sort of an update about the trailer project and some reflections on how that relates to my experiences and perceptions at/of cranbrook. its very... View full entry

thomas and matt suggested that we chop off the sides, we all agreed and got to work. prior to this chop things had become kind of stagnant, this move really got people motivated again. Bill at first was pissed but he soon realized that it was a good thing. Since this things have kind of become... View full entry

Today i saw Fiona Raby of Dunne and Raby lecture. It was quite nice and exciting work in many ways. A theme that has been resurfacing over and over here in our discussions and in our seminar this semester has been non-convential ways of practicing as an architect/designer/artist. Their work as... View full entry

iin attempt to make the posts load faster i am going to imclude only the mobile phone size pics, but you can go to my site at buzznet and check out the rest at full size. Also, we decided to switch all of our studio blogs from the typepad group to individual blogger accounts. I highly recommend... View full entry

i got the photo of us with Daniel libeskind emailed to me today... it makes me want to start a collection of photos of me with starchitects. ridiculousness. Top left to right: Bill, Paul, Libeskind, Mike, Veronica, Ed, Andy, Brian, Casey. Bottom left to right: me, Maryam, Eric, Yuji, John View full entry

One of the first things to do to the trailer was to strip it down to its structure so we could really start to work with it. We ended up cutting off all the strap bars on along the sides as well as ripping off the steel and wood decks. these images are about 3 weeks old... sorry. we had to score... View full entry

I mentioned the trailer project in my previous posts so i should explain it a bit. Bill developed the idea for a project which would be a way to get the work of the architecture department out into the public almost immediately after it is produced and without the usual situation of publishing it... View full entry

Tonight most of us (there are 15 of us +Bill) went to Midland, MI to see Daniel Libeskind lecture and afterwards hang out at a country club with he and his wife and a bunch of locals. It was fun and we got a lovely group picture with him, which i hope to post soon. He flashed through about... View full entry

Some very exciting things happening in the architecture studio at cranbrook this year: Bill Massie as new Architect-in-residence Frist Semester project (optional for second years): trailer New tools: laser cutter and CNC router new metalshop space larger woodshop new computers (sometime soon)... View full entry