The fun never stops.
Today I submitted the second draft (of three) of my thesis proposal. That was a huge weight lifted off my shoulders, only to realize the third and final draft is due in just three weeks. But I'm very happy with the progress I have made, submitting 35 pages when only 20 was required. The major addition to the proposal this time around was five precedent studies, in which I analyzed five buildings damaged or destroyed by purposeful acts of violence and the approach to rebuilding. In all the cases, the very conservative to pretty conservative approaches were taken. I hope to break that pattern with my thesis.
In other thesis news, I contacted Lebbeus Woods earlier in the week about discussing my thesis proposal with him and he responded today that he would be glad to discuss it with me. So with that news I went back to his War and Architecture and studied, noted, and developed the best questions I could think of. I look forward to this opportunity and believe we'll have a very fruitful discussion.
After studio I went to hear Steve Badanes of Jersey Devil design/build who presented a narrative slide show of a lot of his projects. He's a very entertaining guy and clearly loves what he does. The inventiveness and sustainable aspects of the projects should be applauded. The projects often use materials within a very small radius of the site as well as local craftsman and the community at large. He's certainly not one of the "big guys" but has made an impact on the profession. I'd recommend checking out the projects his design-build classes create.
Finally, I'm going to a round table discussion with Gregg Pasquarelli tomorrow. He's going to discuss SHoP's current projects including South Street Seaport and some historic preservation work they do. Then on Friday he is going to be in studio to critique our first studio projects which included an addition to BSU's architecture building. Following studio he is giving an all school lecture. I think its all going to be very exciting.
But its crunch time.
8 Comments
I follow your packed schedule with awe... your enthusiasm during the crunch is inspiring, but with all this thesis talk... yours... mine... and others... and the pages and pages of writing that go along with them... I can't help but share this nagging, slightly nihilistic, quote from The Unbearable Lightness of Being...
“When a society is rich, its people don’t need to work with their hands; they can devote themselves to activities of the spirit. We have more and more universities and more and more students. If students are going to earn degrees, they’ve got to come up with dissertation topics. And since dissertations can be written about anything under the sun, the number of topics is infinite. Sheets of paper covered with words pile up in archives sadder than cemeteries, because no one ever visits them, not even on All-Souls’ Day. Culture is perishing in overproduction, in an avalanche of words, in the madness of quantity.”
hey, great that Lebbeus Woods is writing you... I should probably drop that guy a line or two about my thesis. considering it's all about architecture and war.
Courtney: it's good to put that in perspective...that no one really reads your work, and that's a little sad. However: what would be the point of thesis if you were doing it for someone else?
I say to hell with anybody who reads your thesis. You write it , you build, for incredibly selfish reasons. It's about crafting your personal language.
what time is the pasquarelli lecture? cannot find info on website.
Thanks Nick, I usually come back around to your line of thinking in the end... every week or so "what's the point of all this crap again" "oh, yeah, its all about me" "why am i dong this to myself" "oh, yeah, cuz i like it" ;)
btw... what's with all this war stuff anyway? Can't we all just get along...
Vado- 4PM in AB100 (Just another case of CAP doing a horrible job of promotion- the Badanes lecture was promoted for maybe 2 or 3 days.)
Courtney- The beauty of thesis is that finally, and for once, its all about me and what I want to do. Sure its always been about what I like, in a general sense, but now there's a certain specificity that isn't anything like the previous five years of study or like anything that will greet me in the "real world" (at least not until I'm a hot shot, haha). And war...well in my case I'm looking at the response to war and how it can and should bring out the best in people.
Thanks. The Great Liberty Bell and I will be in attendance.
The round table discussion was awesome He showed a few projects before opening up for question and answer which lasted for 2 hours before he told us we didn't want to hear him anymore. I'll recap it here along with the lecture this weekend.
I'll be the guy in the Raiders hoodie and Illinois hat if you want to introduce yourselves.
Good luck with your discussion!
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