who dropped the cheese?

on valentine's day, no less, i was strolling on mendenhall headed to school and i looked down to catch the sight of this...


who dropped the cheese? there has to be a story here...

feng shui cube : new york times

the sleeping space doubles as a night-time lantern.

during the day, mr. liu occupies the top of the cube. PHOTO CREDITS: joe fletcher, new york times

it's always nice when a project similar to the one you're teaching in studio appears in the NEW YORK TIMES...and that was the case today, with this terrific office/sleeping cube for a new york loft apartment. read more about it in the times.

sausage a-fryin'

i've always liked teaching studio in the morning slot...just seems more right somehow. but add to that prospect a great big opportunity for breakfast, and you've just about sealed the deal. in building community this year, students in section 01 of second year studio have planned monthly breakfasts. cassandra brought sausage and fried it on a hotplate right on the spot. you should have seen the inquisitive noses around the building peeking into our studio space. fortunately the students brought a bounteous feast, so there was plenty for everyone who ventured by.

jenga 1.0

austin's work deals with the a of GROOVE. this axonometric demonstrates how the two objects he design work together to manifest the concept.


kacie's board (the second of two) pulls together the various drawing elements + deliverables to tell us about the concept, WELL UP....a beautiful, cohesive presentation.



anna shows success with the first of three models due. students have been taking advantage of our woodshop, their own skills at their drawing boards, and our digital making facility, CAMstudio.

based on the classic board game, jenga, my section of this year's second year studio works toward designing very small residential units (300-500SF)....with some great success. check out the work of kacie leisure, anna berendt, and austin loman on their blogs.

acsa paper on activating history

as advertised in the companion blog post, here's the acsa paper "beyond survey + discipline: design history + the first year opus."

...and if you'd like to see the work of first year iarc students on the opus, dial in here.

activating history

ABOVE: in the lobby of the MHRA building looking at floor patterns, architectural forms, and finishes to think about design ideas of the entrance rotunda and the coming together of two axes. BELOW: some finger pointin' at key architectural and design features, natalie in deep thought, as the students look on. photo credits: brian peck.

last year, i gave a paper entitled: "beyond survey + discipline: design history + the first year opus" at the american collegiate schools of architecture annual meeting in new orleans on the practice of activating history from a series of one-way lectures to more experiential forms of learning. this year, my teaching assistant, natalie, and i have pledged to transform iar221 with rich experiences that demonstrate to students first hand the lessons we learn in the classroom. last friday, we went for a field visit to campus looking for circles and axes...drawing on lecture material from ancient rome. despite the drizzle, i believe students began to apply what they had been learning in the classroom. for a copy of the paper, see the next entry in this blog.

near the end of our journey in the music building, where natalie speaks to the class about the notion of architecture as frozen music, utilizing the evidence of the floor patterns in this lobby space between the recital halls in the building. photo credit: brian peck.

do i smell sausage?

the breakfast buffet, from above. photo credit: brian peck

nothing like some grits + sausage to get the gastric juices (and brainwaves) flowing. one of the lessons i have learned in teaching is that food always seems to get the conversation flowing. as a celebration of finishing our first project in second year studio, students provided an AMPLE breakfast. apparently the smell of sausage frying (thanks, cassandra!) caused a bit of a stir in the building...dee-LISH!