Putting Yourself Out There

In this economy, it is very hard for many architects to get jobs. On the flip side, it is very hard for people to afford architects. When New York architect John Morefield was fired from his job, he did not just sit around and wait for a new opprotunity to present itself. He put himself out there and offered his expertise in an unconventional way. John set up a stand in a New York farmers market advertising architecture for 5 cents. People could come up to him and ask basic design questions for five cents. While he did not make a ton of money offering his services this way, his name became well known and he was able to get commissions for bigger projects and start to earn a living again. Most of the projects he does are affordable- things the average person can afford who normally would never think to go to an architect for. He would do anything from plans for a house or a larger building to redesiging a thirteen-year-old's bedroom. John took a situation most people would be helpless in and furthered his career.

Another story in this journal with the same qualities of helping others is an article about Haiti. While Haiti is not anywhere near ready to start building large projects, architects have begun to make strides in improving the nation. Most Hatians are living in tents at the moment. Many architects have been working on pre-fabricated cottages and more long-term solutions to living. Architects with no jobs have been donating their time to these projects and other similar projects.

Students are also giving their services to Haiti, using the experience as a way to improve a nation and as a learning tool.

Right now, in my architecture clas,s we are designing a boarding school for girls in Haiti. My partner and I are mainly focusing on the protection of the girls and on making school sustainable or envrionmentally friendly. This is an actual design competition, so we are trying to create a situation which would be beneficial for Haiti and for our career, giving our skills to a good cause.

fearless design

There are countless buildings throughout the world which have an awful desing yet hide behind an intriguing facade. A lot of times, these buildings with promising facades unveil very ordinary or unpleasant interiors. Massimiliano Fuksas's design does the opposite. He was successful in creating a meshing a modern interior with the existing facade from the more historic feel of the town.

While the majority of the buildings in the town were built in postwar Germany, this building brings a new light to the towns architectural program. While Fuksas's design is not visible from the square (as seen from the facade shown below), he was still inspired by the steep roofs of the surrounding area, so the building became a merging of old and new geometires, which were consistant to an extent with the existing area.

The interior of the buidling is extremely modern, consisting of many open areas and glass which make one feel as though they are outside in certain areas as you can see to the left.

One thing that caught my attention was how controlled this completely modern building was in such an old city. Fuksas said he was "not afraid of context", but he "does not think you can build in the center of a city without paying attention to what is already there."

This is an emerging problem throughout the architecture world as buildings begin to change their form and materiality, especially in places like Eurpoe where the building style is dominatly historical. Although this can be achieved in many different ways, architects must pay attention to what is around them, and create spaces which recognize the events that are already happening.

- "market value" by Josephine Minutillo, Architecural Record

Burj Khalifa

Some of you might have heard of the world's tallest skyscraper completed only a few months ago, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Being such an architectural feat, many people have questions on how it was built and its significance, and why is it in Dubai.

Being the first building to rise a half a mile, its Chicago architect, Adrian Smith was not in control of where it was located, just that it was a monsterous achievement. There were many extreme height and extreme climate obstacles the designers had to achieve to create such an imense building.

The building is essentially five 30 story buildings stacked upon each other. It had to be built this way mainly for pressure reasons. There is a tremendous amount of pressure on the building in both water and air. Imagine the pressure a water pipe that is 800 meters tall would need to allow water to get to the top. You would not want to be around if this pipe ever broke. For this reason, they created a system which there was a new pressure system for each section of the building. Another water problem that came up was that the hot water was hot and the cold water was hot. They did not want hot water coming out of a cold water spicket in a five star hotel that is located in the building. To solve this problem, they used the high humidity and condensation of the area to create a system which collects water during a cooling period, collecting about 15 million gallons of cool water a year.

Air pressure and temperature were also a large concern for such a tall building. The air in the middle of the building is very cold, while the air at the top of the building is very hot. For this reason they created a air suction system that takes the hot air from the top of the building to the middle of the building and vice versa.

It seems to me that such a tall building is going to have many concerns regarding fire and life safety. While they seem to have worked everything out, I still have my doubts that this buidling could possibly be completely safe. Another problem is that in this economy, they are having trouble filling all the spaces in the builidng. While some parts of the building consist of a hotel, restaurants, apartments, and office spaces, there are many parts which cannot be filled. Even though this is a remarkable builidng, I have my doubts that it was a smart building to build. I guess only time will tell if this high of a building works in this world.

-ARCHITECTURAL RECORD

genre

I have always known what genres were, but I never knew there was such a debate over them and how you define a genre. To be honest, I really have no interest in learning about the debate over what makes a genre. However, unless I am mistaken(which I might be) Miller's idea was who cares what a genre is as long as you are entertained. Genre's change, just like people's style and interests change. Personally, I like her attitude towards genres more than Bitzers ideas which are more deductive. In my opinion though, I dont care what genre I am reading/listening to/and so on.. as long as I like it.

So personally, this part of last class was not too interesting for me.

On a brighter note, I think our group is pretty much set on an idea for our commissioned document, doing something with the extension center and perhaps forestry? Maybe I will find this more interesting!