I have made it through the first two days of class surprisingly pain free. The only unpleasantness has been the reality of how expensive school is – I have already spent over $500 on books and supplies. I buy my books on the Saturday before class starts every semester. They are always really expensive, and part of me is thinking I should just wait and buy them on a discounted web site. But I am one of those impatient people who cannot sit to wait for books when she should be reading them for class – so I always buy them before hand. I try to look at it like it is an investment into my future, because almost all of the books that I buy are related to architecture. So they turn into reference books that I may never look at again but feel better knowing they are there.
The studio project for the semester is to design a “Médiathèque de Montréal”, which basically means a library with an emphasis on digital media, along with exhibition and performance space. I actually had to design a project similar to this Fall semester last year. I designed a Louis Kahn archive for Boone, Iowa, but the project was so bland that I did not put it into my portfolio. I am hoping it will be a different case with this project. The site in Montréal is quite urban, and maybe even located at a “crossing-point” between different building styles/eras. It will be very interesting to decipher the site conditions when I am in Montréal.
The studio I am in this semester is called “comprehensive” studio. I think this means we have to produce actual construction documents and, according to the syllabus, be very “technical”. I am not sure exactly what else being “comprehensive” implies, but our instructors tell us it is so labor intensive that they allow us to work in partnerships. So I will probably work with my good friend Alejandra. Luckily, we have a complimentary skill set – she is magnificent at drawing and I am good at making models. I also think she is more of a free spirit than I am when it comes to design, I am more pragmatic, so it should be an interesting outcome.
The warm up assignment for the semester is to design either a storage element or a viewing element for the médiathèque. I think this means we are supposed to either design a shelf or a study carrel. I randomly selected to design a “storage element” so I am currently struggling with redefining what a “storage element” is, and what media it supports. I think that browsing at media in the library should be a leisure experience, and that all too often, it is not. In the library on campus, I feel like I am being caved in by shelves, and that makes me want to get out of there as fast as possible. This project is due on Friday (model and drawings) so hopefully I come up with something somewhat competent by then.
