        Gunter, Lindsey : AssignmentsEdit Gunter, Lindsey : Assignments here.Lindsey Gunter GT id: 902279507 1060 sec. A T.A. Hyun Kyung Lee The Fifth Street Bridge is becoming every aspect that a gateway to Georgia Tech should be. From the fundamental requirements a street should be, to the future projections that any good street should have, the Fifth Street project has it. In order to be considered a street, a pathway must contain social importance, economic function, and believe it or not traffic (Chp. 4; The Street). When someone is deciding if a street or a city serves its people the way it should, some questions arise that are usually about traffic flow, fuel consumption, the money returned to the investor, behavior and psychological benefits, and the streets ability to meet future demand (Chp. 4 The Street). Fifth Street definitely lowers the fuel consumption, because although you may drive their, once one gets there one has everything within walking distance. With money coming into Georgia Tech through the Conference Center and the Barnes and Noble, I would say the investors and the economy are definitely being refueled after the initial money they forked out to improve this street section. I will later show that the street definitely improves the lives of people in the specific areas of their behavior and psychological health. Before the “street” as we know it came into existence, people used other rights of passage to go to shopping, to work, and to socialize. Some used the roofs to their homes, others used trails, or stepping stones to get around (You Are How You Subdivide); however, the idea of how these pathways arrived is the same. These pathways or streets started out being the way to get somewhere; very quickly they became the places left over between the places one wanted to go to. People used to float on the “open sea”(You Are How You Subdivide) to get where they were going, soon homes and buildings took the place of the open space and the streets became the space between them. Unfortunately, the original plan of the city of Atlanta left hardly any room for green space, or places for historic sites and monuments (You Are How You Subdivide). People that live more than 30 miles away from a mall go to the mall once or twice a month and although they may plan to spend all day there, business is sporadic and, excluding all the gift-giving seasons, unpredictable. By contrast the Lifestyle Centers (The Mall Goes Undercover) combine home, work, and play. People have go to the shopping center on Fifth Street because it is in the middle of where they live and work. America’s mind has recently shifted from their self to a “greener”, worldview. Just look at all the green space that has been added to GA Tech’s campus by the Klaus building. Now students can walk through this area instead of having to walk around it like they used to. Lifestyle centers cut down on the fossil fuels used to go dine, to go to work, and to go shop/ play because everything is right there. In a major pollution filled city like Atlanta, Lifestyle centers do not only combine convenience of our established lifestyle, but they promote a more ergonomic lifestyle. The street is being re-subdivided. The greatest subdivisions of land did not come about by accident; they were carefully assessed and then divided, and then divided again. Most of the time it has to be subdivided one way first, fail, and then re-subdivided to improve the street. This type of subdivision is the type that suits people the best, and after all the perfect street is one the keeps people in mind, and adjusts for the people that it serves. Atlanta started out with no universal plan, and just allowed every owner to subdivide his own land as he or she pleased and left the streets of Atlanta in a confusing array of slants and curves instead of blocks and angles. The city of Atlanta and Georgia Tech are making large strides at fixing this problem and the improvements on Fifth Street have become part of this. Before the multi- million dollar development project stretching from across the Biltmore to the Klaus building, the section of Fifth Street did not harmoniously contain any social or economic exchange. On campus the Klaus building contained obnoxious weeds that grew strong roots into the earth. There was therefore no reason to try and trek through them to get to class. The only people that occupied this section of the street were the guys living in the neighboring fraternities, and the baseball fans that came to watch the game across the street. Now there are two bus stops right in front of the Klaus building. People have the opportunity while waiting at the stop to provide social exchange. The stairs, and sidewalks going around and through the Klaus building now encourage a quicker route for pedestrians too and from class. Where people used to just pass by the brush and not give it a second thought, now they wait at the bus stop and stop and see fellow students. Moving eastward toward the bridge we notice first of all that the bridge is wider than in used to be. In these before photo, you can see the interstate below, as well as not very much traffic on Fifth Street itself. Widening roads gives the illusion of less traffic. It may appear and sound like there is less bustling cars using this route for work or school, but in reality it is the same or even more! I think the fact that the Fifth Street development has increased traffic, and decreased the negative connotations and noise from it means that this money was well spent and the development was a success. In these after photos, you can barely see the interstate below, and when you’re just walking along you cannot notice it at all. The north side of the bridge has more shrubbery and some non-traffic obstructing awnings with established trellises. The south side has no awning and a lot more open grassy space. Each side as well has very wide sidewalks. It is very important that the awnings do not hinder pedestrian or automobile traffic. During the summer on hot, sunny, Georgian days the awnings actually encourage pedestrian traffic because there is some shade on the street. Normally the only time you have shade on a sidewalk is in a neighborhood, and you expect to lose the shade when you come to the city unless a building makes it. The benches under the awning actually encourage pedestrians to sit and rest a while. Technology Square provides shops, restaurants, jobs and tourist attractions; everything that a mall contained, is now contained in the Fifth Street Lifestyle Center (The Mauling of Public Space). The restaurants provide affordable food, and jobs for college students as well as other Atlantans. Technology Square helps bridge the social gap Georgia Tech has from the city. Everyone that goes to Tech forgets they are in one of the biggest cities in the country. These few, previously vacant and vandalized blocks have now become a landmark in the city of Atlanta. Not only do people that attend the Georgia Institute of Technology feel cut off from the city, they also spend a lot of their time studying, and in their own personal bubble. For the students that do not have a lot of time to explore the city, having a few classes at Technology Square forces them to venture slightly outside their own world, and break the walls of the Georgia Tech bubble (even if it is to go to class) and see some city dwellers. One might say that Georgia Tech is an introverted (The Terrazzo Jungle) designed college, meaning all of the interest is geared toward the inside of campus. By reaching out an arm to the city, it brings the sociality and the economic world of Georgia Tech full circle. Techies strive to make the engineering world more efficient, but students and teachers work mainly in theory. Bridging the gap between theory and reality by bridging the gap between Georgia Tech and Atlanta is a synchronic idea. It redesigns the focus or the campus from being introverted to extroverted. Fifth Street Bridge has become an entrance or gateway to the “Ringstrasse” (The Terrazzo Jungle) of the Georgia Tech Campus. It encourages non-tech dwellers to come inside the campus and look around. Technology Square may very well be a push factor for some students to come to Georgia Tech. “The quality of civic life was a function of the quality of the build environment.” In the summer Fifth Street at Technology Square closes off every Wednesday night to vehicular traffic, and opens up to a large inflatable movie screen. It has a bunch of chairs, free popcorn, and all the restaurants stay open for business. It’s called Flicks on Fifth, and allows the city dwellers to have a “park” feel while watching a movie outside. The restaurants have gates that cut into the sidewalk, leaving ample room for pedestrians, but these gates create space for the diners to interact with the cityscape and the passersbys. The outside “patio” may have been created for legal reasons, but I think it does a great job of merging private ownership of the shop, and public interest of the street. It puts people right out in the middle of the pedestrian flow, which undoubtedly sparks conversation (The Social Life of the Street). The sidewalk is split, almost in half, by a different material. The greater half is cement, and the smaller half is inlayed brick. I have observed the difference to define the space of the sidewalk from service, and leisure. The spaces for parallel parking, as well as the bicycle lanes are closest to the brick; the meters, bike racks, bus stops, and greenery are all located on the brick section of the sidewalk (These ideas sparked from reading The Design of Spaces). Technology Square contains so many different types of businesses that it appeals to the diversity that encompasses Georgia Tech students. The good thing is that they are making it available to every type of person (Domesticating the Street). Some may even find some similarities between a Lifestyle Center like Tech Square and a bookshelf (The Solitary Stroller and the City). All the different subjects crammed together on one shelf. In this case the businesses are the books, and the Fifth Street is the shelf. Fifth Street is quite well lit at night compared to the streets around it. History has shown that the bright lights in a town is what lures people there. Even within the city the lights point you to the specific streets that are still alive and awake when the sun goes down. The lights along with the conference center and hotel, attracts tourists to Fifth Street. So all the money that went into creating the Lifestyle Center on Fifth Street is actually bringing in money as well. The variety, and other qualities possessed by this street are best experienced through walking (The Sensory Street), which is why it is so important that the Campus Planning Center planned for such wide, and enjoyable sidewalks from the Klaus building all the way to the intersection of Fifth Street with West Peachtree Street. The city street is not supposed to give the consumer what they think they want, the city street should make even the things the consumer thinks he or she would never want available just for the sake of the consumer knowing that he or she could go in that store, or eat at that restaurant. The street’s job is to make sure the entirely exhausted walker will walk past that last store, and decide to take one last stroll, try on one last pair of shoes, or get a treat before they head back to their home in the suburb. Another task of a street is to create an open place that inspires serendipitous encounters. As Rebecca Solnit explains in chapter 11, “The Solitary Stroller and the City”, “American cities are becoming more and more like enlarged suburbs, scrupulously controlled and segregated, designed for the noninteractions of motorists shuttling between private places rather than the interactions of pedestrians in public ones” (172). We need more Lifestyle Centers like Fifth Street that draw the people that live in the city, and at the college to leave their homes without going too far to get the interpersonal connection that most neighborhoods have, and that is lost when you move to a big city. The city street should amplify opportunities for coincidences. All the impressive cities are able to change their function over time, and Atlanta proves to be doing this, with the improvements on Fifth Street being a part of this (You Are How You Subdivide). Although some people may like to see more people hanging out on the bridge or using the benches on the sidewalk or just in general on this street (The Social Life of the Street), it takes time to shift people’s focus, especially on a college campus. Before the Fifth Street Bridge project, and Tech Square erected, the students on campus had already established their hang out, and study areas. The fact that people are tailgating on the lawn of the bridge and using the bus and trolley stops along Fifth Street proves that slowly this street with Technology Square will become the newest hot spot in Atlanta. It may take the fresh faces on campus four or five years before Fifth Street becomes all that it is meant to be. The seniors during the first year the Fifth Street was usable had set in stone where they study, and hang out so they did not use it that much. Each year, after these students graduate, the new students will use the area more and more. So again, in four or five years the freshman will be looking for places to hang out, and by that time the focus of the students on campus will have shifted from the student center (in the middle of campus) to Technology Square (in the outskirts.) I went people watching at Technology Square one day after reading “The Physical Street” and “The Skilled Pedestrian”. In this chapter “The Physical Street” the author expresses a disdain for the hierarchies on the street. He seems to think that pedestrians are given the short end of the stick because the cars have more green time on traffic lights than the pedestrians have to cross the street. He wants city planners to cater to people when they make streets. He forgets that in today’s society most people drive cars. The people that have chosen to walk have chosen to do so because they have do not have to be anywhere too far away, and they have a lot of time to get there. It’s not about catering to pedestrians or automobiles, its about making smart choices for the people inhabiting the area. I watched as people waited to cross the street, and they did not seem to notice the wait. They had people to speak to in order to make the wait not seem as long. I asked a couple if they were annoyed with the pedestrians’ right of way at Tech Square, and they said they hadn’t really noticed. Either people accept the cars as a harmonious aspect of the city, or Technology Square does a remarkable job of keeping pedestrians oblivious to the racing cars. In conclusion, Fifth Street has already amplified tremendously the social functioning of Georgia Tech’s campus, it is bringing in some revenue and as the focus of the campus shifts will bring in much more. Also, as the focus shifts the pedestrian and automobile traffic will increase. However, he wide streets contrasting the tall buildings will always give the illusion of less traffic. The Fifth Street Project is already a street and lifestyle center on campus should be, and will only continue to reach a higher potential in the next decade. Pictures: 1. http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1379/1435322060_b44bbb9ede_o.jpg 2. http://www.whistle.gatech.edu/archives/04/sep/13/0521002-P4-12.gif 3. http://www.math.gatech.edu/news/events/ima/photos/Fifth_St.jpg 4. http://www.whistle.gatech.edu/archives/06/dec/11/0711005-P1-1001.gif 5. http://www.whistle.gatech.edu/archives/06/dec/11/0711005-P1-104.gif 6. http://www.cc.gatech.edu/conferences/icer2007/hotel.jpg Architecture Playback: Ellen Dunham-Jones spoke about different architectures that have made important impacts on society. The problem-solving approach to these architectures is what the lecturer emphasized. The professor tried to get us to answer questions about why to build, where to build, and how to know what to build. After involving the students with the disciplines of architecture, and getting them interested, Ellen began to introduce us to the specific program at Georgia Tech. Some interesting subjects Ellen touched on were global economy, ecological literacy, and Definitions: 1. Global Economy: I think this means that some professions, such as architecture, transcend global boundaries. An American architect can design buildings in Japan. After looking up the term on wikipedia, I found it to have more to do with making partnerships. America has about 25% of the global economy share. 2. Ecological Literacy: I think this means to have knowledge of the earth. I think it comes in handy when designing architecture that is green. After looking it up at telstar.ote.cmu.edu/environ/m2/s1/envlit.shtml, I found that it implies an intimate knowledge of the landscapes around you. A good architect has to have ecological literacy so that he or she builds a building that does not ruin the natural landscape, and looks well within the landscape. 3.Digital Manufacturing: I figured this was the computer fabrication process of a handmade design. After researching it at CIMdata.com I learned about the process, and came to the conclusion that I was right. You send your design (hand or computer made) to a computer that designs it in 3-D to let you know what it will look like in real life. Speculate: Environment plays a much larger role in architecture than I thought it did before this lecture. Ms. Dunham-Jones not only expressed the importance of choosing the correct location for building, but also creating the right environment after its been built. You have to think in terms of greeness, and in terms of the venue of people you want to attract. Also, location is important in getting a job. Italy has a high percentage of architects to normal people, compared to other countries. This could be a good or a bad place to start a business. I would have liked to hear more about this from the lecturer. Building Construction Playback: Dr. Roozbeh Kangari was the instructed us on the process of building construction. He also introduced us to the BC program at Georgia Tech. The process was emphasized as not being linear. He was constantly telling us that to be successful in the BC industry, you have to think holistically and be able to work with all the other parts of the process. The process includes urban planning, an owner, development, designing, building, and operating. Some words he brought up that he explained were: holistic, decommissioning, and procurement. Definitions 1: Holistic: From the lecture I assumed this meant to think about the big picture. But I still did not understand exactly what it meant in terms of building construction. After looking up the word, in a dictionary, I realized that it does mean a comprehensive understanding of the parts to a whole, but it means to intimately comprehend them. I take this to mean that a any industry that is a part of this process should know each part of the process as well as his or her specialized part. 2: Decommissioning: I thought this meant to be fired, but it means to withdraw from a project. This happens at the end of a project. Anyone working on a building or a project has to decommission once its done because essentially they are building it for someone else, and the group they built it for has to take ownership of it, and use it themselves. 3: procurement: I had no idea what this meant when it was used in the lecture. But after researching it I know that it means to obtain something. In reference to building construction, procurement usually means to obtain the materials needed to do the job. It’s the first step in the General Contractor’s job. Speculate: Dr. Kangari showed us that the point of building construction was to build something that did not only use the space it was built on efficiently but also to build the space that would be used efficiently. This is a much larger task than I thought it was. You not only have to consider the surrounding building, but the ground you build on. You also have to make sure what you build is built the most ergonomic for the people that are going to be using it. I have a much greater respect for people going into the building construction industry after hearing this lecture. I think the Doctor did a wonderful job in representing the task at hand for contractors, as well as what skills a BC major should have. Industiral Design Playback Abir Mullick defined Industrial design as “the professional service of creating and developing concepts and specifications that optimize the function, value and appearance of products and systems for the mutual benefit of both user and manufacturer.” He explained that design is the central factor of something he called innovative humanization of technologies and the crucial factor of cultural and economic exchange. When you design, you design more than a thing, you design how someone interacts with your product. The design of manufactured things adds value, increases usability, and simplifies life through improved human-product interaction. Industrial design facilitates manufacture by simplifying process or adopting technology, and demonstrates concern for the environment, and builds community. Some words that I felt like I needed to know more about are humanization, branding, and mass-manufactured. Define: Humanization: I thought humanization meant becoming a human. Not literally, but societal. After looking up the word “humanize” I realized it meant to make something a person uses more humane, or usable by a human. It makes a person relate to a the object in a naturalistic way. Branding: I thought this meant to brand a cow, for possession purposes. Again, after researching it, I noticed that it can mean that, but more generally it means the visual language that lets you know you are a part of something. Mass-manufactured: This word confused me. I was not sure what it meant for industrial design. After I researched it on wikipedia, I learned it is like assembly line production, where everything looks exactly like everything else that comes off the line. Industrial Designers make things different, each one individual. Speculate: Mr. Mullick spoke about the philosophy of the Industrial Design program at Georgia Tech. He said that it starts with a problem, and then goes through a process that starts with creativity and is geared towards people. It is manufactured with environment and culture in mind. Industrial Designers have a much more focused problem to solve than an architect and a contractor. They have to design strictly for the use of people, not just designing a space, they are designing a process. He said if there’s no problem, than there is no design. I think that you can always redesign something. People may not even recognize the problem, but you can state the problem for them, and then fix it. Bibliography for Library 101 10-11-2007 1. Allouche, E.N.. "Pipelines 2006." Assessment of Damage to Urban Buried Infrastructure in the Aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita (2006): Katrina. Retrieved from ASCE on 10/11/07. 2. Bakker, Karen. Katrina: the public transcript of 'disaster' [editorial]. England: 2005. Katrina + environment. Retrieved from EBSCOhost on 10/11/2007. 3. DesRoches, Reginald. Hurricane Katrina's Impact on Louisianna's Transportation Infrastructure. 2006. Katrina + Economics. Retrieved from GIL on 10/11/2007. 4. Eamon, Christopher D.. "Observations of Structural Damage Caused by Hurricane Katrina on the Mississippi Gulf Coast." 21(2007): 117-127. Katrina. Retrieved from ASCE on 10/11/07. 5. Falk, Henry. "Environmental Health Perspectives." Guest Editorial: Environmental Health and Hurricane Katrina 114(2006): A12-A13. Katrina + infrastructure. Retrieved from JSTOR on 10/11/07. 6. Fed Governors Still See Strong Economy; Results of a survey from the National Assn. for Business Economics also suggest that Hurricane Katrina slowed growth less than predicted :[HOME EDITION]. (2005, September 27). Los Angeles Times,p. C.3. Retrieved October 11, 2007, from Los Angeles Times database. (Document ID: 902683111). Katrina + economics. Retrieved from ProQuest on 10/11/07. 7. Frank, Rich. The Greatest Story Ever Sold: the decline and fall of truth from 9/11 to Katrina . New York City: New York:Penguin Press , 2006. Katrina+Politics, Retrieved from GIL on 10/11/2007. 8. Graettinger, Andrew. Overview of Wind Damage to Woodframe Structure Caused by Hurricane Katrina. St. Louis: 2006. Katrina. Retrieved from ASCE on 10/11/07 9. Hylton, Morris . "World Monuments Icon." In Katrina's wake: the effort to preserve Gulf Coast heritage (2005): 10-13. Katrina + technology. Retrieved from EBSCOhost on 10/11/2007 10. Jenkins, Henry. "People from That Part of the World": The Politics of Dislocation 21(2006): 469-486. Katrina + politics. Retrieved from JSTOR on 10/11/07. 11. John Harwood and John D. McKinnon (2005, September 17). The Katrina Cleanup: Bush Plan Spans Political Spectrum. Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition), p. A.6. Retrieved October 11, 2007, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 898321511). Katrina + policy. Retrieved from ProQuest on 10/11/2007. 12. Kennedy, Shawn. Remaking New Orleans without loosing its past. New York City: 2007. Katrina + Architecture. Retrieved from EBSCOhost 10/11/2007. 13. Lougheed, Tim. "Innovations." Raising the Bar for Levees 114(2006): A44-A47. Katrina + construction. Retrieved from JSTOR on 10/11/07. 14. Manuel, John. "Environmental Health Perspectives." In Katrina's Wake 114(2006): A32-A39. Katrina + infrastructure. Retrieved from JSTOR on 10/11/07. 15. Mark N Lobato, Emad Yanni, Arthur Hagar, Charles Myers, et al. (2007). Impact of Hurricane Katrina on Newborn Screening in Louisiana. Pediatrics, 120(4), E749. Retrieved October 11, 2007, from Research Library database. (Document ID: 1361029851). Hurricanes + emergency preparedness. Retrieved on ProQuest on 10/11/07. 16. McKee, Bradford. New Orleans Recovery Plan Released. Washington D.C.: 2007. Katrina + hurricane. Retrieved from EBSCOhost on 10/11/07. 17. Olasky, Marvin. The Politics of Disaster: Katrina, Big Government, and a new strategy for future crises. Nashville: W Pub. Group, 2006. Katrina + Society. Retrieved from GIL on 10/11/2007. 18. Pontolilo, Brian. After the storm: a special report in the wake of the devastating 2005 hurricane season. Conneticut: 2005. Katrina + construction. Retrieved from EBSCOhost on 10/11/2007. 19. Reed Johnson (2005, September 5). NEW ORLEANS: BEFORE AND AFTER; A strong, soulful, wicked, frail city; After disaster recedes, the rebuilding will begin. Artists and others wonder: What will become of the culture :[HOME EDITION]. Los Angeles Times,p. E.1. Retrieved October 11, 2007, from Los Angeles Times database. (Document ID: 891749161). Katrina + culture. Retrieved from ProQuest on 10/11/07. 20. Sarah Casey Newman, ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. (2006, June 3). After Katrina, changes for pets are in the wind :[Third Edition]. St. Louis Post - Dispatch,p. L.30. Retrieved October 11, 2007, from National Newspapers (27) database. (Document ID: 1047486951). Katrina + society. Retrieved from ProQuest on 10/11/2007. 21. Seed, R.B.. "Embankments, Dams, and Slopes (GSP 161)." Investigation of Levee Performance in Hurricane Katrina: The New Orleans Drainage Canals (2007): Katrina. Retrieved from ASCE on 10/11/07. 22. Sipes, James. "Landscape architecture." Rebuilding the Gulf Coast: how landscape architects can use their digital skills to play a key role in the process 96(2006): 84-95. Katrina + technology. Retrieved from EBSCOhost on 10/11/07 23. The Politics of Disaster. (2007, October 10). Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition), A.20. Retrieved October 11, 2007, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 1361485681). Katrina + politics. Retrieved from ProQuest on 10/11/07. 24. Tibbetts, John. "Environmental Health Perspectives." Marine and Coastal Science. U.S. Ocean Policy Report Card 114(2006): 216. Katrina + policies. Retrieved from JSTOR on 10/11/07. 25. Tibbetts, John. "Sphere's of Influence." Louisiana's Wetlands: A Lesson in Nature Appreciation 114(2006): A40-A43. Hurricane + Katrina + geology. Retrieved from JSTOR on 10/11/07. 26. United States. An Act to Provide Special Rules for Disaster Relief Employment under the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 for Individuals displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Washington D.C.: U.S. G.P.O., 2005. Katrina + laws. Retrieved from GIL on 10/11/2007. 27. United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.. Hurricane Katrina : stopping the flood of fraud, waste, and abuse : hearing before the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, United States Senate, One Hundred Ninth Congress, second session, December 6, 2006.. Washington D.C.: U.S. G.P.O., 2007. Katrina + architecture. Retrieved from GIL on 10/11/2007. 28. Van De Lindt, John W.. "Performance of Wood-frame Structures During Hurricane Katrina." J. Perf. Constr. Fac. 21(2007) 108-116. 11 Oct 2007 29. Van Zante, Gary . Voices from the New Orleans Design and planning disporia. (2005): 64-65. Katrina + technology. Retrieved from EBSCOhost on 10/11/2007. 30. Webb, J.. Ports 2007: 30 Years of Sharing Ideas … 1977–2007. San Diego: Wade Watson, 2007. Katrina. Retrieved from ASCE on 10/11/07. 9.26.2007 Part. 1 The instructor spoke on the influence Palladio’s architecture has today. Palladio’s minimalistic, and mathematical approach to classical architecture is the foundation for most residential buildings today. The idea of a center room, with other smaller rooms connected to the most used room. Although the symmetry of his designs may have been lost in other genres of architecture, the fundamental ideas are similar . Some interesting vocabulary mentioned during the lecture are keynote, visual engagement, and geometrical pattern. Part. 2 Before the lecture I believed that keynote meant a harmony or something to do with music. As it does mean this, it also means the fundamental or central fact/idea. In the lecture, this keynote was the mathematics Palladio used to designs his homes. Visual engagement means for something to captivate the eyes or the visual sense. In this lecture I think it refers to Palladio’s architecture, because his designs dealt subconsciously to stimulate the visual sense. His designs also played intellectual games with his clients. A geometrical pattern is just what it sounds like, but it isn’t as simple, as you might think. Palladio used the sides of simple geometric shape to be the foundation of the dimensions of his designs. The proportions of the shapes, to the parts of his designs, were rendered precise and accurately. Part. 3
9.19.2007 Part. 1 The lecturer talked about the demolition of the Atlanta steal mill, and the creation of Atlantic station. Atlantic Station became the largest in-town development in the US. She didn’t do any actual work in either the destructing, or the constructing, but was allowed to document the progress. I don’t believe she ever really picked a position on the project. She talked about how much history was lost, and how much green space from the original plan was lost. Then she spoke of how “spiritual” the forty-acre parking lot was. Interesting vocabulary mentioned in the lecture are utopia, vernacular, and omnipotent. Part. 2 Before the lecture, I thought utopia was a foreign idea of a city. Something that wasn’t realistic. After her lecture I realized that utopian constructs in architecture are pieces pertaining to perfection, or idealistic almost fantastical edifices. That they do exist, they just, like the parking garage, posses a certain mystical attribute. I thought vernacular referred only to “the plain variety of language in everyday use by ordinary people”, but lately I kept hearing how drawings are a type of communication. Then at the lecture, she used this word to show that Atlantic station was exemplifying the expression of the old steal mill. Omnipotent means unlimited power. The lecturer references “omnipotent control” to describe the decisions made by the people involved with Atlantic Station on which area to build Atlantic Station on top of. They decided which area was useless. Her pictures are going to show this demolition/construction journey in the new gallery space being erected at Atlantic Station in memory of the Atlanta Steal Mill. She claims she’d never posses such power to be the one to decide which building stay or go, and would never try to shape the lives of other people, yet in the new gallery space, she’s going to shape what other’s will perceive of the history of the Atlanta steal mill, and the way they view Atlantic Station. Part. 3
9.17.007 Part. 1 Craig Zimring showed us the connection between architecture, culture, and behavior. He explains that architecture should be designed to benefit, the culture, and inspire healthy changes in behavior. He first points out to us our own cultures’ problems with obesity, which may have taken too much precedence over the most important issue. This issue is using architecture to change that behavior. Part. 2 Space syntax means “a set of theories and techniques for the analysis of spatial configurations”, and it is used to “help architects simulate the likely social effects of their designs” (wikipedia). People involved with space syntax of a building are trying to bring the art of architecture, and make it not just accessible to the public, but make it benefit the public’s behavior. Usually the word analgesic is used to describe “any member of the diverse group of drugs used to relieve pain” (wikipedia). In the context of the lecture, analgesic refers to this, but their studies showed that lighting decreases analgesic use by about 20%. This proves that architecture does in fact improve people’s health, if designed with the people in mind. Incidental, intentional, and hybrid are words to describe types of exercise. The people working to provide beneficial architecture are concerned with incidental and hybrid exercise. They know people that don’t normally exercise aren’t going to intentionally do it, but if they have to walk up stairs because there is no elevator, or the stairs are closer to the entrance than the elevator, they are more likely to behave healthier and take the stairs. Part. 3
Geographic Information System: Whenever Where Matter Part 1: The lecturer presents sound arguments for researching and using new technologies in city and regional planning. At his office they use various image devices to plan a city or a region. There is a four step process he believes will help promote efficient planning. Some important terms mentioned in his presentation are: research, one meter photography, and impervious. Part 2: Before the lecture, I thought that research meant to look up something to gain knowledge about it. It does mean this but it goes a little further: possibly using scientific method, and not stopping until you get a full understanding of the topic. One-meter photography is the type of picture used most commonly by city and regional planners. After looking it up i realized that it takes a flat picture from an arial perspective, but ads shadows and texture to the buildings to make them appear 3-D. It is the most comprehensive and detailed of the different types of photograpy. I thought impervious meant to not let anyone or anything to gain passage. In this lecture however, it is used to describe manufactured surfaces, like rooftops, sidewalks, etc. These surfaces are mapped in a type of photography that city planners use. Part 3: -How is your company teaching this generation about the importance of regional planning? -To project future conditions in a region plan, would risk managment be a field that would be helpful at your company? -Would industrial designers benefit from understanding the photography techniques described in this lecture? -In the process of planning a city are there tasks delegated to other professions in order to get the job done? Or is only one type of degree needed for this job? AEC Industry Part 1: Brian Bowen stressed in this presentation how the construction industry is more of a sector of economy than an industry. Within the sector of construction there are even more sectors, like residential building, non-residential, and civil/infrastructure. He spoke of he triangular goals of a client, that they want good, fast, and cheap construction. Often times the contractor can only provide two of the three. There is little vertical integration in construction, which is rare today. Some interesting words he used are: turnkey, design-build, and risk management. Part 2: I thought turnkey referred to a person that had control over a set of keys. It does mean that, but it also means "resulting from an arrangement under which a private contractor designs and constructs a project, for sale when completely ready for occupancy or operation."(dictionary.com) I guess the private contractor is in control over the key parts of the process, maybe that is how the word got such varied meanings. Before the lecture I though design-build meant a process, design and then build, but now I know that it is a construction project delivery system used to reduce the project delivery time by combining the design phase and construction phase of a project. Risk management is the technique or profession of assessing, and preventing accidents to a business, as through the use of insurance, safety measures, etc. This is important to have in any business. Having someone or a group of people looking ahead to make sure the company isn’t falling into any traps that could potentially tear down the company helps the whole economy stay afloat. Part 3: -Will broadening course offerings really make any change if the courses are not mandatory? -Is there a specific discipline that can make further leaps to help with interdisciplinary respect? -Will changes in the industry trickle down and cause problems in employment? How stable are the jobs in construction? -Is creating a sector of economy for construction a factor in the disrespect within colleges of architecture? CATEA Part 1: At CATEA, the team works to design technology that is universally accessible. This means they focus on making the technologies usable to disabled people, but does not ct off able-bodied people from using them. The CATEA representative presented his information by first explaining what a disabled person is and what types of things are hard for them. He did this through a power point presentation, with slides that gave him bulleted information that he then expanded on. Some important terms he mentioned are: Off-loading, disparate, and rehabilitation. Part 2: Before the lecture I thought off-loading was a term used in delivery of items. Here the term means to transfer the bulk of a persons weight from the area it usually rests at. This is to give the tailbone and pelvis a break for people that sit in wheel chairs. The term also means to transfer data. Disparate means, dissimilar, or containing distinct parts. The lecturer used this word to describe intricate parts of the manufacturing process, and how one item needs several types of experts, i.e. engineers, architects, industrial designers. I used to think rehabilitation was for alcoholics, and drug-addicts. I found that it also means to restore to good health, to reinstate the good name of, and to restore the former rank, privileges/rights of. The last one is interesting because at CATEA they are creating things that in a sense restore the clients born rights. Part3: -Why do the teachers need help in teaching the disabled learners? Is it to create technologies to help bridge the gap? -How important is it to combine the knowledge of the different disciplines? Is it to make the most efficient and most comprehensive research and development? -Are the workplace accommodations for harder to make from a design perspective or harder to use from a workers perspective? -Is the research CATEA doing more like a sector of economy since there are many segregated steps in its processes? CADCAM LECTURE Tristan Part 1: A grad from GA Tech came to talk to the class about the process between conception/design and manufacturing. CADCAM stands for Computer Aided Design/Computer Aided Manufacturing. Ideas and desires for whatever it is you’re designing and building changes throughout the process. Also he stressed the importance of first having limits, and then designing within those parameters. Some important terms that he mentioned are local, global, unitized, parametric modeling. Part 2: Parametric modeling means to have limits, or parameters, to your design and to create interesting space between those limits. A unitized installation means that it is connected directly to the structure around it. Part 3: • Do you ever feel limited with parametric modeling, or does having the limits help you begin your work? • Are these parameters always used when designing something, or is this a type of design? • For someone having trouble working within limits, how would you teach them to work with the parameters instead of against them? SOLAR DECATHALON LECTURE Part 1: For this lecture a student came to discuss the totally “green” home he and some other GA Tech students designed and are now making as GA Tech’s submission to the Solar Decathlon with two major purposes: that it ran on mainly solar energy, and its cost was affordable for the middle class. Yet several of the colleges within GA Tech were needed to create such a home. He also touched on the fact that many things are lost and added during the process of fabricating a design. Some important terms mentioned in this lecture were: collaboration, isolation, translation, and process. Part 2: The collaboration means for different people from different fields to work together on a particular project. The isolation means for one person or people from one field working on a project. Part 3: • -Does working well with others benefit the process? • -Why didn’t any industrial designers work on this piece and is there a place for industrial designers in an architecture firm? • -Was the common first year created originally for the purpose of collaboration? If so, why aren’t there more group projects? Isn’t getting along socially w/an architect (when I’m ID) different than working together to achieve one goal? CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE LECTURE Part 1: There were seven representatives from different architecture firms from around the east coast. The main topic they were presenting was how their firms use classical architecture. The presenters showed their information in a power point presentation that generally reviewed the firm’s work of the past, and showed some future plans that incorporate classical architecture. Some important terms mentioned in this lecture were of course, classical architecture, high-end residential, vernacular, proportion, traditional, and urbanism. Part 2: The vernacular of the site of a piece of architecture was mentioned in the lecture. Vernacular refers to the language of the piece, as well as the site. Integrating what you want to design with the space around the design is a prized quality in many architecture firms that focus on classical architecture. Urbanism refers to creating a building or home that reflects the lifestyle and functions for the people that dwell there. You wouldn’t put a skyscraper in a small rural town because the people there wouldn’t use it. Part 3: • -When creating classical architecture, is the process of proportions and lines more important than maintaining the classically inspired details, i.e. moldings? • -Is a classical architecture firm a place where and industrial designer would be needed? Or are the pieces that would maybe be designed by one, already made? • -Is innovation and creativity important for designing classical architecture, or is it mainly just replication of older pieces in a new way? #1 Observation The first installation I observed is the cascading wooden bench in the lobby of Architecture West. The structure also has long metal screws in various places to bend the wood back and provide an opening. The screws seem to support the curvature of the installation. About midway up the “wooden falls” is a series of metal bars that attach and support the wooden overhang on the second floor balcony. A little above this over hang the installation begins to bulge, and here the pieces are connected by thin sheets of metal. The whole thing is constructed with a few hundred carefully crafted pieces of wood. They are notched together and appear to flow effortlessly up (or down) the balconies in a vertical line pattern. The installation is patterned with a piece of wood followed by a space the same width of each piece of wood. As the wood gets closer to the ground, the metal screws are inserted horizontally to begin to bend the wood in several places to create small diamond shaped windows. The part where it hangs overhead on the second balcony, looks as though a cone was pressed into the side of it to get the bulges that it has. On the actual ground level, the space between pieces of wood is filled up slightly with a few more pieces of wood to create a sturdy bench. Although as a whole, it appears wispy and translucent, it is surprisingly sturdy to sit on. Speculation This installation is interesting, because although it is made out of dense, rough wood, the structure as a whole seems weightless and smooth. It reminds me of fabric falling down, or of a waterfall. What’s interesting about it resembling a waterfall is that so often the mystery of a waterfall is what lies behind it. I think this installation, with the spaces and windows through out it make the viewer wonder what’s behind it. Some issues that the designer may have been trying to solve with this installation may be seating, or shading from the late afternoon sun on the second floor balcony. It may also have been to bring visual appeal and/or contrast to its concrete surroundings. Although the installation is a free form, at the detail level, almost each piece of wood is different and there seems to be a simplistic order to the way in which it was constructed. It’s almost like ‘paint by number’, in that each wood piece has a number/word combination and each one has a place. I think it probably just folds up on the ground exauhsted from holding itself up all day long. #2 Observation The second installation I observed was the plastic one wrapping around the terrace outside of Architecture West. The area is somewhat secluded and usually quiet for such a loud structure. At one end thin plastic sheets are stacked on top of each other on the concrete. As the plastic opens up into new shapes, it opens up onto the brick. It closes up again at the top where it hangs over a concrete beam. There are two pieces of plastic under each layer of stacked plastic that are apart and then weave together, and then apart again and become the sides of a somewhat cubical form. This form has curved edges and isn’t a cube, but it has four distinct sides making it resemble a cube. It bulges in and out until two of these cubical forms connect and then their sides leave and connect with the sides that left another set of cubical forms. This continues until the enclosed plastic forms become open abstract forms barely resembling plastic pieces. The plastics are somewhat notched like the wood pieces on installation 1. The sides and pieces are screwed together. The light seems to follow the installation. It bounces off of the many curved surfaces on one side, making it very bright. At the other end the light barely gets into the stacked plastic. Speculation From behind the installation it looks like you were standing behind a waterfall, which draws a connection to the first installation. I do not see this second installation solving any functional issues, but it does cross gravitational issues. The openness and weightlessness of the part of the installation that hangs over the walking area is baffling, because that part looks heavy when compared to the thinly stacked pieces of plastic on the other end. From a vantage point several yards away, the installation may look confusing, but at a closer glance of the details, the repetitive, small, simpler systems, that were most likely designed first, are more obvious. In the midst of the open, free form there are also distinct lines and a twisting effect that can be seen from the under side of the installation. It reminds my of a whale jumping out of the ocean. The way it twists, and seems to defy gravity for just an instant. I think this one probably goes twisting around the campus like a long string of bubbles waiting to pop! Link to this Page
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