17.05.11

My group for Fog Illusion and Space came together this morning to complete our model to present to Will Alsop. The difficulty of having a group of eight people is to refine and coordinate ideas; so due to the time constraints I felt that the model did not come together as I had imagined. Each person had taken their own approach to the task of creating an Installation in the courtyard space of the TU; and the central theme of moving through the space seemed to be clouded by the busy collection of sculptural installations.

The session with Will Alsop was focused around three group models. The first group had taken an artistic approach using patterns and small sculptural elements such as seating and shelters, but they were criticised that the installation was all at ground level and they had not taken advantage of the vertical space in the courtyard.

My group was the second to present and we received a varied response. Initially he commented on the fact that we had chosen to combine a number of different ideas without focusing on one. The chaotic mix meant that the central theme of movement through the space was lost. Each of us explained our approach to the installation and his opinion swayed towards a more positive stance. He began to comment on the richness of ideas and said that we need to stretch our ideas to the maximum by almost turning the courtyard void into a formulated solid space. We were left with both his positive and negative thoughts and he told us that film would be a good media to present in. We have a lot of work to do to coordinate our very different approaches, create a model, drawings and a film!

The final group was the most successful as they had taken an extremely strong concept from one of the individuals previous Illusion task and applied this as their central theme. They had used cut tubes to create very sculptural forms that separated the courtyard spaces but these were also successful at penetrating the verticality of the space. Overall they received a positive feedback and have set sail towards their final review.

After an enjoyable weekend and an extremely busy start to the week I felt that our group has a lot to do before our final presentation. I had mixed feelings as to how well the session had gone and ended up staying with a few individuals to talk to Will Alsop. Initially we spoke about work and then as the conversation evolved, a number of other topics arose. We sat talking for an hour or so and I left feeling much happier and really appreciated the time and the conversation.

Presenting our models to Will Alsop

13 - 16.05.11

This weekend a good friend of mine Chris Leonard (aka Shaggy) came to visit me in Vienna. He travelled from Warszawa where he is working for the year and it was an absolute pleasure to have him here!

The shock news of the weekend was that Will Alsop decided at the last minute to bring our next session forward to Tuesday the 17^th. This left our group almost no time to prepare our model and coordinate ideas. There is nothing like panic to get a group working, so we managed to work quickly and efficiently on the group model. We managed to get a considerable amount done but the final coordination would have to be done on the day.

09.05.11

I spent my morning in the local park just on the corner of Molkereistrasse reading through some texts for my Technics and Civilisation course. The clear blue sky and beautiful sunshine was a real pleasure but also made it quite difficult to concentrate on the task at hand. Overall it was a productive session and I was able to enjoy the weather.

Later that evening I attended my first rugby training session in Wien. A friend from my halls has been playing at the club for the year and encouraged me to join for a training session. The group was fantastic and all of the guys were extremely friendly, greeting us and encouraging the new players throughout the training.
I found my fitness was my biggest let down but it was a real pleasure to start playing rugby again!

2-7.05.11

The first week back at university flew by! On Monday morning I found myself the only person to attend Technic and Civilisation which worked out quite nicely for me as I had a one on one session talking through my essay plan and ideas, this was very productive and now am in the position where I simply need to get writing!
The next sessions that we had were part of the final leg of the Architecture, Construction and Settlement lecture block. The idea of block lectures is quite efficient as you receive a lot of information in a short burst and this leaves more time to focus on the tasks set.
On Friday I had to present my findings on Informal Markets, I had focused on the Tirol and informal markets such as slope side bars that have started to feature more and more over a number of recent years. The rest of the class had interesting ideas and each person had targeted and delivered their findings well. The presentations were done through a variety of media such as PowerPoint and film; what was the most interesting for me was how widely the topic was interpreted. Overall the sessions were productive and another task has been set based on reinventing the Km7 market in Odessa. I look forward to the new task and can not wait to start designing!