Relaxation booth

I had a tutorial yesterday. As always, I brought some models. Usually I don’t draw images about my project, but this time I did it in order to make my idea clearer, so I brought them as well.
I like my sketch images, but my tutor was not so interested in it but models. My idea is to make a small café like Japanese tea rooms, but she suggested me café should be already popular, so I should focus on how to sit in the space. Meditation space for relaxation is very interesting, and it might be like phone booth. I like this idea, and my tutor also advised me to research human body for making relaxation space.

In last project, I learnt the fact that if you have a strong opinion and concept, you lose your way easily, but I am caught by the same trap. Is it based on my personal character? I am not sure. Anyway, I felt my project gradually became more embodied.

I went back to the beginning

I made a model and brought it to my tutorial.
While I made it, I was afraid that the model was too simple, because the model just represented a simple hemisphere, but I like the shape of frame.

My tutor told me that I had gone back to very basic stage. It was just structure. Actually I was not interested in the structure itself but the lighting effect. I should have prepared better. My tutor also suggested me the stage, which was struggling with structures because many people can do sophisticatedly, should be quite difficult.

He also advised me to try to make a smaller space like a bedroom and I should find some ideas from the model.
Maybe my interest is to Architecture, but I should focus on interior now.
I thought curved shapes are very impressive for me as a “sacred” expression, but it’s a matter of exterior. When it comes to interior, I feel lighting effects are very important for expression of “sacred”, so now I think of exploring lighting effects.

English pronunciations

Needless to say, Japanese is not good at speaking English.
Generally speaking, there are two reasons. Firstly, English education in Japan focuses on reading and grammar. Secondly, Japanese pronunciation is very simple and quite different from that of English.

Today, I exercised English pronunciation, and I’ve got interested in those of “dn” and “tn”, “tl” and “dl”. “dn” is included in “garden”, “tn” is in “cotton”. “tl” is in “kettle”, and “dl” is in “candle”.

They are very difficult for me, but the sounds are very interesting, because usually Japanese pronunciation are constituted by single vowel, or a combination of a vowel and some consonants, such as “ka”, “wa”, “” and “i”, so I am not familiar with double consonants in Japanese contexts and they sound very “English-like” for me.

tutorial 20080218

I had a tutorial today.
I edited some images as my inspiration and brought it and some models to the class.
My tutor appreciated my models, and suggested me to think what scale I want to make my project in and think of it clearly. She also encouraged me to keep making sketch models.

I didn’t expect that I could get a good reaction, so little bit surprised, and I felt I should have clearer images of my project.

Next Step: to keep making models

lost my way

This week, I made models with shapes of honeycombs, but after I talked with my tutor, I changed my idea and I thought I would make models of curved shapes.
It was good that my direction became clear, but there are many curved shapes in the world, so It is difficult to find which shapes I am interested in.

Following my tutor’s advice, I collected some images related with my project. I was interested in modern churches, I selected Ronchamp chapel designed by Le Corbusier, Jubilee Church by Richard Meier.
Then I read “Architecture Now! 3” in the library in my university, and I was really inspired by the works of Calatrava. Curved shapes in his works are quite beautiful and from them I can feel something “sacred”.
My image of a health center of my project is a compounded facility with a spa and a café, and looks like a room of a spaceship in “2001: A Space Odyssey, so I chose some images from the film.

I researched like that, but I have not got some inspiration yet… In my last project, I could get some idea about rhythmic shape, but in this project, it is more difficult. I have no choice but making something, but I feel I might lose my way now.

Enron

One day, the large company that no one expected to vanish is suddenly bankrupted.
Enron trouble was a big scandal in world economy.
In Japan, the similar affair had happened few years before, so personally it was not so shocking, but I was interested in the background.

What kind of ambitions did the CEOs have? Why can’t they avoid a such kind of terrible situations despite some of the most smartest guys, at least some people believed if it is not true, joining the company?
This movie gives some clues for such kinds of questions.

My most interested point is conversations of Enron’s trader over the phone!!! They sound ridiculous, but quite real.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)

This film is an adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's novel.
It is about drag junkies.This film is an adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's novel.
It is about drag junkies.
I have a trouble in understanding English, so maybe I couldn’t understand every interesting point of this work.
It reminded me of some similar movies, such as “Trainspoitng”, “Naked Lunch”, and “Requiem for Dream”.
It’s a kind of mixed one with “Trainspting” and “Naked Lunch”.
It’s not so stylish as “Trainspoting”, but more philosophical like “Naked Lunch”.

The acting performance of Johnny Depp is miracle!! I can’t believe he is same person who acted Gilbert Grape in “What's Eating Gilbert Grape".

Architectue Now! 3

I read "Architecture Now! 3".

I was surprised because there were many Japanese Architects in the book.

I was really inspired by Calatrava.

His works are very dinamic, but but not annoying.

Final Fantasy (2001)

I watched “Final Fantasy”.
The original idea is from a quite popular video game.
It was one of “box office bomb”, but personally I thought it was not bad work.
The CG quality is quite high, and the story is not so bad.
3D animation CG technology is now very popular, but it might have be generalized to pay money for CG animation works yet 7 years ago.

The story is interesting, but not easy to understand, and the ending is not happy. They might have been factors of the failure.
The director, Hironobu Sakaguchi, has a characteristic opinion about death, and it influences strongly this work.
I understood the massage of this film as the following:
Death of people who you love is a kind of losing, but it is not everything. It has other aspects and sometimes we need understand it as a positive thing.

How to develop my idea

I lost the way to develop my idea, and I talked with my tutor about my project.
He advised me to always ask myself about my project. The main questions he gave me are the following:

1. Existing Architecture – what gives you pleasure
2. Who do you want to design for
3. What for you is sacred

This method is very useful for making my idea and my problem clearer. He and I repeated this process a few times, and I reached a conclusion that my project should be a health center for a busy city. Next step is going to be researching about health center.

Our 2nd prject started.

At the end of January, our first project finished.
My evaluation was worse than I had expected.
We handed in just only final book for the evaluation, and my book was worse than my project itself, and I guess that is why I couldn’t get a good score.

I fulfilled with my work, but I feel I should improve my way.
Then since last week, our second project started.

I thought I tried to make a church or a more general “sacred” space, but the reactions of my tutors were not good, because it might be too difficult and too general.

I went back to start point and began to look for what my favorites are.
While I looked through my favorite buildings, I suddenly came up with an idea that honeycomb structures might be beautiful, so I checked how to make them and started making honeycomb models.