Looking back over the past semester of arch communications...its been a long journey but really worthwhile. Hesitant. Perfectly describes my feelings during the Model It segment in which I was not particularly fond of recreating houses in 1:50 balsa wood models. It was my belief that this was a thing of the past in the hi-tech world in which we currently live. It was not only time consuming, it was also made even more difficult by the prospect of having to convert floor plans and sections from inches to millimetres or just figure out the scale to which the drawings were created. The Model It segment also left me feeling slightly hard done by due to the incredibly high standards by which the tutors expected the work to be completed at, despite never having come across balsa wood before in my life. It was this which made it even more difficult to cope with the constant model making that was expected of us each week. Looking back though, it was not such a bad introduction to the course and ended up being a good reminder of the many years that are still to come of architecture in which model making will only become more and more serious, where people even fill swimming pools with water.
I found the second segment, Draw It, to be the most useful and applicable to the life of an architect. The combination of drawing and rendering was a great insight into the processes of an architect. It was also refreshing to be drawing by hand and to be expressing oneself without the use of a computer aided program. It was also a great segment as it enabled one to familiarise themself with a 'real' piece of architecture and really see the concepts behind the creation.
Lastly, the Montage It segment, it was all very ambiguous, between the directions and the expectations, it was hard to decipher what was really being asked of us. However, I did enjoy the creativity and endless possibilities that came with the tasks as well as a new way of thinking about architectural spaces and masses.
Overall, the entire course was a lot of work, particularly the model making segment which ate up a lot of time. In hindsight, the course was thoroughly worthwhile and useful.
