Homage to the Mystery of Lost Knowledge

I was sifting through the galleries of Behance and stumbled upon this image. I first perceived it to be a very interesting but unique architectural space, but soon realized from the light sources that it was some masterful art direction of the interior of a violin. This is especially interesting to me as I recently visited one of the top violin making schools in America, here in Salt Lake City. I played the violin for almost five years before immigrating to America, and was not able to bring my violin with me, but fortunately the passion remains.  I have always been mystified as to why the funny holes and the weird shape that is not entirely ergonomic. What do the makers know that I don’t. within the first five minutes of my visit I realized they are wondering the exact same thing.

For a group of young group of architects who like to visit eye candy construction sites, a visit to a violin making school seemed a bit out of character. However our tour through their school and pedagogy presented some thoughtful comparisons and insights into our own profession.

The back panel of a Stradivarius replica in its early stages.

The Violin Making School of America in Salt Lake City. It is one of only 3-4 top tier violin making schools in the country, and arguably one of the most renowned.  The school embodies the tradition of painstaking craft and the eternal task of replicating the past with an ever increasing level of exactness. The interesting thing is the value of the instrument lies in the quality of the sound and the integrity of the aesthetic. However much of that craft is still shrouded in mystery, as many of the secrets to why those instruments are shaped the way they are or how they were originally created were lost during the Dark Ages. Their pinnacle of perfection would be to create the most exact replica, down to the way the varnish was created several hundred years ago. A strong contrast to what we as architects would consider the perfect project, if such a thing could even exist.

Freshly varnished violin bodies during the drying process.

In a profession that prefers to disregard work that attempts to replicate the past we can we seem to have a thirst for new technologies, new styles, new ideas, new typologies. It poses the question for us as Young Architects to decide why that is and whether those decisions strengthen our profession or not? Could we even replicate the craft of a Bernini building if we wanted to? For that matter would we even want to? That being said the trip was a refreshing one, and provided a little excitement again for the value of creating something that not only looked beautiful but created the richest possible experience for those that used it.

To find more images by the creative director of the title image and the Behance Gallery I mentioned at the beginning go to:

Freshly varnished violin bodies during the drying process.

The back panel of a Stradivarius in its early stages.

Landfill of ideas

I stumbled across the “Monument to Civilization” and passed over it as a quirky idea, but I went back to it and read into the concept a little more and was hooked. The project becomes a growing barometer of the wastefulness of a city, and towering monument the plays on the concept of cities trying to have the tallest towers, whereas in this instance the idea would be to have the shortest tower. Add to that the benefits of methane gas generated by decomposition and that it is built entirely of its own trash. I can also visualize this with a continuous circling cloud of gulls to add spectacle and ominous drama to this dark decomposing tower. Perhaps different towers reflecting different personalities with their own regionally specific “smellscapes” of trash and local color pallets of waste, with dark grey industrial towers and beige suburban towers, and psychedelic city towers. This I feel is a competition worthy idea, with a simple concept clearly illustrated accomplishing an objective with function and form inseparable from one another.

Kudos to : Lin Yu-Ta, Anne Schmidt (Taiwan), 3rd Place Entry in the 2012 Skyscraper Competition : Monument to Civilization: Vertical Landfill for Metropolises

Thanks to the following blog for the original post on this competition; http://www.evolo.us/competition/monument-to-civilization-vertical-landfill-for-metropolises/#more-16663

Architectural Animation for World Wildlife Fund

The video to the right is a presentation created as a collaborative technology project with fellow student Nick Diggins. The goal being to explore new means of digital technology and visual communication to clients, whilst maintaining a human touch to the design process and product presentation.

You can also find the full presentation here.

Graduate Studio – Final Site Model Photos

I recently obtained the photos of the model we built for our final graduate studio presentation. The site model base was composed of vertical cardboard slats that morphed from a site plan to a surface for projection and mounting images. The photos were taken by Nick Diggins with a high dollar digital camera.