Midsummer

I realize it's been a very long time since I updated this, so here it is. I left off where the block group had cast its first prototype block to go into the Well House. Here are a couple photos of the final one:

So, there it is. There were dozens of these blocks cast out of 14 total formworks that were made such as this one:

And since we were making the entire structure out of concrete, there were column and lintel formworks to be made:

And then, once these were constructed, we had to mix and pour concrete into them:

Then, after all that was done, here's what it looked like hanging out in the shop yard:

This was followed by the transportation of these blocks, columns, and lintels to the site:

So, after transporting everything to the site, we commenced construction:

All that was left at that point was some additional painting, plumbing, block additions, and site cleanup. Here are my final photos:

I'd call it a job well done by Penn State First Year Architecture, Section 3!

Well House process

The Well House previously mentioned is proceeding slowly it seems. Until now, we had narrowed our ideas for the water-catching roof and structural frame down to two, and our section just convened to create one idea. I am one of the three self-assigned to the "block crew." It's our job to create formwork for our concrete blocks that will fill in the frame. We successfully cast our first block:

It may not look/be perfect, but if you line them up in a staggered form, it looks pretty cool.

Here's what it would look like if they were all lined up in the staggered way, which is ultimately what they will be stacked as. The reason this image doesn't make perfect circles is because I had to warp the block a little in order to fit them in a nice pattern, but they are going to make near perfect circles in reality.

Concrete blocks, Well House, etc

Here's a more text update on things that are going on. For studio, each section is designing and building a structure (approx. 12'x12') that will serve a purpose on Penn State's Center for Sustainability. My section is designing what we call a "Well House," which will house at least two water canisters that are used for gardening. This is all well and good, but our professor wants the walls to be made out of concrete blocks. And yes, it will be the students' job to design and ultimately make these blocks ourselves. Here are my two preliminary proposed block ideas:

We then collaborated as a section to pick out the best designs based on function or aesthetics. I placed both of mine in the aesthetic category. We knocked out half of our total blocks, and both of mine managed to make it through that round. Then, we grouped similar blocks together to make five groups, and we have small groups developing each of those ideas further. There will eventually be one block design that will make up the entire Well House.


For VisCom, we've gone over PhotoShop, Illustrator, InDesign, and now we are doing a quick segment about PowerPoint. Here's my InDesign assignment:

The assignment was to describe our last studio project with visuals and text.

VisCom update

So, here's what we just recently did in digital VisCom. I guess this would be for portfolios maybe. VisCom ties in with studio a bit more this semester.

Next rotation

Haven't posted in almost a month, so here's the product of what I've done in that time. I transformed my camera into a night light, and then I remade the light with wood and plexi. The light runs on two AA batteries and I actually plan to use the light in my room.

Looking through the left side of the aluminum foil.

You can see the hard to reach battery compartment in the bottom/back of the camera. This is something I definitely wanted to change when I built the final model.

Final model with the frosted plexi in.

Much easier access battery compartment.

 Final model, removing the plexi with the light on.

 Final model without the frosted plexi, and with the light on.

Looking down into the front.

Phase one

So, finished phase one for the studio project. My camera has been a lot of fun to work with, and here are a couple photos that I took with it (it's a film camera that doesn't use any sort of electricity or batteries!):

So, I had a bit of fun with that. Here are my drawings for the first phase:

The bottom left is a section that shows where your line of sight goes when you look through either of the two viewfinders (it might confuse you, so don't worry about it too much). I managed to do a nice exploded axonometric that I put in the middle of the page. Look closely on that and you can see where each piece goes based on the guide lines. Also, I showed the aperture opened a crack (the thing that looks like a ninja star that the main lens connects to).


This weekend will be first year architecture's trip to New York City, so that will be a nice break from the campus.


Also, here are a couple interesting macrophotos of what's behind the front cover:

Second semester, first year!

So, the start of the new semester here at Penn State is three days in, and already I have much to do. A project for studio (more on that later), English 15 homework, Architectural Engineering (A E) 210 homework, I already took a quiz in Energy and the Environment (EGEE 101), and the whole getting readjusted to life here.


Energy and the Environment is going pretty well; it's an online course, and the material so far is basically how and where is energy produced, focusing on electrical, geothermal, and electric. The course format allows me to go through it at my own pace, but I do intend to spend as much time on it as I would if it was a lecture class. I already finished lesson one and there was a quiz at the end, which I could retake up to 10 times, and my best score would be submitted.


A E is interesting so far, as it's the first time I'm doing math since last year. There was a simple worksheet that took me just a couple minutes to do. It was just a review of simple Pythagorean Theorem formulas (triangle formulas).


The Art History 202 class seems like it's going to be more interesting than last semester's 201 class. The professor is a bit more interesting in the way that he speaks about the material.


English is really the only class that feels like a high school one because it's required and there are only a little more than 20 kids in my class. We're going through rhetoric right now, which I find kind of interesting.


Now for studio. Yeah, we're into a project already and we're pretty engaged in it already. On the Monday that classes resumed, we took a trip to a town called Tyrone, and each student bought a cheap (less than $20) trinket, and each section had slightly different requirements on what kind of item they could get. My section was told to find some sort of device that caught our attention. I chose an old camera, called an Argus Cintar. Here are a few photos of it:


Here's the front view. The eraser under it was only to keep the camera from falling because it was on a slant.

Top view.

And side view.

Unfortunately, I can't open the front covering because some of it has fused to the rest of the body, and I can't risk cracking the plastic. I intend to get some film and see if this thing still functions.