Past and Precedent- 10 ideas

http://www.uncg.edu/tlc/images/UNCG_McIver_map.jpg

While discussing the Xianyang palace in China and the Acropolis in Greece we discussed ten important elements to consider when observing architecture.  For our group specifically, we discussed precedence and how it relates to the layout of Xianyang and the Acropolis.  Using the ten important ideas, we applied them to UNCG's campus.

Space- Space is very important around the campus of UNCG.  Buildings are spaced pretty equally apart.  The EUC is set in the middle of campus, probably because it is the most commonly used building by all students on campus, much like how the Acropolis is situated in the middle of the village on a hilltop, because it was the communal area.  UNCG's campus takes up alot of land, stretching down Spring Garden,  a fairly busy street in the Greensboro community.

Precedent- Precedence is important because it sets the stage and inspires all events that are to follow the original event.  In this case, the setting of the important buildings is the important idea to think about.  Buildings were set in the middle of cities so as to suggest that they are the meeting place for all people.  For UNCG, the EUC is set in the middle of campus, which is in the heart of Greensboro, only minutes away from downtown.  


Size- Size is represented by the size of the buildings on campus.  Many of the buildings are kept at a reasonable height, so as not to create building pollution and crowd the skies with ugly bricks.  The tallest building on campus, the Jackson Library.  It makes sense for the library to be the most prominent building, according to height (and the stark contrast in color and style that sometimes resembles a state prison facility), because it holds all of the books, history, and potential for the students of UNCG.


Scale- Scale is important because it helps some buildings look more impressive than others.  Though the Jackson Library is situated around buildings that take up a lot of space, it is built vertically, so it looks larger than the buildings around it.  

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Experience- UNCG's campus is designed as a halfway closed campus, meaning it is closed to regular automobile traffic.  The lack of traffic going through the middle of campus (College Avenue) makes the walk from class to class, as you only have to worry about dodging cars around Spring Garden.  The campus is set up very grid like in the middle of campus, as the Library, Music Building, Education Building, and Human Environment Sciences office have paths that meet together and form an intersection in the middle of campus.  The intersection of these sidewalks are also located close to buildings used regularly by all students; the EUC and the Caf.  


Principles- The most important principle of the school is education; learning and teaching.  The intersection of the sidewalks on College Ave not only marks a populated area on campus, it also marks the founding cornerstones of the Women's College, before it was the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.  Those four principles are learning/studying (Library-books), Education (Curry Building, School of education), Music (Music Building), and HES offices (Home ec-like majors, Consumer Apparel, Nutrition, Family Studies).  The principles are evident as being very prominent, but not up to date, as UNCG has branched out and has a growing Nursing School, Business School, Art School, and Interior Architecture School, none of which are included in the meeting of the sidewalks)


Site- UNCG is located in the heart of Greensboro.  Just minutes from downtown, students can walk to many places around Greensboro and never be more than ten minutes from home.  Living in Greensboro is an eclectic mix too; you have the feel of a small city, but you still get that down-home feeling because you are in North Carolina.


Order-  UNCG's campus is ordered pretty well, in that the foundations of the school are very grid like and align well enough.  New additions and renovations don't seem like the designer had the history and the original design of the school in mind.  The campus is almost separated.  There is the main area around College Ave, the Music building area (it's kind of a long distance from Curry to the Music building), Gatewood and the Weatherspoon Art Museum, the Bryan School, and the new Science building/Nursing school area.  I sometimes wish the flow of the campus was a little more though out, as I sometimes find myself wandering through gaps in buildings trying to find where I need to go.

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Technology- Having gone to Appalachian State University my first year of college, it is easy to compare UNCG to App technology wise.  Overall, UNCG is well past App's technology, with new computers, interactive things around campus, the noises that come from the walk/do not walk signs- UNCG is clearly ahead of Appalachian.  UNCG also has more computer labs available around campus, with more computers in every lab (really super convenient!)  The technology that UNCG lacks is green technology.  Appalachian is on a quest for a sustainable campus.  At orientation I was given a Nalgene bottle and heavily encouraged not to drink bottled water.  Even more encouraging- App has water bottle fill stations beside most of their water fountains, making it more than easy to re use your water bottle.  


Surface- Upon first impression, UNCG has alot of red brick.  It is not until you walk around campus and see all of the red brick that you realize that there are many different kinds and styles, depending on the era it was built.  The brick pathway through the park on spring garden, most of the buildings, parking decks, and even the historic Foust Building.  No school could be more of a brick jungle than NC State, so the brick around our campus is pleasing enough to the eye, especially with the great foliage brought to us by our friendly lawn and grounds crews.

Dining Spaces Inspiration

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More Bench Space

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Argentina

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NYC 

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Vietnam

Campus Walk- Finding Groups, Stacks, and Circles

http://arnisdesigns.blogspot.com/2009_02_01_archive.html

       Last friday, our history of design theory class took a walking tour of campus, in efforts to find real examples of groups, stacks, and circles.  The first thing we came to were the colonnades outside of the Ferguson building.  The columns align to form a group.

sketch of colonnades

We then moved on to the College Avenue and the EUC area.  While on the way to the EUC we stopped at the Alumni House to observe the columns in front of the house.  We found the design of the house to be very symmetrical and even.  The windows were made with a keystone at the top of the border of the window, which after being informed by Audra, we now know was put in as the last piece of stone, and was generally known to keep all the stones together.

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From College Ave we moved inside the EUC and found ourselves at the Walker Street entrance, standing in the middle of the mosaic circle.  Circles are a common theme in the EUC, and rightly so, as it is the one building in which every student at UNCG has something they have to do, walk through, or meet someone in.  Circles symbolically bring people together, and do the same in the building, which is why they can be found at each entrance.

From the EUC we walked to the music building.  The music building was a sources with groups, stacks, and circles.  The circles began outside of the building with the circle pond.  Moving closer to the entrance, one will notice to ripple effect tile and stonework done, creating a large circle, probably to show the effect music has on everything.  The ripple stonework leads you into the building, where you will find groups of columns inside.  The spaces inside the music building are seperated by differences in ceiling heights.  The outside of the building has layers of different building materials, creating a stacking effect.

Finding groups, stacks, and circles around campus was not as hard as I imagined.  Things occur in groups, stacks, and circles so regularly, it's not that you have to look hard to find them, you just have to know what you're looking for.

Weapons of Mass Networking in North Korea

source: www.twitter.com

Social Networking in North Korea is sticky and behind the loop of many other countries around the world. North Korea has a government that tolerates censorship to the extreme.  In North Korea, all media outlets are strictly owned and controlled by the North Korean govenrment.  All news comes from the Korean Central News Agency.  Mass media is used as a weapon by the government in North Korea, as the much of the media released is in propoganda form, and promotes the personality cult of Kim II-Sung and Kim-Jong-iI.  Routinely, the media is used to make false claims to attack the western world, Christianity, The United States, Israel, Japan, and specifically South Korea.  

    Radio and television are preset to government run channels and set to recieve only govenement frequencies, with technology in place to prevent tampering.  It is a serious criminal offense to tamper with the sets, or to receive North Korean radio or television programs outside of North Korea.  Possessing a personal short wave radio is illegal, but confiscated radios are commnly resold by corrupt agents of the government.  

    In 2006 Reporters without Borders described North Korea as the world's internet blackhole, probably because internet usage in North Korea is illegal.  It is limited to few government officials who have connection through secretly rented Chinese connections.

  Until last year, North Korea was hardly on the social netwroking scene.  North Korea's government run website Uriminzokkiri opened a twitter account and YouTube channel in July, 2010.  Though not accesable by it's own people, North Korea uses the networking sites to blast the US and South Korea,  among many other countries, religions, and ideas.  The South Korean government blocked all access to the youtube channel and twitter account after only one week of activity.  

    Suspiciously, hours after the sites were blocked by the South Korean government, a North Korean facebook page was created under the name uriminzokkiri, which directly translates to on our own as a nation.  The facebook page was soon blocked by the South Korean government, so as not to have it's people flooded with anti South Korea and US propaganda.

    For all of the good that social networking can do-bringing people together with similar ideas, making the sharing of ideas extremely easy and accessasable for all, and doing it all peacefully and at the will of the common person, it is very sad that North Korea's government would chose to represent themselves in such a negative and bully-like manner.

sources:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/38753870/North_Korea_Takes_to_Social_Networking
http://science.discovery.com/stories/week/north-korea-social-networking.html
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2010/s2996087.htm

Light Box Final

Natural Light- No Outside Light Source

Outside Right View

Outside Left View

Top View

Changed to Cloudy Setting on my Camera

For the light box project I, naturally, wanted to put the light inside the light box and create a glow.  The challenge to create shadows really toggled my brain.  I went with the idea to create a light box that looked like the light was erupting from behind the board; the shadows would create a wall of light cracking through dark.  The inside of the box design was chosen so the light would have a full surface to reflect onto, since (hypothetically, if the box was the inside of a building) the sun would probably not be straight over the building at all times.  I did not design the box with the intention of the light being stationary, as i enjoy the ever-changing patterns the light creates on the inner wall.  I designed the curved wall not all the way to the floor because i like the straight on permanent division of light that the darkness creates.

Catal Huyuk

New Year, New Header

    When asked to design a new header for our class design blog, I was first a little puzzled.  The class was instructed to create an 8.5 x 2.5 inch header using print from a computer and an illustration or design telling a little about ourself as a designer.  For my header design, I chose a peacock feather.  The feather is symbolic of a whimsical, colorful design agenda.  The peacock feather has many colors, all of which shine in different hues depending on how the light catches the feather.  I also have feathers attached to the walls of my workspace in the iARC studio.
     I created my header in Adobe Illustrator, by using the brush tool and using the art brush stroke.  The stroke is set to .25 pt so the lines would be crisp and not too harsh.  I wanted to experiment with Illustrator, which is how I designed the feather doodle.  I often doodle in my sketchbooks, so I wanted to incorporate an original doodle into my header.  The use of color was easy, as many people know the general colors of a peacock feather.  The colors of the feather are fun enough that the exaggeration of color on illustrator, as opposed to what an actual feather looks like, are acceptable because the art brush stroke makes the feather look like it is done in water color.  The header is very light an airy, which I think reflects a lot of the ideas I have as a designer, since I tend to stray from straight lines and hard edges.