Abigail Ahern's Place.

I have always loved The Selby ever since I found out about its existence a couple years ago. I especially love that the homes they feature are mostly up to par (if it doesn't exceed it) with how I would've wanted my own place to be like, when I get one.

Mix and match furniture, high ceilings, and a view overlooking a stunning private backyard slash garden? 

Yes please.

Ugh, I can't tell you how much I love the statement lighting she owns. I'm having a hard time finding the statement-making source of light for my future bedroom, and to be honest, both of the above would be perfect. Mostly because I'm not very keen on the traditional-looking chandeliers (or chandeliers, period, well not for my bedroom anyways).

Its always better to have an actual bookcase, but when you can't have one; what better than a ceiling high wallpaper that gives you that illusion, but without the need of occasional dusting. And quirky knobs to hang your bags, etc on. 

Mad love, baby. Mad love.

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So You Wanted to be an Architect...

by Scott C. Reynolds.

Your Lego set was more advanced than those of your peers. Meticulously curated through years of single-minded Santa-letter-writing and trading with friends, your set was capable of producing perfect miniature cityscapes. Whereas most kids didn’t care if the north facing wall of their plastic skyscraper was a mottled mess of yellow blue and red bricks haphazardly stacked without any regard for structural integrity, you were a perfectionist, insisting that your multistory masterpieces were cohesive in their color and in the pattern of brick boundaries.

For your eleventh birthday your parents wanted to take you to Disney World, but you begged them to take you to New York City instead. You wanted to experience the city whose skyline you’d become so intimate with through television and movies. Your parents were good sports, waiting in line for an average of 3 hours each of the 4 times you dragged them to the Empire State Building during that weekend. You explained that you needed to see New York from on high in multiple lighting conditions to really experience it. They smiled and patted your head.

After that weekend your singular goal in life was to make your mark on the Manhattan skyline. You weren’t going to be content to design a building that merely occupied the skyline; you had to create an iconic New York skyscraper. You were single-minded in your pursuit of this goal. You paid your way through college by doing freelance drafting work for people who bought houses during the real estate bubble and planned to profit by building additions and flipping before the mortgage caught up with them. By the time the bubble collapsed you had plenty of money saved up to carry you through and even provide a cushion while you looked for a job.

Looking for a job after college was more difficult than you ever thought it would be. You graduated near the top of your class but there were no offers coming in. The credit crisis that dried up your drafting work took everything else down with it and now some of your classmates were struggling to find work at The Gap, let alone as working architects. Many of your classmates opted to take on more student loan debt (or, more often, more checks from Mom and Dad) and enroll in the hospitality management program at Cornell. It seemed like a smart move. Despite the unpredictable economy, Americans were eating out and traveling more than ever. You might have joined them if not for your stubbornness and your burning need to prove wrong everyone—teachers, parents, friends—who told you that your dream was unrealistic. That very few people throughout history have had the opportunity to create an architectural icon. That the numbers were against you.

You held fast and made sure that nothing would derail your plans to make your mark on the Manhattan skyline. You moved to the Big Apple to to feed off the energy of the city and draw inspiration. Architecture jobs were scarce, but there were buildings being built all over the city. The economy couldn’t keep this city from reaching for the sky. You decided to join a construction crew and gain valuable experience on the blue collar side of the business. Your parents made the requisite judgements about your big fancy education going to waste. Your coworkers did the same, albeit with more colorful turns of phrase. Like the man who inspired this decision, you laughed. If Howard Roark wasn’t above working the quarry, you weren’t above pouring cement.

You made an impression on your supervisors as a hard worker with a good head on your shoulders. They knew you were an architect and soon started inviting you to analyze blueprints when things didn’t seem quite right. At almost every job you were able to spot flaws in the plans that saved the company time, money, and on a couple of occasions, potential lawsuits. It wasn’t long before the higher ups were questioning why they had their best architect wearing a yellow hard hat instead of white. They fired their staff architect and put you in his place. You weren’t going to get to design the next Chrysler Building or anything, but you were a working architect and that meant you were moving in the right direction.

Over the next few years you kept busy designing renovations for old buildings that would become modern Chase branches or Starbucks. You created, unofficially of course, the fanciest drug store in history when you turned the bottom two floors of a century-old SoHo condo building into a Duane Reade. Pregnancy tests and condoms were on aisle 5, just on the other side of the Corinthian column. From the front door you could look downtown and see the new Gehry building. It represented everything you dreamed of creating. An instant icon. The fact that it was his first skyscraper inspired you. It was still possible to make a mark on this city with a single set of blueprints. You just needed to wait for the opportunity.

You got the chance to design the new headquarters for a regional bank. It wasn’t a city-changing skyscraper, but at 50 stories it would at least be visible from across the river. You would be a legitimate part of the skyline, if not one easily recognizable by tourists. The more important part was that the site was adjacent to 40 Wall Street, the loser of the historic battle with the Chrysler Building to become the tallest in the world in 1930. Even though your building would only be about half the size of its proud neighbor, you took pride in the fact that you’d be sharing the same block.

As construction progressed and your building took shape you spent more time on the site observing, directing, and micromanaging the crew. Everyone tried to be patient with you but you insisted on being more hands-on than you should have been. That became clear when you started lecturing a young welder for what you considered to be low-quality work. Snatching the torch from his hands you told him you were going to show him the right way to do it. Unfortunately you didn’t snatch his safety goggles and seconds later you were screaming in agony as errant sparks melted your corneas. They rushed you to the hospital but the damage was done. Unable to continue working as an architect, you spent the remainder of your days collecting disability and became known citywide as the crazy blind guy who spends every day on Wall Street asking tourists to describe some unimportant building to him.

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Red Cube.

Isamu Noguchi, Red Cube

The sculpture is located in front of 140 Broadway, between Liberty and Cedar Streets.

The bright red painted steel of Isamu Noguchi’s Red Cube stands out in strong contrast to the blacks, browns, and whites of the buildings and sidewalks around the sculpture. Located to one side of a small plaza in front of the HSBC (previously the Marine Midland Bank) building on Broadway, Red Cube is surrounded on three sides by skyscrapers, the height of which draw a viewer’s eye upwards. The sculpture itself adds to this upward pull, as it balances on one corner, the opposite corner reaching towards the sky. Despite its title, the sculpture is not actually a cube, but instead seems as though it has been stretched along its vertical axis.

Aside from it’s striking color, Red Cube also stands out from the surrounding architecture in that all of its lines are diagonals, whereas the buildings are made up of horizontal and vertical lines. Additionally, the sculpture is balanced somewhat precariously on one corner, while the buildings, by contrast, and solidly placed.

Through the center of the cube there is a cylindrical hole, revealing an inner surface of gray with evenly-spaced lines moving from one opening of the hole to the other. Looking through this hole, the viewer’s gaze is directed towards the building behind, tying the sculpture and the architecture together.

Although Noguchi began his sculpting career creating individual pieces, he spent a number of years in the 1940s and 50s working primarily on designing spaces, such as gardens and plazas, and incorporating sculptural elements that worked together to create a whole. These experiences affected his subsequent work on individual sculpture pieces. In discussing his conception of public sculpture, Noguchi expresses the importance of the relationship between sculpture and architecture: “The spaces around buildings should be treated in such a way as to dramatize and make the space meaningful…”

To Be an Architect...

To be honest, it’s not about the classes you have to take or the years you put into it. It’s the journey. Yes, to become a licensed architect anywhere takes years of time and money. But that’s just figures put together by your university and just curricula put together by architecture accrediting boards. They are the same requirements for everyone.

What it is about is you. It’s about your growth as a person and as a designer. Your designs are an extension of who you are. Grow as a person, and your architecture will grow. “What it takes” cannot be narrowed down to a few characteristics, good grades, and handiwork. What does it take?

Love architecture. It’s simple, sure. But a great many (too many, in my opinion) people fall into disciplines/careers/jobs that they hate. Becoming an architect will be torture if you hate it.

Be disciplined and determined. Architecture majors have strange schedules. We put ourselves through Hell just to design a structure that will never be built. You need discipline for that. The discipline to stay up until it’s done, the discipline to accept criticism, the discipline to learn your craft. You need determination as well. The determination to stay on the path you’ve chosen, the determination to acquire new knowledge, the determination to become an architect. Architecture is not for weak-willed people.

Be inspired. Architecture majors are fledgling artists. They do not know what drives them to create- they just know that they must. Find what inspires you personally. Anything and everything is architecture. Music, poetry, fashion, typography, sewing, cooking, sports, etc. Architecture can be found in everything. What makes you feel like soaring into the sky? What is your muse? All great artists have one or more muses. Find yours, and do not let it slip away from your grasp. Ever.

Give yourself time. Good things take time. If you can’t understand a program or your model making is not very good, you need time. Practice makes perfect. Practice requires time and effort. Put in the time, give it your all. And those good things will happen. Sometimes we are too immature, as in our abilities have not blossomed. We can’t force it. We just need time.

Take care of yourself, in every way. Stay healthy. If your mind needs a break, take one. Don’t take on more than you can handle. Organize yourself, and stay balanced. Work. But also play. Have friends. Eat well. Laugh. Make sure you’re happy.

Travel. Research the profession. Know your end goal, or know the possibilities. Buy a nice laptop. Save pictures of buildings you enjoy seeing. Write down feelings you have. Save magazine clippings of layouts you like. Play games that make you think. See movies with wonderful cinematography.

Know yourself. Know what your mind craves. Art is a play on how our minds are calibrated. It doesn’t matter if you’re not good at math. It doesn’t matter if you are. It doesn’t matter if you’re 15 with no experience or 45 and married with children. It doesn’t matter if you had to retake physics three times, or if you don’t know how to use AutoCAD. As long as you want to be an architect, then you can be so. But only if you know who you are and how you think. Stimulate your mind, and your creativity will follow. If you have enough of that stimulation, that inspiration, that drive, that ambition, that love… then you can build to the stars and moon.

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I Like My Desk in a Clutter.

"If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, 

of what, then, is an empty desk?"

Albert Einstein

My mother often scolds me for my messy room. The thing is; I don't think she knows that I sometimes prefer it that way. I know where all my things are. And when things get too crazy; I always clean up after myself and reorganize.

... Makes Me The Happiest.

Blue, wide open skies. Water.

My own house in the future needs to be up on a hill, or by the ocean. 

Iconic Houses

A comic by Grant Snider.

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Portfolio Requirements; University of Sheffield.

(1) Portfolio Submission Guidance (HK21) 

(2) Portfolio Submission Guidance (K100 & KK13)

Portfolio Requirements; Oxford Brookes University.

Assessment by Interview and/or Portfolio Assessment Day

The portfolio is an opportunity to demonstrate a sense of you as a visually-creative person. We are eager to see a wide range in your creative ability. At Oxford Brookes University we value this and only consider students who have provided a portfolio. Therefore it is important your portfolio is as diverse as possible. Do not underestimate this competitive process and we ask for a portfolio that contains work illustrating your creativity rather than your technical ability.

What are we looking for in a portfolio

Suggestions are as follows:

2D

A mix of media, e.g.

• Free-hand drawing
• Observational drawing (sketches and drawings from reality not photographs)
• Sketch Books (sketches from trips abroad and project ideas etc)
• Life drawing (pencil, charcoal etc)
• Collages / Montages / Mixed Media
• Work experience drawings
• Finished artworks

3D

• Scale models
• Material experimentation / Sculpture
• Spatial installations
• Work experience models

Other

• Films
• Music
• Photography
• Website design
• Creative hobbies – textiles, metalwork, etc.
• Precedent Studies (research on Artists and Architects you find interesting)

We would expect to see at least 15-20 pieces of work as a minimum. Feel free to include any kind of work you have done and we suggest a mix of both A-level and other personal work (non-A-level). The portfolio should be legible and in order.

We do not expect everyone to have everything – this is NOT a tick box exercise. However we are keen to see your point of view. What kind of architectures you find exciting. Show your passions, commitment and ambition as an individual to creative endeavour. Architecture is a challenging subject so show initiative. Surprise us.

We understand that some of your work may either have been submitted for A-level examinations or be too large for you to bring, in which case we ask for clear and focused photographs.

Portfolio Requirements; AA School of Architecture.

All applicants are expected to submit a bound portfolio of art/design work (no larger than A3 and between ten and 30 pages). CDs/DVDs of additional material are also accepted but only when accompanying a printed hard-copy portfolio. Upon signature of the application form applicants certify that the work submitted is entirely their own. Plagiarism is unacceptable in the academic setting and students are subject to penalties including dismissal from the programme if they commit an act of plagiarism.

Applications and portfolios will be assessed by the admissions panel and applicants will be informed by email whether they are invited to an interview at the AA. The interview takes the form of a discussion around the applicant’s range of interests and focuses on the portfolio of work in architecture, the arts or related areas. The interview is a two-way process: the panel wants to see what skills and interests the applicant has, so it is important to spend time preparing a portfolio. The applicant has the opportunity to ask questions about the School and to have a look at its working spaces and facilities.

Portfolios for initial submission

All applicants are expected to submit a bound portfolio of art/design work (no larger than A3, and between ten and 30 pages). CDs/DVDs of additional material (for example digital work which cannot be provided in paper format) are also accepted but only when accompanying a printed hard copy portfolio. The portfolio should be no larger than A3 (297x420mm). The portfolio doesn't have to be strictly A3 or A4 size. Please only send a CD/DVD if it contains additional work to what is in the hardcopy portfolio – do not send a CD/DVD if it is only a repeat of the hardcopy work.

Please include a selection of highlights of your work to impress the admission panel enough for them to want to invite you for an interview! Please show a range of different work. Please also demonstrate the process behind your work, e.g. sketches or development drawings/models, rather than just including final images.

Portfolios will only be returned if requested, and a £50 postage fee is paid in advance, or if the portfolio is picked up in person from the AA on a date prearranged by the AA. Portfolios will be returned/available to pick up when the AA no longer requires them for assessment purposes. Please wait to be informed that your portfolio is ready for collection.

Portfolios for AA interviews

The AA is looking for students with a creative imagination and plenty of motivation! Sketches, models, photographs, paintings, notebooks, and essays, all help to build up a picture of your particular interests and skills. It is important to read the prospectus, which will give you an idea of the wide range of work carried out in the School. 

There is no single way of preparing a portfolio. Many applicants will have artwork from school, but the AA is interested in any kind of project that is self-motivated and it is best not to bring a portfolio based solely on school artwork. Portfolios should include some recent work; models or sculptures can be photographed and live performances can be recorded in a variety of ways. It is important that any drawings should be from life, or drawn on site.

The interview panel like to see original images where possible, but understands if reproductions have to be shown due to size or weight constraints. It is better to bring more work rather than less so that you have a range of examples to demonstrate your skills. However, please take into account how much you can carry, and the limited amount of interview time which means you will not be able to show every piece of work.

Every portfolio we see will be different. The purpose of the interview is to try and assess each student’s potential and ability to benefit from the course. We will let you know within a very short time whether we are able to offer you a place. Portfolios brought to an interview can be taken away directly after the interview.

Foundation and First Year

There is no single way of preparing a portfolio. Many applicants will have artwork from school, but the AA is interested in any kind of project that is self-motivated, and it is best not to bring a portfolio based solely on school artwork. It is important that any drawings should be from life or drawn on site – copies of photographs are not acceptable. 

Those applicants who are making a career change should consider carefully what might constitute their portfolio. The sort of project that might be undertaken would be to take a room that you know well, and record it in a set of images that tell their own story. Alternatively, you might take an area where you live and map a journey that describes not only the physical surroundings, but also your own response to them. 

Intermediate and Diploma

Those applying to transfer from other courses into the Second, Third or Fourth Years should show a range of work that they have carried out during their course, as well as any self-motivated projects undertaken outside of their course. Please be sure not just to present final images, but to show the process, development and thinking behind your work, perhaps in the form of sketchbooks or working drawings. 

It is worthwhile including examples of work carried out in an architectural practice as the panel may wish to look at them.

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary.

THAT Mary Katrantzou for Longchamp bag.

Not necessarily a big fan of the overrated brand, but this would serve as an excuse to wear Mary on a daily basis.

Figure 8.

The 8 House by BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) in Copenhagen, Denmark.

If the pictures look ordinary, watch how it came to be;

Click here

Definitely in my list of favourites, Bjarke Ingels.

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