Great Spaces, Great Places
“Building Studio is a vertical building design studio offered to 2,3,4 and 5-yr students every spring. Students study and produce detailed material and structural characteristics of architectural elements (foundation, wall, floor, roof, opening, etc) – connected to different types of construction systems. The semester begins from the specific, in order to draw design depth from …
Continue reading “Vertical Building Studio: Student Perspective”
Some of the most rewarding experiences can be found through the effort of organizing. Interorganizational interactions are one such engagement in the process of organizing. The NOMAS at SDSU students’ experiences are contextualized through inter-organizational interactions within the city of Brookings, the human capital constructs of the South Dakota Board of Regents, and the rare …
AIAS Re-Imagine The AIAS 2023 Midwest Quad Conference Re-Imagine recently took place from March 9th through the 12th, and it was an incredible experience for 15 South Dakota State University architecture students. The conference was held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and was attended by students from all over the Midwest. Students were allowed to branch out …
April 15, 2019. The iconic Notre Dame cathedral took a devastating blow as a fire broke out internally and the roof partially collapsed as a result. How could such a history be rebuilt to its former state? Well, by looking at the building in its former state! Not by photographs or detailed drawings, but a digital environment. A detailed 3D scan of the cathedral was taken years prior and has been helping with the restoration process by looking at the possibilities while keeping its quiddity.
Nearly four months ago I concluded my architectural internship at Tesla: a time I consider an absolute pleasure and a great start to my professional career. I want to note that I did not seek out this internship as a car enthusiast, but due to my interest in the role that vehicles take in shaping the fabric of the urban design. In a holistic sense, I do not view Tesla as an automotive company, but rather a clean energy company that aims to change the world using sustainable sources. Nevertheless, they do have arguably one of the greatest cars on the market as one of their lines of product.
Imagine: It’s the fall semester of your senior year of college. You can’t wait to see all of your friends, have late nights in the studio, and take multiple trips to Lowes. Fast forward to your spring break. You have just finished your midterm architecture review and said, “See you later” to your friends and classmates. Little did you know, you probably won’t ever be seeing some of those classmates ever again.
In a profession that has multiple answers for every problem, having a means to use analytical data in your design almost seems like a cheat code to success. Film has benefited from the same the concept that this idea rests so firmly on; human curiosity. My interest in how our environment influences our attentiveness turned me towards videography. What if your environment is a screen in front of you? Publishing websites like YouTube and Vimeo both have integrated analytics that break down things like “average user watch time” and “retention rate.” While these terms seem outlandish when put into juxtaposition with the design of our built environment, they are used in the same way serial vision is implemented in architecture. Every videographer’s goal is to create something that holds the viewers’ attention through the ending. Most of us know what it’s like to watch the first 30 seconds of a video only to stop watching because it didn’t interest us.
Architecture can be found in every area of the globe, from your house in Brookings, South Dakota, to the Cathedral Church of St. Nicholas in Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK. Traveling can enhance your perspective of a place and become a learning experience… I realized that we can learn from architecture anywhere; whether it be from a building down the street or across the world.
As I reflect on our time in Toronto and think more about how similar experiences could impact the architectural student community, I am extremely thankful to have had the opportunity to travel and immerse myself in a completely new place. In my opinion, travel is one of the best experiences for an aspiring architect. From observing close-up intricacies of design to understanding the transition between spaces, every architectural masterpiece emits a certain magnificence that is only absorbed in person. I have become a firm believer in the architecture of experience. To me, architecture is something that has the ability to evoke feelings and spark imagination within. Something that you don’t always experience right away, but instead may require a desire for exploration.