Nearly there . . .

Can't believe the year is nearly over. 5 days until portfolio hand in which means that it's the final final crit tomorrow. 

Having been working on my portfolio all week (obviously) I've now reached my inevitable point of feeling like I have finished. It's something that I have gone through every single submission, usually about 24 hours before the work is due. Which would be fine, if it weren't for my fellow third years probably working well into the night and beyond while I am actually able to get my 8 hours. A different kind of stress.

So, I currently feel like I am ready for tomorrow's crit although I know I will be getting more work to do before Monday. Therefore, I am going to spend the evening and try to critically assess my work, anything that doesn't completely make sense or convey my thought process will be altered. (If only I could momentarily forget my project so that I could really review it properly)

My IDR is also more or less done now although I still need to add a page or two about the exhibitions and my drawings before that is done. Something for tomorrow evening I think. After submission, it's a case of getting my exhibition pieces ready and getting the whole exhibition ready for the show. I've decided on what I'm going to be doing and it should be fairly straight forward, just time consuming I think.

The first of my three items is the playing cards that everyone in my atelier are going to be producing. At the moment, this is just a case of getting them onto the computer - I've already listed what each card is going to be - and to write the 'Rules of Engagement', something that I'm still working on. The second piece is going to be an image. Originally, it was going to be a bird's eye perspective of my scheme but after producing my Frank Lloyd Wright-esque drawings, it makes more sense to do one (or two) of them. The last piece is like a cross between my playing cards and my portfolio, a small sketchbook that will summarise my project with about 30 images/quotes/photos/drawings/sketches/diagrams/whatever.

Easter Holidays Part I

It's amazing what a week away from uni can do. I've been doing long days of work every day but it's been more relaxed and I've managed to get so much done. My final plans have been updates. All that's left to do on the technical drawings front is the 1:5 sections and updating my site section. Once these are done, I can get them printed and work on their aesthetics. 
I decided to put Revit on hold as I started to see it as a time waster - I was spending hours working it out but I still don't have a model that I can use. It's much more worth my time to get my sections done through AutoCAD.

As well as finishing the first daft of my essay, I have also finished Part A of the IDR and made a good start on Part B. This section consists mainly on images and diagrams so I have had to work on them before anything else. From reading the brief, I can see many similarities between this part and the tech case study so I'm going to approach it the same way - similar diagrams and images. I plan on having this section finished, at least in draft form, by tomorrow.

Next week I am going away so I won't be able to do any work at all. Except for maybe a little bit of reading (although I tried that last year and it even that didn't happen). With this being the case, I want to make sure I get enough done this week while I am still in Manchester with very few distractions.

At this stage, I think the visuals and IDR are the most important things for me to be concentrating on but I also need to start thinking about what to exhibit. This is something for the week after next though.

I have a tutorial this afternoon but for now, I'm going to get my section details done.

Tech/Studio Cross Over

So hand in number two has been and gone and this last couple of weeks has seen me trying to get on with my case studies and my IDR. After looking through the part B brief, I realised that I didn't actually have the work to talk about so in order to do that, I needed to work out exactly how my building is constructed. This is where my case study work came in.

The Ritblat building is my case study as well as a precedent. The timber construction is exactly what I want to achieve with mine. Therefore in order to help me construct my own building, I started to deconstruct that one. I'll admit the plans weren't easy to read at the beginning but I think I've picked it up now and have been able to work out the construction techniques involved. This in turn has really helped me with my project as I have used a similar work method.

The drawings produced by Hawkins\Brown are awesome and I am hoping to achieve something in a similar style with my own drawings. There is so much detail on them though and I'm not entirely sure I have all the time that would be required! Worth a shot though.

The biggest issue with my construction at the moment is the existing brick work of the library. While I don't want to interfere too much with it, I know very little of the actual make up of the wall, especially whether there is insulation in there already. This potentially could change the entire construction of the vertical elements of my building - and the interior finish - and this is something that I am hoping to discuss with my tutors on Thursday. Once that problem is solved, I can then resolve the roof and work on getting the formal drawings done. I am also hoping to start work on Revit at the end of the week: I think I have more or less resolved my house construction so I figured it would be a good place to start. 

While all of my tech is in sketches at the moment, they have really helped me to develop this and on Thursday, I'm hoping that I can get some help with the last details like DPMs etc and make sure everything is in it's place before I start to draw them up for real - and put it in Revit.

Currently feeling confident although this could all change on Thursday! Here's hoping