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October 24, 2006


Since coming to the U to study architecture, I have gained a completely new perspective one the whole discipline. Out of the many definitions of architecture that I have been given, I think the most comprehensive definition of architecture as a discipline is that architecture/design is resolution of oppositions. Design is also constantly evolving and changing to meet and resolve different oppositions. Houses have evolved from being caves and grass huts, to electronically controlled dwellings that are more complex than some cars. These houses resolve oppositions between man ad climate by enclosing us from the climate, keeping out humidity, temperature, precipitation, wind, and solar radiation. Our houses keep us at a happy medium no matter what the weather outside is. They are also a resolution between permanence and entropy. While most houses aren’t made to last for centuries like some buildings, they are made to last long enough to house a family for a very long time. Houses are the original form of architecture, and thus are a perfect example of the changing form of the resolution of oppositions through design.



October 9, 2006

Phenomenon, Movement

As I took the bus to a friend’s campus yesterday, I wondered just how many people use public transport on any given day. The number was incomprehensible to me. The public transportation system of the world seems to be a phenomenon in and of itself. Millions of people move through it with rush hours being the peak, the whole system pulsing with human activity. Things in this phenomenon would be people, buses, trains, taxis, and subway cars. Frameworks would be routes and train tracks, such as the image of the London Tube Route Map, even city streets are part of this framework. And clockworks in this system would be rush hours, schedules, and the ebb and flow of humanity to and from their jobs, homes, and every other place transportation takes them. This ebb and flow is ultimately what makes up most of the phenomenon. The global transit system has no distinct beginning, but it does have traceable origins, all the way from the invention of the wheel. The transit system has boundary conditions and limitations. It has duration, hierarchies, and sub-systems. It exhibits change and can also be modeled in terms of usage, and routing. As far as behavior goes, it is hard to define, but I do believe that is has a sense of internal behavior, pulsing and moving all over the world.

A "Thing"

A "Framework"

October 4, 2006

Genius Loci

When I think of places that I remember having an affect on me, the first place that jumps into my mind is Ireland. And when I think of Ireland, the first place that jumps into my mind is Blarney Castle. When I visited Blarney this summer, I was awed by its beauty. And I then began to think about the history that the place has seen. It’s been around for centuries and has been occupied by many families and many standards of royalty. The earth there has seen so much history it’s almost hard to comprehend. I visited it early one morning, when the moors were still foggy and the air was cool and moist. It seemed old, it felt old, and it smelled old. If the fog had been thick enough to hide the modern vehicles and buildings, I would have thought I was at Blarney in medieval times. The whole park felt as though it was hallowed ground, taken right out of history. Physically, it was like most of Ireland, wet, and very, very green. There was lush vegetation everywhere. And the other visitors all spoke in whispers even when isolated from everyone else. Such was the effect this place had one everyone present. It was one of the most interesting places I have ever been to.