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"A good teacher can inspire hope, ignite the imagination, and instill a love of learning."  -Brad Henry

Sophomore studio exhibition

Arch 271 Sophomore Design Studio

​Arch 271 has come to an end, and it's time for me to reflect upon the semester so I can be a better teacher next spring semester. I am ever grateful to be a teacher assistant for the course and be the person who introduces studio culture and architecture to the next generation. My students all worked hard and showed interests through out the semester, which is more than I could ask for. Two students are even considering transferring to major architecture, which really means a lot to me because that was the goal I gave myself at the beginning of the semester---I just want them to fall in love with architecture. 

Couple of my students' final projects

Their final project is a 64' x 64' and max height 80' spatial construct (think it as a simplified pavillion). I focused a lot on refining their concepts since it's the backbone of the project and even some grad students these days still don't understand it fully. I asked them to either give purposes to the pavillion or identify a problem and propose a solution to it. I also emphasized a lot on designing with human scale. It is something incredibly important, yet not every instructor remember to mention. Even though some projects didn't execute that well, I still admire the amount of thought process my students had given. I am super excited for next semester because we are going to take it to another level. 

My own studio 

And now for my first grad school studio! I am glad I achieved all the goals I had for this class: 1. build a detailed section model 2. build a huge section model 3. design a "high-tech" vibe building based on structutre systems. I was inspired to make a detailed section model during the Chicago Open House at Studio Gang (there's actually a picture of their model at my last blog post!). As for the section model, it's just something I've never done before during undergrad, and I'm glad that my partner and I were on the same page. Special shoutout to my studio partner, who busted his a** for planning the models for weeks. It was definitely not something everyone in the school could have pulled off.

Just to refresh your memory, the project is an aviation school for Parkland College located next to the Willard Airport in Champaign. Our approach is very client-based and linear in terms of the programs and layout. We aimed to design an efficient and sustainable aviation school since the studio focused primarily on performance and technology.  

Fun fact about the model: we put in around 120 scale figures.

Fun fact: I even modeled the roof top drain and sprinkler.

Next semester is gonna be super lit, but first I'm going to take a vacation, and you should too.