The Architecture School Survival Guide

"I paint daily with watercolors on 5-by-7-inch pads that are small enough for me to take them everywhere." Steven Holl Steven Holl was born in 1947 in Bremerton, Washington. He graduated from the University of Washington and pursued architecture studies in Rome in 1970. In 1976 he attended the Architectural Association in London and established STEVEN HOLL ARCHITECTS in New York City. Considered one of America's most important architects, Steven Holl is recognized for his ability to blend space and light with great contextual sensitivity and to utilize the unique qualities of each project to create a concept-driven design. He specializes in seamlessly integrating new projects into contexts with particular cultural and historic importance.  Steven Holl has been recognized with architecture's most prestigious awards and prizes. Recently, Steven Holl received the 2014 Praemium Imperiale, the 2012 AIA Gold Medal, the RIBA 2010 Jencks Award, and the first...

Good Morning Architects! "A harmonious design requires that nothing be added or taken away." Vitruvius Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (c. 90 - c. 20 BCE), better known simply as Vitruvius, was a Roman military engineer and architect who wrote De Architectura(On Architecture), a treatise which combines the history of ancient architecture and engineering with the author's personal experience and advice on the subject. As no similar work has survived complete from antiquity, the book has become an invaluable source, not only on Greek and Roman architecture , but also on a wide range of other topics such as philosophy , mathematics, and medicine. He served as a military engineer and architect for Julius Caesar between 58 and 51 BCE and he personally visited Greece , Asia, North Africa, and Gaul . He was considered an expert on ballistics and he also built a basilica at Fanum Fortunae (modern Fano in Umbria, Italy ) in c. 27 BCE. In De Architectura , written 30-2...

Art Lessons: Meditations On The Creative Life Click HERE to buy! Writing in the same tradition as renowned artist Robert Henri in his classic book The Art Spirit, Deborah J. Haynes looks at the value of art and making art in today's world. What does it mean to become and work as an artist today? What are the unique challenges facing artists in the twenty-first century, and what skills are required to overcome them? In Art Lessons, Haynes addresses the mind, body, and spirit of today' s artists with her personal reflections on what it takes to succeed and feel creatively and spiritually fulfilled. The lessons she shares range in depth and scope from the simple to the deeply philosophical, from encouraging her reader to always have a pencil - or crayon! - in hand, to insist that an artist take a seat, to connecting art profoundly to daily life and the earth. Through her own reflections on art and being an artist, Haynes provides a spiritual compass for today's emergi...

Good Afternoon Architects! The sketch, presented here today, is a quick thumbnail recently created. The thumbnail sketch is essential to our design process. To be honest it should be a vital component of your personal design process as well! Thumbnail sketches are drawing quick, abbreviated drawings. Usually, they are done very rapidly and with no corrections - you can use any medium, though pen or pencil is the most common. Thumbnail sketches are usually very small, often only an inch or two high. THUMBNAILS ARE MEMORY AIDS AND PLANNING TOOLS Thumbnail sketches can serve as a memory aid to help you remember important features of a subject when making notes for a painting or drawing. They are also useful when visiting a gallery, to help you remember important pieces. Often artists use thumbnail sketches to plan pictures. You can quickly experiment with format and composition, placing just the major features - such as the horizon and any large objects, and indicating movement...

In the tradition of Mexican architecture, maybe more than in other places, the compact wall without or almost without openings takes on values that go beyond the specific compositional solution to suggest force and tragedy, silence and light, defining domestic spaces and outdoor enclosures. Walls are the ‘tablet’ on which the great Mexican mural painters like David Alfaro Siqueiros, José Clemente Orozco and Diego Rivera depicted human emotions like joy, suffering, the struggle for freedom. For Luís Barragán – whose meaning and figure have been reinterpreted by Legorreta , father and son – walls are a tool to shape the indoor-outdoor relationship. That insertion in the landscape as an essential feature of the architecture, which Legorreta grasps in the lesson of the master from Guadalajara, perhaps more than the vivid use of color on stucco, which at first glance might seem like the main legacy passed on. Octavio Paz, the Mexican poet and essayist, Nobel Prize for Literature i...

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Good Morning Architects! Please send in your sketches and feel free to comment, critique and ask questions on ours... This sketch started out as a small thumbnail. Color to be added very soon! For the sketch, the following materials were used. (Color coming soon!) Click on each material for a direct link... Prismacolor Non-Photo Blue Drawing Pencil Paper Mate Black Flair Pen Pilot Disposable Fountain Pen Sharpie Fine Tip Pen Ruler (For layout purposes.) Compass (For layout purposes.) Prismacolor Markers Prismacolor Colored Pencils Strathmore Artist Tiles Have a GREAT Saturday! We hope your team wins.  Before the big game, subscribe to our site and show us your creations!

Michael Graves is an American postmodernist architect who designed the Indianapolis Art Center and worked on the restoration of the Washington Monument. Michael Graves was born on July 9, 1934, in Indianapolis, Indiana. He studied at Harvard University and designed modernist private houses before adopting postmodernism in the 1970s. He’s known for designing such structures as the Portland Building, the Humana Building in Louisville and the Indianapolis Art Center. His other projects include the restoration of the Washington Monument and the creation of a line of items for Target. Graves died in 2015 at the age of 80. Early Years Born in Indianapolis on July 9, 1934, Michael Graves went on to attend the College of Design at the University of Cincinnati, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1958. He then attended Harvard and left with his master’s in architecture a year later. In 1960, Graves won the American Academy in Rome’s Rome Prize, which is awarded to a select grou...

"it's... it's like a cat... clawing it's way ...out of your insides." Richard Cook Let's get artsy! and never be afraid to get a lil' bit on you!  We hope you enjoyed this post! Please subscribe and let us know your thoughts and feelings on Mr. Cook! What are you creating today?

Chapel on the Hill in Middleton-in-Teesdale, England by Evolution Design : Adaptive reuse is becoming essential to the long-term sustainability of architects practising today. In essence, the term adaptive reuse means an existing structure, often of a historic nature, that is being updated, structurally improved and redesigned for modern day use. “Set in the very best walking area of the beautiful North Pennines, just a short walk from the famous High Force Waterfall, this stunning chapel conversion with its historic building fabric and modern interior design is a real Teesdale jewel. The original windows of the nineteenth-century building have been reopened, framing dramatic views of the dales to create a spacious and luxurious self-catering holiday cottage for seven guests. It has a large and fully equipped kitchen, a cosy living room, four comfortable bedrooms, two en-suites and a luxurious family bathroom. The reconstruction, designed by Evolution Design, has just recentl...

What would be one thing you would tell an incoming architecture student to prepare? I can’t tell you anything. I would ask you to ask yourself, “Are you passionate enough about the subject to be fully committed to a life of design?” If the answer is yes, then you will thrive. What architecture books do you recommend incoming students to buy/read? In terms of social understanding and space,  Herman Hertzberger’s, Lessons for Students in Architecture  is a must. From a compositional and formal understanding you will never stop purchasing variations of books. The books purchased should never be limited to architecture and should act as a catalyst to gain access to a broader library of design. Besides your own instructor to go to for questions, who would you feel most comfortable asking questions to? Whose opinion do you value the most? First, you need to know what kind of information you want to embark on. Whether it be concepts, structure, or design functionali...