Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Final Submission Day Corrected

Hi All,

It was brought to my attention today that the 22nd of June is in fact a Friday not a Thursday.

I've corrected the course outline and the brief page for EXP3 to show the right day. Friday the 22nd of June. You may have to refresh your browser.

So if you were planing on being finished in 3 weeks from today you'll have an extra day!




Regards

Russell

Monday, May 14, 2018

Top Work for EXP2

Hi All,

Take a look at some of the top work from EXP2:

Tim Lau from Brad Inwood's Group


Kyle Xue from Shaowen Wang's Group

Jayson Khoo from Catherine Bakker's Group


Sam Wang from Dodie McMenamin's Group

Once again, there are many more I could show; a very pleasing session so far ... we are all really looking forward to seeing what you all come up with for your school designs in EXP3!

Regards

Russell

Monday, April 23, 2018

Top work from EXP1

Hi All,

Below are some links to top work from EXP1.

Sam Wang from Dodie's Group

Hong Ma from Maryams Group

Navya Jayawardena from James' Group

Tech Hua Lim from Shaowen's Group

Su Han from Catherine's Group

There are quite a few more I could share but take a look through these projects, and their supporting work, for a start and you'll get a really good indication regarding how to be successful in ARCH1101 and beyond!

Regards

Russell 


Sunday, April 22, 2018

Week 3 task live!

Hi All,

The task for this week is now live on the course website, access it here:

http://www.russelllowe.com/arch1101_2018/experiment2/brief/brief_exp2.htm

You'll also see a resource link to a TED talk. It's a short video when Joshua Prince-Ramos describes the concepts behind three projects by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA). He is a very good presenter and OMA have a very long and influential history so take a look.



When you're finished you might like to take a look at some of the other presentations on TED ... they introduce a range of topics from the fields of science and the arts in 20 minute lectures that will almost always leave you inspired; see a list of videos by topic here.   

Regards

Russell

Thursday, April 19, 2018

UNSW Kensington Model

Hi All,

Please find a model of the UNSW Kensington Campus.

I've edited it so it just shows the lower areas of the campus around our sites for EXP2 and EXP3. This is so it will run faster on your machines in Lumion.

Download from here.


After I imported it into Lumion I noticed that some of the ground planes in the model were flickering ... this is because they aligned exactly with the grass plane in Lumion. So I lifted the model up a little bit (0.4m) which stopped them overlapping and the flickering stopped.

Regards

Russell


Sunday, April 15, 2018

EX2 Task for Today and Resource live!

Hi All,

If you'd like to know what we are doing in studio this week take a look at the task for today here.

If you'd like to get ahead, and do yourself a BIG favor, take a look at the reading by Dutch architects Neutelings and Riedijk ... the link is next to the task for today and called "N+R; Laziness" it provides excellent advice for anyone studying architecture or related disciplines.  

Regards

Russell

Friday, April 13, 2018

Student Rep Meeting 01 Notes

Hi All,

As you know we had our first student rep meeting for ARCH1101 just before the break. These are the notes I took from the meeting and some of my responses; they are in no particular order of importance.

Leave comments in the section below if you'd like further clarification or have comments.

1. Some students have been having trouble with 3d Warehouse, is there an alternative place to upload our models?

Yes, from now on you can use any file sharing service you like as long as you can put a link to your model on your blog. Please don't go overboard with file sizes though.

This video tutorial shows you one way to reduce file sizes of your SketchUp model:


Also, you should be careful when creating geometry of your own. The image below shows a series of circles. When you first click on the circle tool you can type a number and it appears in the Measurement window at the bottom left. The default for a circle is 22, so if you type 12 that's going to reduce the amount of segments and, as a consequence, the number of faces in your model. Sometimes you can't tell the different but the file size of your model will be much smaller as a result.


2. Mac's vs PC's ... its an age old argument, so rather than get into that all I'll say is that all of our software in the faculty runs on PC; so if you partition your machine so it can run Windows as well as the Mac OS then make sure you have plenty of memory on the Windows side.

3. Where can students get a copy of Lumion to download which doesn't have the watermarks all over the rendered images?

Go to one of the BE computer labs and navigate to the ARCH1101 Resources folder on the course folders drive, here:

S:\Courses\ARCH1101-ArchDes1\Resources 

In there you'll see a folder called Lumion 8. Copy that whole folder to your hard drive or memory stick. Copy that to your own machine and double click the exe component to start the installation. It took a while to download onto my machine and a few minutes to install so you'll need to be patient.

Make sure you don't shut your machine down without quitting Lumion so it can release the license for other students to use!

4. Are students really able to use iPad's, phones or other digital drawing instruments such as Wacom tablets instead of notebooks?

Yes, absolutely. I'd like to see more of this.

5. Can students use Rhino or other 3d modelling software instead of Sketchup?

No. We're trying to keep the playing field level.

6. Why is there so much repetition (in the drawings, for example)?

The short answer is because Iterative Design works. The slightly longer answer is in the TED talk below. If you relate this to the study of architecture you might see it as an explanation for why, sometimes, the design work produced by first year students in this class is better than that designed by students in final year. It's an excellent presentation, well worth watching.


7. Where can students get additional help?

One student rep mentioned that he found the tutorials at https://academy.archistar.ai/ very helpful. Many of the computational design students do these tutorials and assessments as a part of their courses. UNSW has a subscription: I just asked Tim from there how you can access the tutorials and he said "Anyone with a UNSW email can login using any of the login buttons (generally top right). Alternately you can direct students to https:\\academy.archistar.ai\enrol "

I've also used Lynda.com which has fantastic tutorials for all sorts of subjects (it helped me out incredibly with tutorials on Motionbuilder). UNSW has a subscription to Lynda as well: https://www.it.unsw.edu.au/catalogue/lynda.html

I think that's everything, but let me know below if I've missed anything.

Kind regards

Russell



Wednesday, April 11, 2018

No class the week!

Hi All,

Just a friendly reminder that week 6 is our non teaching week, so no lecture or studio this week.

It's a good opportunity for you to catch up, or get ahead, regarding the work in Experiment 2 so far.

We are back in studio next week, Thursday the 19th of April: you might recall that you can see the full class schedule in the course outline.

Kind regards

Russell

Monday, March 26, 2018

Lecture this week!

Hi All,

Just a friendly reminder that Experiment 2 kicks off this week with a lecture from 12-2pm, followed by studio from 2-6pm as normal.

The brief for Experiment 2 is now live on the ARCH1101 website here:

http://www.russelllowe.com/arch1101_2018/experiment2/brief/brief_exp2.htm 

Finally, if you get a moment take a look at James Pedersen's blog ... he shows a series of projects comparing the sketchup model with the finished architecture.



See you in the Law Lecture Theatre at 12 on Thursday: Law Theatre G04, Map Reference K-F8-G04 

Regards

Russell

Sunday, March 18, 2018

Film, Animation and Machinima

Hi All,

Below are a few videos to inspire your animated sections this week:

1. This clip shows you some of the editing techniques used in feature films. Kill Bill was directed by Quentin Tarantino who worked for a long time in a video rental store (which became DVD rental stores and now Netflix) and developed an encyclopedic knowledge of popular films. This might explain why he uses so many editing techniques, and consequently why his scenes are useful to film students for demonstrating how each technique might be used.  It's wise to consider the point of view shown in your animated sections because, as you can see below, point of view can radically transform our appreciation of the space.

 

2. The making of the animated film The Third and The Seventh. This clip shows the different layers that go into creating a photo-realistic digitally created scene. The take away point here is that you should think about post processing your still images and even videos captured from Sketchup to give them more richness in terms of materials and atmosphere.



3. The game Red Faction Guerrilla is famous for its in game destruction. It's still a classic today. In this clip you'll hear one of the developers talking about the levels of material/structural realism and making the observation that their level designers are becoming "less and less a 3d structure artist and more and more an Architect". This says two things ... visual realism is increasingly supported by physical realism in virtual environments ... and, you might think about a career in designing Architecture in a virtual world.



4. Extending the notion of real time physics interactions, see the clip below by Nvidia. It shows their FleX system and asks you to imagine how you might use it in the future. The air flow around the sports car makes us think about air flows around and through buildings; a key ingredient for comfortable and sustainable Architecture. Obviously the applications for real time design in Civil Engineering are also very exciting.

Thursday, March 8, 2018

Studio week three

Hi All,

The task and independent study for week three is now live (a little early this time!). You can take a look here:

http://www.russelllowe.com/arch1101_2018/experiment1/brief/brief_exp1.htm

This image shows 2g of Aerogel holding up a 2.5kg brick. A spectacular achievement and one example of a super material that we'll be looking at in studio next week.


As you will see when you follow the link to week three from the brief page, there are more tasks to complete and more independent study to do. This is the pattern we will be following throughout the course, so it's important to keep up with the weekly submissions so you don't fall behind.

Kind regards

Russell

Monday, March 5, 2018

Graphic Techniques

Hi All,

Take a look at the recent posts by tutors Troy Donovan and Maryam Osman; you'll see some good examples of graphic techniques and recommendations for improving your general knowledge of architectural representation.

http://arch1101-2018td.blogspot.com.au/




http://arch1101-2018mo.blogspot.com.au/




As well as following your own tutors blog it's worthwhile to keep an eye on the blogs of other tutors because you'll see different approaches and advice you can apply to your project.

Regards

Russell

Sunday, March 4, 2018

Lecture One, Studio in Week Two, Tutorial Groups:

Hi All,

The introduction lecture from week one as well as the task for this weeks studio class on Thursday is now live!

You can find links to them all on the brief page for Experiment 1 here.  

You might also like to get a head start and take a look at a series of images I've put together on inspirational Stairs: also on the brief page for Experiment 1.

Finally, I've updated the tutorial groups list to reflect the students who I missed with the old list ... take a look there to double check you are in the right place and email me at russell.lowe@unsw.edu.au if you still cant find your group allocation.

Regards

Russell




Sunday, February 25, 2018

Tutorial Groups!

Hi All,

You can find your tutorial groups for ARCH1101 here:

http://www.russelllowe.com/arch1101_2018/course_info/tutorial_groups.htm

Please ignore the tutorial groups you selected through the online system when you enrolled; the online system doesn't take advantage of the mix of students we have in the class, but your new tutorial groups do.

Search on the page linked above using ctrl+F (in Chrome or Internet Explorer) or the search window in Firefox to find your name in the list.

See you at the lecture on Thursday (12, midday).

And in the studio from 2pm.

Regards

Russell  

Sunday, February 11, 2018

Before the first class ...

Hi All,

Before the first class, follow the steps below...

Step 1: create a blog at http://www.blogger.com/

note: use your own name to name your blog, use “awesome inc.” as a default template…

Step 2: post three images ...

a: your best piece of creative work before coming to this course, think laterally if you have not done "conventional" art or design work
b: an image of a great piece of architecture
c: an original photograph of something beautiful

Step 3: write a paragraph under each of the images that tells us something interesting about them.


Step 4: find an image showing a creative work from each of the companies/designers below (they will be your clients in experiment 1) and describe it using a noun, verb and adjective; see below for examples.

note: be creative with your selection of words, this will help!




Revival Cycles (https://revivalcycles.com/): Noun, Verb, Adjective





CJ Hendry (http://www.cjhendry.live/): Noun, Verb, Adjective



 
Gucci (https://www.gucci.com/au/en_au/): Noun, Verb, Adjective



Step 5: purchase a 0.5mm black pen (artline or similar), and a squared cahier pocket moleskin notebook (you can get these from the unsw bookshop).

Step 6: if you would like to get ahead, download and install the latest version of the modelling software "sketchup" on your laptop.

Welcome to ARCH1101!

Hi All,

Welcome to the blog for ARCH1101, the first year architecture design studio.

Please back regularly as this will be the place for updates and additional information regarding the course. Feel free to leave comments below a post if you've got a question or would like to add something yourself.

I'm looking forward to another great year!

Regards

Russell