From the architect. As a response to the site, environment and client’s requirements the pod extension is a true expression of ‘form following function’. A modern structure is not restricted with a period (Victorian) architectural language but is free to respond honestly to the brief, site and restraints.
By separating the pod from the existing house the new structure is free to respond whilst respect the past. This is evident in the series of articulated plans of the new pod extension directly responding to the external factors / forces. The roof extends out around the meals to provide solar shading from the summer sun but allow low winter sunlight to enter. The higher family room roof folds down to the west to protect from the harsh western sunlight whilst still offering views to the back yard.
Plan
Plan
The lower roof to the south side respects the south neighbours right to light and setback codes. The change in ceiling heights defines the kitchen / meals and family areas. The separate structure also has a financial advantage; with less time spent dealing with the existing structure the ‘fiddle factor’ is reduced, providing a simpler and more cost efficient solution.
Studio Pei-Zhu has unveiled their design for the Jingdezhen Historical Museum of Imperial Kiln, a museum dedicated to the unique history of ceramics in Jingdezhen, China. Located in the heart of the historic china-making district of the city, nestled between ceramic workshops that date back to the Ming and Qing dynasties, the museum draws inspiration from the special forms of the kilns, creating gallery spaces out of a series of hand-crafted vaulted structures.
Courtesy of Studio Pei-Zhu
According to Studio Pei-Zhu, the city of Jingdezhen was “born by a kiln” and rose to economic prosperity over thousands of years through the creation of high-quality, sleek china pieces. As symbols of this prosperity, the remaining workshops hold important cultural and historic value to the city. Studio Pei-Zhu’s museum design is therefore deferential to this context, maintaining a relatively low profile that encourages visitors to look out at the city, with direct sightlines to important monuments such as the Tang Dynasty pagoda.
Courtesy of Studio Pei-Zhu
Courtesy of Studio Pei-Zhu
Rather than attracting attention through size and scale, the museum stands out through its composition, rotation and gathering of individual volumes and vaults. The arrangement consciously breaks with the existing urban fabric to activate its surroundings and provide visitors to the exhibition spaces with an unexpected experience.
Courtesy of Studio Pei-Zhu
“Vaults of the museum reflect unearthed relics, while half of its volume remains underground. It creates connections, both physical and spiritual, between the aboveground and underground; present and history. The museum guides visitors into kilns, to ruins, and back to the traditions and culture of local history. The form is simple and primitive, yet full of strength. In silence and light people are encouraged, by the honesty of architecture, to feel the history and culture. We expect visitors will have a chance to rethink upon the relationship between this city and its kilns, its past and its future,” explain the architects.
Courtesy of Studio Pei-Zhu
Courtesy of Studio Pei-Zhu
Studio Pei-Zhu also hopes that the museum will serve to garner global attention to Jigndezhen, both to increase awareness of the city’s role in the history of ceramics, but also to change the city for the better.
“A single museum is capable of changing an entire city. The historical museum of china is bound for carrying on the culture of china, telling the stories of Jingdezhen’s history and culture to the world, and bringing out new life and events to the city.”
Courtesy of Studio Pei-Zhu
Courtesy of Studio Pei-Zhu
Construction on the project begins this year, with an expected completion date in 2017.
Acquisition of an adjoining site made possible a new extension to an existing Victorian period house in Brondesbury, North London, which had stabling at ground floor level originally. This enabled a doubling of the original volume and transformation into a stunning contemporary home for the two occupants.
The building occupies a corner plot and acts a ‘bookend’ to the existing house and terraced street. The mono-pitched slate roof is separated from the existing brick house by a dark grey rendered panel which also demarks the new entrance to both parts of the newly combined buildings. A timber slatted screen to the front glazing provides extra privacy. The Welsh slate roof finish is taken down the side elevation creating a unified and discreet facade to the street.
The new wing provides spacious open plan living/dining and kitchen on ground floor opening out through full height glazed sliding doors to a limestone paved terraced area at the rear. Wide board Oak flooring with underfloor heating throughout gives the clean interior a unified calm appearance.
The dining area is located to take advantage of views to both the front and rear gardens. A study/gym and utility room within the boundary of the existing house complete the accommodation at ground floor level. A substantial roof-light over the stone clad island unit lights the kitchen from above.
Vertical hardwood slats form a dramatic screen to the main stair to first floor leading up to the first floor a master bedroom with an en-suite wet-room and dressing room which opens out on to the large elevated south facing terrace.
The competition brief asked architects to renovate and expand the historic home of San Pellegrino, the world’s leading sparkling mineral water company, with a “truly innovative and technologically-advanced design” aimed at integrating into the natural aesthetic of the surrounding terrain, while responding to the iconic identity of the S. Pellegrino brand.
Continue reading to see each proposal along with official descriptions from each firm.
Our proposal for S. Pellegrino’s new home in the heart of Bergamo is anauthentic extension of the rational and functional architecture of the existing factory, where the natural mineral water has been bottled since 1899.
Located in the Brembana valley between the Brembo river and at the foot of the Italian alps, our proposal embraces and enhances the existing architecture while forming an elegant framework that will allow the visitors to sense the power and purity of the surrounding Alpine nature.
The design is evolved around a well-known architectural element: the archway. The simple and clear character of the expanding and contracting arches throughout the campus, create a multitude of spaces and experiences.The visitors and S. Pellegrino employees will walk through majesticvaults, covered tunnels, arcades and green pergolas that frame the history and heritage of the brand. The seriality of the architecture will reveal parts of the surrounding mountains from the snowcapped summit to the running river at the base.
At the center of the campus, a giant core sample will visualize the 30-year journey the mineral water has to travel through to acquire the minerals and achieve the purity that is unique to S. Pellegrino. The new S. Pellegrino Campus will appear disciplined yet fluid; cavernous yet transparent; unifying yet diverse; classic yet contemporary. Celebrating both tradition and evolution the architecture of the new campus reflects the values of San Pellegrino Terme as well as the core values of the Sanpellegrino Group: Purity, Transparency and Naturality.
“Shaped by the serpentine run of the Brembo river and the sloping Alpine mountainsides, our proposal for the new S. Pellegrino Campus inherits its narrative structure from the landscape of the Brembana valley. Like an aquatic equivalent of a wine cellar, the repeating archways expand and contract to create the narrative framework for the purity and clarity of the mineral water, in an environment characterized by lightness, openness and transparency. The architecture of manmade elements is embraced and enhanced by the forces of nature, tapping into the rhythmic rationality of the industrial heritage of S. Pellegrino while eliminating the traditional segregation between front and back of house, creating a seamless continuity between production and consumption, preparation and enjoyment.” – Bjarke Ingels, Founding Partner, BIG.
The vision and objective of the S.Pellegrino company to transform and elevate the image of its main production and logistics facility is not only an opportunity to increase its international brand recognition but also to demonstrate its respect and participation in the evolution of the whole valley as an important tourism destination. With this in mind Michele De Lucchi Studio have developed a comprehensive project for the whole complex that is organised around 4 key themes;
To be Natural – regarding the surrounding environment, with the introduction of a tree planted logistics and pedestrian bridge that makes a connection of the local flora and fauna across the Brembo river. Where as the existing perimeter boundary industrial style fence is replaced with one made from fragments of local natural stone.
To be Pure – regarding the quality of the water, that is represented by the architectural unification of all the existing production buildings and renovated office facilities with new facades in translucent white glass.
To be Conscientious – regarding all staff, that places human needs and desires at the centre of the redesigned work environment and includes a variety of supporting amenities; gym, library and cafeteria that emphasises wellbeing and views to the surrounding valley landscape.
To be Cool – regarding the visitors and customers, where we have designed a large transparent greenhouse that brings together all of S. Pellegrino’s values and creates an amazing place to visit and ‘passeggiare’ around a naturally inspired environment that includes an auditorium, a ‘water café’, water experience and taste labs, show cooking space, meeting rooms and study centre. An external ‘Water Theatre’ and reflecting pool provides a backdrop to support events and installations that will continue to make the flagship factory a ‘Cool’ place to work and visit.
A Star is Born! MVDRV lifts an old factory out of its existing landscape breathing new life into an industrial working site in the heart of San Pellegrino Terme.
The S.Pellegrino Experience Lab has been lifted from the landscape to increase the factory’s flexibility, and to emphasises the views over the site. At the same time, it strengthens the brand: A Star is Born!
The ceilings and floors are made of a transparent and slightly reflective material, emphasising the purity of architecture as well as the intentions and ambitions of the brand. On the roof a layer of water reflects the landscape and falls to the ground, echoing the core process of the factory at its very essence.
As MVRDV co-founder comments for the site’s transformation; “We turn the factory even more into a star. We dream about a factory that enlarges its transparency, its honesty, its relation with the landscape… In the existing and new components of the factory, as a factory will ever adapt…A new transparent star floats over the factory and the valley. Overseeing this operation. it lifts the water and shows it as it falls over its edges onto the factory and the soil. It symbolizes the dream…”
The current façade of the factory is open where possible, but outwards, it creates views towards the surrounding nature, an idyllic setting for those working and aloes a perfect backdrop for the working processes. Inwards, on the other hand, views are created to show the purity and transparency inherent in the S. Pellegrino brand.
For the office, the extension has been realised inside and on top of the existing building allowing the factory to be transformed into a crisp and edgy loft space. A double height lobby enhances the feeling of community by concentrating all the main public functions, while a rooftop restaurant sits above the workplace and celebrates this with a beautiful view for all.
The functionality of this is shown in all its purity, giving the visitor a strong belief and admiration and for the worker, a sense of beauty, joy and pride for the town’s “miraculous” water.
The S. Pellegrino Flagship Factory will be embedded within the San Pellegrino Terme area. The connection of the Experience Lab`s public levels to the community, the softening of the impact of the existing factory together with views from the surrounding hillsides back to the building, the San Pellegrino Flagship Factory will be integrated in the area both physically and visually.
This extrovert outlook locates the building in the cultural context, enhancing public ownership to the building and providing a specific focus for both the public and private areas. A new public space, the Park, is created for all to enjoy and installs a high degree of permeability within the proposal, ensuring connectivity across the site and with the wider neighbourhood with a new pedestrian bridge over the River Brembo.
Upon the Park sits the Experience Lab, welcoming, transparent and intriguing. Located under a floating cloud, an episodic sequence of spaces unfurl themselves in the form of a spiral ramp from which the visitor can gain an understanding of Italy, the San Pellegrino Area, its terroir and the San Pellegrino brand.
The existing factory form is shrouded in a stainless steel mesh that adapts to the contours of the buildings. The buildings take on a new form as edges are blurred. Depending on the viewing angle the mesh can appear closed and reflective or open and transparent, often at the same time.
“The history of San Pellegrino and its water is in itself strong enough to create a successful future. Snøhetta has drawn its inspiration for the project from this fact, just emphasizing the extraordinary values already embedded in San Pellegrino, its nature, in the water and its international standing” – Kjetil Thrædal Thorsen
“We have been astonished by the projects presented today,” said Stefano Agostini, President and CEO of the Sanpellegrino Group. “All four architectural firms interpreted our brand’s rich history and values so well that it will be extremely difficult to determine a winner. On the other hand, that is why we have invited four architecture studios of such an international stature to take part in this tender; we want to ensure the new home of S.Pellegrino mineral water, which is intended to become the signature of our Group, will amaze visitors from all corners of the world.”
S. Pellegrino will announce a winner and a project timeline by the end of September.
Prototype square in Cesis, Latvia designed by Mailitis A.I.I.M. reconnects a historical brewery with an old town and hosts the publicly usable 1:1 architectural prototypes of the future brewery reconstruction.
The project is located in the historical part of Cesis town center in the territory of an Old Beer Brewery. It is bordered with Cesis Medieval Castle square and adjacent park. Cesis Beer Brewery was not functioning for the last 10 years and has been used just occasionally for the art festival, but now the whole site is going to an extensive gradual transformation into a Venue for Science and Arts. It will present the idea of «slow architecture» where the process of rebuilding will become a public event and an architectural image of the reconstructed Brewery.
The square is made as an entrance that restores the ever-exiting historical connection from the Cesis Castle square to the Brewery. Two parking plots that were separated with a masonry wall where merged and from the closed and isolated area the square becomes an open public space which is well connected with the Cesis old town.
Plan
The Prototype square is intended to be a herald for the visitors which presents the beginning of the Brewery’s transformation process. It is designed as a place to exhibit the architectural 1:1 prototypes that are intended to test the architectural solutions for the future Brewery. These mockups has informative and aesthetical function. Meanwhile they are designed to become a pieces of public infrastructure. Thus they become a coffee place, playground for kids, event’s space.
The square will host various prototypes every year. This year the temporary pavilion – rack for drying a wood that functions as a canteen and an events place where built in the Prototype square. Inspired by the building process that will be the part of Brewery’s daily routine, it is informing the people about the coming changes. The main architecture image resembles a construction site where assemblage of the scaffolding, sawn timber and gravel becomes the main aesthetic elements of the square. The diagonal timber supports are the prototypes to test the visual appearance of structural elements for the brewery project. The modular scaffolding structure is filled up with local timber and creates a shelter for the visitors and a stage for a concerts. A massive stack of the timber sleepers serves as a terrace stairs and benches. 2016 year’s public prototype will operate until the end of October.
10 DESIGN has won a competition to design China Resources Land’s (CR Land) “Hengqin Wanxiang World,” a 2.3 million square meter (25 million square foot) mixed used development to be located in Zhuhai, China. The complex will include destination retail locales centered around an “Experience Central Square,” which will serve as a venue for a variety of cultural and performance programs. Construction on the massive development is set to begin this month.
Courtesy of 10 Design
“To realise CR Land’s vision, the design team created an ‘Experience Central Square’, which marks the nexus of the river and mountain geometries that surround the site,” said Ted Givens, Designer Partner at 10 DESIGN. “This large central hub becomes the active heart of the masterplan unifying 4 neighbourhoods and providing a vibrant retail and cultural destination.”
Courtesy of 10 Design
Courtesy of 10 Design
The immense scale of the project meant design needed to begin at the urban scale. To create pedestrian-friendly routes that connect to the urban fabric, the project features a central green belt linking to different activated streets, a convention center and waterfront walkways.
“In addition to the ‘Experience Central Square’, the energy of the city centre is ignited by the diverse mix of amenities including the Central Green Belt – Wanxiang Avenue, Retail Axis, Waterfront Promenade, National Pavilions, Expo and Convention Centre,” explained Miriam Au Yeung, Project Director and Partner at 10 DESIGN.
Courtesy of 10 Design
Courtesy of 10 Design
Givens added, “Sustainable design is a key driver for the master plan design. The first concept is to minimise the energy requirements through simple passive solar principles. Another goal is to reduce the reflectance and light pollution generated by the project through maximising the solid areas of the tower façades. With the proximity to the river, treating the storm water run-off through bio swales and abundant garden spaces is also very critical to achieving an eco-responsible design.”
Courtesy of 10 Design
Courtesy of 10 Design
CR Land in cooperation with Macao’s New Fenghong Real Estate Development and China Resources Trust have set aside 50 billion yuan for the construction of the development, which is expected to create approximately 50,000 new jobs and generate nearly 1 billion yuan in tax revenue each year – promoting the economic growth of the surrounding region, which includes nearby Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Macao.
Design Team: Ted Givens, Design Partner; Miriam Auyeung, Partner and Project Director; Barry Shapiro, Partner
Competition Team: Joyce Lo, Peby Pratama, Ray Lam, Ewa Koter, Daniel Wang, Xuan He, Yang Wang, Ismael Sanz, Jocelyn Zheng, Mujung Kang, Ruizhao Zhang, Thomas Chan, Dian Feng, Kenton Sin, Ketty Shan, Martin Lai
From the architect. The Campus includes Dyson’s existing headquarters and factory alongside new built facilities: the D9 research and development building, the Lightning Café and The Hangar, which provides sports and leisure amenities for Dyson employees. The existing elegant and minimal buildings – originally designed by WilkinsonEyre – have also undergone extensive internal changes to allow Dyson’s continuous growth.
The practice’s design approach aims to create a new technology campus that is set to be a leading creative hub for UK’s top engineers and designers where new forms of working environment emerge. The D9 has been conceived as a minimal, reflective glass pavilion within a rural landscape setting. A central atrium brings daylight into the two floors and breakout spaces. The interiors are designed to facilitate flexible working, combining conventional desk space with laboratory facilities to allow for collaborative discussion and brainstorming.
As part of the brief, the surrounding landscape has been enhanced to create more privacy and prevent direct views into the building. The greenery connects to the existing Nature Walk, which surrounds the perimeter of the site, offering Dyson employees the opportunity for quiet outdoor reflection. The Campus now provides 129 advanced research laboratories and new collaborative spaces for the engineers to develop Dyson’s sophisticated technology pipeline.
This single-family house is located on a former cooperative workers’ estate and replaces a building designed in 1948 in the spirit of the garden city. Its close proximity to the airport meant that the municipal building regulations largely ceased to have effect. The resulting restriction to a slightly larger replacement building and the distance guidelines created a lengthwise rectangular plan and volume.
A slight rotation of the upper floor in comparison to the two floors below articulates the building and brings it into scale with its surroundings. This moment of phenomenological irritation is moved into the foreground while solutions to specific details are handled with discretion. A window grid is implied by slightly set back, niche-like surfaces. The use of fewer window types and a restrained formwork pattern allow the storey-high twisting to emerge as a distinctive motif of the façade.
Inside the building, the modest dimensions and the decision to eschew hallways create a sense of intimacy. In each room, the corporeal building envelope of insulating concrete is omnipresent. In contrast stands the separation of the external elements of the composition. The house, the showcase balcony of steel construction and the garage as a precast concrete element are spread loosely across the plot. These necessary functional elements create an immediate context within the surrounding greenery.
Materialisation in insulating concrete allows a systematic to be achieved in the solution of the necessary building details. The structural elements of the façade and the interior are all part of the cast shell. The formal severity inside and out is not an aesthetic end in itself. It aims rather to provide an economical use of moments of irritation and serves to channel the viewer’s attention.
Driven by an intrigue in the ruination of Roman architecture, Brazilian architect, and photographer Olympio Augusto Ribeiro has undertaken a fascinating comparative analysis of Giovanni Battista Piranesi‘s architectural etchings and the scenes as they stand today. Travelling to each of the Italian sites brought to life in Piranesi’s drawings, Ribeiro has managed to recreate the original angle and shot, eventually compositing them together to create collages which cross time periods.
Piranesi’s drawings show different architectural styles side by side, and it was this coexistence that urged Ribeiro to investigate what has changed in Rome and Tivoli since their conception. The project, officially dubbed “Piranesi Project (In search of Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s Rome, 1720-1778)” took Ribeiro two months to photograph, meticulously recreating the images across Rome, Villa Adriana, and Tivoli.
Courtesy of Olympio Augusto Ribeiro
Ribeiro explains in the project bio that history was always the most intriguing part of architecture school, allowing him to further expand on his existing fascination with the renovation of Roman ruins.
The history lessons stimulated my curiosity about the transformations undergone by the ancient Roman Empire, and its transmutation into a new reality in which the old aesthetic glory had to live within the dark ages. During my studies in restoration I began to understand the process of their dilapidation, the history of their reconstruction, and how the ruins came to be in our time. However, I lacked the understand of how these 2000 years of transformations resulted in this mixture of styles and overlapping – said Ribeiro.
Courtesy of Olympio Augusto Ribeiro
Piranesi created The Piranesi Prints some 1500 years after the fall of the Roman Empire. They illustrate the coexistence of medieval villages, baroque architecture, and Roman ruins, and are commonly heralded as a strong influence to neoclassicism. Piranesi’s poetic and artistic flair allowed him to portray the buildings in a kind of “ruin fantasy,” and the expressiveness of the etchings make them all the more fantastic.
Courtesy of Olympio Augusto Ribeiro
Upon returning to Brazil, Ribeiro began to compose the collages, merging Piranesi’s mid-18th-century drawings with his digital, color photographs. He said that “I allowed myself my artistic freedom, but worked carefully to respect the original Piranesi work.”
Courtesy of Olympio Augusto Ribeiro
Check out the full gallery below for the exhaustive photograph analysis, and see for yourself how the sites have evolved.
Architects are often noted for having bad work-life balance, a lot of stress and little free time. How can you take time off while still improving your skills as an architect? Can that time off even give you an extra edge? Compared to other fields, architecture stands out as a field in which you need to “know a little bit about everything.” Thus, in order to live up to our name we must also do a little bit of everything, and as they say, a little goes a long way. So with that in mind, here are 11 activities which, while not obviously architectural, just might make you a better architect.
1. Playing Video Games
Video game developers have free rein when imagining and designing cityscapes and other spaces that frame the virtual universe. Such spatial experiences may never be realized in our physical world, but can still provide an entirely new perspective on the possible relationships between our bodies and our surroundings. They can go a long way in challenging your spatial problem solving, especially when Virtual Reality really takes off and becomes an ordinary tool in every architecture firm.
2. Reading Fiction
Fiction is possibly the easiest way for humans to put themselves in someone else’s shoes. As architects, this is a great tool for empathizing with different viewpoints in society, as well as understanding subjective spatial experiences and the emotions tied to them. A great example is “The English Patient” by Michael Ondaatje, a novel with characters from a range of socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds with memories strongly tied to spaces. Architects are sometimes accused of having little understanding of people, an issue which fiction could help to solve.
3. Watching TED Talks
An architect founded TED, however that isn’t why it’s on the list. As architects, we need to know how to defend our projects and ideas, making knowledge of rhetoric an essential part of the profession. TED speakers know how to construct an engaging argument within a relatively short amount of time, making them both entertaining and educational to watch. The wide variety of topics on offer will also undoubtedly help to build that wide knowledge base which is crucial to architectural practice. To get started, check out The 20 Most Inspirational Non-Architecture TED Talks for Architects.
Consistent physical activity has been proven to reduce stress, something that most architects have an excess amount of. Not only will it improve your workflow, it will also serve as a productive break when you need some time away from the drawing board (or computer screen), as studies have shown that walking actually improves creativity.[1] It’s important to maintain a healthy work-life balance in an industry that often demands long hours, especially when many of those hours are spent craned over a laptop with bad posture in an uncomfortable chair. A healthy body will make that time more pleasant and you will feel less fatigued by the end of it.
5. Taking Stuff Apart
When we experience stress, frustration and disappointment, many of us feel a primal urge to destroy the objects of resentment that surround us: that good-for-nothing laptop that’s slowing down your work process, or that annoying flickering lightbulb that’s giving you a headache. Most of us will, quite reasonably, resist this urge; you would not be a very popular coworker if you threw your laptop across the room every time it froze up. However, there is a certain satisfaction to be gained from taking things apart once they’re already broken or will no longer be used. More important is the understanding of how objects are put together and function. Although smartphones and toasters don’t exist on the same scale as buildings, there is something to be learned from the details of assembly. In the future, when that 3D Printer or those VR Goggles aren’t cooperating, you’ll be the company’s most valuable asset.
6. Painting and Photography
In the process of painting or capturing and editing a photograph, there are three fundamental elements to keep in mind: color, light and composition. Unsurprisingly, these elements are just as crucial when it comes to architecture. Being experienced with these components within another context can give you an edge and an alternative way to approach the design process. In addition to this, you will be far more acquainted with the details of your surroundings. By taking the time to paint or compose a particular photograph, one observes features with more care than if one were just to look at them.
When hosting dinner parties, creating a pleasant atmosphere and experience for your guests is of utmost importance. This doesn’t only require good social skills, but also a knowledge of cosy lighting, comfortable seating areas, and deliciously smelling food. In other words: sensory experiences that make people feel at ease. Architecture affects all our senses—perhaps with the exception of taste—yet architects often seem to get caught up in the visual elements of a building. Understanding how tactile architecture, for example, can affect people’s comfort in, and enjoyment of, a building is a huge advantage for an architect. Because if we aren’t creating spaces that people feel good in, what is the point of our profession?
8. Living in Nature
Living in nature, temporarily or otherwise, is one of the most certain ways of falling in love with and fully appreciating our natural world. The large-scale impact that comes with being an architect means that we play an enormous role in conserving and sustaining our environment—a huge and unavoidable responsibility given the current situation of our planet. A vital aspect of sustainability lies within context and understanding the specific location on which a building is being designed. Experiencing the environment first-hand develops a deeper respect for how different climates are capable of assisting our architecture.
9. Travelling on a Budget
In our modern world, being a tourist has become such a popular pastime that the purest forms of cultural exposure are being compromised. Travelling on a budget, however, can give you that extra push to get to know locals and their cultures while looking for a place to stay or learning about the history of a place. By travelling you build a personal relationship with a range of contexts, gaining a deeper understanding for the individual qualities of different locations. Read more about the genius loci of architecture and the fight against global solutions in this interview with Ricardo Bofill.
10. Social Volunteering
As is made clear with the word “social,” this activity encourages interacting and forming relationships with people, an important part of architectural practice. Architects design spaces for people to enjoy and feel happy and safe in, but in order to fully understand what this can mean for individuals it is necessary to understand people’s needs and preferences. Social volunteering is a great way to make a positive impact in your community, while gaining a broader understanding of different spatial needs within society.
Learning how to play an instrument requires the development of one’s understanding of rhythm, repetition and slight variations that sound pleasant and appeal to almost all human beings. How can these properties be translated into space? That’s a question you might be able to answer after a few months of playing the trumpet.
Now, go have a well-deserved break, and come back a better architect than ever.
Sig Nordal 