no compromises

Take me back to Shanghai. Please.

I have a paper due tomorrow afternoon which is supposed to be analytic and cite references I haven't read. 

Friday at noon, I'm teaching a Revit class so I need to sit down and figure that out. Then, after studio, I'm helping pick up some beers for a Halloween party, followed by a two hour workshop on landscape forming I signed up for, followed immediately afterwards by that aforementioned Halloween party. 

[The Halloween party, it should be said, is not to be missed. MFA (master of fine arts) students have amazing costumes and they go balls out on the decoration. Last year's party featured colored jello shots hanging from the ceiling and a severed head on a spike which spewed the red rum punch.]

And then, there's studio.

Architecture is a lot of compromise. I'm ok with that.

My studio project is a mixed use development in one of the most prominent spots of Shanghai, right by the Bund.

If my project lacked conceptual interest, I'd be ok with formal interest. 

If it lacked formal interest, I'd be ok if had density and a potential for vibrancy.

If it lacked density and the potential for vibrancy, then I'd be ok if I hadn't spent that much time on it, perhaps having read a good book, seen a few good films, had some good conversations, exercised, or got outside a little. 

Which is why I'm not ok. But we're working on it.

I think my project is kind of like suburbia on stilts, but without the benefit of green spaces. 

"Tell me what you need," our instructor told us today, after sitting us all down and telling us he is extremely concerned with our lack of progress. Somehow, I'm not convinced it's just time. 

I know I have a disturbing tendency to create three-dimensional puzzles for myself and spend days trying to "solve" them. Which is a large part of why I'm behind. At my last desk critique, the professor told me he appreciated the 'rigor' I was bringing to the task, but then I guess it does take a lot of rigor to create a 300 meter long wall of stacked boxes. At this point, I think he's pushing me to keep at it because we're effectively way out of time for new ideas. At least a gestural stage.

Oh well, if the gesture at the urban scale doesn't work, dive into the architectural scale. If it doesn't work at the architectural scale, then dive into the unit layouts, ad infinitum. 

I'm seeing a pattern where this about the time of the semester where I hate my project. I think its still an improvement over first semester studio, but not by much.