eVolo

If you´ve read my prior blogs you might remember the architecture magazine I found on the internet called eVolo, at eVolo.us, well I´ve been looking through the posts they have and I have found the weirdest most creative projects. There are various pictures of skyscrapers that won contests or got to be finalists in the skyscraper competitions.

Here are some of the skyscrapers I found:

Finalist
2011 Skyscraper Competition
Rochambeau Cyrille, Bertin Joel, Herizo Randrianarison
France

Finalist of the Skyscraper Competition that include underground cities, vertical farms, bio-fuel power plants, and contemporary skyscrapers that would redefine the city of Paris. Other proposals use laminated wood as building material, propose hydro-thermal high-rises, redevelop abandoned oil rigs, and use shipping containers as habitable units for the modern urban nomad.

Third Place
2011 Skyscraper Competition
Yheu-Shen Chua
United Kingdom

The current public amenities of the world-famous Hoover Dam in the United States consist of a viewing platform, a bridge, and a gallery scattered around the entire site. This project aims to reconfigure these programs by merging them into a single vertical super structure.
One of the main purposes of the project is to allow the water from the upstream river to engage directly with the visitors through a series of containers. A hanging tower above the 700-foot drop into the Black Canyon would be used as gallery and a vertical aquarium.
...............................

"eVolo is an architecture and design journal focused on technological advances, sustainability, and innovative design for the 21st Century. Their objective is to promote and discuss the most avant-garde ideas generated in schools and professional studios around the world. It is a medium to explore the reality and future of design with up-to-date news, events, and projects.

Since 2006, they have held a futuristic skyscraper design competition."

Putting together my presentation :)

Putting my “Wise Experience” final presentation together has been actually very fun. I´ve been reading through my first blog posts and remembering all my time organization problems at the beginning and all the project options I had before choosing architecture. My experience is built up with various architectural projects I found and loved, interviews to architects,  my visit to FIU, etc … I´m making the presentation a long PowerPoint slideshow ( I love making PowerPoint presentations )

Back to reality

Yesterday we got back from Orlando at about 7 pm. Turns out I needed to finish a project for my lit class. The project asked us to create a toolbox in which we would use numerous assignments of a major text generated throughout the year… AND now I found myself having to finish this major project… yeah.

The trip was pretty fun; it was a very eventful and surprising trip. Of course it wasn’t very well planned, so it gave space to the unexpected and chaos. The drive over there was pretty nice and comfortable, until… we arrived to Orlando and the GPS went crazy and we missed an exit and had to make a U-turn in the farthest place ever, only to miss the exit again due to the crazy GPS…

The plan was to leave Weston at 11 and get there at 3 to go shopping. But we got lost from 3 to 4 where we kept trying to find the exit from the highway to a road that led us to the giant mall we kept circling. Time flew and everyone in the van was getting anxious to get out of the car we´d been in for the past 5 hours… suddenly we hear a weird noise. It was the tire. We think it was the temperature change in the tires after having been in the hot asphalt from the turnpike to a necessary U-turn crossing the grass that created the grapefruit sized balloon on the tire. We were very concerned of that grapefruit bump in our tire, what if it exploded in the middle of the highway! Who knows what would have happed…

So we stopped on the side to call the roadside help insurance Daniel, my boyfriend and driver, called  the insurance card number his mom gave him, but because it was his mother´s card she had to be there! And what? Is she going to drive all the way to Orlando to save us? No! So we waited until she added Daniel to the insurance card. When they called he was listed in the card a roadside helper showed up. The helper is specifically for the “i-4” and he changed our tire for free!  We felt so lucky… that took 2 hours… so it was already 6 and we were road dirty and wanted to go shopping! J

                …. And so we did…

That same day we were going to meet up with some friends that live in Orlando, whom we know from school in Cancun. They were going to see us at the Premier Outlet, and we waited for hours! The crazy thing is that we were supposedly at the same store in the same mall ( at the door) obviously we had to have found each other hours ago! …. TURNS OUT… they were at ANOTHER mall with the same NAME!!!!!!!!!!!! What?

Ok, ok …  so we found each other and we slept over at their house- to get ready for the next day—PARK DAY! WUHU—

Daniel and me were ready by 7 and we tried getting everyone ready as well; but, it didn’t work, our friends from Orlando had the annual pass and had visited the parks approximately… a MILLION TIMES! …so we went to the parks at 11 and we bought tickets for Island of Adventures and enjoy a thrilling day and meet Hogwarts! But the parks weren’t accepting the annual passes at Islands… so we went to change the tickets for Universal Studios J

I had never been there, and there was going to be a free “30 Seconds to Mars” concert at night. We had a good day and enjoyed the rides and shows at Universal Studios. Took lots of pictures … then went to sleep late and got ready to go get a new tire the next morning. The next morning Natalia´s memory card went crazy and we lost all the pictures we took at Orlando.

Such an eventful trip and not even one evidence of it.

Does anybody have a lucky clover for me? 

                                                                                                              The end

Theme Park Architecture

No school today, we will be off to Orlando in a couple of hours. We plan to leave at 11 or so. My trip to Orlando got me thinking about Coach Love's Disney days where I felt butterflies when I saw the great rides like Mount Everest under construction and getting all excited picturing myself creating something like that.
So I looked up on Google  "architecture of theme parks" and clicked on the following:Graphic designers create all of the signage and some other architectural facade details at a theme park. Their trade is learned at art schools. ...www.themedattraction.com/design.htm - Cached - Similar- Block all themedattraction.com results

I felt the writer of that article was speaking to me. Although it might just be because it’s one of those things I would like to do it, not sure if it just an impossible dream I have. Sometimes I have so many things and plans in mind for me that I don´t focus enough on one to make it real. I have to decide where I can get with all I have found out....

-- Obviously not stopping my researches after the wise presentation.

Regardless if it is only a dream here are the (summarized) guidelines posted in the link...

Guideline #1:  The average job in the themed entertainment lasts about 18 months 

Guideline #2: Learn how to draw even if you don't think you can.Walk around with a sketch pad wherever you go and draw everything you see.  Everyone should learn how to express their ideas visually, especially if you want to be in the themed entertainment industry. Everyone can learn to draw well given enough practice. 

Guideline #3:  Get the right reading material and start learning.

Guideline #4: Get a good education.

recommend the following schools of higher education:

• Art Center; Pasadena, California
• California Institute for the Arts; (CalArts), Valencia, California
• Ringling School of Design; Sarasota, Florida
• University of Cincinnati; Cincinnati Ohio
• Most schools in Southern California like Cal State Fullerton, USC, UCLA, UC Irvine are good choices as they are close to where the themed entertainment industry is located.  Be sure that these schools have a major appropriate to your interests.

Guideline #5:  Choose the right college major

Guideline #6:  Become an expert in one skill and a generalist in many skills. 

Guideline #7:  Be nice to everybody.

Guideline #9:  Begin networking right here on Themedattraction.com.

Guideline #10   Join Professional Organizations

Guideline #11:  Get your foot in the door any way you can.

Guideline #12: Move to where the industry is located.

Guideline #13:  Don't put Disney on a pedestal.

Guideline #8:   No one owes you a job. Market yourself with the correct mindset: In the real world there is no affirmative action to help you succeed. 

Theme Park Design. How do I get started?

The Final Presentation

The big day for the final presentation of my Wise Experience at my school is getting closer by the seconds… This whole week I’ve got to realize how close it is and all the rereading of my blogs and noodle tools I must be doing!

Coach Love gave a presentation today about HIS project (yes, my professor has did his wise project too) about horse racing. The presentation was one hour and a half. He covered all his experiences, projects, and what he had learned in the past 3 years of his project.   He had a several stories, videos, photos, and posters to support his presentation. I could feel the passion he has for his project, and I wish I could show that in my upcoming presentation.

I started to build up the PowerPoint presentation for my project, and I will continue to work on it as much as possible. The only worry I have is that two of my best friends from Cancun are coming today to visit for the next 10 days!  And we are planning to go to Islands of Adventure this whole weekend because I haven’t seen them for a year and there’s no school on Friday... BUT! That means I’m going to have lost that weekend of working on my project.

I don’t know if it is the thought of graduating in a month or so that is kind of unsettling me, but I feel I am losing the passion I had for researching about my topic L I still love architecture and I’m decided I am going to include interior design and the eco-friendly characteristic… I have to fight for my interets and not let go so easily.
I will visit my mentor tomorrow to chose the date for the presentation.

1st Shoe sketch

This experimental shoe sketch demonstrates what a shoe stands for without all the luxury and superficiality of comfort. I loved this image of the feet with the plastic bottle shoes. I found the real picture on Google, and decided to sketch it and adapt it Giovanna style :)

I was really satisfied of the speed with wich I finished this sketch, it was only A DAY! 1 ... UNO!

But I´m going to have to sketch some normal shoes to include to the portfolio in case they don´t count this as shoes. :/

1st Bike sketch

So I sat down and decided I needed my bike sketch NOW. So I got my bike and placed it in the "arts n crafts room" (or the meant to be dining room which I turned into my arts n craft room...) AND started sketching…

I think it was the fastest sketch I have done! I finished in like 2 days !

I really like sketching it´s one of those activities that relax me and I truly enjoy.

(me):    - Hi my name is Giovanna and I like sketching and shading :/

(group):- Hi Giovanna.         

1st Chair Sketch

For the architecture portfolio I need to sketch a chair… hmmm but what chair?!?

Then… I found a furniture magazine from the crazy “Design District” That had a cool coach- chair made from lines that crossed each other in different directions creating volume to the chair. The magazine is from the furniture line called “Zanotta” 360°.

So … I think this one didn´t come out very good. I made it chubbier that it really was, and it loos ugly :/ ...

 I´m going to have to make a REAL chair, but it was really cool to work with volume by just using lines.

News of my prior home Cancun

For those who didnt know I am from Mexico, and I lived in Cancun befor I came to Weston, FL in 2009.
During my research for cool out-of-the-box buildings I found an awsome website/blog called "GreenMuze" where I found out that there is a competition called eVolo 2011 Skyscraper Competition.
In a bid to minimize tourist impact and eliminate urban sprawl, Danish designers Francisco Villeda, Heechan Park, Wouter Dons and Sandra Fleischmann,
from the UseCollective, created Tourist City.

Turns out that eVolo is an Arcitecture Magazine that I had NO IDEA ABOUT! I might become a fan of the online version of the magazine. Here is the link http://www.evolo.us/

yes...I like it :) haha

Nautilus House by Javier Senosiain

Organic architecture with a nautilus shell design.I was reading about bio- architecture at 
http://www.blogonsmog.com/student-saturday/bio-architecture-designing-with-nature-in-mind.html :

"Several decades ago, a few creative thinkers started redefining the traditional idea of home.  From coast to coast, people started looking at their environment and began building with eco-inspired homes. Hawaii’s famous Onion House is one popular example of a creative idea, now a national landmark and a beautiful testimonial to shift toward bio-architecture.  Designed in tune with the curves of an onion, with a layered feel that mirrors the lucid skins of an onion, the house is a beautiful demonstration of the possibilities when nature if design icon.

Further down south in Isla Mujeres, Mexico, the Shell House takes the idea literally by designing a house that looks like a magnified shell.  Senosian Arquitectos has the same idea with their design called “The Nautilus”.  This Mexico-based design firm went beyond a shell exterior and designed an entire home patterned after a shell with a winding organic interior.  

And I researched the Nautilus House and found an amazing shell design house.

Senosiain Arquitectos' Nautilus was built with a 2" ferrocement shell and the material concretizes the idea making it true.

The clients, a young couple with two children who after living in a conventional home wanted to change to one integrated to nature. The land, with upward topography, is limited to the south, north and east by high buildings. The west adjoining provides a wide view of the mountains. The model work generated numberless changes until achieving the volume needed by the construction: the Nautilus. The metaphor was to feel like an internal inhabitant of a snail, like a mollusk moving from one chamber to another, like a symbiotic dweller of a huge fossil maternal cloister. This home social life flows inside the Nautilus without any division, a harmonic area in three dimensions where you can notice the continuous dynamic of the fourth dimension when moving in spiral over the stairs with a feeling of floating over the vegetation.

here are the mind blowing pictures:

Pink Swiss Coral House

The pretty in pink Coral House,
from Swiss architects Group8, is a six storey, mixed-use building featuring 58 housing units with two floors of commercial space.

The hot pink motorized sunscreens are designed to minimize heating and cooling costs. The blinds roll up when not in use!

Situated in the Chandieu area of Geneva, the Coral House’s heating is provided via geothermal heat pumps.

 picture from the inside:

2nd Sketch and GOOD NEWS

Long weekend gone... and now I face the shortness of the week starting from Tuesday.
Today I got a call from my sister  she told me that one of my best friend from Cancun is coming!  My other two best friends from Cancun (Natalia and Daniela) had already called me and told me about them coming from the 19 of April to the 29 … and now Alejandra is coming too! J I was jumping all around my neighborhood when I got the news that Alejandra was going to sell her ticket for Lady GaGa´s concert and instead she is coming to see me from the 25^th to the 1of May!
I really miss my friends they´re awesome.
So I got more sketches! I finished the spiral stairs !

 The most dificult thing about sketching "spiral" stairs is figuring out what side the stair must be facing and what diferent shapes a simple rectangular foot-step takes when turning it by degrees. Then the fun stuff was making the shadows :)
Now I just need the bike and the shoes and the chair for my portfolio... :/

1st Sketch finished and Homeostatic Facade System

This is my first architectural sketch. The Taj Majal…

My next sketches are going to be of the following: spiral stair, a bicycle, a chair, and shoes.

Those are the objects that are required for the portfolio to get into architecture or interior design.

I already started the spiral stairs so I will be done very soon J I like this sketching thing its very soothing.   

Taj Majal

And now for one of the craziest thing I have found. A breathing building. The building is covered with a "homeostatic facade system"  which works as a thermal control system that uses mechanical-muscle operated, exterior surface-mounted louvers and is a feature of Decker Yeadon Architects' intelligent green-building architectural design.

 If you see the video of this building you will see how the crazy design and materials of the facade moves to reflect the sun´s heat. 

The Homeostatic Façade uses polymer and elastomer louvers with a silver coating that open when illuminated by the sun, and close again as the sun’s heating effect wanes. The dielectric silver-elastomer forms an actuator that responds to an electric charge on the silver surface proportional to the amount of incident sunlight.

This is a close-up of the facade:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CThFRt95aI