Parasitic and Symbiotic Architecture

One of my first assignments during my undergrad was the exploration of Parasitic and Symbiotic Architecture.  The slide show at the bottom of this post contains several marker renderings that I created to help me with my final presentation.  These renderings were all done with Micron Pens and Prismacolor Markers, a cool gray set.  I really enjoy using markers to do my illustrations especially in the conceptual stages.  Each of these drawings were done on 11"x17" bond paper and they each took about 15 to 30 minutes to complete.  I also built some scale models.  I will try to upload them to my Flickr photo set tomorrow to include them in this slide show.


A little background on the project...


The assignment was to create two small meditation spaces for a writing student.  These projects were to attachment themselves to the Architecture Building up here on campus.  One design was to be parasitic in nature and the other symbiotic.  Also, one was to be used just for the summer months while the other just for the winter ones. 

Given how ambiguous I thought the assignment was, I had to come up with something.  The one that resembles a "caterpillar" :P was the parasitic one. It's form actually represents Mitosis, cellular division.  The exterior was built out of sheet metal and then lined with a wood finish on the interior.  The Parasitic one attached itself to the exterior of the architectural library allowing the inhabitant to selfishly use whatever literature they desired.  It also blocked any daylight that could have been used for other students.  The other meditation space attached itself in a less intrusive space.  The symbiotic one was accessed from a small window inside a professor's office.  The striated form created by the wood used on the exterior of the symbiotic one mimicked the flow of students around the architecture building.


Anyway, now you have a little taste of the rhetoric that I have to use up here at school.  


So now for the embarrassing part...


For this project I also had to do some writing.  In fact, I had to write two poems! I had to write a poem for each meditation space.  I am going to admit that writing the poems was harder than coming up with the architecture and building the models.  I thought I had thrown those poems away, but I found them on my Hard Drive so here they are:


Poem 1

My mind explodes with things to say
And with stories from my past

My hand tries to write it all

But my mind is much too fast

Now silence grows and time ticks past

I find myself staring at the wall

Strange…I thought of so many things before

And now I can’t think of anything at all

My anger rises and impatience grows

My thoughts begin to roam

And I won’t lie, I hope this is

The last time I ever have to write a poem.

I don’t understand this place

It’s extremely new to me

And I am all alone – no one alike

As far as I can see

Whether this new sadness or just because

I have a sudden need for food

So I’ll need to eat what I can find

To finally change this mood

I consume the thing nearest to me

My purpose here is now revealed,

I can’t seem to eat enough of this

Any lacking part of me is healed

And just as I begin my fun

The world around me spits me out

The light turns dark, the food turns bad

No one to hear me shout

It seems as fast as life began

It ends for me tonight

But when I wake or get born again

I’ll promise…I’ll up the fight

The host outside feels better now

It’s healing and on the mend

And though this story has been short

It’s now come to the end.

Poem 2

Doodles and scribbles

Is all my pen produces

Sketches and cartoons

Is the plural for moose, mooses?

Comfort and relaxation

Help the concentration

Writer’s block and distractions

Are parts of mental constipation

Stories and chapters

Can bring thoughts and laughter

Periods and commas

Can follow dragons and lamas.

Well, I hope you enjoy this little slide show.  A little side note, I did these at 4 in the morning just several hours before I had to present.  I remember having to drink a couple of Red Bulls to make it through my presentation.  Man, architecture school is awesome! :P

Devereaux House and Benson Grist Mill

This is a drawing of the Devereaux House on South Temple in SLC.  The original drawing is on an 11"x17" piece of bristol board.  I used a wide range of graphite pencils (3H-8B).  This drawing actually took quite a while to finish (I still consider it unfinished).  I think I spent somewhere between 15 to 20 hours on this one.  If you look closely you can see that I am not drawing the actual building, but rather just the shadows.  This project was a study of light and value.  Its interesting how shade and shadow actually define shapes and textures.

This is a drawing of the Benson Grist Mill out in Stansbury Park, which is just north of Tooele.  During my undergraduate years we lived less then a 1/4 mile from this historic mill.  This drawing is on an 11"x14" piece of bristol board.  I used Micron pens ranging from .005mm - .05mm.  Unlike the Devereaux House drawing, this one took less than two hours to complete.  This one was quite fun because I used a scribbling motion to create the texture of wood on the mill itself and the barn in the foreground.  If you enjoy historic pioneer places this Grist Mill is definitely worth visiting.  During the spring and summer they put on plays out at the mill so you can take your whole family.  I also did a photographic narrative of this mill for one of my graduate classes last year.  I will post some of those photos in a gallery or something once I get it to work the way I want.


Anyway, I hope you enjoyed these drawings.  Let me know what you guys think. 

First Post Ever!

Its time to get the blog-ball rolling...  This is my first blog, which means if you start following now, you are going to be in for a bumpy ride.  I assure you, I am not an english major, I am a designer, which means this blog will inevitably contain more visual and graphic content than literature.
I view this blog as a place where I can present my architectural and design ideas.  I welcome any comments or criticism, seeing how I am in the last semester of Graduate School, I can handle the criticism and appreciate it.  I plan on posting several of my past projects from architecture school on here so that my family and friends can see them for what will probably be the first time.  I hope to get my portfolio linked to this blog somehow (don't know if that is possible yet). 
Anyway, I appreciate you stopping by and taking a look.  Now its time to mess around with the visual settings for this layout...