Thursday, December 17, 2009

Project 2

Unbelievable...just finished the drawings for our second project. A small country house with garage, work shed, kitchen garden, pond and two patios.
The major issue for me this time was to get the architectural blanks copied...I have to admit that the english print quality is a lot better than here in Germany, and half the price ;-(((
And then the worst thing happened: when rendering sheet number 1 one of the stupid pens sort of exploded and spilled the ink all over the nearly finished work. It ended in a big scream with my cats and husband disappearing and getting out of my way. I was ready to kill.
Then: yould somebody introduce a non-expensive way of shipping goods to England? To send 3 A1 sheets cost me 120 EUR!!! Not a bargain...Anyway, just waiting for Mr UPS, he better be nice and quick.
Then I will start feeling like Christmas, before getting to the next homework...
Did someone said this course is easy?!?!


Mood Board


Site Analysis& Conceptual Diagrams

 

2D Perspectives & Sketch Plan


Section Elevations, 2D Perspective& Shade Diagrams

Monday, December 7, 2009

Historical Timeline

One of our major projects was to develop a timeline for the last 3 centuries and showing the relations between GARDEN, ART, ARCHITECTURE and SOCIO-ECONOMICS of every decade...
I started at the beginning of October and just finished.
The 20th century was really fun working with, so many beautiful buildings as well as art and gardens. Too many wars but.
It was difficult to decide who is in and who is out, it ended up being a mixture between people and happenings that you can not deny and between the ones that are just important or interesting for ME. Then it came to the point of RELATION and some had to go again. Finding nice pictures making this dry topic more attractive was another hurdle...
At the end it was fun, very interesting and made me look especially at art and architecture with different eyes. And I have learned a lot.



Saturday, December 5, 2009

Go green and be environmentally responsible- how aware are you?

Last weeks topic of Duncan Heather "Are you an environmentally responsible designer" made me think. How many resources of nature do we use each day without a need? We as designers are responsible as we have it in our hands, what we plan and what sort of materials we use. (e.g. wood by Paul Ridley) And WE are working with nature, we want to make landscapes to look more interesting, more beautiful and worth living in them.

Isn't our whole life a life in luxury and mostly on the costs of other people and our environment? And if it is not our close environment, it is the environment of others, far away.

How many products do you buy each day that are manufactured somewhere else? It starts with food and ends with cars. Why do you buy apples from New Zealand? Why strawberries in winter from South Africa? Think healthy, be more healthy! Eat the seasons! Eat organic! Because you are what you eat. And you can afford it- just think about how much food you throw away every day, if you spend a bit more, you will be more aware and careful- I bet!

The fashion and shoe industry is big, hey ladies- how full is your wardrobe? A man once asked me- do you need all this? He is right! I don't! What do you really need?
Whatever we buy, it is mostly produced in the far east. If you buy something really cheap, it doesn't matter if a piece of cheese for 1 EUR or a T-Shirt for 5 EUR...do you think it is made with care and love?

Lu Guang, a photographer from People’s Republic of China made a documentary “Pollution in China".
Have a look, it might change your way of thinking, buying and spending.

Guiyu, Guangdong province,  rivers and reservoirs have been contaminated, a woman is washing in a seriously polluted pond. 


Shanxi Province is the most polluted area of China and shows the highest rate of birth defects. 
“In Some areas of China people’s lives were threatened because of the environmental pollution. Residents suffering from all kinds of obscured diseases, the cancer villages, increase of deformed babies, these were the results of sacrificing environment and blindly seeking economical gain.”
(Lu Guang)

Just live your life with a little bit more awareness and think twice sometimes!

Whatever you do, do it with love and passion, without hurting anyone- people, animals, nature.

Friday, December 4, 2009

Stress and not enough time? Gonna love this book...

I did not expect studying and running my normal business as well as moving to a different country leaving my family behind would be that hard, but it is.
For all people who find it difficult to manage time, work, fun and life ;-) I can highly recommend the book "The Four Hour Work Week" by Timothy Ferriss. Easy to read with some good and practical advices before getting a Burn- Out...
His blog is a burner- Experiments in Lifestyle Design- how to learn a language in 3 days, speed reading, time management, online marketing etc. etc. check it out!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

IGPOTY International Garden photographer of the Year Award

As our principle Duncan Heather pushed us to join this competition I entered yesterday,  3hours before final ;-) We will see, you never know...

You can see the competitor pictures on the IGPOTY website.

Project One

Finalized project one, our first client- late but I am back on track.
Thanks to my class for help and support, you are great guys and it is great fun working with you!


traditional moodboard

contemporary moodboard

conceptual diagrams

Sketch Plan and Sketch Up D2 Perspectives

Planting plan, Section Elevations and 1 Point Perspective


I took pics with my camera from A1 sheets, that might explain the wide angle look... ;-)))

 
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