Sabrina Tong

Learning Portfolio: Architecture 101

CCSF Spring 2012

Instructor Jerry Lum

Iteration 1:

Bare Bones Study:

Week 1’s ice breaker was a bare bones study, which we chose an artifact and built a small model using wooden sticks. For my model I chose an acrylic paint tube because of its significant meaning to my life, childhood, and visual nature. For the model I used wooden sticks to create angles in geometry and also for the curved edges, made rectilinear shapes to show where the cap and circles are located. It was a challenge at first getting all the materials to work with each other. The model’s dimensions were 5”x1”x1.5”. It was tiny in scale and I could have scaled it a lot better, but considering its my first one, it is a start. We wanted to create a general idea of what our model would look like and choose abstract elements to expand upon for further iterations. Meaningful narratives and messages are also encouraged as we relate the works to ourselves and our audience.

Learning Goals: The materials that I chose are wooden sticks glued together. I placed sticks on top of one another to

secure the side edges and create hard edges where it lays flat. In the process of constructing this, we were

taught to achieve hierarchy to give it a general meaning and relation to viewers so that its progression can be

seen from one part to the next. Another tip was to scale our design to best fit our story and meaning. The

rectilinear shapes and geometry creates a masculine feel to the object. The dimensions are 5”x1”. One

challenging thing to work with wooden sticks is the cutting of the material.

Iteration 2: Narrative:

When I made this, I was thinking about how I wanted to bring a sense of freedom to express our visions and expanding our mind through art. It is all about looking at an object, person, place through fresh eyes. I grew up learning how to draw and paint since I was 9 years old and it made me want to interpret nature as my inspiration. So I thought to myself as I was painting a flower, is seeing really believing? In the art world, anything can be made into a mere illusion. Do you actually need to see or hear something to really believe? Do the ideas that we believe are true actually false? In a sense all creators make Illusions to capture the best features in what we see, even if it doesn’t depict an object in its exact appearance. Our character and personality really comes through to the way we experience life every time our eye sees something new.

Statement:

The visual presentation of the paint tube is representational and ordered in its natural shape. My hopes for art nouveau movement. The intricate curved paint droplets were individually molded by hand using lumber strips that are as thin as paper. Folding them can be a great task because of how fragile the material is, but it produced really nice effect of creating the illusion that nature was growing from the inside of the paint tube. Since acrylic paint is a waterborne medium, I wanted to model the droplets similar to water, while sticking together in the central point creating a focus. These elements are something I want to build upon by expanding the further exploration of art nouveau style.

Challenges:

I needed to steer away from being too literal and generalizing the messages conveyed in the 2nd iteration that nature gave me the will to express myself through art. Changing up the messages and staying clear of an objective is something I had to do to progress my work and also to take an element and build upon it to transform something conceptually as ideas change. Create meaning by relating to others in a universal way and also noting that symmetry is not the way to go when talking about a

progressive storyline. I learned that through the 2nd iteration, I needed to make a big change in the literal to the nonrepresentational. While it possessed certain qualities that are interesting, exploring a set of different designs that doesn’t work in a linear pattern is something worth exploring.

3rd Iteration: For the 3rd iteration, I was inspired by the water drop resort and wanted to create a similar shape within my model. I had a swirl of overlapping wood strips that went vertically on every other quadrant. The angle that is straight on shows the multifaceted curved elements and some other designs that are hidden within the structure. I wanted to show the versatility of approaching this from many different sides because I think in life, sometimes we become stuck in our own ways that we forget to see how our actions like a butterfly effect paves its way to affects our environment. The connections of the curvy paint drops in the middle represents how we are all connected. Life represented in the water drop is the journey of self discovery In life there are many pathways and various paths that we take that impact ourselves and others.

Inspiration: Art nouveau staircase by Victor Horta shows

textiles of curved shapes resembling flowers and

vines. The vines give me the feeling of growth and

Patterns that move hierarchically in an upward

fashion. As trees and leaves grow, they reach

upward as well.

Orlando De Urritia’s Water Drop Resort was proposed in 2009 in Spain. This concept was designed to become a Resort over a body of water that is crossed over on a wooden bridge. The concept of this resort interested me as well as the shape. It uses an overlapping array of curved lines and a bowl as its base to stand the droplet up. It is also dissected to give it an open sense of space where it gives the viewer a breathtaking feeling along with the view. Can you feel the breath of fresh, crisp air, every time you look at this?

Gesture Drawing/Diagrams

Gesture Drawing/Diagrams Diagrams and gesture drawings help iterations by creating a layout for the constructions. Visualizing the form and shape of the structure is a lot easier by drawing the plans. They can be designed to model anything that isn't found in the natural world. They set a foundation for deciding materials, size, scale, and forms. Using gestural drawings we learn how to express emotional content and communicate freely, which gives us more freedom to indicate feelings, messages, and stories. They show us how to manipulate spaces and environment. The orthographic projections create a foundation for the viewers to show how the structure designed to be built. For my drawings I wanted to create serene feelings and calmness with soft edges. I think it shows how a metamorphosis goes from hard edge to soft.

Inspiration:

The extravagant Marina Bay Sands Casino and Resort in Singapore serves to be a museum showcasing

art and science exhibitions combined. The famous Architect, Moshie Safadie, specializes in eco-friendly

textiles seen in architecture today. The ArtScience Museum is an asymmetrical lotus flower and hints that

resemble the open palm of a hand. The roof collects water and light that is distributed through the building.

Iteration 4:

Conclusion: Successes:

I was able to explore the various ways to

Construct something abstract and gain a

Better understanding of how to constructively

take criticism, despite how harsh it may be. I

Grew more of an appreciation to learning

About the various styles of architecture. This

Helped teach me to think out of the and

Create meaning in ways that help others

understand what its purpose is.

Challenges:

To universally connect to others by

creating a structure to give people all the

same messages or feelings is really

challenging to do. I tend to think that

being different and having train of thought

is really what artists and architects push for

but I feel that I was wrong. It became a

challenge to improve my designs when my

Initial ideas were not successfully delivered.

Presentations are something I must improve

upon. I also would have loved to learn more

About craft before diving into a model and hope

To learn more about relating my work to stories

So that I can connect to others.