Architecture101 part1My Personal Journey

- What I’ve learned

When everyday it becomes a habit of doing Architecture101 homework, even for the weekend, I know thatsomething has changed within me.

Since my teenage time, I like design things. My engineerparents wished me to follow the classical career path to dosomething practical and useful. I took their advice, wenton this path, traveled and worked in many countries asengineer and finance.

1.5 years ago my company announced a merger, whichwill have huge impact to our work and jobs. I realized thatbesides my work I miss things I love in my life. I startedsearching and researching about Design, and by chancefound Architecture 101 course on www.iversity.org.

In Architecture 101 I rediscovered my creative part, whichwas put into sleep for a long time. Like bear, after a longperiod of resting, my creativity starts waking up.

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1Discovery

To make a good start into the A101 part1 module, I read the pdf instructionearly in the morning. Today I shall take a photo of my eyes and present it in a niceway. This thought accompanied me everywhere throughout the day.

In the afternoon while I was sitting in a meeting room and listening to the

speaker, my hand just randomly sketched a pattern on my notebook, which I sawon the wooden table. The longer I sketched, the more I liked the pattern. Thispattern was a wooden eye and this wooden eye caught my attention.

I came back home, and took a few photos of the wooden eyes on the sofatable. I merged the photos of my eye and the wooden eye. First homeworkcompleted! I felt refreshed and relieved.

TODAY’S LEARNING: FIND INSPIRATION IN NATURE.

Eye in eye1.1

Getting into the 3rd day of photographing week, I started noticing all thebeautiful patterns around me in normal things, e.g. stones, door, waste. etc….

Today I shall take a photo of an asphalt surface with liquid on. During lunchtime, I went for a walk with my colleague. We passed by a small fountain, fromwhich water leaking through the basin. The water circled around the fountain, awell, some scattered leaves and stones. The midday sun and skyline of trees werereflected in the water, like a mirror. I went down and took a few photos.

A poem arose in my head, ‘To see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in awild flower.’ - William Blake.

TODAY’S LEARNING: SEE BEAUTY IN SUPER NORMAL.

World in waterWorld in water1.21.2

Select to viewSelect to view1.31.3

It’s the week of collage. So far I’ve discovered many applications for drawing,collage, and adding special photo effects using my i-pad. I was excited and gotlost in experimenting all the possibilities using these apps. I created many collagesputting various images together with different compositions and special effects.

Today’s homework is to make an abstract collage. I was in the kitchen cleaningthe plate made of translucent glass. Evening sun came through the kitchen window.I looked through the translucent glass to the window. The window appeared like awater color paint. It was fascinating. I took a photo, added some effect and madea negative image. The result looks like an abstract oil or water color painting!

TODAY’S LEARNING: KEEP IT SIMPLE.

Moon rabbitMoon rabbit1.4

It is the full moon day and the homework is about the moon. In China moonrepresents the female energy. Chinese legend says a goddess living on the moonwith a big rabbit making medicine. As a child, I used to search for moon goddessand the big rabbit in a clear full moon night.

On Saturday I went for a walk on the Alps. During a short break I noticed the oldwooden bench on which I was resting had a beautiful pattern, like standing stones.It seemed like a perfect seat for my imaginary moon rabbit.

TODAY’S LEARNING: MAKE THINGS YOU LOVE.

Dancing goddessDancing goddess1.51.5

I continued with the moon homework until Sunday since I like the moon very

much. In China every year in autumn during Full Moon Festival, people celebratethe harvest, worship the ancestors and have big family gatherings. Many poems,music and dances are dedicated to the Full Moon Festival as well as the legendarymoon goddess.

To finish up the moon homework, I made the collage of dancing moon goddess,which is inspired by the full moon tradition.

TODAY’S LEARNING: LET TRADITION INSPIRE YOU.

- What I’ve learned from others

What I’ve learned the most during Architecture101 is from others: other people, other things,other culture and other phenomena…… otherthan myself.

This made me feel truly grateful to others.

2Inspiration

First as I saw this image on Instagram by @interior_living, I was instantly

attracted to its simplicity and contrast. This image was stuck in my mind.

Today’s task is to map my place in a geometrical system. Thinking aboutgeometrics, a name appeared in my mind, Emma Kunz (1892-1963). She was aSwiss healer and artist who lived in Brittnau, 40km from my place. Her art workswere mainly geometrical paintings. A museum - Emma Kunz Centre located inWürenlos exhibits a collection of her art works, her medicine and a healing caveshe discovered.

I found one of her image very interesting with a shape of four diamond squares.For me square represents a place or a house. Inspired by the Instagram image, Icarved out the image center and replaced it with a human icon, symbolizingpeople living in the place, yet connected to the origin of place center.

Human has spirit, place too.

TODAY’S LEARNING: REACH OUT TO MASTERS

Carve outCarve out2.12.1

Instagram @interior_living

1000 crumpled paper 2.2

The simplest task could become the most difficult thing to do since it has no

boundary.

Today’s task seems very easy, to take a photo of crumpled paper. ‘What couldbe so beautiful about crumpled paper?’ I wondered, and went on Instagram tosearch how other students have solved the same problem. I found nearly 1000photos of crumpled paper! Some colorful, some black and white, some withstripes, with shadow, in spot light, with water reflection, or buried in sand etc. ……I was totally amazed by the diverse crumpled paper and found each one wasunique and beautiful.

At one moment I remembered the Chinese paper cut for window decorations. Ireached out to scissors and made some simple paper cuts, and added onecrumpled paper on it.

TODAY’S LEARNING: OBSERVE WHAT TALENTS DO

Blank space 余白Blank space 余白2.32.3

Passing through an corridor connecting two office building, I noticed the shape of

the simple staircase matching very well with grid of passage window. I’ve passedthis corridor thousand times. This staircase design is pure industrial: simple andfunctional. The sunlight shined through the window and made some shade of thestaircase on the wall and the floor. This composition reminded me of the BlankSpace concept. I made a negative photo of the simple shapes with blank space.

TODAY’S LEARNING: IMMERSE IN DIFFERENT CULTURE

Blank space is an important Japanese aesthetics

concept. It is originated from Zen Buddhism, that allthings are considered as either evolving from ordissolving into nothingness. This "nothingness" is notjust empty space. It is rather a space of full ofpotentiality.

Today’s homework is to make an abstract collagerepresenting the place I am at.

Self-made potSelf-made pot2.42.4Two month ago I attended a pottery course. I selected the dark brown clay, felt itin my hand while shaping it. The clay was very soothing and comforting. I felt theclay wanted a simple shape of pot. Slowly I shaped it into a little pot and sent it tothe burner. One month later I received the pot from the course and put it on myoffice desk.

Today’s task is to look at a vase and sketch the space around it.

I looked at the little pot on my desk and took a photo. I changed and played withthe simple pot image and tried different compositions. This process reminded meof the pot creation process, simply feeling and playing with the clay and letting theshape emerge.

TODAY’S LEARNING: SEARCH FOR ANALOGOUS EXPERIENCE

Music without sound2.5

It’s a rainy and gloomy day. Today’s task is very abstract: to take a photo of

silence, and tag it with ‘Music without sound’.

The idea of ‘music without sound’ blocked me to think. It seemed so contradictoryto my logical mind, so I let my thought go, looking through the office window.

It was still raining. Our office has floor to ceiling high glass window, so that I

could observe very well the scene outside. The office light was turned on andprojected reflection of heating blades onto the glass window. This gave a specialatmosphere to the scene outside. I took a photo and noticed as if there was amelody in the arrangement of cars in the parking, other building windows, and thereflection of heating blades on the glass window. I added a symbol of sound on theimage, to complete today’s task.

The image captured the subtle and transient moment, the moment of change.Like wave arising and returning, at any point a wave is a specific part of a dynamicwhole that is to be admired and appreciated.

TODAY’S LEARNING: ATTENTIVE TO NATURAL CHANGES

- How I come to my place

To be continued…..

3My place