The most wonderfull time of the year...

Its December, its summer and we are almost on holiday. This has been a very timultious year with wonderfull ups and sad downs. I have built something and lost someone. At the end, as one looks back on what was, one must not fall into the trap of living in the past, but must look forward to what will be. This is not easy to do and one can feel very isolated and scared. But beginings are scary and endings usually sad, but its the middle part that matters most.

Year ending

St Michaels Research Essay

I have uploaded my complete essay to http://tequilladesigns.yolasite.com/

I can see St Michaels from here...!

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) wrote at the bottom of the last page of his last symphony “Es Muss Sein”, in a childlike hand, which translates as “It Must Be”, a few hours before he died. It is not wildly known why he did this peculiar thing, although some scholars have linked it to a great feud he had with a friend of his. The great composer wrote this at the edge of change, on the eve of a new reality. That is where we find ourselves this day, on the eve of a new reality, the reality of Second-Year marrying into the family of Things Past and the dawn of Third-Year. This sounds dismal but is in fact not so. As we brace ourselves against the onslaught of examiners and tricky CTD questions, a .01 uni pen fine liner that doesn’t walk the line and a Caddie program that refuses to open a specific drawing (mere spitefulness for it knows exactly where said program is located), we look back on practicals with a fond farewell. Academic bloc 3 (sounds like a suburb in Stalinist Moscow) is upon us! IT MUST BE. Portfolio submissions: IT MUST BE! And hopefully a well deserved summer holiday: IT MUST BE. So, three cheers for a year of doubt, worry, confusion, information, experience and site visits. Third-Year is only a submission away. IT MUST BE!       

Pushing towards Bloc

We are almost at our third and final bloc. These last few weeks are speeding towards summer time and I must confess that I am looking forward to it immensly. In the past week I have done 3 full measurings and am litterly up to my neck in work but, its better than to sit and do nothing.

MIP Part 2

MIP Research Project Part  2 uploaded to http://tequilladesigns.yolasite.com/

September ending.

This year is just flying past. It almost seems that its speeding up as Christmas is approaching. The FIRM is starting to receive phone calls from prospective 2nd year students and one finds it difficult to believe that practical year is slipping into history.
I had the excellent opportunity to study sustainable designs this week and am excited about implementing those ideas into my own design processes and constructions.
Doing this MIP reasearch project is a watershed moment in my education and I am humbled by the widening of my intelectual horizons.

MIP Research Project 1st submission at

http://tequilladesigns.yolasite.com/

Exquisite bathrooms & kitchens, or not...

This week at work i had to adjust my mentality to the fact that a stove can cost R127 000.00. No, there are not too many zeros in that figure. It is correct. Insane but, correct.
It is a Lecanche Sully stove and imported from France.
Suppose it must be the Ferrari of Stoves.
Will most likely not see too many of those in the Freedom Park Housing Projects. One of those stoves could fund 4.37 sandbag houses and house up to 30 people. Is it just me? 

August ending...

Second year is a far trickier mistress than one would think at the beginning of the year. You start of fantastically and after a month you believe that its gonna be a breeze!! Beware hapless student. A deadline sneaks up on you like leprosy and takes you from the highest high to the lowest low in a matter of seconds. It hits you like a tsunami hits a small Pacific island and tumbles you around up to the point where you can hardly remember how to click a mouse.  Architects, it seems, refrain from hand to hand combat but use choice words to drive that arrow straight through the psyche and leaves your self respect tethering on a sliver. Must be that eerie knowledge of forces...

So, you ask, what is the lesson Gandalf? Simple answer is check your work, again and again. If you think that everything is swell, check it again. And just for s%^*ts & giggles, check it again. That’s what I learned this week.   

M.I.P Proposal published to http://tequilladesigns.yolasite.com/

The week after academic bloc 2

This week at work has been relativly quiet as we are on site at the Val de Vie Estate in Paarl with a residential project that is going to be rather beautiful when completed.
After all the theory in academic bloc 2, my PASSION for Architecture dropped at bit in the approval ratings but, then you open the link to Zaha Hadid's Olympic Aqua Centre and just sit there in awe at what she has accomplished. This is what I perceive Architecture should be. It lifts the spirit and raises our imaginations to the brink of heaven itself!
The theory fog clears, the words and paragraphs melt away and I rememer. I want to draw like that...!

MIP Concept Poster has been uploaded to http://tequilladesigns.yolasite.com/

MIP Studio & CTD

MIP studio & CTD Exc. has been uploaded to http://tequilladesigns.yolasite.com/

July allready...?

This past week.

Imagine...

22 June 2011: I have experienced a very productive week at work. I have done some alterations to an existing residence that involves some imaginative detailing with the various roof pitches and valleys, whilst taking note that something that at first glance seems to be rather usual and mundane can in reality be rather more challenging. It has been a step forward!

 Reading of Zaha Hadid and where her imagination can stretch to, have reminded me of the simple leaps and bounds that are so exceptionally important in what we do. One can not run if one has not yet learned to crawl.

Portfolio 2011

http://tequilladesigns.yolasite.com/

What is a 100mm anyway...?

just another week.

KABOOM!!!

31/3/2011: This week has been an experience, indeed. Coming out of a completely different industry, Hospitality, with lots difficult points of pressure, I never would have imagined that Architecture can have a deadline come crashing into you like a steam train at full speed.

I was blissfully detailing away at some fine joinery items and then…! KABOOM!! The boss starts hollering for prints that should have been ready in 1937; title blocked, fully annotated and folded into wondrous origami figures. Being the stupid intern that I am, I offcourse befuddle everything and just compound the tension. That plotter hates me and sees me walking up to it and quietly starts chuckling. Luckily for said stupid intern, I have a much disciplined and sometimes patient boss that tried his best to explain the situation to me.

I would like to list “The Steam Engine” as my blog entry for the week for its sheer impact force, and the way it changed civilizations. 

Energy equals mass times speed of light squared...

4 march submission

http://communityhubdesign.carbonmade.com/projects/3054972#1 this is the link to my carbonmade portfolio

The People Behind the Counter...

24/02/2011: This past week has been a nasty experience, driving up and down between the municipalities of Kraaifontein and Parow, and having the (how does one say this within the margins of polite society?) honour, of re-folding A0 submission plans to varying different fancies and tastes, at a counter the size of a standard ROK brick, next to the loo… Nasty! So in humble acknowledgement of the “People Behind The Counter” I name Morning Traffic as my item for the week. Needless to say, this is one of the most vexing rituals of modern life, unless one drives a BMW, and thus deserves a mention.

Herman Brand, 2nd year Architecture

this week, in words... and drawings.

10/2/2011: The next item that I am listing, defines the art of detailing, and in my opinion there are very few masters of this craft. The composition and blending of symbolism and reality mixes to a truly magnificent piece, giving generations of discoverers a remarkable experience. In the last week at work, I have re-discovered the intricacies of detailing through a series of drawings for an extension to an existing residence, using aluminium and timber joinery. My handiwork can hardly be considered a masterpiece but, it made me think about Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” and the way she used little details to so aptly create a wonderful whole.  

Herman Brand, 2nd year Architecture student

This is me..., or as close to it as I can get !

This is me..., a rather complex statement. If  "we abide in sleep, intuitively resonating with the sum of all our experiences - this life and beyond - we gain refreshing perspective on our efforts and have an opportunity to remember what we know," as said by Henry Reed , then I would rather list an "experience" each week in my blog update that has moved, vexed or made me think a little bit further. For starters, as I am five weeks into the year, I will list five things that I has made an impression on my character and will list another at each update.
1) The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
2) Alexandria Light House, Egypt
3) Sweet Child of Mine, Guns&Roses
4) The Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo
5) Saint Longinus, Bernini
These items and ideas are what I think about, wonder about and marvel at!