Rebecca Chick

For my post this week I have merged session 7 & 8 together as one, this is because not only did it happen in our lecture lesson, but I had found it a lot easier to gather my information about what I had learnt. The first thing that I had found interesting is that Thomas more was had created a perfect city called utopia in 1516 as a drawing, where as I had then discovered that Sir Ebenezer had produced garden cities where the ideas became sensible for house planning. Furthermore, the Grand Avenue was successful as it had provided social care and railway links to all routes to create easy transport access. However, I had learnt that when using the Ebenezer Howards principles, I had also learnt that the Letchworth garden city pubs and shops. For session 8 I had discovered that the ManTownHuman Manifesto was built with nature and isn’t important to humans, Austin Williams had turned everything on its head where he links in the Marinetti 100year ago as I had learnt that if we were the same and didn’t change anything in today’s society we would become boring and restricted where he also believes that architects shouldn’t have to follow rules. However, one part that I had found interesting was Albert Speer Hilters architect made everyone think that they were the most powerful country in the world, but it had turned out everything was over scaled showing that the space wasn’t as big as they had made out it to be giving the end result that Germany weren’t the greatest country.

For this lecture about Biomimicry, I firstly learnt what it actually means this of which it is said to be the imitation of natural biological designs or processes in engineering or invention. The next part I had found out is Biomorphic is resembling or suggesting the forms of living organisms. Once discovering about these points, I had then moved onto learning what nature had done first this of which in my lecture had consisted of:

• The wheel
• Bacterium
• Steel beam
• Wing bone of a bird

Whereas the next part were things that we have invented by looking at nature itself which were the:

• Greater burdock because they stuck to animal fur and tops they’d invented
• Velcro Gecko which was fine mesh worked allowing humans to climb up buildings how a gecko does

Overall with this lecture I had found it very interesting as although I’d never thought about what was said it had actually made my understanding much better about Biomimicry although my notes I had wrote were very short on this lecture I had found it difficult to feel strongly for it.

In session 5 for constellation, I was strongly brought to attention when it had said ‘Neo Futurism is the cross pollination of art’ for this I thought it was unusual but interesting when I had thought about it. However, in this lecture I didn’t really have much interest as it went on through the day. From this I had then only pulled out the main parts which I thought were interested myself this of which finding out that the three dimensions of energy trilemma are:

• Energy security
• Energy equity
• Environmental sustainability

I had also found the reserves different due to me not knowing about them this of which consisted of:

Coal reserves – USA, Russian federation, China, Australia, India, rest world

Crude oil reserves – Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Canada, Iran, Iraq, rest world

Natural gas reserves – Russian federation, Iran, Qatar, Turkmenistan, Saudi Arabia, rest world

And the final part in this lecture that I was strongly intrigued was the Maggie’s cancer caring centre, this was to the fact it could take your mind away from the circumstances you with would never happen in life for anyone where it was a place for people to meet who understood but it was also because Maggie was also dealing with the issue herself.

In today’s lecture I believe it was another lecture that I strongly enjoyed this of which we were kind of coming into the present time. From this I had taken great understanding when it was said ‘Neo futurism is the cross pollination of art, cutting edge technologies and ethical values combined to create a pervasively higher quality of life’ this of which I believe is true as for example post modernism is what we are living in today’s society however, I also found out that it is hard to define when post modernism actually started. I had also learnt a lot about different styles this of which postmodernist architecture is easy to explain when it comes to the Seagram building or the glass house as they are great examples. However, deconstructivist architecture is described as clashing of different angles one great example who does this is Zahid as the use of angles are greatly used in many was such as sharp angles. Post-modernist music I had learnt and found interesting that they can either all sound familiar, complete silence or have a hidden meaning behind them. And finally learning that post-modernist art can consist of taking pieces and turning them into things people would buy, but also one main part of the lecture that stood out for me was when it said art cutting, edge technologies and ethical values all equal to persuasively to life which I do believe was fascinating.

During my third lecture, I had found it very interesting this was due to the 1960’s being the best time of the year. And that this was from great success in that year which included Jimmy Hendricks, Batman, Twiggy and supposedly walking on the moon. From this lecture I had also learnt that the Bauhaus house was originally a school but had been closed down due to the Nazis. Also, during this lecture, I had also learnt a lot about art movements such as Russian Constructivism where the ‘Red Wedge’ is the most famous piece produced, De Stijl which is Dutch and known for Piet Mondrian art pieces and also Art Deco which Is known for the Chrysler Building in New York for its decorative patterns. One part that I found interesting was that to produce an Archigram you would only need two sheets of paper one of which one being A3 and on top would be an A4 sheet, I had also discovered that 8-9 Archigram’s were made over the years and that they were originated where they had been that well known they won a design competition but couldn’t get enough funds to raise to build.

When learning about ‘Towards an Architecture’ I firstly learnt that Antonio Sant’Elia despised the ideal of detail or decorations in buildings of which showed me that he didn’t see it as architecture if there was any detail in the building. However, I had also learnt that Le Corbusier’s actual name was Charles-Edouard Jenneret-Gris of which he was a swiss architect where I had also found fascinating how he had created the building called ‘Dom-ino House’ as they didn’t have any walls to enclose it off. When looking at types of buildings  for example the Notre Dame, Paris. Le Corbusier believed that you could use the golden ratio to create the buildings, but they could also be used on photos and paintings by learning this I had found it very strange as I thought it wouldn’t work. During this lecture I was inspired by how the Pessac, France 1925 buildings had become neglected and just left there as people hated them, I deeply liked how they brought them back to life by painting them caring bright colours. The main part which I had found fascinating in the lecture was the Caproni Ca.60 Transaero where it had 18 wings and could carry hundreds of people however it could fly but it only flew for couple of seconds before it had crashed. Furthermore, I strongly liked how cars, electronics and planes for example have changed massively in today’s society where as houses haven’t changed at all and still look very similar.

‘Neo-Futurism is the cross-pollination of art, cutting edge technologies and ethical values combined to create a pervasively higher quality of life’

Vito Di Bari

For the very first constellation lesson, we had started off by learning the understanding of neo-futurist architecture this of which understanding the word ‘neo’ meant new. Where we shortly then moved onto what a manifesto is and again understanding that it is a statement of what you believe about something. From this lecture I believe that I have learnt a lot, this of which was learning a lot of new keywords. I had discovered that Marinetti was the very first person to ever write a manifesto and for it to be published in a French newspaper known as ‘Le Figaro’ in Paris 1909. During this lecture I had also discovered that Marinetti was very much interested in fast cars as he was fascinated by how fast that they can go, and this was where his inspiration came from when writing his manifesto after he crashed his fiat car. This is where a quote also linked in which was ‘we affirm that the world’s magnificence has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed’. Furthermore, looking at my notes I have also learnt that architecture in today’s society hasn’t changed back in 1700 and all buildings look similar in certain ways. However, the main materials that futurist architecture use is reinforced concrete, steel, glass and stone to make the buildings dynamic but also to look bold.