Hello there, blog. Long time, no see.

Since the last time I posted we have formed our final groups and had two reviews. The first one was about our group dynamic/ structure and plan for the semester. Our idea after the first meeting was to make a google doc on which we could all contribute ideas about our goals and values. As soon became quite evident, this was ineffective, as four members of our six member group neglected to fill it out.

After our initial coordination failure, we managed to contact John and Sarah and arrange a visit, so we could get a better idea of their plans for the house and what they felt comfortable with as far as our role and what we plan to install in their house. They were very welcoming and open and answered all of our numerous questions. After the visit, we had a much better idea of what would be feasible and they might be interested in. It is interesting to have artists as clients for an art/arch/engr project when they strong and relevant ideas and opinions of their own for the house.

The group has had a lot of time getting together and thus have relied a lot on independent work (as seen in our most recent presentation :( ). I don't think this is a great method, but considering our difficult schedules, it might be the only doable method. WE are going to have to work out a better routine as the semester progresses, I already see a lot of frustration and stress from my teammates.

We each had individual proposals this week, I spent my tiem researching radiant heating systems and figuring out how to make a visual display of heat use. I settled on translucent wood that would glow (via LED) where the most heat is being applied to the floor. My plan was remarkable similar to Maria's and we have decided to more forward with this idea, incorporating in elements from the other's proposals.

Site visit. (finally!)

I hold a firm belief that you can't design for a specific person or place unless you know that person or place. Without having seen the house and talked to the the owners, I think a lot of our designs were just shots in the dark. The feedback we received from this presentation was immensely valuable and I feel like we all have an actual idea of the possibilities that exist within the project now. The powerhouse was not at all what I was expecting. I was expecting, i guess, a more livable space, something a little more homey. One of the most exciting things about the site though was the community element, I love that the neighbors are interested in using the space and integrating it further in the community, I love that one of the neighbors even stopped to introduce himself and offer some of his opinions on the project. I love the mix of foreign cultures in this midewestern-US setting and I was shocked that for one months rent at my house here in Ann Arbor, I could OWN a house and yard in Detroit.

Week 4.

My week four team has had the best group dynamic of the four. We were assigned to the 'hourly folding water' project which has evolved into a sort of indoor gardening scheme, it was fitting that we first met right after the botanical gardens tour, we were all still fired about about the awesome plant power systems and we were excited to get going. We sat down the following evening to figure out what needed to be decided upon and researched an then split into smaller groups to work on those specific items. We ended up with a hydroponic system that captured light through a sun tunnel, allowing plants to grow throughout the entire year without the owner having to water or monitor sunlight or really do much work at all. The work load was split pretty evenly and pretty easily according to our respective skills the architects worked on the structure, and did laser cutting, digital renderings and digital models. Peyton worked on logistics for the sun tunnel and the water pump. Rachel, natalie and I figured out the planting scheme and materiality, cast a model of the hydroponic pots and built the model of the space, made the expanded clay beads and made the presentation. Im not sure if it was our personalities that fit together well, or we were all happy with the project and what parts of it we were each able to do, but from my point of view, this week went really smoothly.

Botanical Gardens!

I really enjoyed our visit to the botanical gardens. Plant systems are INCREDIBLE. I really enjoyed learning about the way plants sense and react to their environments.

Week 3

Week three I switched to a new project on a team full of people that I had yet to work with. The issue we were set to address, inherited from the previous group, was security. We spent a good deal of time discussing the possibilities that exist within security without making much progress towards a concept that we were all confident in. The next day we all met again, with our own ideas to present to the group, we settled on a sort of modified security camera system that 'got to know your neighbors' through facial recognition and then had different reactions based on whether it knew the person or not and kept track of and displayed info on foot traffic around the property via an infographic-something inside the house. We didn't love how complicated the system was, Ted kept arguing that it wasn't a cohesive system, that there were to many parts and we couldn't decide on a good alternative.

I think part of our problem was team cohesion. After the first day we were never all together as a group, there were several team members who never contributed to the concept at any point during the week. Our team ended up working on really three separate projects, the solar tracker, the light box, and the led motion follower thing. I missed a sort of crucial team meeting that Sunday due to prior commitments (attached is a screen shot of my schedule for that day HAH) and my team decided to meet anyway. I'm still unclear as to what actually happened at the meeting, in any case, a modified version of the concept was decided upon and those that were there each decided upon an aspect of the modeling and presentation to work on. There honestly wasn't much to our presentation that week, I had set aside my whole Monday evening to working on the project, but it seemed that there was nothing left to be done. It was a strange and frustrating week and I don't think any of us were happy with what we presented, I guess I can't really speak for the rest of my team, but I was unhappy with what we presented and I'm not really sure what I could have done differently to affect the come besides coming up with a fantastic idea early on or skipping my meetings on Sunday to be with the team.

Annually Heat Sliding

week two

Today was our third class period and second presentation cycle. Now that we are in our third groups of the class, it is nice to be getting to know everyone a little better, to have an idea of what I am getting into as far as personalities, working styles, and dynamic between the different disciplines. It is also nice to have a better idea of what will be expected of us and sort of the flow of thinking-up and modeling a new smart surface each week. This past week had me a little more off balance than the first week; our group (seasonally, sliding, heat)was having trouble finding a time to meet, so I ended up having to miss the first meeting and a good portion of the second meeting. When I did finally get there, rushing in from some meeting or other, though I got a brief summary of what they had been discussing, I had a hard time jumping into the project and understanding all the decisions that had been made. I don't think any of us were super confident in our concept, but on Saturday, after ending meetings on weds and thurs without a solid direction, we needed to get building.

We ended up with a sort of high-tech venetian blind that had white on one side for reflecting light when its hot out and black on the other for collecting light that can then be rotated around to emit that heat into the house. It also involved sliding panels to control the amount of light let through. The architects got started on modeling and lasercutting while the the rest of us did a bit of background research and made the presentation. Its unfortunate that I am so inexperienced with 3d-modeling and lasercutting; coming from an industrial design background, I have experience and skill in building models and making formal decisions, yet so far in this class most of that has fallen to the architects because of the methods we have been using. The physical design is often done as the modeler goes along since we don't have a ton of time for sketching and deciding on the exact form. I got a chance to go into the woodshop to help Keenan and Wu construct the model after the parts were cut out for this project and it made me remember how much I enjoy working on a physical project and figuring out how to best use the tools to get the exact effect that I want. This also made me more aware fo the unconscious expectations or ideas that are put on group members because of their discipline. Yes, I know my way around the woodshop, and no, I wont destroy anything or injure myself if leave me alone with the drill press. I will definitely try to have a bigger hand in the building process in the coming iterations of the projects.

This week's presentations especially highlighted to me the different values that exist between different team members. I won't use blanket statements regarding the disciplines here, but I will say that I noticed some distinct patterns. From my end I value directness in an explanation. Sure, the technical information is important, but that should never NEVER overshadow the bigger picture. What does it do? Why does it do that? How do we think it might work? There have been probably more presentations than not in this class so far where at the end I am still wondering what exactly they made. Another critique of the presentations is that groups often begin with process, inspiration, all the technical details before showing what they actually made. Opening with the final project gives the rest of that information necessary context, if you hear it before hand it doesn't make complete sense and much of the impact is lost.

This week I'm working with light, seasonal, and rotating. It's almost all people that I haven't worked with before, which I am excited about. We've decided to pursue the issue of security, carrying over from the group before us. This is one of the problems stated by Power House. I find it hard to design without ever having visited one of the houses and without really knowing the audience, so it is nice to have this little bit of input to tide us over until our visit in October.