Next Exercise

The next exercise is a six week project.
It will begin with a “competition of briefings” (concurso de enunciados): each one of you will propose an exercise for everybody else to do.
At the end of the workshop on Thursday the 31^st everyone must have posted their proposal on the blog.
On Friday the 1^st, everyone will present their proposal to the group, and we shall vote to decide what to do.

Conditions:
1. The brief must propose a project within the sharing space and the downtown 2010 - manhattan research frameworks.
2. The brief must include
- a thorough programme, with diagrams to explain graphically the relevant parameters.
- a site, adequately defined for everyone else to work, be it through a plan, a section, a chronogram or any document needed according to the nature of the site.
3. Format: posted on the blog, max two images (jpg; 1280x1024 pixels; max 250Mb; landscape) and a description of aprox 300 words

24th and 25thof January: FuCOAM

Visit to the FuCOAM. >>>Bring your camera.

Thursday the 24^th we will meet at the FuCOAM at 16:30, to see the current Exhibitions (100% Crudo, Perdidos, Risky Business). We will discuss what we see, but your aim is to take three pictures, so that the next day…

Friday the 25^th your task is to write a report with the three pictures you selected, explaining in writing why you chose them, and what inspiration you draw from it, relating it to your current project. You can do this from home, so no workshop on Friday.

Format: pdf, A4 printable, max file size 1 Mb, sent by e-mail to carlos.arroyo@uem.es

FuCOAM
c/ Piamonte 23, Madrid
91 319 1683
Mo-Fri 09:00 - 20:00
Sat 10:30 - 14:00

17 - 18 January: Graphic boost

As announced, we are working in the classroom, strictly within the workshop hours. This week we will be doing a graphic exercise. Select a document of your project that you think is important to convey the most relevant features of your project, and optimize it graphically. In the process, you may have to alter your project; do it, but only within the selected document.
Format: pdf or jpg, A4 printable at 300 dpi, uploaded to comunesaya at the end of the Friday workshop.

Friday 11th: REPORTING

Today we will be writing. The first thing will be a report of your own work.

A good report finds: Facts; Aims (Original, Subsidiary) (Achieved, Ignored); Merits, Discoveries, Potentials (Explored, Opened, Unexplored); Challenges (Proposed, Accepted, Overcome, Pending); Alternatives; Diversions, Mistakes and Shortcomings; Assumptions (False or otherwise); what you have learned and what skills you have to develop further.

Format: pdf, A4 printable, max 5 pages, min 1500 words.

Seasonal Exams

Friday the 11^th and the following two weeks, we will be doing short exercises in the classroom, strictly within the workshop hours. The aim is to continue with our work, as we should, while not interfering with the seasonal exams.
The exercises will be related to the project you just handed in, so do bring your files. You may bring your own laptop if it is more convenient.

NO WORKSHOP TOMORROW

Considering that other groups do not have afternoon lessons or workshops tomorow Fri 21st, and after consultation with The Boss of It All, we have decided to CANCEL the workshop tomorrow.
Nevertheless, I will be on-line most of the day, and if BEFORE 16:30 you send me an e-mail with a pdf of your work (keep it small, please, no bigger than 3 Mb per mail) I will get back to you during the afternoon.

Otherwise, as agreed, the deadline for this exercise is Thursday the 10th of January at 16:00.

Format:
- A1 panels in any number you think fitting, minimum three. Print in the highest possible quality. Use a light-semirigid base, minimum a 300gr paper, maximum a 5mm foam board.
- a disk with the panels in pdf and any relevant digital document (video, etc)

It is a good idea to include a first panel with research, first concepts, etc.

It is important to cover a wide range of scales, from the site plan to the microscale, but remember that if you have a large site, you don't have to define the whole thing down to the detail; make zooms of higher definition parts, keep larger scales schematic but eloquent.

If you do a model, remember that it is usually better to chose few good photos, manipulate and adjust them, and print them as large as they will stand. Chose meaningful photos that tell us something about your project. Even if you make seven hundred beautiful photos, choose a few and print them BIG.

Microscale

We are now doing a two week exercise, dealing with the smallest possible scale within your project.
You have to zoom in, and develop a small element of your project.
The choice will depend on the nature of your project. Today we have seen and decided some examples:

- Small public toilets in the park.
- A LED screen.
- A bench / cum roof-beam
- A lantern on the square.
- The DJ box.

It is desirable to choose or include something to sit on.
It is best to choose an autonomous element, preferably in the open air, or within a much larger space.

Make sure you tackle the materiality of your design; is it soft/hard/rough/heavy/light/shiny; include the users in your drawings; use a variety of tools/software: cad for precision, illustrator for clarity, models and photoshop for texture and feeling.

Next Thursday, you will join workshop T-41 in room 222, same schedule. It will be an in-house working session, so bring your materials (laptop, modelmaking gear, whatever you want to work with). You will be able to see how the fourth year students are dealing with microscale, and profs JLE Penelas and M Fonseca will provide feed-back (thanx!)

On Friday we will do on-line tuition. E-mail me your pdf (max 2Mb) before 16:00 to carlos.arroyo@uem.es .

This exercise will be handed in on Friday the 7th (which, as stated before, is no puente)
Format: A1