In Progress Learning Portfolio Arch 20: Spring 2016 - Week 5
Annie Klopfer
Dog House 1
Front Perspective
Perspective: • Strengths-The rapid visualizations/class discussions have given me the ability to use perspective and shadow even on simple structures
Rear Perspective
• Weaknesses-I don’t have ready the ideas of what to create out of simple concepts
• Opportunities-We are all newborn students ready for the enlarging of our learning. I am confident that with practice I can create something beautiful
• Threats-My limited scope of simple shapes could hinder my opportunities
Side Perspective
Dog House 1
Front Elevation
Elevation: • Strengths-I can use the paint tool to enhance simple elevations
Rear Elevation
• Weaknesses-My elevations lack architectural creativity and components, context and background
• Opportunities-With basic skills in SketchUp, exploration, and attuned creativity I can create better elevations
• Threats-Taking regular work life and my need for basic freedom into account, there is a threat to how much I can learn with elevations in one or two weeks
Side Elevation
Original Dog House 2
Left Front Perspective
Perspective: •
Strengths-
-I had some interesting basic ideas for a dog house, including platforms
• Weaknesses-
Right Front Perspective
-Did not have a great concept of circles, geometric combinations, or what could be made out of complimentary mathematics
• Opportunities-There is a lot of room to explore my creativity through mathematics and art
• Threats-A lack of experience and knowledge in SketchUp could hinder my imagination
Rear Perspective
Final Dog House
Front Perspective
Perspective: •
Strengths-I was able to come up with an
interesting design from in-class learning of SketchUp patterns
Rear Perspective
• Weaknesses-Limited conceptuality
• Opportunities-With my supplemental textbook, software, rapid visualization exercises, and excitement, I may be able to conceptualize more
• Threats-Having time constraints and taking time to fully grasp ideas of SketchUp, geometry, and Architecture
Side Perspective
Final Dog House
Top Elevation
Elevation: • Strengths-I can begin to conceptualize the fullness of a structure based on its surroundings
• Weaknesses-
Rear Elevation
-I am having trouble at home with the 3D warehouse, and I work during the lab hours I know of
• Opportunities-There are always ways to redefine your success. I believe this class is an opportunity
• Threats-I have the threat of limited opportunities with SketchUp
Side Elevation
Rapid Visualizations: In-Class Exercises
Impressions: The in-class rapid visualization exercises are immensely helpful. I find them interesting and artistic, which together make the exercises very inspiring. The only downfall is that sometimes they are hard to see on the board, and the drawing feels fast.
Rapid Visualizations: Basic Practice Exercises
Impressions: I love that these exercises were assigned! I love the acuity that the exercises intrinsically lead to. It makes me feel like I’m on my way to being a designer doing these basic exercises. I feel excitement like I always used to for art and architecture.
In-Class Sketch-Up Learning: Cubes In Space
Impressions: I think cubes in space are cool.
Rapid Visualizations: Cubes In Space
Impressions: I love drawing cubes in space, but definitely need more practice. I find it difficult, when drawing with pen, to make a perfect cube without mistake lines. Very fun, and interesting exercise.
In-Class Sketch-Up Learning: Floor Patterns
Sketch-Up Practice: Floor Patterns
Sketch-Up Practice: Floor Patterns
Sketch-Up Practice: Floor Patterns
Rapid Visualizations: Floor Patterns
Impressions: It was easier to come up with 15 different options for floor patterns than I thought it would be.
In-Class Sketch-Up Learning: Groups & Components
Impressions: I enjoyed the initial learning about Groups and Components, but I would like to gain some more experience with them so I can utilize Sketchup better.
• Strengths: It was very easy to translate sketches of my floor patterns to SketchUp. I enjoyed doing sketches of everything we learned in class, which is half the battle. • Weaknesses: I still need to find better time-management techniques, and have realized I spend a bit more time on homework.
• Opportunities: I have a lot of room to get better, and enjoy what we are learning and doing, so that should make it easy. • Threats: Not spending enough time doing homework on the weekend is a definite threat.
Rapid Visualizations: Wall Types
Impressions: Starting in 8th grade, and throughout high school, my friend and I would visit Barnes and Noble frequently, and I always stayed in the Architecture section. I drew my own plans for big, interesting, corporate buildings, but, I never thought about walls, let alone how many combinations one can make just by variating simple styles
My First Creative SketchUp Dreams: Star World
Impressions: We had a little room to be creative and play around with SketchUp last week for homework, so I thought it would be cool to make a star, and put it in the setting of a human environment. ‌Much like railings, I had a problem understanding how to put a circular shape into another circle that I push/pulled to a certain length. So my original solution was to make a hexagon, pull it out, and then form elongated diamonds for points. Even the arcs I used to measure the base of each point showed. I still needed another day of class to achieve my goals!
My First Creative SketchUp Dreams: Star World
Impressions: The next day in class we learned how to make domes, Intersect, and subtract items to play with form and style. Although I didn’t have to subtract anything to form my star, realizing how to use Follow Me, and how to make a spherical base for my star and insert circular cones with it, was a gigantic awakening for me(keep in mind I’m new to this-wink, wink.) I realized I could make the basic component of the star I wantedstart with a sphere, and interrupt that form with cones to use as star points. What was in my mind could actually happen!! So I did some “rapid viz,” and as you may be able to see, learned a bit more about how I wanted the star to look.
My First Creative SketchUp Dreams: Star World Impressions: It took some time to create this object, especially when trying to measure the actual angles to create what was in my imagination. But finally I made the 3-dimensional star that I wanted! I was basing the idea, if it’s not obvious, off of the doodles we all do as kids, where you can draw a 5-pointed star without picking the pen up from the paper. The rapid visualizations helped a lot with understanding that I would actually need 7 points instead of 5 for a 3-D version. The protractor, and pencil tools helped with actually(almost) aligning all the star points. I did eyeball a good amount of this object, but, I’m happy with how it worked out.
My First Creative SketchUp Dreams: Star World
Impressions: The first star I made was on scale with most of the creations we have been doing in class, i.e. a scale comparable to human spaces. For my second star, I realized stars are gigantic. I think the diameter of the sphere I used for my second star was 50’. It was gigantic! With each star I made, I made a 10x10 cube of it, by copying and spacing the creation, to conceivably cover the sky. You can tell in the left-top picture how much bigger the cube of the second star is. You can even see a bit of the cube I made from the first star in the bottom-left picture.
SketchUp Imagitorium: Adding The Humans Impressions: I didn’t have time to make the home/structure(and I stress the word structure) detailed after focusing on my idea for stars all week. I did a quick rapid visualization, and had a quick idea of what I may want out of a house, and just started to build something. I built quite a large structure. The stairs themselves are gigantic. It would be like climbing to an ancient Buddhist temple, or something else fantastic out of the youth or maturity of that zeitgeist. I had ideas for big windows, but realized that the structure is big(around 150’x100’) so I really need to think practically about it. I had a passing thought of making it a science museum. I think a house, with stars this low, would be cooler, like the sky is falling, on a certain night(and what would that mean?) That idea is borne from the poet in me, that loves scenes. I finished what I could of the house/structure, and will work on it later.
New Ideas: Railings and Stairs Impressions: We did learn how to make railings and stairs this week, so I wanted to include it in my practice and homework. The stairs I found easy. The railings… not so much. I remember that in class, on the first day we learned about railings, we used the protractor; and honestly I took notes, but when trying to practice the ideas was confused by them. I didn’t realize there was another way to create railings. But I think it’s amazing that we reviewed it today, and you took the TIME to explain it! Very cool! In the top picture you can see how gigantic my structure is, as well as some railings. In the bottom picture you can see a nice perspective of the stairs.
• Strengths: I was able to create a lot. I was able to create something from my imagination, and make it exactly like I wanted it to be. That’s pretty cool! • Weaknesses: I took on too much with both creating the star I ultimately wanted, and making a beautiful house to go with it. I have to realize that not all ideas are going to come to fruition in one week’s homework.
• Opportunities: I have the opportunity to keep working on my “scene” and making it something that does tell a story. I think that opportunity will be enhanced with more class learning. • Threats: The threat of time is always there, but more than that, I don’t know how to work with the mathematics of SketchUp… barely at all, and that is a definite threat. (Beware: I may ask you questions in class about this)
My First Creative SketchUp Dreams: Star World
Impressions: Here is a scene for you. The story is omitted by the prominent, incomplete star, and the blank faรงade of the structure. I wish this story was complete at this point, but I appreciate your perspective on learning and achievement through eligible/realistic spaces of time(like a week) and your understanding expectations of everyone styles and work. I hope you enjoyed the stars!
Mock Piazza del Campidoglio: Steps 1 and 2
Impressions: I found this homework relatively easy to follow. The first two steps were easy enough. The only confusion that came of it was the circular geometric shape in the middle of the whole form. There were little lines that I couldn’t easily see how to erase. It seemed that there was only one way to erase the lines, but further than that, there was one aspect of your model I wasn’t completely able to re-create, as a result of the confusion with the erasing.
Mock Piazza del Campidoglio: Steps 3 and 4
Impressions: I found the third and fourth steps fairly easy too, but you can tell my offset width on the surfaces that join up to the tips of the star points aren’t the right size. I went back and tried to figure how to erase the original lines to get the right effect but the picture of the directions on my computer, even when zoomed in, just weren’t big enough, or had enough perspective(or something,) for me to figure it out. Nonetheless, making more detailed patterns with the offset button was fun, and I loved how easy it was to make something so complex in a couple of steps.
Mock Piazza del Campidoglio: Steps 5 and 6
Impressions: Completing the platform was fun because it looked finished, and I created something beautiful, however I didn’t see exactly how large to make the circular steps on the outside so that worried me a bit, but it seems like you just want us to get the theme of the project, not exact measurements. That said, I had trouble with ’follow me’ making the steps. I had to build it in a much longer way, and hide a lot of lines. The circular steps broke into segments, etc. And my thought about that is that there’s a lot to be done with SketchUp, and I’m still incredibly new to the themes of architecture as well as this program. Such an infant.
Mock Piazza del Campidoglio Impressions: I found this project to be fun. Honestly, I like the pace we’re moving at, but I wish we we’re going slower too. There seems to be easy things to comprehend in SketchUp, and harder things to grasp, which, seem to have to do with geometry. I think there’s a geometry to SketchUp to be solved with items like the ‘compass’ tool, and to architecture in general, that I need more explanation and understanding of. The logic of SketchUp, simply because I’m new to it, I don’t have a developed concept of yet. And we’re still learning. Groups/Components these ideas are still finding their roots in my mind, with regard to how exactly I use those concepts. Some things are obvious, but not everything is. Some students have used this program before, a lot have not. But I appreciate projects like these, and I look forward to more interesting projects. I like the Russian constructivism project we’re doing this week. My basic impression is that there is so much to learn, and I’m so new to it. I appreciate the attention you give to questions in class, and I appreciate the projects you give us. It’s very eye-opening.
Strengths: I have a good grasp of how to use basic elements of SketchUp. I’m not proficient. I’m not really fast at it. But I get the basic tools, and can create basically interesting items. Weaknesses: I don’t really have any problem-solving abilities in SketchUp, which is definitely real when creating more complex models, and it takes me a long time to create images/models. I don’t get the concepts incredibly well, but spend time on it. Opportunities: I think with more communication in class there’s a lot of opportunity to marinate on the complexities of SketchUp, and really develop architectural concepts, practice, and SketchUp program opportunities of communicating those aspects of architecture. Threats: Other than time, which I’ve already talked about, and my evergrowing set of new life happenings to get used to! I think I really have a threat of not comprehending ideas if we can’t talk about them more in class. I will be asking questions.