WATT UP? GASA Newsletter | March 2021

GRADUATE ARCHITECTURE STUDENT ASSOCIATION | MARCH 2021

WATT UP? GASA NEWSLETTER

DRINK UP, BUTTERCUP - 01 PLANTING FOR A BETTER ENVIRONMENT - 02

RE-IMAGINING FUTURIST METROPOLIS - 03 ALUMNI ANSWERS- 04

DRINK UP, BUTTERCUP!

These simple strategies will help you

BY KATELYN LENTZ

challenge to get through a bottle of

drink more H2O. Always have a water bottle on hand with you at your laptop or computer. Try making it a water during those 3 hour classes!

Have you ever gone through a day full of classes and felt that wave of exhaustion around 4-5pm? I know I definitely have. It often happens when I forget to drink enough water throughout the day. It’s incredibly easy to go through a day without staying hydrated enough, especially when we are attending school virtually. However, our energy levels, productivity and overall well being are linked to the amount of water we intake a day.

Choose tea or coffee over sugarsweetened beverages: drinks with high amounts of sugar can influence sleep patterns and impact metabolic health.

Keep a glass of water next to your bed and drink it first thing in the morning.

This wakes you up and jumpstarts your hydration for the day. Try a water drinking app! A few include Daily Water, Water Alert and Waterlogged.

These not only help you track your intake of fluids but provide additional

Water regulates body temperature

motivation to stay hydrated.

and carries oxygen and nutrients to cells. It affects motor skills, awareness and cognitive abilities to keep you going throughout the day while boosting your mood and productivity levels. This keeps your energy levels up (much needed for those long nights before studio)! Drinking water improves keeps your appearance healthy on the outside and boosts the immune system on the inside.

“When you’re well-hydrated, your sleep quality is better, your cognition is better, you function better, your mood is better, the list goes on...”

Douglas Casa, CEO of the Korey Stringer Institute, University of Connecticut, which studies athletic performance

PLANTING FOR A BETTER ENVIRONMENT

BY CHIZOBA IBEANUSI

1) Select a native plant palette.

Preferably drought tolerant and species that will bloom around the season you’re planting them. Check out your local nursery or Home Depot (shown below) for great prices.

During these several months of quarantine, I know it’s personally been a time of reflection. There’s been people coming back into and out of my life from all angles and it's refreshing to see how we’ve started to value the simple things. Things we took for granted like group outings, sports, and concerts have changed in so many ways.

One thing that this time has allowed is growth and space to pursue personal endeavors.

2) De-weeding and composting. This is an important first step to clear the land and compost the weeds. Weeds in this region are a pest but it’s necessary to remove and compost them and prevent cross pollination.

As a student in the landscape architecture certificate program, I am a proud plant geek. I enjoy learning about permaculture, ecology and how we can bring the natural environment into our everyday lives. I’ll be showing you how I’m taking on landscaping my backyard.

3) Start digging! Ensure enough space for the plant to grow. Add any compost to the surrounding area.

Water the hole prior to transferring the plant to prevent the roots from absorbing shock. Pat the plant into the soil and watch it grow!

RE-IMAGINING FUTURIST METROPOLIS

BY DAVID FLORES Qiupei Hu's fall semester project from ARCH 564 was developed from the drawing Air and Train Station with Funicular Cableways on Three Road Levels from La Città Nuova by the Italian architect Antonio Sant’Elia. Antonio was a key member of the Futurist movement and architecture in the early-20th century. The project alters the compositional logic and spatial relationship represented in the original drawing. In addition, the development involves a sense of surrealism, where surfaces merge into each other on multiple planes, and further blurs the boundary of reality. Moreover, the application of color creates an illusion that differs from the original monochromatic drawing, representing a dissimilar reading of futurism in the modern era.

Qiupei Hu

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ALUMNI ANSWERS

featuring Aaron Herrera

BY SHAY MIRZAEI

Master of Architecture 2017, University of Southern California Bachelor of Arts in Architecture, University of New Mexico Digital Modeler, Tesla

Aaron Herrera is a recent USC Alumni and is currently working as a Digital Modeler for Tesla.

He was one of the first to go through the M.ARCH +3 program and was also the 2016 GASA Vice President and the 2017 GASA President! Fun fact, he started the GASA Instagram account and logo that we still use!

Q&A What was your favorite part of being a USC Graduate Architecture Student?

“All the innovative and creative thinking that so many people from so many different backgrounds brought into architecture. That, and the connections you get from school.

Whether they be academically based or your peers, they last for the rest of your life.”

If you could go back in time and give ‘grad student you’ some advice, what would you say?

“I would tell myself to enjoy USC more because they offered so many events, so many extra curricular things you can go to that are both disciplinary and social. Social events like baseball games and basketball games. On the scholarly side, like in the School of Cinema they have speakers and tons of experimental designers from all kinds of fields display their work and ideologies that are just extraordinary.”

How did you get to where you are today?

“Extremely hard work, dedication and never really giving up. Also, knowing the right people by being well connected, something that USC is known for and helps tremendously.”

Job description?

“I’m the median between a designer and an engineer. A designer will come to me with a certain idea for what they want a part to look like. That could range from anything from a fascia, a rim, a steering wheel, etc. and I will model that in 3D. Engineering will give me feedback on that specific part and go through a variety of specifications to make feasible in order for it to be manufacturable. When both parties are satisfied with the result, we send it off to be mass produced all over the world!”

What made you pursue your current career?

“When I first moved here for school at USC I would see these random cars driving around that I knew nothing about and I would always recognize them from the headlights… they’re just beautifully designed cars. It sounds cliche but to be a part of something bigger than you is so intriguing...I remember when the opportunity presented itself to me, it was surreal that I got the chance to work there because the outlook of what the company was trying to accomplish was just so amazing! Elon, he’s literally trying to change the world and to be a part of accelerating that goal was very appealing to me.”

How do you think your M.Arch degree has contributed to the work you do today?

“In school, we learn how to use a variety of software and that definitely helps… we naturally as designers are able to think and see in 3D space… so combining the aesthetics of our design sense with complex engineering helped me to excel in what I do today.”

Looking back, would you have still pursued an M.Arch?

“I mean it was really hard, you don't sleep and you work constantly but to be where I am today… I would do that all again. It was hard, don't get me wrong, but it makes it that much more worth it. When I see something I’ve helped to produce in another country, or here in LA, it’s like a dream come true seeing what I’ve worked on become a physical reality, something tangible. The degree of architecture itself is very overarching, so even if you don’t want to be an architect, you can do other things with your degree. Having that 3D sense of space, you can design a multitude of things… whether that be skyscrapers to residential homes, to industrial products. That doesn’t mean you have to limit it to being physical either, it can be digital. You know, you can do graphic design, animations, photography, work in movies… your architecture degree really provides no limits.”

Any last advice for our current students?

“Just continue on with your education and learn as much as you can because school is not forever. It is a place to be experimental, try new things, fail, and try again. Be proactive and step out of your comfort zone. Stand out and be bold. I’d tell students to take more advantage of the free events, academic and social, and by far just make as many connections as you can.

They’ll last a lifetime. The world is an amazing, beautiful, and vast place and your creativity is equally as expandable to have no limits!”

LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT Good Morning!

I’m Shay Mirzaei, the Graduate Architecture Student Association (GASA) President. I hope you all had a great midterm season and are now taking the much-needed break that I’m sure we all need!

I wanted to reach out and remind you that even though times are tough right now that you’re not alone! The GASA board and I are working hard on making our experience here at USC the best that it can be - be it online or in person. We’re constantly brainstorming ways to keep us all more connected and we would love to hear from you all! If you have any questions/comments, if there is anything you would like to see more of like events, other articles, etc, (or if you just want to chat!) feel free to contact us! (gasatrojans@gmail.com) We hope you enjoyed our first GASA Newsletter (Shout out to our VP, Chizoba Ibeanusi, for kickstarting this!) and hope to see you on Wednesday for Pictionary night - March 17th @7PM! Sincerely,

Shadan Mirzaei