Yeah, so this is it.... I guess. It hit me really hard today, when the last group of people who did Jap Arch handed in their models. Yeah so this is the end on BAS. Part of me are glad that it's over, but another part of me felt kind of ...um empty? It's like I dont know what I will do after BAS, should I come back or should I not..like I said in the previous post, I still dont know what to do.
Looking back at the last 3 years of BAS, it had been the most eventful, most extraodinary journey of my life so far. It's pretty scary come to think of it.
First year, knew nothing of architecture (perhaps still the same now), its a joke really. I didnt know what to do, I didnt know how to draw and hell I didn't even know what 'concept' means. When I talked to Rafik for the first time, he asked "So whats your concept?" and I was like "huh?". Then I literally looked up on Oxford English Dictionary to look up the meaning of the word called 'concept', and yet understanding of it remains unclear. I didn't know how I came to understand the term, I think it was somebody, who clarifies if for me. Then I knew... ah, 'Concept'...."My concept is..", since then it became the word we use almost everyday in architecture school. I remembered, the first design in first year was called "
The Environment Instrument". I first proposed a sundial, yeah lame I know... then there goes the million dollar question by Rafik, whats your concept. I said I don't know. Then I changed the design completely. It then became wind chimes. Still I had no concept. I didnt know where the fuck that idea came from, I must have seen it in some mags then. I got a B. Then the second term of first semester, the topic was called "
A Writer's Retreat". That, I have a concept. It was called
flow. Yeah cliche concept, I know. I did pretty bad in that. I understood the idea of concept but I didn't know I had to 'develope' a concept. I was stuck and by the end of the semester, a week before crit-hand-in, I again, completely changed the design. Last minute shit. Had a, which at that time, I thought it was the-end-of-the-world crit. I remembered clearly, the guest crit, Sean Flanagan said
"...Maybe you sould reconsider of coming to this school and study architecture.." That's it, that just does it. I am crap, I thought. And I swear to God, as much as I wanted to shove my fist up his face, I wanted cry more. After the crit, I hid in the toilet for 3 hours just sitting there. I cant remember if I cried, but I knew I was really depressed and upset. People thought I commited suicide. The next day I felt like shit, just everyone who knew what happend had to mention it and comfort me. Fuck it, dont rub it any deeper. I didn't know when, I actually got my ass working, go to the library and actually made an effort to make friends with architecture books, I must have been the break, I did, and I was desperate to get to know architecture better. Come second semester, I was assigned to Richard's group. Welcome to Hell. I was actually quite surprised with the amount of work I produced that semester, and the willingness of me to work hard, like hard hard, despite the heart shattering comment from Sean, I did made an effort to try again. Hey, I'm not a wuss. Working with Richard was a pain in the ass. I had used up two to three butter paper pads at least and made more than 10 models in a day, which he didnt even want to look at, pretty sad. But the crit was good. Another critic-from-hell, Mario Madayag actually severely attacked my work but Richard was nice, he said that I am a "
very hardworking student that isnt afraid of mistakes." Indeed I am. I got an A. I was lucky, i thought.
Moving on to second year of BAS, we were given the option to choose to work with the tutor we like, or a particular design topic. After discussing with Rei, we choose to work with Douw Van Zyl. Reason, because we thought that the title of the paper was cool;
No_Mad. We had no idea who the fuck Douw was, no idea what
No_Mad meant, no idea what the brief required, we picked that paper. Yeah I wasnt all that great. During the whole semested, I only talked to Douw for like maybe 4 to 6 times. The first project was an apartment behind St' Kevin's Arcade. He actually did mention my ability to compose spaces in a very porportional way. I didnt know what porportion had to do with architecture. That semester, Fanny was working with Ross Jenner, and they are doing this proportional stuff which was rather interesting. I had her and Derek to teach me Golden rule. I thought it was magical. Then the secont project was "Your
Dreamhouse". It was totally done in viz and is totally random and arbitary like Zaha Hadid. I liked it. I thought I'd do something different from the first one. Douw hated it. Then the third and final project for the semester, was actually "
A house for an artist, with 2 wives and i-cant-remember how many kids". I actually enjoyed designing this house because there are a sets of rules that I had to follow, such as the floor area of each space is given, this wall shall not be taller than that wall, the first wive should have separate room such and such. And a theortical idea was to be understood and to be applied to it. Fuck. I randomly choose Peter Eisenman's theory of Decompostition. I had a huge presentation on one long sheet of tracing paper, drawn horizontally, 2 plans, 4 elevations and 4 sections. Did 8 perspective. That was a breakthrough for me. However Doug never saw the design until the hand in day. I guess he was impressed. He said "I see you have been having fun with design", and I said "yeah I have". I hated him at that time. I just thought he was a fucking ignorant arrogant shit who thinks he is mr.-know-it-all. But the fact is, he does know alot a stuff. And this semester, I had another end-of-the-world crit. During that crit, which I am proud to say attracked many spectators, Douw commented on my conceptual drawings as "bullshit". He literally said that word. I was furious. How dare you. I was furious. I wasnt upset or anything this time. I just thought, oh fuck it, I got an A+. First A+. I was on cloud nine. I thought I'd fail from the look of the crit. But I friggin nailed it.
Second Semester, I had Hayden Willy, paper was "
Gallery for the National Creative Arts and Industry". I picked this paper simply because of the topic, a gallery. I was eager to design something bigger than a house. And I have always wanted to design a gallery. Its a prefect choice, minus Hayden Willy. Hayden seemed to liked my design from the beginning of the semester, so there wasnt really any huge obstacle. But something happened. This semester was ...awful. I wont mention what happened, it was awful. I guess most people knew what happened. It was something that some people in my group did, and I did something to them, not literally tho, and in the end I was the bad guy. How sad. I was accused of being a racist, even worst, I was called to have a 'conversation' with Prof. Errol. It was awful. But anywaz, I've learnt a precious lesson. Do not temper with people from *that* country. Its pretty hazardous. But anyway, the peak of it, I had to apologize to them, in front of everyone, after I had my crit. Lucky me, Hayden was understanding. He put me to the last to crit. By that time, most people are gone. Save the embarassment. I did got an A+ for this semester though, It was unepected, compared to last semester, my presentation used up only one panel, drawings were not notated, incomplete in many ways, but I guess substance counts hehe. But surprisingly, Clinton and Diane saw my work and complimented it. I was a great feeling. Second year ended just like that, lost some friends, embarassed myself, got 2 A+S, it was satisfying.
Come to third year, D5, I had Mike Linzey and Mike Davis. Topic was
Hysteria. It was an interesting semester. I hardly ever spoken to Mike Linzey because he doesnt seemed to care, where as Mike Davis was always so full of passion and enthusiasm. He always had positive feedbacks, everything is great to him, sometimes it made me wonder "really?". Quote Davis, "Just keep doing things even if you dont know what to do." It was really helpful. He is a easy to talk to. Overall a very good tutor, not because he said positive things about my design, but he had his own way of making you keep working, keep making things and most importantly, he cared for his student's design, some tutors just took it for granted like "what was your concept again?" but not with him. In the end, I produced the most work I have in any other semester. I have a lot of things for finals, I have done viz renderings, I have done axonometric, I have done perspective, just basically everything. It was a semester that I tried everything because the tutor lets you do whatever you want, which is great. But the reason why I did that was both tutor didnt like hand drawn stuff so I did my best to make the drawings look spectacular, basically throwing it in their face.Nothing worth mentioning that semester really except I've got the most compliments for my design ever, which I am really happy about. It felt great the people reconizes your work. I got an A+, my work was retianed for JVB.
Second semester, Sarah Treadwell's
Antigone and the Foundations of Grief, it was the paper where almost everyone wanted to take. It's also the first time I did not get my first choice. Brian Taggart was my second choice, I was assigned to him. I didnt like it, I talked to Sarah and I got in to her group. You wont be dissapointed by having me. I thought to myself. But sadly, I was disappointed at myself. The semester was a drag. I felt like I've ran out of ideas. My things start to look the same. I didn't want to photoshop the drawings like last semester because I'd just repeating what I did and since I found out that everyone was doing it, I foreited that idea. I do understand a presentation will look so much better, so much eye catching with photoshp, but I just didnt want to do it. It was all hand drawn. I did less work this semester because I didnt want to work, I spent most of my times going to Borders, and the full mid-sem-break at the beach. It felt good. I spent less time at studio and output was little. It was a shame. Sarah was a good tutor. I was glad I did her paper. It was my fourth A+, my work was retained for JVB and I just got the news that I will be given a prize, award or certificate at this year's prize giving ceremony.
