News from Building Beauty
HOME 2020 Competition with Duo Dickinson begins March 2nd
Building Beauty will host his year’s annual HOME competition with the University of Hartford in Connecticut, Alfred State College in New York, and University of San Francisco in California.
Anyone who wishes to participate is welcome. Please contact Karen Erickson (kerickson.duos@gmail.com) to express your interest and receive further information about how to join online lectures and presentations.
Launch - March 2 + Preliminary designs due - March 9 + Feedback is sent to students - March 12
Final project due - March 24 + Project presentation - March 27
YOUR HOUSE
The requirements are:
600 sq ft/66.7 sq m on a flat site anywhere, but specified
No budget
FORMAT: one square image, digital in any media — photos of model, scans of drawings,
CAD, Revit — anything, but square and 600dpi x 600dpi
Building Beauty Dispatch #10
A view of the Marina Grande Bay from the Sant’Anna Institute in Sorrento, with the Vesuvio volcano and the city of Naples emerging from the morning mist.
A New Year with a New Focus:
Building Beauty Courses for Everyone
This academic year will be structured a bit differently than the past two years, with less emphasis on the year-long program in Sorrento (while we had several students who applied, none could afford to pay the fees; we need at least a few students every year who can pay full fees). We are now focusing on offering several online courses in addition to a couple of shorter 3-4 week workshops that will take place in Sorrento. One of the online courses will be the Nature of Order theory class that will be held once a week from November to May, and another will be Duo’s HOME program, with students from the University of Hartford, Alfred State, and the University of San Francisco participating, in addition to students or professionals associated with Building Beauty.
The workshops in Sorrento will include tile making, stone carving, and carpet study, and we also plan to offer a separate 3-4 week building workshop where we will build another project in the Sant’ Anna garden. In addition, we plan to offer the summer school ten-day building program at the end of the academic year, and hope to do it again with the Associazione Canova, helping them rebuild the medieval stone town of Ghesc in the Italian Alps (see photos of our students attending this unique program at the end of this dispatch). Once we finalize the dates, we will send you info and hope that you can pass it on, or better yet, join us for one of the courses! These classes and workshops will be open to all who are interested, and the online ones will be FREE for professionals (there will be a fee for students who need the course for credit as they will be completing assignments, writing a paper, and receiving grades for their work). Stay tuned for more information and registration details coming soon!
Now that we have an agreement for credits with the University of Hartford, other universities have expressed more interest in Building Beauty, so we do expect to continue the year-long course in Sorrento for the 2020/2021 academic year with students attending from these institutions in addition to our other international students. While activities in Sorrento will be a bit more limited this year, there will be more BB action on a global scale. Please read on for some big news about an entirely new BB global program!
NEWSFLASH:
The Announcement of Building Beauty STAR
The work of Building Beauty as a non-profit Cultural Association continues, and its objective does not change: our mission is to radically innovate architecture education in the world, a change that is in all evidence every day more relevant, needed and called for internationally. In the last two years our program in Sorrento has captured an expanding network of high-profile international scholars and practitioners from all over the world (including you and other members of the American Advisory Board) who have committed amazing resources of time, money and energy to the project. And let us reiterate: the project is not that of only teaching an elite program to a dozen privileged and talented students in Sorrento, but rather to become part of and influence the face of architecture education globally, helping to establish “the new normal" worldwide. The times have never been more appropriate for this.
Working to achieve that aim, in addition to our graduate diploma program in Sorrento, the Association with its core group of networked people is defining and promoting another new model of delivering Building Beauty, named Building Beauty STAR. This new model is possible now because of the amazing feedback we have received in the last two years of the program in Sorrento, and the lessons learned along the way.
What is BB Star? It is the idea that rather than having just one BB program delivered independently in Sorrento, we would have a number of constellated institutions around the world offering their own BB programs as part of their portfolio of courses. The BB Star local programs will be based on a complete four-year undergraduate program in Architecture and Making, for which ACBB (Cultural Association Building Beauty) will provide coordination and monitoring, certification and strategic guidance, and a few teaching units common to all. This ambitious idea is currently making its first steps into reality, and our efforts in the next academic period will be focused on this important task. The idea is as ambitious as it is new, and we will not be running short of hurdles in the next few crucial months: we need the help and collaboration of all to bring this to fruition. If you are a part of or know of any institutions or programs that might be interested in participating in the BB Star program, please let us know – we are actively contacting various schools of architecture around the world to invite them to join us in this effort.
Beauty in the News
New articles and research are continuing to be published about architecture and beauty, the brain and beauty, and the importance of beauty as a fundamental requirement for life. One example from the Harvard Crimson: https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2017/11/10/neuroaesthetics-cover/.
Summer School 2019 in the Italian Alps
Last May, our Building Beauty students spent 10 days in the mountain village of Ghesc. This abandoned medieval village in the heart of the Italian Alps is completely made of stone, and is now slowly being restored by the Associazione Canova through international workshops. Our work was to re-build a stone portal and to terrace the landscape next to it with dry stone walls, making it alive once again!
Thank you all for all of your support!
www.facebook.com/BuildingBeautySorrento/
Twitter @_BuildingBeauty
To Donate: https://www.buildingbeauty.org/acbb
Duo Dickinson's Response to Salingaros and the need for change in architecture education
In ArchNewsNow: The coming technological changes in architecture will impose a full deconstruction of the way we educate architects. Read the article here.
Alexandra Lange: Let Christopher Alexander Design Your Life
Alexandra Lange revisits A Pattern Language and writes about its relevance today. See complete article here.
“A pattern is the way physical design responds to human relationships. I didn’t need it as a teenager, but I turned to it after I got married, and then again after I had kids. Patterns that were meaningless at 17 – like Pattern 73, “Adventure Playground”–feel like breadcrumbs charting a new way of looking at cities now that I’m a parent.”
“As New York, Toronto, Singapore, and more places around the globe build so-called smart cities, maybe we need to read “A Pattern Language” again in that context. Who is the audience for the smart city? Who has access to the data? Who has the ability to make design decisions based on that data? Is this city going to build better relationships? People are the scoring system, whether you’re deciding on a rug for the living room, or a light rail system for the city. ”
Academic Credits for the Building Beauty Program Now Available via its Partnership with the University of Hartford
Building Beauty: Ecologic Design and Construction is an international post-graduate diploma in architecture using Christopher Alexander’s The Nature of Order as a foundation for understanding how architecture can support life in communities and cities, and the practical work of building. It also makes connections to exciting and profound work of other investigators and noted scholars in architecture and other fields. Students, academics, and professionals from around the world are convening at the Sant’Anna Institute in Sorrento, Italy, to explore how building beauty and wholeness can make a difference. (www.buildingbeauty.org)
The University of Hartford’s Department of Architecture in the College of Engineering, Technology and Architecture has been working with Building Beauty to offer students a broader range of opportunities to study architecture and its role in society, and how the human experience of beauty can edify the process of creating our world.
Hartford now also supports students of other US academic institutions in receiving credit for their work in the Building Beauty course. For more information, please contact Jim Fuller, Dean of the Architecture Department at Hartford (fuller@hartford.edu), or Yodan Rofe, Course Director at Building Beauty (yodanr@gmail.com).
Building Beauty’s application deadline for the 2019-20 session is July 15, 2019. We are looking for students who have the heart, passion and vision to prepare themselves to make a difference in the world through architecture and the sustainable development of communities. If this is you, please contact us at hello@buildingbeauty.org to explore how we can work together.
Summer School in Ghesc, Italy
In May, our Building Beauty students spent 10 days in Ghesc. An abandoned medieval village in the heart of the Alps, all made of stone, is now slowly being restored by Associazione Canova through international workshops. Our share was to re-build a stone portal and to terrace the landscape next to it with dry stone walls. Making Ghesc alive again!
Building Beauty Dispatch #9
Building Beauty Agreement with the University of Hartford
We are so pleased to announce the following agreement between the Building Beauty program and the University of Hartford. This is a crucial step in creating accreditation paths for our Building Beauty students who want to continue their studies at other institutions around the world. Thank you so much to Advisory Board member Jim Fuller for making this happen! The following is the press release:
University of Hartford and Building Beauty, located at the Sant’Anna Institute in Sorrento, Italy, Offers New Program for Architecture Students
WEST HARTFORD, Conn. ― Building Beauty is pleased to announce an agreement has been established with the Department of Architecture in the College of Engineering, Technology, and Architecture (CETA) at the University of Hartford in West Hartford, Connecticut USA. Third- and fourth-year students from the University of Hartford may attend the Building Beauty program in Sorrento to fulfill requirements for their Bachelor of Architectural Design + Technology degree. The collaboration with University of Hartford and Building Beauty continues to grow and both institutions look forward to expanding opportunities for students. This agreement signifies that partnerships can be developed between institutions to offer students a broader range of opportunities to study architecture and its role in society. This new program will forge a new path that incorporates the human experience of beauty in the way we create our world.
University of Hartford’s Department of Architecture Chair James E. Fuller, AIA NCARB, expresses his enthusiasm for the Building Beauty program, the opportunities it can provide students, and support of this growing relationship:
“Beauty activates and enlivens the soul. Engaging in conversation, design, and building around beauty – that which makes the world a better place – elevates us all. This is what the Building Beauty program is all about. We are thrilled to be able to provide our students with the opportunity to discover the beauty around them and within them through their experiences at Building Beauty.”
Year Two of Building Beauty Comes to a Close
The second year of the Building Beauty program has come to a close with the completion of two projects in the Sant’Anna north garden – a new wooden pergola and a new small bench made of local volcanic tufo blocks. These projects, in addition to the rest of the work that the students completed this year, were presented to the public on Inauguration Day at the beginning of May. More detailed information about these projects can be found on the Student Work page: https://www.buildingbeauty.org/student-work
The completed pergola project on Inauguration Day.
The completed bench with tufo master Luigi seated on the left.
One of our students described carving a flower ornament as the final element for the bench project:
“After a few more touch-ups, the flower was done. The overall feeling of the bench with the flower added brought the whole place together – as a stronger center. The bench made the whole place a better center, and the feeling of the place that was earlier marked by most of us as a 2 in our feeling assessment, was now a 4, which is the score for a place having the best feeling.” (Anushka)
Anushka working on the flower ornament for the bench, and the finished ornament:
It was a rich and productive year at Building Beauty; the students learned many new practical skills in addition to their theoretical work, and all of them came away with a new perspective of architecture as a continuous act of making that is both deeply personal and universal. Here are a few of their final comments to us:
“When I dance, I am at peace with myself. In three years of architecture school in India, I never felt this peace, but I did feel it this year at Building Beauty in the design of a house for myself.” (Anushka)
“Being here in Italy is a great opportunity for all of us. Building Beauty brought new hope in me that architecture can be interesting. Earlier I felt that architecture books are boring because the books that we referred to and read in my institution are all about modernism — all these forms which don't have a form language and no relation with other space. But as soon as I started reading The Nature of Order and A Pattern Language, I became interested in reading them and experiencing what they described. All the teachers who visit us and are with us are just incredible. I wish to stay longer and keep working with all of them. I hope one day, I will be able to work with them on different projects. I thank you, Maggie Moore Alexander, and all the teachers for giving me this golden opportunity to be a part of this amazing community. I also wish to come back here and meet all the teachers and the students to come.” (Mohit)
“This year at Building Beauty I learned that I am valuable, and that seeing things in a positive light is good, not bad like I learned in architecture school in India. Building Beauty people have put me back on the right path of being myself, being positive, and that that is OK. I refuse to be killed by architectural cynicism.” (Ankit)
We wish our students a very fond farewell and look forward to following their journeys as they each travel their own paths and maintain their connections with the Building Beauty community!
Resources
This year, we started to record some of The Nature of Order classes where we had guest speakers from all over the world present their work to the Building Beauty students. If you are interested in seeing some of these presentations, please find them at the link below. In addition to the recorded Nature of Order sessions, there is also a radio podcast by Duo Dickinson on Beauty HOME, as well as several papers and articles of interest. Please check it out!
https://www.buildingbeauty.org/resource-center
Building Beauty Academic Year 2019-2020
We are looking forward to continuing Building Beauty and teaching this material for the upcoming 2019-2020 academic year, but we need students in order to do this. Please help us spread the word – time is of the essence as the application deadline this year is July 15, and we still have many spaces that need to be filled for the program to continue. Information about how to apply can be found here:
https://www.buildingbeauty.org/syllabus-and-qualification
The most important first step is to have students contact us at hello@buidingbeauty.org to explore with them how the program can help them meet their goals and hopes for the future.
Thank you!
And lastly, thank you all very, very much for your continued support for Building Beauty, including acting as outside critics for the HOME program, and helping us to spread the word. Financial help is also greatly appreciated so that we can continue to offer this one-of-a-kind program, and to build an international community engaged in the process of building beauty.
To Donate: https://www.buildingbeauty.org/acbb
To keep up with our regular announcements, see us at https://buildingbeauty.org/, https://www.facebook.com/BuildingBeautySorrento/, and https://twitter.com/_buildingbeauty.
Duo Dickinson Susan Ingham
Shifting Patterns: Christopher Alexander and the Eishin Campus
Christopher Alexander and his associates, with the participation of future users, realized their largest project based on a specific “Project Language” on the periphery of Tokyo: the Eishin Campus, now a private high school for 1,000 students. In this book, authors from European and Japanese cultural spheres address the development process and the (inter)cultural dimension of the Eishin Campus. Further contributions examine the timeliness and relevance of Alexander’s theories in architecture and urban planning.
Editors Eva Guttmann, Gabriele Kaiser, and Claudia Mazanek first published this book in German in 2017. It is now available in English, and includes a portfolio of recent pictures of the campus.
Inauguration Day 2019 in the Sant'Anna Garden
We ended Building Beauty’s time in Sorrento this year with two days of examination and celebration. Our students shared with our guests an exhibition of what they produced throughout the program, invited them learn about their means of analysis and tools for building, and hosted guest lectures in the garden. And then everyone participated in a reception in the garden to inaugurate the projects that were built this year.
Our students did fine work this year, building on the fine work of last year’s students, and preparing the way for the class of 2019-20.
Building in the Sant'Anna Garden, Part 2
During the work on the pergola, a bench and a fence were created… Yodan describes the process.
In doing the feeling maps and center analysis for the North Garden, one of the worse spots in terms of feeling was the North edge of the garden. The wall there is low, and did not offer any containment or protection. There was a potentially very nice place to sit on the roof of the sewage pump cabin below, but it was dangerous, and the gardener put two large pots with thorny plants to ward off people from coming. Also, there was nothing to terminate the cross axis of the garden which had now been given more force by the gazebo we created in the pergola.
Initially, the students thought of a niche, with a sculpture perhaps. But that would necessitate building up the wall at the edge of the garden — something which would need a permit from the Superintendent of Monuments and Culture. Looking at it more closely, now that the Pergola was taking shape, we saw a need, and an opportunity for a bench at the end of that path, snuck in between the lemon and loquat trees, whose branches were making a sort of diagonal arch. The students built a mock-up of the bench. We gave it a one-sided enlargement, making it L-shaped, to allow 3 people to sit and have a conversation. We worked out the geometry of the back of the bench in a mock-up. It was quite complex – symmetrical towards the path leading to the bench, but breaking the symmetry to fit in the complex center made by the two trees. We make sure that the back of the bench does not obscure the view of the beautiful garden of the villa across the street below us, and the glimpse of the sea beyond it. Then we made a drawing.
We called upon Luigi, our Tufo master. He was available only from the beginning of April. This meant a tight schedule, but he was confident that we would be able to do it. On the first week of April, Luigi and the students started the preparation work for the bench. They dug out the niche for it from the garden. Laid the new paving stones, and built the base of the bench. The gardener moved a couple of rose bushes from the area so we could have more room to work, and trimmed the lemon tree a little bit so the arch made by the branches was more pronounced. One day I encountered him, and asked him what he thought about the pergola taking shape. He is very happy with it, and suggested we use the same timber, and the presence of Giuseppe, to build a fence above the wall. He offered to move the pots with the thorny plants if this is done – suddenly a complete re-organization of this problematic edge of the garden seemed possible! Giuseppe agreed to build the fence, and started working on it with the students.
The work on the pergola and fence continued. Giuseppe suffered a family tragedy. His uncle fell from a height while working and was in a coma in hospital. The rain, which was absent for most of February and March returned, and canceled a couple of days of work. Luigi was busy with the exhibition of the Artisans’ Association which opened on April 10.
It all came down to the week between April 15-18, before we were to go on Easter Break. In the end, all that was needed was one more day from Giuseppe. The log bench and swing were installed and sanded by the students, and the fence was completed. Meanwhile, Luigi and the students completed the bench. During the work on the bench we noticed that the back rest was slightly too high. We tried a mirror-of-the-self test by putting a somewhat lower stone next to it, and decided to lower it by about 10 centimeters, which Luigi shaved off the large stone forming the center of the back-rest with his chain saw.
One day walking in Sorrento I saw a portal with a keystone and a flower pattern carved into it. I imagined this flower pattern at the center of the back-rest of the bench, strengthening its symmetry and drawing the gaze to it. Anushka and Saakshi spent a morning learning the pattern and designing a mock-up so that we could decide on its size and position. I asked Luigi if he would be willing to carve it, and he suggested that one of the students do it. Anushka volunteered, she prepared a trial carving with some assistance from Ankit, and then another one which was a little less successful. Then came the time for the real thing…
Inspiration from around Sorrento
Mocking up the bench
Building
Testing
The Flower ornament explained by Anushka:
With the help of Luigi, I understood the use of the power tools, and started working on a spare Tufo block to experiment. Saakshi and I had earlier done two stencils to get the size of the flower right, and that helped to mark out the flower border on the stone using a pencil. After this, I needed to learn how to work with the different bits of the carving drill, and make sure I carved just enough to get the curves and dips of the flower right. Eventually, with the help of Ankit, I was able to finish the first experimental carving. The second carving was done to get my techniques right, and to see if there were any other possible methods to work more easily. With that done, we took the mockups to the bench to check the feeling of how the bench was made even more beautiful and a stronger centre with the flower.
The next day the actual work began. It was my final chance to get the carving right on the bench. We aligned the stencil to the centre of the bench, and after everyone’s approval on the position, I marked out the border using a pencil and started the work. The trick in the whole process was to keep focusing on the border and the central circle, and to make sure that each dip I was making for the petals was smoothly curved and was right in its individual feeling. After getting the petals initial carving done, I asked Luigi to do the central dome, as it was the most difficult part of the process. This time it was on a vertical plane that made it even more difficult. After he did that, I strengthened the border one last time and then worked with manual carving tools to get the flower overall smoothed out.
After a few more touch-ups, the flower was done. The overall bench the flower added brought the whole place together — as a stronger center. The bench made the whole place a better center, and the feeling of the place that was earlier marked by most of us as 2 in our feeling assessment, was now 4, which is the score for a place having the best feeling.
Yodan continues: On the next to last day, the bench was almost finished. I noticed some feeling of unease with regard to the arm rest extending towards the left side of the bench which is longer. I tried out lengthening it with a few pieces of stone. It seemed to me to be better, giving better closure to the bench, and better local symmetry. I asked all the students to confirm this, and once confirmed, I sent the measurements to Luigi. The next morning he came in with the ready stone to replace the edge of the arm rest. The last day was spent finishing, cleaning up. On Thursday April 18th we held a small celebration, drinking sparkling wine and eating sweet pastries. Our building work for this year was finished.
Mohit’s thoughts about building in the Sant’Anna garden and Building Beauty:
“I choose Architecture because I always felt that space is something that is related to a "Personal thing". I got into the best Architecture school in Mumbai, India through a lot of hard work. The architecture practice that is taught in my institution is very rigid. Perhaps I got used to it so I got promoted through all the years. When I first read about Building Beauty, I could somehow relate it to my personal interests and I applied for the program.
“Being here in Italy is a great opportunity for all of us. Building Beauty brought new hope in me that architecture can be interesting. Earlier I felt that architecture books are boring because the books that we referred to and read in my institution are all about modernism — all these forms which don't have a form language and no relation with other space. But as soon as I started reading Nature of Order and Pattern Language, I became interested in reading them and experiencing what they described. All the teachers who visit us and are with us are just incredible. I wish to stay longer and keep working with all of them. I hope one day, I will be able to work with them on different projects. I thank you, Maggie Moore, Alexander and all the teachers for giving me this golden opportunity to be a part of this amazing community. I also wish to come back here and meet all the teachers and the students to come.”
Anushka’s thoughts about what she has learned: “When I dance, I am at peace with myself. In three years of architecture school in India, I never felt this peace, but I did feel it this year at Building Beauty in the design of a house for myself.”
Ankit’s thoughts: “This year at Building Beauty I learned that I am valuable, and that seeing things in a positive light is good, not bad like I learned in architecture school in India. Building Beauty people have put me back on the right path of being myself, being positive, and that that is OK. I refuse to be killed by architectural cynicism.”
The Building Beauty staff is grateful for the contributions this year’s students have made to the program, the Sant’Anna Garden, and our ongoing quest to establish an international community that is engaged in building beauty.
Graduation Day at Building Beauty
The public is invited to join us as we celebrate the very successful completion of Building Beauty’s second year at the Sant’Anna Institute in Sorrento. Please contact Yodan Rofè for more information.
Building Beauty + University of Hartford
April 18, 2019
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Meagan Fazio, 860.768.4330 (office), 860.604.4206 (cell)
University of Hartford and Building Beauty, located at the Sant’Anna Institute in Sorrento, Italy, Offers New Program for Architecture Students
WEST HARTFORD, Conn. ― Building Beauty is pleased to announce an agreement has been established with the Department of Architecture in the College of Engineering, Technology, and Architecture (CETA) at the University of Hartford in West Hartford, Connecticut USA. Third- and fourth-year students from the University of Hartford may attend the Building Beauty program in Sorrento to fulfill requirements for their Bachelor of Architectural Design + Technology degree. The collaboration with University of Hartford and Building Beauty continues to grow and both institutions look forward to expanding opportunities for students. This agreement signifies that partnerships can be developed between institutions to offer students a broader range of opportunities to study architecture and its role in society. This new program will forge a new path that incorporates the human experience of beauty in the way we create our world.
University of Hartford’s Department of Architecture Chair James E. Fuller, AIA NCARB, expresses his enthusiasm for the Building Beauty program, the opportunities it can provide students, and support of this growing relationship:
“Beauty activates and enlivens the soul. Engaging in conversation, design, and building around beauty – that which makes the world a better place – elevates us all. This is what the Building Beauty program is all about. We are thrilled to be able to provide our students with the opportunity to discover the beauty around them and within them through their experiences at Building Beauty.”
Spread across seven dynamic schools and colleges, the University of Hartford has been guiding the purpose and passion of students for over six decades. On our 350-acre campus alongside Connecticut’s capital city, approximately 5,000 undergraduate and 1,800 graduate students from 48 states and 46 countries come together for a common purpose: to collaborate across different disciplines, diversify perspectives, and broaden worldviews. We’re a four-year private university focused on advancing the public good through meaningful connections within our communities. Our unique approach to comprehensive education gives us the critical perspectives that lead to impactful change, regionally and beyond. With degree programs spanning the arts, humanities, business, engineering and technology, education, and health professions, we focus on doing the work that matters.
Fee Reduced for Summer School, May 5-15, 2019, at the foot of the Italian Alps
We have reduced the fee for Summer School to 1750 Euros. Please contact us at hello@buildingbeauty.org with interest or questions.
Building in the Sant'Anna Garden, Part 1
Building and making are essential components of the Building Beauty program. Projects this year build on the work that was done last year, and include the trellis, pergola, and benches in the Sant’Anna garden.
The trellis supporting the Kiwi trees in the Northern garden was falling apart. We noticed this last year, and this year it seemed in even worse shape. Also, the original was just a unidirectional trellis over the main path going into the garden, and was not really making a place over the intersection of the paths in the garden. Last year's students imagined it could become a pyramidal gazebo over the intersection, with an extension of the trellis towards the north-south crossing paths. But it wasn't really designed with great care. This year, wanting to start construction work earlier, we decided to open with this project.
Susan and Yodan reviewing last year’s model with Giuseppe; discussion on site; John’s mockup of the pyramid.
We discussed it on site, and a larger scale model was made, and elaborated. John even made a full-scale mock-up of the pyramid so that we could imagine where it would be, and check that it didn't interfere with the view of the hills from a nice sitting spot at the edge of the garden. Once the model was complete, we showed it to Giuseppe, the carpenter who is guiding the students in building the structure. He said the model would be good enough to start with, but in any case he's always making all the final decisions as he builds.
Finally, a week before Carnival we started work on the pergola, and we had to hurry up as the Kiwi is supposed to sprout in March. If it's not tied down the buds may be damaged and there will not be fruit this year. After only two days of work, the central gazebo was already standing, and the Kiwi could be tied down to it. In the coming weeks the bays of the trellis extending over the paths would be completed and the gazebo fitted with benches and a swing to attract people to go and sit there.
John describes his experience working on the project:
Building the trellis has been a good lesson in building off of the design work done by others. Often it is tempting to re-invent the wheel instead of just building off the hard work other creatives have done before us. This was the case the trellis. The design we are building was developed by last year's students. At one point I was trying to add further elaboration to the design, but ultimately was convinced that it would end up feeling like too much for what the North Garden was really asking for.
I really enjoyed building the site model, as it helped us all get a clearer picture in our minds about how we would actually be building. Even though we built a nice site model, what matters above all are the actual site conditions and rooting all decisions in the reality of a place. Sometimes even a well-built site model can mislead you a bit.
Building the trellis makes you trust more in letting the little details be designed by the craftsman's traditional techniques. I love to see moments when important details of a project get designed and built all in one moment by the craftsman. This was the case for the center wood piece where all the rafters meet in the middle. Guiseppe took a piece of wood and just started carving it with a chainsaw to make a ball-like shape. No drawings necessary.
Another important lesson while building has been how much trial and error it really takes to learn a new skill thoroughly. I've basically taken the mindset of "if I to build one of these on my own, would I be able to do it?" Really learning how to actually do the connections between the wood myself beyond my comfort zone, and to humble myself to ask Giuseppe for help when I don't know how to do something. I've felt this atmosphere is so encouraging to take things slow and really learn – to not be afraid to start something over and try and make it better with another try.
Lastly, the trellis has been a great example of a truly integrated design and construction process. We leave important decisions about the design until we can assess it properly while the construction unfolds. A great example of this is the lateral bracing for the overall structure. We are about 3/4 of the way through finishing the structure of columns, beams, and rafters (with temporary bracing) and we are waiting to develop the final bracing technique until the overall structure is finished. It just makes the most sense to wait, because we just don't know what will make the most sense for the bracing until we have the larger structure complete.
Summer Camp on Urban Design and Architecture July 22-August 19, 2019, in Vietnam
Building Beauty will be there! Contact Ngoc Nguyen for details Nhngoc@dut.udn.vn. Brochure with faculty and schedule details is here.
HOME: Live International Design Event Series 2019, First Lecture
Duo Dickinson’s first lecture in the series is here.
Building Tomorrow’s Heritage: What Historic Structures Can Teach Us About Making a Better Future
A new article from Nikos Salingaros and Michael Mehaffy in the Preservation Leadership Forum. This is the first post in a series about recent lessons from the sciences for historic preservation and compatible new development. The authors—a physicist and mathematician and an urban researcher and philosopher—explore emerging scientific findings about historic structures and discuss lessons for generating more sustainable and resilient human environments. See it here.
Duo Dickinson: Controversy Beauty
Watch Duo’s February 6, 2019 lecture at the University of Hartford here.
Mediterranean Green Buildings and Renewable Energy Forum, 3-5 September 2019
Building Beauty will participate in MED GREEN FORUM 5 in Florence, Italy, in September, at the University of Florence School of Architecture.
This MGF is the fifth bi-annual World Renewable Energy Congress and Network Forum aimed at the international community as well as Mediterranean countries. The first forum was held in 2010 in France. The Forum will highlight the importance of growing renewable energy applications in two main sectors: Electricity Generation sector and the Sustainable Building Sector.
The Mediterranean region was chosen to illustrate the viability of using renewable energy to satisfy all its energy needs. Participants will highlight the effectiveness of using renewable energy in these countries to act as a beacon of light to the rest of the world to follow. Renewables are the cornerstones and the foundation of a truly sustainable energy future. The MGF mission is to promote enabling policies and to further develop a broad range of renewable energy technologies and applications in all sectors – for electricity production, heating and cooling, agricultural applications, water desalination, industrial applications and for the transport sectors leading to A CLEANER AND SAFER WORLD.
