As Nicole wrote about on Friday, we held a presentation that afternoon to discuss the many factors that will directly influence the design of the GAP Shed prototype (You can see the presentation slides here). We had a great group join us in the conversation. Ray Huff was there to add his creative and logistical expertise, not his farming knowledge… Harry Crissy, our colleague from Clemson’s Institute for Economic and Community Development, was in attendance and imparted his extensive knowledge of the GAP certification process and requirements, but most importantly we were joined by experts in the field (literally) in Meg, Frasier, and Rory? of Dirthugger Farm, and Dale Snyder of Sweetgrass Garden. Hearing a farmers first hand knowledge of small farm processes is more fruitful (pun intended) in helping us articulate a functional shed than hundreds of hours of independent research can be.
There is little time to rest for Studio V (as all past Studio V groups will attest). Now that the studio has a bank of information to help guide the design process, it is time to put pen to paper and let the creative juices flow. Each student will prepare a design for review a week from today (1.4.13). It has been a hurdle for me personally in the past to switch my brain from an analytical research mode to a creative design mode. I would often feel as though every stroke of my pen had to follow every code or requirement that my research dictated. This list looming over me would often cause constipation of creativity and thus I would either stall the design process all together, or produce a dull, rule abiding answer to the problem. What I failed to understand is that the knowledge gained in research was already imprinted in my mind and would either subconsciously become part of the project, or would aid in the edit of my ideas at a later time. So, my advise is to Studio V is to begin by being loose and more suggestive, to lay all of your ideas out first before becoming critical of them, and to not settle on your first concept.
I am excited to see what the weekends efforts have produced.
