We’re reaching the middle-ish point of the semester. I’m sure everyone else has been diligently informing you all about all the goings on of the studio world, so lets focus on some of the other classes at the Design Center for today. Besides studio, I’m enrolled in David’s Field Studies class, Internship, and Intro to Craft with Matt Corbitt. Even though studio’s been keeping us busy so has everything else.
Last weekend we got to go on a drawing fieldtrip to the Middleton Inn. Frankly, one of the coolest buildings/complexes in Charleston (and it’s out in the boonies!). For the Field Studies class we were tasked with drawing 7 sketches of the inn ranging from site plans, elevations, sections, and architectural details. Personally, I’m strongest with elevations; though I am no Picasso myself (proof below). I also tried to introduce a bit of watercolor to my drawings for the first time ever which is a little intimidating since this will be graded. Luckily David encourages us to explore different mediums and ways of communicating through sketching. My classmates and I were at the inn for a few hours, drawing, exploring, and finding alligators. The sketching really forces you to sit down and actually digest the building in a sense. This was a great break from the typical fast paced atmosphere of the architecture world.
If you’re not familiar with the Middleton Inn, I took a few photos to look back on later. I highly recommend you go check it out. Especially if you like horses. There’s a restaurant and honestly its just a cool place to sit outside, and the weather has been great lately.
On to our next class: Intro to Craft. Matt has been teaching us how to use the CNC the last few days but our main project involves taking an architectural detail from a historic building in Charleston of our choosing. I chose the Dock Street Theater because it’s extremely bland and dull. Kidding! The level of detail in the lobby itself is exceptional! I really liked the look of the balusters and handrails and noticed a few characteristics that I won’t go into detail about here. I took a few measurements, made a model, and then I had to design my own interpretation of the architectural detail. I wanted to explore whether a handrail and baluster could function beyond the standard: separate spaces and help you not fall over. I decided that I wanted a handrail to interact with a user in 3 different ways: touch, visually, and light. After several exploratory sketches I came upon a shelf/rail/lamp combo that employed several of the original baluster’s and handrail’s iconography. Now I just have to figure out a way to make it into a physical object for midterm.
My final class of the semester is internship. I work at a construction firm called Carolina Services Inc. where I work as a draftsman for one of the PMs. CSI mainly takes existing commercial buildings and renovates the interiors, and sometimes exteriors, for tenants and landlords. I’ve worked on programs like banks, gyms, medical facilities, constriction offices, etc etc. My role as the intern is to create as-builts of spaces, create demo plans, electrical plans, test fits/space plans, preliminary estimates to bid projects, and budgets once they’ve been won. I’ve learned a ton so far and hope i get to keep seeing this unique side of the architecture field. Unfortunately, no photos for this one sorry.
That’s it for me. Still chugging along and trying to finish out the semester strong!