UNSW Built Environment Architectural Studies: Angus Hardwick

Wow. 1st session of Architecture is nearly over and I need a holiday! 13 or so weeks and a lot has been covered. Compact. Intense. Faced-paced. These are all terms, which describe the session, … and it only gets busier. When people say your signing up to a lifestyle they are not lying. However if this sounds like I’m grumbling or having second thoughts about the course you’re wrong. It’s been a really interesting, testing and engaging experience.

When I think back to the beginning, I don’t think I expected the degree to be as ‘practical’ as it is. I’ve noticed that practical tasks have been incorporated in subjects, like history, which one would instantly think are not practical. 2D and graphic composition is an area of communication, which has been utilised in three of my four subjects. In history the design of the essay, placement of images, size of text, type of text etc, are of equal importance to the actual content.

Herzog & de Meuron offices

History & Theory has been a really interesting course to do. Yes I’m a humanities orientated person, but the relatively fast pace taken in the course, giving a brief overview of Architectural history, theories and personalities has been really informative. So much so that my semester 2 elective is another History & Theory & Interpretation subject.

Design studio, as I am discovering, is arguably the most important subject. Everything comes together in a real personal exploration of concepts, ideas and ‘brainwaves’. Its also incredibly demanding. The real focus on computer-gaming software to experience and visualise architecture has been interesting to say the least. Fiddly, frustrating and finicky yes but interesting neither the less. The way we’re joining elements of traditional drawing with computer visualisation/interaction is an interesting future for communication to the client, and you get to do it in your first semester! By no means are my works the best, take a look at the year’s work, there are some fantastic stuff being done. http://www.arch1101-2009.blogspot.com/

Meeting space for clients

Jacques Yves Cousteau's lab

Alfred Nobel's Labratories

Now as I said above these weren’t the best spaces but the feedback I got has been really useful in shaping my work for the 3rd experiment.

All in all it’s been a good term, still trying to find time to fit everything in but I’m sure that now I’m more familiar with the procedures of the uni and the course semester 2 will be a whole lot more enjoyable and manageable … or at least that’s what I’m telling myself.