Connecting Our Students to the Outside World: Using Online Reviewers and Student Blogs in the Classroom Jill Bouratoglou and Lia Dikigoropoulou.

Connecting Our Students to the Outside World: Using

Online Reviewers and Student Blogs in the Classroom

Jill Bouratoglou and

Lia Dikigoropoulou

ARCH 3611

History: This was an elective design studio that students could take after their fifth semester studio. Students worked on one design project their entire semester.

Format of the Course

Students would select a building typology to research, program and design. Documenting the process

throughout the semester.

Blogging

Blogs are websites that are updated by an author. They are chronological, and allow others to post comments.

ARCH 3611 – elective becomes required

In Spring 2013, ARCH 3610 becomes a required course in the

6th semester.

How long have we been using Blogs?

We have used blogs with our students for 10 semesters.

(9 in ARCH 3611 + 1 in ARCH 3610)

ARCH 3610An Advanced Design studio with an emphasis on a more complex building organization. The primary emphasis is in the further development and exploration of design principles involved in creating appropriate architecture, focusing on the integration of program, context, site, composition and space planning.

How is the class organized?

ARCH 3610 meets twice a week for 3 hours and 20 minutes each meeting. There are 15 students.

How do we use Blogs?

Each students creates their blog the first day of class.

They add the Professors to follow.

They have assignments that they must post.

We can review their work and leave comments.

Online Reviewers are assigned.

Why a Blog?

• Blogs present, organize and protect students work as a digital portfolio

• Chronological arrangement of information• Introduces a new skill of being part of global society• Expose to alternative ways of thinking• Reinforces writing , promotes discussion • See fellow students work even when not at the studio

Request for On-line reviewers

• Each semester we send emails to the former online reviewers asking if they would like to participate again.

• We currently have a pool of about one hundred volunteers

• We have found the online reviewers through: LinkedinArchinectColumbia University AlumniUniversity of Minnesota AlumniProfessional ContactsCitytech Faculty

Responses

Location of online Reviewers

Why online reviewer?

• Have access to a design critique 24-7. Not only during studio time.

• Creates a studio at virtually anytime, at any place as long as there is internet access

• It extends the classroom beyond the boundaries of the campus

• Get references that we are not familiar with• Connect students with Professionals throughout the world• Connects Professors with other Professionals

How do students use their blogs?

Student have assignments that they must post to their blogs.

Assignments

• Each class, students were given an assignment. The solutions needed to be posted to their blog by the next class.

• Concurrently, each assignment was e-mailed to the online reviewers so they could better understand what the student was posting.

Assignment Schedule

Assignments

• Introduction to Site- Site AnalysisObjective

Students will analyze social patterns, behaviors, flows, and narratives specific to the sites in the Redhook neighborhood in Brooklyn. Initially, student groups will form to collaborate and graphically document site-specific characteristics.

Structure

The studio will work in four groups. Each group will collectively generate documentation

CommentsJill BouratoglouFebruary 11, 2013 at 6:33 PM ProfessorIs this the site you are choosing ? Why ? How does is it the best site for your building ?Claudia Perez-SneadFebruary 13, 2013 at 6:03 AM GermanyI will have to ask the same, where you given this location or did you select it? if so, why and based

on your climate and natural light analysis, how do you plan to use the sun in your advantage/disadvantage for your building?

DesireeFebruary 13, 2013 at 3:29 PM Atlanta, GeorgiaInteresting site choice. Very throughout analysys. I would also like to know the answers to the

questions that Jill and Claudia posedDavid BarceloFebruary 14, 2013 at 10:32 AM Glasgow, ScotlandHi April, this was indeed a very good site analysys. I only found one thing missing and that would

be an analysys of massing of the area. This will bring you thoughts about what scale of building will be appropiate for the site. You probably have a sense of that, but you will need to justify this to other people. I think this will make you think a lot about the programme etc, even the use of the building.I am wondering if you have choosen the building type before doing the site analysis or after. I ask this because the use should be appropiate for the site and not the other way around. I love climbing but I don't design climbing centres everywhere, you know what I mean?

Assignments• Building Typology- Selection of Appropriate Building

Objective

Each student will select a building typology that they feel is appropriate for the site based on the results of the site analysis.

Structure- Answer the following questions: • Which building typology are you researching?• Why are you researching this building typology?• What is the specialty of this building type you would like to

research? i.e. museum for dance, school for digital media…

1) Which building typology are you researching?

The building typology I will be educational facilities

2) Why are you researching this building typology?

There are no schools for marine/aquatic biology in the area……and I love marine life3) What is the specialty of this building type you would like to research? i.e. museum for dance, school for digital media…

School for Marine Biology/Oceanography and ResearchApril Turner

Typology-

Precedent/Case Studies

Objective:Research and gather a minimum of 10 examples of this building type. They should collect plans, elevation selections, writings.

Structure:

Students are to collect drawings and images, write about each one and create diagrams based on the research.

Ten Examples April Turner

• Sustainable Urban Science Center in Philadelphia, PA• Marine Biology Building at Florida International University in Florida• Marine Biology Institute at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Russia• Life Science Building at Paradise Valley Community College in Phoenix, Arizona• University of California San Diego Price Center in La Jolla, CA • Natural Life Sciences Building at Scottsdale Community College in Scottsdale,

Arizona• Ocean Sciences Building, School of Oceanography at the University of

Washington in Seattle, WA• Ocean and Coastal Studies Building at Texas A&M University in Texas• Salk Institute in La Jolla, CA• The National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium in Checheng, Taiwan

CommentsJill Bouratoglou February 11, 2013 at 6:32 PM ProfessorThis is a great typology especially for this neighborhood! You can also look at aquariums and science buildings to help with some of the spaces. Also think about how the community can be incorporated into the site and building.

Claudia Perez-Snead February 13, 2013 at 5:57 AM GermanyNice selection of examples. When looking for other case studies, especially the sustainable urban science center. Aside from taking into consideration flood zone criteria, have you considered sustainability as one of your project goals? Think of the impact a center like this would case to the surrounding, not only to the community but the environment.

April TurnerFebruary 13, 2013 at 1:23 PM Student Sustainability is one of my project goals, which is why several of my examples are LEED certified - The Sustainable Urban Science Center, the Natural Life Sciences Building,the Life Sciences Building and the Ocean and Coastal Studies Building? (I have to double-check for that one).

DesireeFebruary 13, 2013 at 3:34 PM Atlanta GAGreat examples. Do try to bring in the community and surrounding area as much as you can. DO look at the impact of having an educational facility of this type in this area. You are off to a great start.

Diagrammatic Analysis1. Parti 2. Massing3. Symmetry 4. Hierarchy5. Geometry6. Natural Lighting 7. Structure8. Public versus Private 9. Circulation & Approach10. Space organization

Milk and Cookies

Assignment: Analyze precedent studies for Parti, Symmetry and

Hierachy.

Charalampos ChaitasFebruary 20, 2013 at 2:47 PM Brussels, BelguimHi April, great job!!!!!!Please add some comments related with your graphics. The graphics look fantastic but I cannot understand how you comment them. What you like or dislike, what relationship or elements are interesting for you etc. Try also to make some liaison with your previous information (graphics, dwgs, sketches) it will be very useful for your next steps. I am waiting for some additional information. In any case, great job !!!! ReplyClaudia Perez-SneadFebruary 21, 2013 at 9:29 AM GermanyApril, I agree-good job!. Based on your homework sheet you have obviously completed the assignment but you should always go a step further. i.e. in this case it should be helpful to make a conclusion from the analyzed graphics where you can give your opinion and how you plan to use your analysis into your proposal or not. You should always try to integrate each step of your design into your final concept or idea. In the end, you have chosen these case studies for a reason. ReplyJill BouratoglouFebruary 21, 2013 at 11:50 AM Brooklyn, NYYou approached this assignment differently than most of your classmates. I believe that your approach allows you to better understand the buildings and the spaces. Comments about each one would help you reflect on these diagrams as these will be used to help formulate your program and design.

April TurnerFebruary 21, 2013 at 4:18 PMI added 2 revised slides so far that I've added descriptions to which explain the analysis I made for each...let me know if I'm going in the right direction and thank you for the comments.ReplyDavid BarceloFebruary 22, 2013 at 9:17 AM Glasgow, ScotlandHi April, your comments are well thought, but I would like to encourage you to comment on all the other projects. They might be less suited to your project, but if you try to comment on them you will realize why they are not suitable and will help you understand better where to go from there.

Also, don't get caught trying to find symmetry where there is none. You might find symmetry overall on a building or sometimes a non symmetric composition of symmetric elements. This has the benefit of flexibility to adapt to specific site constraints but still keeping the order and sense of wellbeing that can be created from symmetric elements.

I like specially your comments about the Salk institute as how the building relates to the sea, but note on the plan it is still a very compact building. Closed from the outside but open from the inside. Difficult balance to achieve.

DesireeFebruary 22, 2013 at 9:25 AM Please do comment on all of the other projects as well. Once you add comments you will have a better understanding of what's suitable vs. not and why. Many of the projects do not have true symmetry. I agree with David on that.

The projects that you did add comments on are really great and well thought out.

Great job overall.ReplyApril TurnerFebruary 22, 2013 at 12:18 PMThe other projects are a work in progress but I wanted to use your feedback and post them as they are completed. So don't worry, there will be 10 slides with comments when I'm done. I also created a new post with the slides that have commentary to reduce the confusion.

Thank you.

Assignment: Analyze precedent studies for Symmetry and

Hierachy.

CarolynMorinFebruary 20, 2013 at 9:34 AM – New YorkMarlon,I would encourage you to do more research on one or two of your precedent buildings and see if you can find an interior floor plan. It might be helpful to jump now to a larger scale and see the individual rooms as a hierarchy/symmetry. For example you might see a hierarchy in an aquarium as: ENTRANCE, TICKETS, GRAND LOBBY, LARGE EXHIBIT, SMALLER EXHIBITS, CAFE, RESTROOMS, GIFTSHOP, EXIT. You can put these spaces together in a diagram that show relationships.The analysis you have done above is very good, but I think you will have a better understanding if you can find more information and analyze a more detailed floor plan.All the best,CarolynReplyMarlon CoxFebruary 20, 2013 at 9:46 AMWill do Carolyn.Reply

MurphFebruary 20, 2013 at 12:07 PM – United KingdomHey Marlon,Be careful not to be drawn into thinking of hierarchy as simply the size of each individual element – a hierarchy could be as simple as positioning a key part of the building in an important location, perhaps taking advantage of key views or links. Or it could be the focal point of your journey through a series of spaces, where you end up in your building. For instance, although the Primorsky Aquarium massing suggests a hierarchy for the larger element of it shell, it could be argued that the smaller element has a hierarchy in terms of its positioning on the site (looking out over the park towards the sea). Similarly, there is an argument that the hierarchical space in the Henning Larsen Batumi Aquarium is actually the area between the pebbles, particularly in terms of physical/ visual links – see here http://www.archdaily.com/73022/batumi-aquarium-henning-larsen-architects/nosecompelto/

In an Aquarium more so than other types of buildings, its important that your architecture leads the visitors through a hierarchy of different views, spaces, etc… I know you are not that far down the line yet, but you always need to be thinking of the next step in terms of these things will affect your designs.Marlon CoxFebruary 25, 2013 at 1:02 PMThank You for the great resource Murph. It was much appreciated.Thank You

candyFebruary 20, 2013 at 9:05 PM AustraliaHi marlon,thank you for your work.i agree with Murph in that the heirarchy of spaces help define the journey and will certainly help you when you design your building.the progression through public ,semipublic to private space is a classic example of heirarchy at work in domestic buildings.Understanding the heirarchy of space in an aquarium will help you with your design.I think understanding heirarchy in terms views can be really exciting.I agree with caroline that working of detail larger plans of some examples will be a great help.I am also a strong advocator of drawing with pens.Print your plans get some buthchers paper and trace over the plan again and again and again.

RepliesMarlon CoxFebruary 25, 2013 at 1:01 PMHey Candy,I have been doing what you mentioned and it has been helping a lot. The pen to paper helps get more into the heads of the architect's design. The lack of better scaled drawings kind of doesn't help the process but i am progressing. We will start organizing for our design in the upcoming week.

Thank You.

Assignment: Analyze precedent studies for

Geometry, Natural Lighting and Structure

Andrew GrontkowskiFeb 25, 2013, 2:09:00 PMVery good diagrams. For comparison sake, you may want to be sure you have the same information shown for each example, Geometry, Lighting, Structure. Your simple line drawings showing structure are nice in that they also go back and clearly tie-in to your symmetry topic.Replyac gafnerFeb 27, 2013, 12:31:00 PMGood study David. Before I get into shapes, I want to pick out a sentence from your description, "Too much is bad and too little is depressing." While this statement may be true in some instances where adequate attention was not paid to the need for lighting in a particular space, I would urge you to be careful with such statements as they could lead to generalizations about lighting usage at the cost of opportunity. There are occasions where low lighting techniques can greatly enhance the experience of a place, take the example of Daniel Liebskind's Holocaust Museum, or Tadao Ando's church of the light. An example of where a great deal of ambient/ natural lighting creates a fantastic moment, would be when they open the solar screens on the new Milwaukee Art Museum by Calatrava. Of course, in both these instances the lighting quantity is calculated and controlled, and that is the key.

What will help you now, in the development of spaces, will be to begin to transform your thinking in 2D shapes to imagining 3D volumes. These volumes will begin to tell you more about how people can move through a space, opportunities where light may be let in and so on. Shapes are elevations or plans, but we move through volumes in life, with perspectives and experiences around the corners. This is where the space comes to life. Good luck. acgReply

Andy FastmanFeb 27, 2013, 12:50:00 PMI like the first pass at these diagrams. I could quibble that the formatting is not consistent or that the information is not complete across all of the examples. I will, however, comment on the fact that although visually stimulating, your diagrams do not shed any light on deciphering the buildings. There is really nothing to read in them other than tracings of photographs and in some cases drawings. A diagram is in interpretive tool, rather than a literal overlay. There is really no analysis here. I would urge you to look at the structural diagramming as an exploration of a system rather than just a plan/poche of where the columns touch down. If you are looking to study a long-span strategy, you need to look at the sectional qualities of what makes the span possible. Likewise for the lighting. Arrows at windows do not speak to the lighting control systems, the strategy of where and why the light is allowed in or shunned. The lighting affects many other formal strategies in addition to task lighting.Finally, I would caution you to be very discerning with your choice of verbiage. Although a trite quip about lighting levels affecting mood, such opinions are not critical in nature and thus diminish the value of any arguments you make subsequently. If you are specifically commenting on an approach to Systemic Affective Disorder (SAD), suffered by those in the northern-most third of the Northern Hemisphere (think the top row of continental US states and north), then a lighting strategy that is predicated upon mood enhancement would support such an argument.

Assignment: Analyze precedent studies for Public vs. Private,

Circulation and Space Organization

Michael SacklerMarch 20, 2013 at 9:56 AMNice analytics

St. MetakaosMarch 20, 2013 at 10:12 AMI agree, the consistency in the graphics and colours makes it a pleasure to view and follow the comparisons. Its well made.

Marianna AthanasiadouFebruary 25, 2013 at 4:16 AMOscar the choice of the buildings you are exploring is quite interesting. Although they share the same program, they are all so distinct in their approach concerning the movement of people inside each building, programmatic connections and the organization of space, and, as it appears really well in your diagrams, hierarchy and form. myrtokoliriFebruary 25, 2013 at 4:26 AMThey are several options for one to follow judging from the variety of the aquarium examples. You should decide what type of experience you would like the visitors to have. Some perform as museums (one route that takes you through different exhibits) and others as entertainment parks (variety of routes with scattered experiences.

Request for EvaluationLia Dikigoropoulou [email protected] Jan 23rd 2013Hello All,

Last semester, you volunteered to be on-line reviewers for my theoretical design class. I know it was not perfect. It was actually a struggle to convince students to post on their blogs. But despite of that,  your comments and input were greatly appreciated. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!! 

The next semester is going to start again Jan 28, 2013, and I would like to try this again.  The class has changed a bit, and it is no longer an elective. It is a required class, and we have 15 students signed up.The class is called Advance design and the students are in their sixth semester. 

If you  are willing to commit virtually again for this coming semester I will forward you the new syllabus and more information about the course.   

Just let me know so I can start the process. If you would like more than one student let me know.

Also if you have any comments or suggestions on how to improve the course and/or the process feel free to let me know.

We are here to learn and improve and make it a better  global learning experience for our students

AssesmentKristen Van Haeren [email protected] British Columbia ,CanadaJan 23 Hi Lia, Last semester was a wonderful experience to see student work.  I would love to participate again.Only improvements I can think of is if there is more background reasoning from the student for their designs.  Sometimes it seemed that they jumped from one stage to another.  I would also like to see more student process or sketching work or even small written concepts/blurbs.  Having the students creatively express their thoughts and projects through a variety of mediums I think can help us as reviewers understand their projects, and them as students to focus their intentions. Looking forward to another semester,Thanks again,Kristen

KRISTEN VAN HAEREN ARCHITECTURAL INTERNCEI ARCHITECTURE INTERIORS

Lia- I'd love to do it again.  I could probably handle more than one if you need.  As I have a bit more time, I'll throw a couple of suggestions at you based on my experience last semester, or I can review the syllabus and comment globally.  Also, I realize that I pushed Jessica pretty hard last semester.  I did my best to keep it completely constructive.  I am hoping that the level of commentary was up to your expectations.  Andy

--____________Oooo__________oooO___(___)____ ____(___)____)_/__________\_(____(_/___________\_)______Andrew Neal David Fastman, AIA, LEED, A.P. BD+C

Hi Lia! Thank you for allowing me to participate. I hope it was of benefit to the students. I think you all did a great job in soliciting on line reviews, so no apologies or defense necessary! Suggestions I would offer as a benefit to the process are:have a schedule for "pin-up" posts so the jurors can know when to expect something and have timely input;compile the juror comments so the student can specifically respond to the comments. I believe the benefit of a jury is interaction with the students and my desire was to have this a two-way processI'm all in for another. One or two students are fine since my comments typically deal more with site issues and most of the work seemed to address building exterior/interior focus. cheers GBBRYLAstyle     1001 Seville Place   Orlando   FL   32804  407.701.9112   www.brylastyle.com

Lia,I do enjoy the process, and I’m very please d that you’ve invited me again. I think last semester was fine; howevera drawback to our remote participation is the limited intercommunication. I wonder if I might copy you on my critiques and ask you for brief replies, so I know better whether our comments are in sync?Paul Paul Adamson, FAIA, LEED APSenior AssociateDesign Architect Hornberger + Worstell  170 Maiden Lane  San Francisco, CA 94108  p.415.391.1080  f.415.986.6387www.hornbergerworstell.com

Hello Lia, I am doing great! Perfect, I am looking forward to keep following the work. I really appreciate the slightly new direction of the assignments and project approach of this semester.  

Thanks!!

Loukia Tsafoulia