Final Show Field Trip

The 14th of August was our final review, the time when every team presented their work to a jury (also called a panel) of reviewers. These included the two main clients, a very well-known architect in that region, our instructor, the two architects who have been working with our instructor, and a few other individuals of just as high standing. Most of us were highly intimidated. I got to go first.

I had four boards set up with most of my graphics, and gave my presentation with the slide show I posted earlier on this blog. One of the clients was grinning the whole time, the look of excitement spreading across his face with each new idea I presented. My project, as you might have gathered, was based on the idea of creating something which the clients can really use and afford, and will be able to install in a relatively short time frame. Most of my peers presented projects which were not build-able, required extreme measures for completion, and/or would be far too expensive for our client to construct. As such, mine was the favorite of the grinning client. Upon conclusion of feedback, he told me I had an "excellent project," which is not something I have ever been given as feedback at Cal Poly. I was designing for the client, and my design made the client grin, so I feel that I did well. I also agree with the other client's feedback about certain weak points in my design. If you wish to discuss this with me, by all means send me a message on Facebook or call me up after September 2nd when I'm back in the States and we can have a lengthy architectural discussion.

Please do not misunderstand my previous paragraph - my peers did very well, and I feel that the unrealistic approaches they took were acceptable in this academic setting. I chose to be less academic and more realistic because we had real clients who might actually use our designs, and I would be stoked to find out that they built even one of my ideas. I have a notion that they might just install my theater idea because both of them liked it, as did some of the other panelists. It would also be a relatively cheap way to turn an unusable space into something very usable and potentially profitable.

After the review I went with the others to enjoy the last night of the Locarno film festival in pounding rain. We danced on a table that had been abandoned to the downpour outside a large tent-covered music-thumping bar. They were drunk, I was not, and we all had fun. I left early to go to Bellinzona, where I had secured a hostel. They didn't get a place to stay and stayed awake all night in the rain. The next day, back in Scudellate, they slept while I finished up the files I needed to turn in and got my packing done. That night we had a party in the one restaurant in Scudellate, then for some reason (maybe because they had slept all day) people decided to stay awake all night and hang out instead of sleeping or packing, so when I woke up the next morning all ready for our field trip to Italy, they were scrambling around trying to pack for a week in ten minutes.