Stephen, etc.

An architecture student from Austin, Texas.

About Me


Vudu Theme by David Rhyne.

• 

  Jan 1st

  5 notes

  Making Art, Nørrebro, Copenhagen, Denmark

  For the past few months, my roommate and I have been working on this painting. We finally decided to finish it this past week.

  
  
• 

  Dec 27th

  1 note

  Julefrokost, JaJa + WE, Copenhagen, Denmark

  The one picture I took of our super hygge (cozy) office Christmas party.

  
  

• "I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn’t quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet."

  –

  Sylvia Plath (via atomos)

  I’ve read somewhere that the current generation of 20-somethings, my generation, it taking longer to grow up than any past generation. We are indecisive, probably because we have more options than ever. I used to not be like this. I had a plan for life. This was when I thought I would become a doctor. Since then, I’ve opened my life to more uncertainty, more options. And, actually, I feel much happier for it.

  (via spaceships)

  357 notes

• "From around the age of six, I had the habit of sketching from life. I became an artist, and from fifty on began producing works that won some reputation, but nothing I did before the age of seventy was worthy of attention. At seventy-three, I began to grasp the structures of birds and beasts, insects and fish, and of the way plants grow. If I go on trying, I will surely understand them still better by the time I am eighty-six, so that by ninety I will have penetrated to their essential nature. At one hundred, I may well have a positively divine understanding of them, while at one hundred and thirty, forty, or more I will have reached the stage where every dot and every stroke I paint will be alive. May Heaven, that grants long life, give me the chance to prove that this is no lie."

  –

  Katsuhika Hokusai (Thanks to theshipthatflew)

  There are moments when I feel my ignorance, my lack of understanding for how the world is pieced together. In design, in architecture, I have yet to fully grasp the feel of space. What, exactly, makes a space feel the way it does. Its shape, its textures, its light, its colors, its sounds. These are aspects that are at once clearly defined, facts that can be noted and recorded, but are also ellusive. Naming its shape is not the same as knowing its shape. 

  I love this quote because of how strongly it resonates with my frustrations and impatience towards my limitations as a designer. Yet, at the same time it serves to remind me why I chose the profession that I chose. Architecture is a field of constant personal growth. I eagerly await the day when facts and figures coalesce into something greater, when my understanding of the world is enhanced, even if by just a small amount.

  (Source: 23rd-block, via crashinglybeautiful)

  156 notes

• "It seems to me that I will always be happy in the place where I am not."

  –

  Paul Auster (via mythologyofblue)

  I have traveled a lot in the last three years. Lived in Rome, Kyoto, Tokyo, Paris, and currently Copenhagen. By now, I know that these travels are not about seeing the world anymore.  As this quote suggests, it is about finding the perfect city, a future home, a place perhaps forever unattainable.

  I have been restless for a long time now. Austin, a city I love, a city I am proud to come from,  is also a city that I am tired of. As graduation approaches, I’m realizing that I am in transition. My mental self is still younger than my actual self, but thoughts towards the future have filled my awareness the past few months. What will I be doing? Who will I surround myself with? But the most nagging question has been where I will live. 

  For now, I am loving Copenhagen. Hesitatingly, I am considering a future here. Large enough for consistent new experiences. Small enough for chance encounters with friends and acquaintances. Unique enough to, perhaps, keep me happy.

  74 notes

• We Suck, Apparently

  For the past three years, the 60 or so people that I have shared studio with have been consistently spat upon. We’ve been labeled the underachieving year, the lazy year, the bad year. I used to laugh it off, knowing that we’re not worse than any other year. But now I’m just angry. Semester after semester we’ve been given bullshit projects, provided inadequate instruction, and dealt pretentious criticism.

  In year one, we were restricted to orthogonal moves, in both building and landscape, and black and white render techniques. Other years were given free reign on geometries and color. In fact, our year was never even taught color, while other years were.

  In year two, we were stupidly given not one, but two yoga studios back to back. To make matters worse, the second yoga studio was sited in the unused center of a small Texas town. Why the hell would a yoga studio ever open there? And guess what, the year under us were NOT given this project.

  In year three, things got worse. Our environmental controls courses were jokes, taught by two of the more incompetent and biased professors I’ve ever had. Meanwhile, our construction professor was brand new to teaching, in the semester that construction is most important. And then, for sound building, the jewel of UTSOA’s undergraduate program, we were given the most boring program ever. While other years have designed smart car dealerships and wineries, we were given a multi-use facility. Basically yoga studio number three. And to add insult to injury, our site was less than 1000 feet from our first yoga studio. Then, when final reviews came around, we were not placed in the school’s main gallery as years past, but were relegated to the hallway. One of the studios wasn’t even in the main architecture building where all the reviews take place. And finally, when awards were given out, the lone transfer from a previous year won.

  Seriously, this is annoying. And I’m not alone in this. My peers have frequently commented on how we’re constantly looked down upon. We hear the comments. We can see the judgement on their faces. One of my friends overheard a group of professors describing our year’s projects as “spatially inadequate.” I feel like the school has set us up to fail to some extent. And I am pissed.

  Sure, we lack the plethora of art students and the overt pretentiousness of the other years. The transfer student has said so himself. But for some reason this has lead to the impression that we’re bad at architecture. If architecture really is all about egos and pseudo-intellectual babble, then that is really, really pathetic.

  Now that my friends and I are moving into advanced studios, dispersed and mixed among grad students and undergrads of other years, I hope that this collective judgment goes away. With this, and the recent frustrated departure of one of my favorite professors, I’ve come to realize how fucking inclusive the UTSOA is. Our year didn’t fit the typical definition of architecture students. We lacked a collective type-A personality.

  Really, I think that the UTSOA needs to deal with a lot of internal problems. From alienating the good faculty members, to screwing over students with out of date or malfunctioning equipment, to a lack of security that has lead to an explosive increase of thefts. I don’t know what the fuck is going on, but the administration needs to get it fixed. And stop thinking so highly of yourselves. Being ranked number five in the nation doesn’t mean you can start treating us like crap.

• Sound Building

  These past two weeks have been a blur. For the first time, I fell behind on my studio work, and I was legitimately concerned. In fact, everyone fell behind. Sound Building, a third year undergraduate studio, definitely lived up to its reputation for being one of the most stressful studios at the UTSOA. 

  Looking back, now that I’ve finished, I realize how much I’ve learned. In one semester we suddenly had to incorporate structure, HVAC, grading, water retention, ADA requirements, drainage, and so much more. All those random rules of thumb, all those potential design killers. But for me, at least, incorporating these less-than-sexy aspects of a building really helped me refine my design. Why weren’t we doing this, at least to a smaller degree, earlier?

  In a more holistic sense, this semester also helped me pin down who I am as a designer. Last semester’s open ended freedom was a struggle, and for most of this semester I felt a similar sense of frustration. All the things I did wrong leading up to mid-review really forced me to reflect on what my personal aesthetic is. Afterwards I edited a lot. It was the first time I worked on a project long enough to really get the chance to self edit to that extent.

  During my final review, which went far better than I had hoped, my professor suggested that I try something extremely minimalist next, to see if that resonates. Twice in previous studios I’ve been called minimalist, and I’ve always felt uncomfortable with that label. For the first half of this semester I tried to be more formal, pursuing more elements than I normal work with. As I said before, it led to a series of frustrations.

  This time the suggestion of minimalism appealed to me. Maybe because I tried the opposite and it didn’t work, maybe because I’m more comfortable, more confident with my own point of view. The thing is that it takes guts to propose something so deceptively simple. I know that I’m not to that point yet. Since switching from premed to architecture, I’ve more than once questioned my decision. I’m happier, by far, but I’m also more nervous about my future. I was good at biology, at facts and figures, but the subjective nature of architecture has always concerned me. Not knowing what it right has led me to doubt myself multiple times, this semester included.

  But in the end, Sound Building worked out. I’m ending the semester rather happy with what I’ve achieved. Now I’m moving on to advanced studios. And I’m feeling a bit more confident.

• In the Next Eight Months…

  I will be studying abroad! Where am I going?

  For my Japanese Aesthetics class this summer:

  - Kyoto
  - Naoshima
  - Kanazawa
  - Tokyo

  For Advance Studio this fall:

  - Rotterdam
  - Amsterdam
  - Berlin
  - Stuttgart
  - Zurich
  - Vals
  - Lugano
  - Luzern
  - Basel
  - Paris

  For the fall, the studio itself is in Paris, and I’ll be studying along side Parisians. It’d be an understatement to say that I’m excited.

• Graduation…

  It may or may not happen in the near future. I’m conflicted. Do I take a chance during a weak job market, against a tougher applicant pool, and end my undergraduate education with an Architectural Studies degree, hopefully to enter into a graduate level architecture program? Or do I stay with the UTSOA, already a very well respected undergraduate architecture program, for another two years and take the opportunities of a studio in Paris and residency elsewhere?

  Two years ago, I would have confidently chosen the latter. One year ago, I would have confidently chosen the former. Now I’m leaning back towards staying an undergrad. The main issue, I guess, is that I’m just starting to get comfortable where I’m at. And as easily as I know I can adjust to change, I don’t like it. I’m worried about graduating and not getting into any of my desired graduate schools, leaving me with a useless non-professional degree. At the same time, I don’t want to stay in one program, at one place, for too long. Six years for an undergraduate degree is a long time.

  And then there is my second degree, Plan II. No one outside of academia really knows what it is. And I have no idea how useful it will be. After three and a half years I am sick of everything Plan II related, but am too close to finishing to just drop it. (Not that I ever would drop a resumé booster like Plan II anyway.) So, if I resume with the UTSOA, I can at least quell my discomfort with the extended stay in Austin by finishing my second degree early. If nothing else, then, I’ll have something under my belt, as useless as it is by itself.

  Clearly, my mind’s a cluster-fuck right now. I just can’t make life decisions. And to be thinking all this right in the midst of a final review push is extra stressful. Everything was just so much more straightforward when I was still pre-med.

• 

  Jul 25th

  June 2, 2009

  This is Tivoli, just off the city’s main square. I loved this city. On the day we went, they were unveiling a new fountain in the square, and it felt like the entire town had showed up for the celebration. We had to return to Rome before nightfall, however, so we missed it. But we did see the Villa d’Este.

  On a side note, when we arrived in the main square, they were in the process of towing a Ferrari. All these old men and kids were gathered around, grumbling about how the bottom of the car was scraping against the asphalt as they tried to put the car on the tow truck. It was painful to watch. But it was funny to see the owners run from the direction of the Villa d’Este as we were headed towards it.