Nothin' Like Your First Crit

Today I had class at 8 am.  We learned very very briefly how to use AutoCad, though much of it is more of a learn it yourself style.  After that we had a lecture on a landscape installment in Bilbao, Spain.  It was basically a park interwoven between two buildings, but the purpose was for us to understand the design process vis-a-vis the diagrams we had to make.  A quick lunch, then it was time for my first ever crit.

Crits lasted about 6 hours, though they were only supposed to be 3.  Basically everyone had to present the diagrams for their assigned building.  We had 15 seconds to explain each diagram that took us at least an hour to produce, not including research time.  Suffice to say I had trouble getting out all the information I wanted to in the allotted time.  

Though the professors were unusually kind regarding my diagrams (most of which can be seen in the previous post), they did offer some suggestions.  This included a need to express everything in the drawing and not relying on words.  Architects communicate through diagrams and drawings, not words, and I needed to translate this information properly.  

Around 8:30 we were assigned our homework: create an AutoCad drawing of a section of your building as well as a site plan, scaled with an imported image, as well as a conceptual foundation for the building of a 3-D model to be completed for Saturday morning.  Eight readings on architectural theory, as well as a packet of questions and annotated readings for Wednesday.  We also need to buy model material, and they said the only way to feasibly do this was to go walk to the store during our lunch break tomorrow.  

I spent the rest of the night trying to learn AutoCad and make the drawings needed for tomorrow, and I'll post what I have below.  But around 9:30 I went back to make dinner and didn't have the desire to go back, so tomorrow will certainly be a long night.  

As far as AutoCad is concerned, it's a tedious process, but it's enjoyable for the most part.  After hours staring at your screen, you can get bored with it.  Anyway I did what I could and relaxed for about an hour and a half when I got back to my apartment, so I'll really pay for that tomorrow.