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Hi all,

Sorry it's been a while since I've posted.  I'm busy, of course, but I'll give a quick overview of what's happened.

I had an externship at MVVA, it was awesome.  Architecture is awesome.  Getting paid to do architecture is awesome.

The first week of school was the Vortex competition, redesigning a 5 mile strip of Route 29.  I worked with 2 second year undergraduates, a third year undergraduate, and a second year graduate student.  It was a one week competition that was a ton of work.  We didn't win, but we did get a shoutout from the architect/judge for having a good idea.  The idea was basically to invert the current urban sprawl/strip promenade typology by putting loading zones and transparent facades on the edge abutting Rt 29 and push green spaces, residential, and commercial buildings to the back.  Mixed use, urban reweave meets the lesser known happenings of a business . . . or something.

Read more about it here:
http://www.arch.virginia.edu/events/2014-vortex
or check us out in the news here:
https://news.virginia.edu/content/uva-architecture-students-give-route-29-facelift-third-annual-vortex

So, as for my classes this semester, I'm taking 5 and auditing 1.

Building Integration Workshop 2:
An in depth, detailed analysis of passive design strategies and specific documentation of last semester's studio project, light analysis, thermal conditions, structural systems, foundations, etc, as well as an in depth study of material properties

Introduction to Structural Design
Maths and forces and stuff so that my buildings don't kill anyone

Energy Performance Workshop
Learning technologies to assess energy performance in buildings and larger city/suburban systems, optimizing building efficiency

EcoMod:Shade
A design-build class where me and two other graduate students will redesign a porch for a client, including a arching roof and sun shading system, operable ventilation, and proper drainage
We'll design for 3 weeks (schematic then denial drawings, joints, connections, etc), do bidding for 1 (budgeting, calling out materials, ordering/buying them and then build it on site ourselves for the remainder of the semester, in the 10th and Page neighboorhood on 11th street for a client of low income

Studio
3 parts:
2 weeks hand drafting and analyzing Sainte Maria de la Tourette, a monastery in France by the one and only Le Corbusier

6-8 weeks  extending a single "good room" from the architecture school to the adjoining Fralin Art Museum.  A single "black box" conception with spaces for a butcher, baker, and candlestick maker...suffice to say my professor has a very..creative mind

remaining weeks a culinary institute in a city of our choice, complete with site context mapping exercises with a focus on specific room detailing, material assessment, and an emphasis on level ground relations -drawing the site up or down and meeting with the rest of the city, establishing layers of activity within the single context of one institute

Auditing: Building Matters, a class that analyzes materials, pros and cons, specifications, costs, usage, etc

Anyway I'll try and update more later.

Thanks for reading.