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Hearth Architects. 京町の家 . Shiga Prefecture. Japan. photos: 山田雄太 -Yuta Yuta

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Beautiful Island in Finland’s Archipelago National Park

© Marc Goodwin & Cecilia Galera

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How to Study Like a Harvard Student

Taken from Sophia Chua-Rubenfeld, daughter of the Tiger Mother

Preliminary Steps 1. Choose classes that interest you. That way studying doesn’t feel like slave labor. If you don’t want to learn, then I can’t help you. 2. Make some friends. See steps 12, 13, 23, 24. General Principles 3. Study less, but study better. 4. Avoid Autopilot Brain at all costs. 5. Vague is bad. Vague is a waste of your time. 6. Write it down. 7. Suck it up, buckle down, get it done. Plan of Attack Phase I: Class 8. Show up. Everything will make a lot more sense that way, and you will save yourself a lot of time in the long run. 9. Take notes by hand. I don’t know the science behind it, but doing anything by hand is a way of carving it into your memory. Also, if you get bored you will doodle, which is still a thousand times better than ending up on stumbleupon or something. Phase II: Study Time 10. Get out of the library. The sheer fact of being in a library doesn’t fill you with knowledge. Eight hours of Facebooking in the library is still eight hours of Facebooking. Also, people who bring food and blankets to the library and just stay there during finals week start to smell weird. Go home and bathe. You can quiz yourself while you wash your hair. 11. Do a little every day, but don’t let it be your whole day. “This afternoon, I will read a chapter of something and do half a problem set. Then, I will watch an episode of South Park and go to the gym” ALWAYS BEATS “Starting right now, I am going to read as much as I possibly can…oh wow, now it’s midnight, I’m on page five, and my room reeks of ramen and dysfunction.” 12. Give yourself incentive. There’s nothing worse than a gaping abyss of study time. If you know you’re going out in six hours, you’re more likely to get something done. 13. Allow friends to confiscate your phone when they catch you playing Angry Birds. Oh and if you think you need a break, you probably don’t. Phase III: Assignments 14. Stop highlighting. Underlining is supposed to keep you focused, but it’s actually a one-way ticket to Autopilot Brain. You zone out, look down, and suddenly you have five pages of neon green that you don’t remember reading. Write notes in the margins instead. 15. Do all your own work. You get nothing out of copying a problem set. It’s also shady. 16. Read as much as you can. No way around it. Stop trying to cheat with Sparknotes. 17. Be a smart reader, not a robot (lol). Ask yourself: What is the author trying to prove? What is the logical progression of the argument? You can usually answer these questions by reading the introduction and conclusion of every chapter. Then, pick any two examples/anecdotes and commit them to memory (write them down). They will help you reconstruct the author’s argument later on. 18. Don’t read everything, but understand everything that you read. Better to have a deep understanding of a limited amount of material, than to have a vague understanding of an entire course. Once again: Vague is bad. Vague is a waste of your time. 19. Bullet points. For essays, summarizing, everything. Phase IV: Reading Period (Review Week) 20. Once again: do not move into the library. Eat, sleep, and bathe. 21. If you don’t understand it, it will definitely be on the exam. Solution: textbooks; the internet. 22. Do all the practice problems. This one is totally tiger mom. 23. People are often contemptuous of rote learning. Newsflash: even at great intellectual bastions like Harvard, you will be required to memorize formulas, names and dates. To memorize effectively: stop reading your list over and over again. It doesn’t work. Say it out loud, write it down. Remember how you made friends? Have them quiz you, then return the favor. 24. Again with the friends: ask them to listen while you explain a difficult concept to them. This forces you to articulate your understanding. Remember, vague is bad. 25. Go for the big picture. Try to figure out where a specific concept fits into the course as a whole. This will help you tap into Big Themes – every class has Big Themes – which will streamline what you need to know. You can learn a million facts, but until you understand how they fit together, you’re missing the point. Phase V: Exam Day 26. Crush exam. Get A.

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Giuliana Flavia Cangelosi

Check out some of the amazing ink sketches by Giuliana Flavia Cangelosi recently featured on MyModernMet. “The drawings are a continuous technical and representative research,” they told My Modern Met. You can see more of their work following the link to their instagram.

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Hello! Could you please give tips and insights about being an architecture student? I'm an incoming freshmen and I want to have an idea on the topics that I might encounter. Thank you! Have a nice day.

You can see previous responses about architecture school and advice to architecture students here.

Here is some advice from The Architectural Review’s 11 Things to know before starting architecture school which sounds pretty accurate to me! (my markups in italics):

Drink tea not coffee. I drink both, sometimes after 10 cups you just cannot drink any more coffee during an all-nighter!

Draw lots and draw by hand. Drawing isn’t just a way of communicating with others it’s a way of thinking.

When making models use a sharp scalpel.

Pin-up straight.

Your tutors are an invaluable source of wisdom and ideas – use them lots.

Your tutors’ knowledge only goes so far. Intelligence, experience and damning criticisms they may have, a monopoly on the truth they do not.

Power nap with caution.

Subscribe to a journal ArchAtlas. Regularly reading an architecture magazine blog is an invaluable source of inspiration. Joking, I read a bunch of architecture magazines regularly.

University grading systems are odd and architecture marking is brutal. Students who’ve been at the top of their class all their lives arrive at architecture school and find themselves struggling to get middle-of-the-road marks. Take heart. Your final grade is far less important than the skills and portfolio you’ll build on your way to it.

Eat delicious food.

Explore. Travel often with an open mind. Understand cultures and traditions different to your own.

Via

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i haven’t had an architecture update for a while…i know.  i’m sorry.

but this really caught my interest. LACMA bought the sheats-goldstein house, and now, in theory, we can all go there and look around and re-enact brian de palma movies.

ok, more architecture updates to follow. i promise.

moby

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Country House by zaa

A country house in Treviso gets new life by the renovation of the interiors and the expansion of the living space designed with the juxtaposition of a glass and cor-ten steel volume. The extension talks with the natural landscape through the wide windows. From the outside, the glass volume reflects the surrounding nature becoming part of it, from the inside the windows become invisible giving the impression of being outdoor: the living room becomes one whole space with the countryside.

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Born and raised in The City of Angels, I can't count the times I've looked up at this collection of buildings sitting at the ridge above Sunset Blvd, overlooking Los Angeles and wondered what it was growing up. My imagination came up with the craziest ideas of what could be up at the top. A secret hideout...a futuristic building...some rich dudes crazy house...haha After years of not being able to visit this place in my own backyard, I finally found the opportunity...and to tell you the truth...I still don't know how to describe it. It's everything I had imagined and more. It was one of those experiences that you can never forget. I want to be up there all the time, taking in all the art, the views, and the sounds. I want to show this place off and share with all my friends that come and visit from out of town. It's beautiful. The architecture and story behind it is amazing. I couldn't be happier to have visited. You can definitely catch me up there often to make up for lost time. Dreaming, sketching, looking for inspiration, and catching those California sunsets ❤️🌄. Thanks for joining me and showing me around @jmst #TheGetty #GettyCenter #GettyCenterLA #GettyCenterViews #GettyMuseum #gettycollegenight #gettycentercollegenight #GettyCenterLosAngeles #LosAngeles (at Getty Museum)

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What qualities do we need to become an architect?

There are many lists on the web, and anything I write here is solely my opinion, not to be confused with any definite list of qualities. These are the first ones that come to mind:

Passion - You need passion to keep you on the path everytime things don’t go your way. Passion to improve the world in some manner through architecture.

Curiosity - Every project is unique: site, context , client, users, typology. You will have to learn new things everyday to be successful.

Vision - The ability to visualize something that does not exist or to imagine a space from looking at a 2d drawings is an ability required to be an architect.

Listening - The ability to listen to your client, the ability to understand what they are really saying, is key. 

Problem Solving - All projects are problems to be solved, using a combination of tools at your disposal, but the projects that solve a problem in a new way or a better way are the ones we remember.

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#TakashiMurakami "In the Land of the Dead, Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow" 2014 Acrylic on canvas This piece of art completely floored me. The talent, detail, and color that went into it just left me in awe. I followed the process of the pieces being created through his IG and even then I still was not prepared for the end result and seeing it in person. Absolutely amazing. Can't wait to go back to #TheBroad again. #TheBroadMuseum #DTLA #LosAngeles #Japan #Japanese #Art #PopCulture #Murakami (at The Broad)

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Sights set on a special 2017. A huge thank you to my family and friends who supported me from my lowest to my highest this last chapter. You helped me immensely and learn so much from you as well as myself. We'll always push each other to where we envision ourselves. Every day is an amazing opportunity to surprise yourself. Make unforgettable memories to look back around the same time next year and make yourself happy, smile, and laugh by pursuing or continuing what you are doing. Sending you all the tightest hug and the best for this coming year ❤ Hope you had a wonderful New Year. Great things, adventures, and dreams to come from all of us. I know it. 📷:@JMST #HappyNewYear #NewYear #2017

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This is pretty neat.

Thomas Bangalter’s real voice singing Technologic :O

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Love, Irvin

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#SAINTPABLOTOUR Add another unforgettable Kanye concert to the books. Crazy how he keeps making each concert experience better than his last. The sights, the sounds, the atmosphere...all unique and unbelievable! So much fun! If you've never been, make sure to go. #Kanye #KanyeWest #TLOP #TheForum #LosAngeles #LA #Yeezy #Yeezus #SaintPablo #DONDA (at The Forum)

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Too cute. Halloween is just around the corner! Enjoy!

panda whale 

exclusive comic for the fluffington post

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#NIKEMAG DAY!!! Finally these self-lacing babies become a reality! From the big screen to a real pair a select few will be lucky enough to own. Can't believe that a part of my favorite childhood movie is coming to life. From the moment I saw the film it fueled my imagination to boundless possibilities. What's even more wonderful is that they're using this to raise money and awareness alongside The Michael J. Fox Foundation towards the fight against #Parkinson's. I may not be able to win a pair but I can be happy that I can be a part of something bigger. Guess I'll have to get back to working on my Replica Mags and make those power-lace someday. Haha. #NIKE #AIRMAG #MAGS #NikeMags #BTTF #BTTF2 #MartyMcFly #McFly #TinkerHatfield #HoverboardsAreNext (at Twin Pines Mall-Hill Valley, Ca)

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Welcome to the Fall of '16 🍂⌛️ Starting off this Friday right. The Weeknd X Daft Punk on repeat. #StarboyAndRobots #Starboy #TheWeeknd #DaftPunk #Friday #Spotify #Music #Fall #Autumn #NewMusic • "I come alive in the Fall time" (at Outer Space)