George Lauder Bursary - Week 6

Monday 6th July

• Today was a big change as my friend from back home was leaving New York and I was also starting my course at Columbia. We were both up quite early, and after saying goodbye, I headed towards Columbia for my first day.

• The morning gave us an introduction to what the course would involve over the next five weeks. We were shown around the campus and given more information about the type of work we would be producing.

• After lunch, we visited the site that all of our projects would be based around, the old gatehouse near Columbia. This was our first opportunity to properly experience the site and begin thinking about its architecture, surroundings and history. We then got to see our studio space and were separated into our individual studio groups.

• We were given work straight away, which was called the Handshake Drawing. We were provided with a plan and section of the site and asked to draw over them based on what we personally took away from our first visit.

Tuesday 7th July

• I woke up and got ready to return to Columbia with my drawings. It was interesting to see everyone else's work and how differently people had interpreted the site after only one visit. We were also shown more of the facilities available to us during the course. This included the workshop, 3D printing facilities, and the different materials and equipment we would be allowed to use for our projects.

• We were also introduced in more detail to what would be coming next and how the projects would continue to develop around the gatehouse site.

  
  

• After class, I spent some time walking around the Columbia area and getting more familiar with a completely different part of New York from where I had been studying at Pratt.

Wednesday 8th July

• On Wednesday, we visited the Michael Sorkin exhibition that was being shown on Columbia's campus. It was good to spend part of the day looking at architectural work rather than immediately working in the studio, and it gave us another opportunity to see different ways that architectural ideas could be represented.

  
  

• Later in the day, I continued developing my Handshake Drawings based on the feedback and presentations from earlier in the week. I also went for some food after class before heading back home.

Thursday 9th July

• This was our final studio day of the week. We had to present our revisited Handshake drawings after developing them further from the original versions shown on Tuesday.

  
  

• Looking at my second drawings compared with the first ones showed how quickly my understanding of the site had started to change. Listening to everyone else's presentations had also made me notice things about the gatehouse and surrounding area that I had initially overlooked.

  
  

• After class, I took some time to walk around before heading home and relaxing after what had been a very busy introduction to Columbia.

Friday 10th July

• I spent most of the day taking it easy, walking around and getting some food.

  Later in the evening, I met up with some of the friends I had made in New York and went out for food and a few drinks.

  
  

• It was good to have a night away from university work before starting on everything I needed to complete over the weekend.

Saturday 11th July

• Saturday was mainly spent working on my Columbia projects. The course already felt quite fast-paced, so I wanted to make sure I stayed on top of the work rather than leaving everything until the last minute. We also had a new task of coming up with some form of measuring device that could be used on site.

  
  

• I worked through my drawings and notes from the week and continued researching and thinking about the gatehouse site. I still made time to get out for some food and go for a walk, which was a good break from sitting and working for most of the day.

Sunday 12th July

• Sunday was another fairly work-heavy day. I continued developing my Columbia work and made sure everything was at a good stage before returning to the studio on Monday.

  
  

• I also spent some time relaxing and getting organised for the week ahead.

  My first week at Columbia had already felt very different from Pratt. The course seemed faster paced and much more focused around one particular site, and I was interested to see how our initial observations of the gatehouse would eventually develop into a larger architectural project.