Parametric Communities Presentations

A combination of advanced computing techniques based on parametric modeling with multi-scale, comprehensive planning of small communities can plausibly produce sustainable communities with improved quality of life, increased security, and economic viability. This fourth year studio has explored this idea as a research hypothesis in five different settings from the Brazos Valley to the mountains of Colorado to the coastal planes of South Africa. Final design reviews will allow the students to present their work to external reviewers in a celebration of their work and further exploration of how we can design communities for a growing global population amidst diminished per capita resources in response to a changing climate, and yet preserve and increase the opportunities for joy and happiness for all.

20 April, Monday, 9:30 AM to 10:30 AM (Central Standard Time)

Housing on the Verge

Redevelopment of a resilient site on Bolivar Peninsula, northeast of Galveston. The homes on the peninsular were largely destroyed by Hurricane Ike in 2008.

22 April, Wednesday, 9:15 AM to 10:00 AM (Central Standard Time)

New American Hill Town

A design for a high-altitude new town in Colorado hypothesizes reliance upon cable cars, self-driving carts, and telecommuting as a new lifestyle in a fire resistant setting.

Portfolio

Your final task is to prepare for your future. Whether you go to graduate school or to work in a design firm, you will need a portfolio. You have, no doubt, created portfolios at different times during your studies. Create, or add to, your portfolio to show me next week.

In my opinion, a portfolio should show your best work presented as well as you can. It is ok to go back to old projects and finish them, present them, render them, so that they look great. You should provide text to help the person looking at your portfolio to understand it. Think about your audience -- most people will not know what you mean by "ARCH 205". 2nd year design studio course would be much more descriptive.

Do not take credit for work that is not your own. For group projects, define what you contributed to the group and what you did not contribute to the group. You can show a rendering that you did not create, but admit that you did not make the rendering but that it was part of a group project.

A portfolio need not be only pretty pictures. You can show energy analysis, cost estimates, structural calculations, essays on history, maps of places that you have visited. Your goal is to present the range and depth of your knowledge and experience.

Nevertheless, the pretty images are what grabs the attention and the text should not detract. Consider grouping in the back a list of your instructors and collaborators, more detailed commentary, an essay of your goals and ambitions, and other material. Writing matters! Write in proper, formal English with complete sentences, not just a lot of bullet points.

In the front, provide a title page, a copyright notice, a table of contents.

The idea is that you have a chance to show the work from this semester and previous semesters to a real professional, sort of like a mini- career fair just for us. If you want to do that, you need a portfolio. I suggest either using a straightforward PDF version of your portfolio or use an online tool, such as

https://portfolio.adobe.com/

https://cargo.site/

Here are more resources

https://www.architecturelab.net/architecture-portfolio/

https://www.ncarb.org/blog/how-to-build-online-architecture-portfolio-4-steps

Here are some examples of portfolios produced by Aggies.

Show your portfolio to former instructors, professionals, and other fair but tough critics. I suggest that you show your portfolio to me before showing it to the pros, and give yourself enough time to change it. So show it to me tomorrow morning!

Below are some principles for graphic design: