Architecture is art with rules. That's what my thoughts were during my second year architecture studio. I was trying to understand what my "coocoo" hippy teacher was inciting us to do. He wanted ART, but not JUST art, "architectural art"-- whatever that meant. After countless hours of racking my brain, I gave up and decided I needed some guidance from the masters of the past. The architects I chose were specifically picked based on a distinctive quality that I appreciated. I then used motifs of qualities I admired to create a pattern that formed a language that could be read as, "architectural art." This language was formed through iterative means and opened my eyes to the meaning of "architectural art." Creating this art freed my architectural creativity.

Today, I use this iterative design technique for other projects-- you could say all my succeeding drawings are iterations of iterations. This design technique helps to expand my creativity by providing color and freedom to a sometimes stagnant and stifled architectural climate. My presentation shows two different projects. One reflects a young architecture student finding her design voice and the other reflects a professional tapping into her design voice while fighting to find compromise between design freedom and feasibility. I am constantly striving for architecture to have a distinctive voice of its own. That is what makes architecture powerful and inspiring.