honorary collective correspondent alejandro has just relocated to buenos aires. 
already, he is scouting brutalism and other rarities for our analysis! 

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BOOKBOUNCE

I took a class last semester called Reconsidering the Margin: Creative Practice on the Fringe. The main thrust of the class was to ask what the relationship is between architecture and society, and whether marginal architecture (which challenges the definition of architecture as habitable structure) speaks more to marginal cultures than traditional architecture does. We considered "marginal cultures" to be minority cultures, ostracized sub-groups of majority cultures, activists, etc. Our readings covered discussions of the rise, fall, and current transformations of suburbia, and the writings of social and spatial theorists like Lefebvre, Soja, Jane Jacobs, bell hooks. It's the best class I've ever taken.

The last third of the semester involved proposing a project -- not necessarily architectural -- to improve a problem in a low-income community on the outskirts -- the margins -- of Saint Louis. We spoke with the mayor and other town leaders, who poured out their concerns about their small community, Pagedale.

My teammate and I focused on educational concerns. Children in Pagedale loose interest in reading as they enter middle-school, and their performance drops noticeably. By installing "branded" shelves throughout the community, we proposed to distribute age-appropriate books in dispersed locations, encouraging the process of discovery in learning. The project uses non-profit book-trading programs like The Book Thing in Baltimore as precedents for a book-trading program in the community that fosters involvement toward a long-term donation system.

Community members can sign in the books that they take or donate. A posted "Wish-List," compiled by Pagedale's middle school would include required books for classes, relieving any burden that some parents might have in purchasing their children's books. Start-up locations for the project include the middle school's front office, the post-office, and the local grocery store.

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quiet observance of a memory as it fades (final cut)

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it's going to be a gospel year. evidence #1
For some time, my principle meditations were devoted to the application of the analysis transcended from the theory of ambiguity. It involved seeing a priori, in a relationship between quantities and transcendent functions, which exchanges might be possible, which quantities could be substituted for that data, without the relationship ceasing to exist.  Evariste Galois to Auguste Chevalier, Paris, 29 May 1832. qtd. in Mulazzani, Marco, Luigi Moretti: Forms in Space

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a taste of my long poem...Prayers from Catalonia

XVIII.

When the night opens its maw, I need a cigarette,

and my neighbors aren’t home or won’t answer their doors

so I walk to the corner bar where I can get a drink

and change for the cigarette machine. I thought about calling you

and I almost did, but the act of picking up my cell phone

turned the inside of me into a hollow temple, my heart

the abandoned deity, and I held the phone in my hands

for a long time palming it as if it were cold to the touch,

and I stood in the hallway outside my apartment door,

bent over to make my shadow longer, counting

the floor tiles covered in darkness, but I couldn’t dial.

I wouldn’t know what to say anyway, that it’s been months

and it still feels like I’ve been bulldozed and buried,

that I weep for the thick scent of your neck, to trace

the base of your thumb with my fingers, to peel

my damp body from yours after sleep one more time,

but there are too many days of dry wind between us,

the flood that swept the seed away, there is you

crossing the room like a picture sliding down the wall,

you pulling away from me, and my body folding

farther from you. I take my pack of cigarettes back to my apartment

and open the wide window so I can sit on the ledge and listen

to the fights of lovers echoing in the courtyard. We used to do this

when we first started dating and I had an apartment downtown

with a wide window like this one. We’d lie still against each other

in my small bed and listen to the cars passing and people stumbling

home, some laughing, some fighting, and I’d fall asleep

to the sound of your breathing and the moving street. Now,

I try to imagine you with another woman, your chest wet

with the sweat of her thighs, the impression of her mouth on your heart.

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texFUR

So this is the material fringe project. A few sheets of newspaper are folded together then fed into a shredder creating varying lengths of fringe. They are then assembled together to create a sheet of varying fringe lengths that create a grade of fluff. The structure is just used as an armature. It is essentially a torqued tent frame.

The idea is to utilize material, color, texture and light to enhance sensibilities of space. It is more of a reaction to purist, Modernist ideas about material working from the "decor" of 80s postmodernism and into building cosmetics. Eisenman vs. Herzog and de Meuron.

Pictures coming soon. however here are some diagrams to keep you busy.

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Just a thought....

When ever I look at the icon for the studio blog (the orange one) I see a bowl of ice cream Continue

hey guys, we're locked in loaded for some fb action, all posts are auto-loaded to the shiny new fb group! keep it live! feel free to "like" it, and upload work samples!
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COLLECTIVE Christmas/NewYears/myBirthday celebration/regroup/drop-in

December 20&21 (edit: I'll be home 20/21, but I meant to type the 27th &28th)  my place, Clemson SC

love, Andrew

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advice...

ok, let me have it.




the ramps have very slight gradients, hatched are the rooftops of bldgs i made, greyed in existing bldgs. other parts grass landscape. Continue

delirious distraction

http://vimeo.com/8837024 Continue

GEERRRL P'LEASE

http://www.npr.org/2010/11/22/131517862/dark-times-befall-painter-of-light-thomas-kinkade
1 in 20 Americans have partaken in this light of God cash cow, and yet, I'm still not surprised. In conclusion: the financial retardation of Kinkade's George W. tested, Walmart approved shared values gimmick makes me finally appreciate Jeff Koons. You're welcome Koonsy.  Continue

I hope this gets to you

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a title makes it real

Latest news from the Florida home front... I have a title for my manuscript.
Beasts in the Dark
and right now it's just that,
a big beast,
in the dark.
I'm slaving at it and will post some new poems soon!
Everyone's work looks really great on here... we're actually going places guys! :)
I miss you all.
love.
R
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remember this?

We need to plan a Collective reunion!

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PLEASE REVIEW

http://issuu.com/lcshelton/docs/for_issuu

that is the link

Hey guys!

This is a portfolio of one of our 2nd years (back in the day when we all had Martha and they did that 2-4-2-4-2 thing).

Anyway, it time for them to go to Grad School!!!

Would you please leave comments, things to help make it better.

Thanks,
Woods Continue

directing debut (rough cut)

the ending is totally unresolved at the moment but i have a plan which involves projectors and spandex.  transitions still need a lot of work. Continue

Seasonal Me

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Yes it's a box and it's beautiful

Exterior watercolor of the GSP expansion comprehensive project. I'm working with Jessica Jeager. And she is pretty much awesome. The project uses dark and light as a way to direct movement. Light fills this 4 story space where the top two stories break above the ground bringing light into the bottom two stories which are submerged underground. The entry to the airport is underground allowing a public garden to surround the box and creating an architecture to emerge in the forest and surrounding landscape.

We are still working on a shading device which must celebrate the glass box without covering it and dissolving its idea.

Any ideas? Continue

"XLounge" by Mark Wentzel

eames chair in the 21st c.

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glass menagerie final model

I had a lot of fun lighting this model.  It was interesting to go back and explore the show from a different perspective.  I wanted to create a space that was ethereal but at the same time had the menacing and heavy presence of a collapsed building.  The structural elements are inspired by rays of light through a fire stair.  I think if I take more photos, I would have some with the background structures totally blacked out, which I think would help soften the space.

Working on "The Hothouse" by Harold Pinter next.

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the way the leaves fall slow, clocks reverse. it's that time again. let's ride out fall together. like this.
(also found on deelow, if you don't know about that yet.)


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I wa nt to be an arch i tect

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light pollination

by shana and robert parkeharrison

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hamlet

Production photos from Hamlet.  These were taken last night at the Hammer Museum.  The show then goes to UCLA, followed by LATC (Los Angeles Theatre Center).

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over the verbosity

Do I hate this project because it's too theoretical or just because I don't get it?

http://www.suckerpunchdaily.com/2010/10/15/skeleton-of-redemption/ Continue

Paper-Cut Cat

before viewing, please set your background music to the theme from Phantom of the Opera


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just keep swimming (/scrolling)

...the first image reminded me of casey for some reason.


EVDAY.net

get your weed ready for the two main exhibits: channel shazam and portable cat fight. Continue

time for fresh eggs!

coop project my roommate and i completed just in time for 5 beautiful lil chickies! [made of lots of found materials, and some used]. i even cut apart a tree in the rain for an hour for these birds..

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another render

...thinking about adding a quote from poetics of space in the thought bubble.

...going to have a series of these with the people's thoughts explaining the intentions behind the spaces.

...will make a bird's eye view with people walking around and little dotted trails behind them showing circulation paths. Continue