ARCH1101 test update

Hi All,

So far there have been 970 attempts to pass the test, with still quite a few students not passing.

Remember, passing the course is conditional on passing this test, so I'd encourage anyone with a grade less than 18/20 to attempt it again soon.

Closing date is the 21st of June.

Regards

Russell

ARCH1101 Lecture Test Update

Hi All,

As of this morning there have been 500 attempts to pass the lecture test.

The largest number of attempts I've seen so far has been 54; and that person still hasn't passed. A word of advise ... don't guess, research.

Remember, 18 out of 20 is a passing grade. If you only achieve a maximum of 17 I'll be seeing you again next year, no exceptions.

Regards

Russell  

ARCH1101 lecture test update

Hi All,

I'd like to congratulate Ho Nam Kelvin Ip, Kelly Ji and Steve Lu on achieving 100% in the first day of the lecture test, well done!

Regards

Russell

ARCH1101 lecture test live at midday!

Hi All,

You'll find the link to the ARCH1101 lecture test live on Moodle at midday today.

You have until 11:59pm on the 21st of June to complete the test with a mark of 90% or above.

Remember, you need to pass the test to pass the course, so please don't leave it until the last minute.

Enjoy!

Russell

Grasshopper Parametric Plugins

Hi All,

Grasshopper is a plugin for the 3d Modelling software Rhino. It turns a rather ordinary modeling software into something quite extraordinary.

If you are interested in doing large buildings like sports stadiums, airports and hi-rise buildings then you really need to know how to use it.

Take a look at this post: http://blog.rhino3d.com/2016/04/are-you-architect.html

You'll get a sense of its formal and analytical capabilities.

Regards

Russell

Model of Kensington Campus

Hi All,

I've placed both a SketchUp model and a Collada (*.dae) model of the Kensington campus as it surrounds our site on ANZAC parade on the FBE courses drive, here: 

S:\Courses\ARCH1101-ArchDes1\Resources\Models 

You can access this directly in the labs, or could use VPN from home.

They are the same thing, and Lumion 6 will happily import either ... The trial of Lumion 5 only seems to import the Collada file. They are about 10Mb each.

They will provide invaluable context for your Light Rail designs and your design in Experiment 3 which is to follow.

Feel free to edit as you like.

Regards

Russell

Lumion 6 Download

Hi All,

You can download the educational version of Lumion 6 (which lets you save your work and reload it later) from the faculty server. There are two ways to do this ... visit the faculty labs in person and download it onto a hard drive from the S drive (from a folder called "studentsoftware") ... or, use a VPN to connect to our network from home.

The whole folder is about 6.5Gig.

To connect to the UNSW network via VPN go to http://vpn.unsw.edu.au and follow the setup. If you have trouble try another browser. Then copy and paste this file path  \\download.fbe.unsw.edu.au\fbe\studentsoftware\Lumion 6 into windows explorer.

Then run the file called Lumion_6_0_1_LUM6EDUFREE_UNSW Australia.exe and it will install from the other files in the folder.

IMPORTANT!!!!! when you run the educational version it connects to the Lumion servers and gets a temporary licence. When you close Lumion you need to be online so your machine can give the license back ... failing to do this will make that license unusable, and as we only have enough for the people in the class someone (possibly you!) will miss out if the licenses get used up. If the license is returned properly they can be reused over and over.

Regards

Russell

Convergence Challenge

Hi All,

As mentioned in today's lecture:

Convergence Challenge Launch this Thursday from 8:30am - 10:30am.

It's FREE and includes breakfast. It's on at the Hatchery and they've got some amazing emerging technology and innovation speakers:

Shauna Heller, Clay Park VR, (ex Oculus VR, the company Facebook bought for $2billion), Silicon Valley, USA

Roger Lawrence, Chief Technologist for Innovation, HP Enterprise

Lawrence Crumpton, Developer Evangelist, Microsoft HoloLens

Dr Jordan Nguyen, TV personality, inventor EEG controlled wheelchair, VR pinoeer

Anet Redmer, UX Specialist & Lean Startup Methodologist

Register here:

https://docs.google.com/a/whyagency.com.au/forms/d/1aLBPTFagfHTs93yiWZOIOJ_iCaDdvcLyhVOP85INJl8/viewform?c=0&w=1

Regards

Russell

REMINDER! Class is on as usual tomorrow

Hi All,

Just a quick reminder that class, both the lecture and the studio, are on as usual tomorrow.

Even though its the non teaching week for many courses at BE we started a week late, so are using tomorrows scheduled class to catch up.

See the task for today and independent study, here, for what we will be doing.

This will be your last chance to get your tutors advice before submission, so please make sure you take advantage of it!

Regards

Russell

Notes from the first student rep meeting

Hi All,

Thanks again to the student reps for coming to yesterdays meeting and representing their groups so well.

There were a few issues raised.

1. Different tutors are asking for different things, what gets marked?

The answer to this one is always consult the marking schedule ... there is a link to it from each experiment brief. The marking schedule for experiment 1 is here. Only the things included in the marking schedule will be formally assessed.

An extension to the question is "If the assessment is the same for everybody, why do some tutors ask for different things?" I've given tutors a level of autonomy regarding how they run their studios ... this is because they are experts in their fields and know what techniques to use to get the best out of the collaboration between them and their students. So if a tutor asks for extra drawings or more sketchup modeling, for example, they are doing this because they think it will help you do better in the assessment tasks. 

2. Are students allowed to use specialized renderers and/or photoshop to add post production effects to sketchup models? Yes, here are some suggestions in no particular order ... 

SU Podium: http://suplugins.com/

Visualiser: https://getvisualizer.com/

Kerkythea (as used by Alex Hogrefe, https://visualizingarchitecture.com/ ) http://www.kerkythea.net/cms/

Shaderlight: http://www.artvps.com/

VRay (used to be industry standard, and is in our computer labs): https://www.vray.com/vray-for-sketchup/ 

and we'll be using Lumion in EXP2 and EXP3: https://lumion3d.com/product.html

3. Early release of the daily tasks: from now on I'll be releasing the daily task the day before studio, so you can take a look at it and think about it overnight before class the next day ... this should help you, and the tutors, feel more prepared for the studio session.

4. The student reps asked if I could include more examples of previous student work on the blog, with  notes on why they were successful. I'll do this over the coming week and include more examples (and set aside more time for them) in the lectures as well.

5. Can you include models from the 3d warehouse? Yes, but you must be clear about what you have made and what is from the 3d warehouse (with appropriate credit to the original author of the work). I would advise that before you download and include a range of models in your architecture that you save a copy that is finished, but empty. This way, when you come to upload your finished model it's not so large (in the past some models have blown out to 100mb or more because of the third party content they include).

Regards

Russell

Lost Property

Hi All,

A white watch was found in studio after yesterdays class and returned to me. I'll leave it with the student center for the owner to pick up ... the staff there will ask you what brand/model of watch it is before you'll be able to take it away.

Thanks to the two students who returned it.

Regards

Russell

Free Photoshop Tutorials

Hi All,

The Computational Design Society is running free Photoshop tutorials in Weeks 3 and 4.

These tutorials are specifically targeted towards Built Environment students (including ARCH1101) and will give you skills that will be useful for the duration of your degree.

They have 2 tutorial days/times (note; the first is right after class next week), so if you can't make one hopefully you'll be able to make the other.

Details:

Wednesday 16/03 @ 6:00 pm. Level 2 Computer Labs of the Red Centre.

or

Thursday 24/03 @ 2:00 pm. Level 2 Computer Labs of the Red Centre. 

To sign up join their Facebook group https://web.facebook.com/groups/UNSW.CoDeSoc/, and go to events:

Regards

Before the First Class

Hi All, 

Before the first class, follow the steps below...

Step 1: create a blog at http://www.blogger.com/

note: use your own name to name your blog, use “awesome inc.” as a default template…

Step 2: post three images ...

a: your best piece of creative work before coming to this course, think laterally if you have not done "conventional" art or design work
b: an image of a great piece of architecture
c: an original photograph of something beautiful

Step 3: write a paragraph under each of the images that tells us something interesting about them.


Step 4: find an image showing a creative work from each of the companies/designers below (they will be your clients in experiment 1) and describe it using a noun, verb and adjective; see below for examples.

note: be creative with your selection of words, this will help!



Jeff Wright (cocstreetbikes.blogspot.com): Noun, Verb, Adjective




Givenchy (www.givenchy.com/en/): Noun, Verb, Adjective



Pasi Petanen (www.cafepaci.com.au/about/): Noun, Verb, Adjective


Step 5: purchase a 0.5mm black pen (artline or similar), and a squared cahier pocket moleskin notebook (you can get these from the unsw bookshop).


Step 6: if you would like to get ahead, download and install the latest version of the modelling software "sketchup" on your laptop.

Welcome to ARCH1101!

Hi All,

Welcome to the blog for ARCH1101, the first year architecture design studio.

Please back regularly as this will be the place for updates and additional information regarding the course. Feel free to leave comments below a post if you've got a question or would like to add something yourself.

I'm looking forward to another great year!

Regards

Russell