Today is the final chapter of both my online blog and my final pieces of assessment. I had to get up bright and early this morning so that I could be at University at 8am, in time for the opening of the J-Block workshops. I had to get in early in order to complete the sealing process for my plaster model and have it ready to paint as soon as possible. I managed to complete the painting process today, its not really the best example of a painted model, but its the best I can achieve with the materials available to me. I couldn't leave the model white since it needs to fit into the Brisbane city model realistically.
And below is a photograph of the actual St Johns Cathedral in Brisbane.
Another Look
Looking back over the semester we have learnt a great deal about architecture and its place within a city context. During the first lecture, Mirko asked us to analyse an image of a small city and describe what we saw in architectural terms. The image can be seen below, and as can be found in my first blog entry, Week #1, I gave the best description I could with the knowledge that I had at the time.
As the unit comes to an end I'd like to look back at this image and describe what I see today using everything I have learnt over the past 14 weeks. When I look back and read what I've written in week #1 I still agree with my basic description, but now I can discuss the finer details of the city. The city uses an organic template which follows the contours of the rising land and is contained by the edges of the lake. From the images, the closely constructed cottages create a recurring typology and a distinct district area in the southern portion of the city. This district is a thick place that looks to be popular with the locals as their cottages form edges along the streets creating a clear path through the city. At the heart of the city, the casino acts as a landmark, its huge walls can be seen from any part of the city and lake. I still believe that this is a small part of a larger city, as no industrial area can be seen and the immediate countryside hasn't been cultivated.
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Final Reflections
Reflecting on the semester that has just past I can say that I've learnt a great deal more about architecture and its place in the world. Architecture isn't just a building to shelter us from the weather or contain our belongings, it's a part of who we are as a society and where we are heading in the future. Analysing a city can reveal a lot of information on its past, present and future to a point where you can predict what step we might take next, or what options are available to us. I believe to be a good architect I need to look at these developments and appreciate our heritage and respect it, not take away from it and build over it. The key to good urban design is to respect the architecture within it, and at the same time provide the community with what they need in respect to their cultural identity. These lessons I will take with me and apply to every aspect of design that I participate in, in the future.
