It’s terrifying to think that it’s already September, and the half of the semester is gone. With main assignments are well underway / new assignments coming up, I thought I might keep a record of what’s been happening in the semester 2, 2nd year Bachelor of Design @ Unimelb (my writing is all over the place just so you know).
This semester I have 4 subjects (as a full-time student): Design Studio Gamma, Construction Analysis, Environmental Building System, and Designing Living System.
Each subject has different course structures and types of assignments, but I noticed that the knowledge and skills taught are interrelated. Three subjects (Gamma, CA & EBS) have been exploring residential housing from different perspectives, and DLS comes in handy for understanding the landscaping strategy using passive design, water sensitive design and vegetation.
I wish I could say that I’m on top of everything this semester, but in reality, it’s been the toughest semester ever – I couldn’t believe that I was staying up until 3am from week 2! For construction subjects, I felt like I was thrown into the deep end as I had to figure out about construction processes of a particular case study house in relation to Australian Standards, from a pile of construction drawings and structural notes.
But it is true that in the past six weeks I’ve learnt so much – from how a house is built, how services work, how to read structural notes and fully understand them, etc.
The design studio has been a bit of rush and having to work on presentation drawings while still developing designs and getting feedback is quite challenging. I wish I can focus on specific aspects of domestic projects – how to design for a particular lifestyle, how to create a homely atmosphere, and how to design to the human scale, but as I reflect on my understanding of a house in prior to the commencement of this semester, I’m happy with what I’ve been learning.
What I focused on the design studio is to keep the design simple & directly to respond to the brief at the same time planning the presentation format well. It’s almost impossible to think through a house design that covers every aspect in six weeks, so I decided to make sure that I’m communicating with my tutor & guest crit the points I wanted them to take note of. Writing the presentation structure in for points and then thinking the representation of key concepts made the presentation display more logical and easy to refer to. After all, I guess the crit is about communicating your ideas and justifying the design decisions you made… My works are no way near the best of the classes but I try to make it the best of mine.
In addition to the new knowledge I’ve acquired so far, I feel like now I know how to keep myself on track. Generally, I tend to spend too much time on details and not getting the overall work done on time, but as the days get busier and busier, I found that it wasn’t working. So I decided to have an imaginary ‘alarm’ in my mind, telling me “do you need to perfect that tiny bit? Aren’t you wasting time? You got to move on!” whenever I get off track or concentrating on something not so important. Planning how to study & how much time I allow myself to work on each task really made me feel happy with my work when I submit.
Lastly, it’s been wonderful to be able to work with hardworking friends who are really keen to do their best. It’s definitely because of meeting and working with them that makes my uni life so exciting and satisfying :))) So, thanks everyone!
Saran Kim | Blog 