Lagniappe 2

There aren't words to describe how profoundly things have changed in the last couple of weeks.
Take the design for one, but come on. How can I focus on designing some theoretical project after having seen the devastation in the ninth ward, listened to evacuation stories, and thrown up in my respirator from the stench of flood recovery?

It is hard to focus because sometimes design work just doesn't seem important.

However, it has to happen. So in order to move on, I have to ask how what I have seen and experienced can inform the work that I am doing. The idea behind writing about the design process is to help reveal what makes things happen the way that they do as I work, so that I can improve the way that I work, and so that we can all hopefully catch a glimpse of how design happens. One thing I have learned is that sources of influence come from every direction, and reflect the things going on in my mind and in my life.

I have recently remembered why I wanted to go to architecture school in the first place. It was because I wanted to play, have fun, explore the world, learn things, gain wisdom, open my mind to new perspectives, work hard, contribute to and inform the work of others, and play and have some more fun. It was not really because I want to be an architect, in so much as someone can actually “be” an architect. I wanted to “become” something, myself only better, and that something has little to do with titles or suffixes.

All of those things that made me come back to school were things I experienced this week. Only about half of them are things I expect to be able to do working in an architecture office.

And so, here is another entry that describes another set of inconclusive thoughts. That is all I have got, and/or that is what it is all about.

Aside from all of that and on a more technical note, I think I have the photo uploading issue temporarily resolved. As always, to enlarge. Thanks again for standing by.