Blog 12: Third Interview Questions

Open Ended Questions:

1. What is the best way for an architect to incorporate natural surroundings into a building design?

2. What types of natural elements can an architect use to create a green design?

3. How can an architect design a project so that  the design preserves the pre-existing environment or site?

4. In what ways can an architect best fit their design according to only one particular site?

5. How exactly can an architect best learn from their environment through observation?

6. What current or previous buildings designs have incorporated natural surroundings into their design?

7. Through the use of observation how can we incorporate or compare the structure of a plant to the structure of a building design?

8. What are the key components that form the basis of an accredited green build?

9. What resources can an architect use to maintain an accredited green building?

10. In what ways can the natural surroundings improve the building design?

11. In what various ways can the building design complement its site or environment?

12. How can architects best learn from pre-established green designs?

13. How extensive can you design a green building, when concerning minute elements such as carpet or wood?

14. Is scaling down a building project the best solution to a green design, by utilizing space.

15. How can incorporating natural surroundings into a building design overall improve the health of clients?

Blog 11: Mentorship 10 Hours

1.   Where are you doing your mentorship?

• I am contributing my time to a mentorship program at a Marshall High School in Pasadena, known as ACE or Architecture, Construction, and Engineering. ACE is a program where high school students interact with professional graduates in the field of Architecture, Construction and Engineering, and get to experience each field at first hand.

2.   Who is your contact?

• My contact is Rachel Adams one of the contributing ACE Mentors on the Pasadena Team.

3.   How many total hours have you done (total hours should be reflected in your mentorship log located on the right hand side of your blog like your WB)?  

• All in all I have completed a total of 21 Hours with in the time frame of 9/19 - 12/12/2013. 

4.   Summarize the 10 hours of service you did.

• After being introduced to all of our mentors and getting a general background description of each career choice, our meets consisted of fieldtrips to either a accredited university, college, or firm. Throughout these field trips our mentors continuously gave us tips on hands on experiences and projects on how to think in terms of an architect, engineer, and contractor. We as the Pasadena Team are encouraged to work in groups and as a team since the whole experience of being an architect, engineer, or contractor is being dependent upon a high level of communication and interaction. Our mentors have also taught the Pasadena Team the ideas of structure, the role of an Architecture, the role of a Structural Engineers, site planning, architectural planning and elevation, site modeling, and scale conversions. Every year the ACE program does an annual project that each high school team in Los Angeles county is required to complete and present at the end of the year seminar. Our project currently that the Pasadena Team needs to develop as a coming of year product is to design and construct a movie theater; where we're consulting with other ACE Teams from other high schools and fit our project design to coincide with their project design. Ultimately being involved in the ACE program has taught me a great deal on a new outlook on Architecture, Engineering, and Construction.  

 

Blog 10: Senior Project, The Holiday

1. What did you do over the break involving your senior project?

• Over the winter break I spent much of my time researching and finding sources to add to my WB. For one of the additional sources I found was a book called 101 things I learned in Architecture School. Another thing I was worked on was calculating the square footage for our new project "building a Movie Theater" and figuring out different floor plans.

2. What was the most important thing you learned from what you did and why?

• The most important thing I learned from doing research on one source was the fact that if you want to be recognized for your designs you have to forget about what you want the building to look like and instead ask yourself what does the building prefer to look like? By considering the concerns and needs of your client, and the nature of your site, you can ultimately achieve a recognition. This is important piece of advice or experience can help you in the long run of your professional career field by achieving good recognition you can in the end expand your cliental through referrals.
• On the other hand by learning how to use the scale system for design plans I was able to uniquely design a structure that is fit to our mentorship project required square footage. This skill is important to learn since it helps you to realistically visualize how big a room needs to be in order to be practical and comfortable for the user.

3. If you were going to do a ten question interview on questions related to answers of your EQ, who would you talk to and why?
I would talk to my mentor Rachel Adams who is a graduate architect from Georgia Tech. Rachel has design experience in a number of recognized projects such as Valley Regional High School for the Los Angeles school institute. Rachel Adams design philosophy is to establish quality architecture that is respectable to the nature as well as environment and is highly concerned with her cliental needs.