Architecture School and the Road Ahead

Hey guys! It's been awhile since I was properly active here, and a lot of that is due to a couple of commissions I've been working on. So I have to share what's going on right now.

The first day of my grad year started today and it's CRAZY. All the years I've been studying architecture we've kept to smaller scale commercial design projects like branch libraries and mixed use mid-rises, single student projects that are fictional. This semester, not only have they informed us that we're to be precise and accurate cause we're grad students, but we now have real projects that the school is being commissioned and paid for. AND these projects are on a huge scale. The big one is that we're to work in teams of 4 to work with the Daytona Beach Midtown district community on a redevelopment of the historic Midtown District. We have to meet with the community 4 times this semester to keep them updated on our progress and gain feedback on what they'd like to see in their community.

The other project is for Haiti and it's a village template we're to design for the Haiti rebuilding projects. They're calling it green village, and it's supposed to be an agricultural village that can survive flooding and earthquakes. Each house has to be no more than $1500 cost of materials. My professor says he's not even sure if it's possible, but we're gonna see if it is. What we do now will span into next semester where some of our students will be in Haiti providing consultation for the project.

Anyway, it's exciting but super overwhelming. I'm really not prepared for all this so wish me luck. I graduate in the spring!!

Also, I've noticed a sad lack of good Donkey Kong Country fan art out there. It's one of my all time favorite game series and ranks higher than Zelda, so I'm saddened by the lack of taste. I'll be doing my best to pump out some awesome DKC art as soon as I finish my commission work. Plus I super suck at forests and need the practice.