School: December 2004 Archives

Notebooks. We keep notebooks. OK, architects' notebooks don't have to withstand solvent spills, but they do have to stand up to Coke or glue. Which is why I am saving this link to lab notebook information here.

Some quotes:

Not everyone sets out with the goal of patenting a process or contraption, but you might stumble onto something important and in such an event you must have a notebook that supports your claims. If you have not kept up a proper laboratory notebook, other researchers and their patent lawyers will beat you to the Patent Office and to the bank.

Some researchers insist on reserving the left-hand page for "cryptic notes to self, and quick calculations", and the right-hand page for "real" entries. Do not do this. This strategy undermines the more important goal of keeping a notebook that is truly dechipherable by others. If you have made "calculations and notes to self" without proper narrative explanation and justification, you, too, will probably find the left-hand page unusable after several months have elapsed.

Good stuff.

Yesterday was the last day of classes, and at the College of Architecture and Environmental Design that means one thing: crits!

I have some photos from third and fourth year crits, plus photos from my own studio: my classmates and my work. So read on.

I'm in a frenzy of model-building this week, for our crit on Friday (arch school speak: a crit is when you set up your work all nice-like and everybody piles on and gives you what-for about it. This is actually desireable because most of the time the feedback you get comes from the teacher or your friends, so on this one day you get to hear a lot of other responses to your work and learn from them. Or have your heart broken if you're a fragile flower).