In this studio, we were tasked with finding a decent-sized rock. Pretty weird. After that, our professors gave us a ream of standard 8.5″ x 11″ printer paper. Also, weird. Lastly, the told us: “You will devise a way to support and display our rock with the 500 sheets of paper we gave you.”

Ya… really, really weird. But, we did it.

Our team decided to fold our sheets of paper and then weave those folded sheets in a manner that counter-balanced the weight of our rock, et voila!

This exercise then carried into a more architectural project: a performance arts center with a library component. Much of this work focused on modeling. Starting with every architect’s favorite, rigid board foam insulation. And, culminating with plaster. (my plaster casts loved to stay in the formwork, rather than cleanly pull free) I managed to make one successful plaster model. But the best model I produced this semester was made from bent basswood.

Don’t forget the monolith! Our entire studio collaborated to recreate a scale model of Newgrange. Newgrange is a prehistoric monument. Beneath a circle of mounded earth is a stone passageway that is oriented to align to the sun’s rays on the winter solstice.