Crit feedback

[Jonathan Kendall]

Dear all

This is just a quick note to say well done to you all for your presentations yesterday.

We were impressed with the volume of work you have all produced and the efforts you all made to present your ideas to the critics and answer their questions. Many of you had clearly responded to the feedback you received from previous internal and external reviews.

We will send you individual feedback as quickly as possible to give you time to respond before the deadline for submitting your reports, but we thought it would be useful to cover a few issues that recurred and general comments that apply to many if not all of you.

- A number of you focussed strongly, and perhaps inevitably, on the final elements of your design proposal, without explaining so clearly what the organising principles of your ideas have been.  It is important to be able to articulate a clear narrative for your ideas, including linking themes or structures through which your projects have evolved from macro to micro and the abstract to the specific. The report will be a useful opportunity to articulate your entire design process in a hopefully coherent manner. Many of you showed only spatially specific drawings, and it might be useful to add conceptual diagrams and/or looser sketch drawings that capture the essence of your ideas and from which your projects have evolved.

- Many of you illustrated your projects with clear 'before' and 'after' images, but did not communicate the stages of change or, particularly, the processes by which that change would take place. Again, it would be useful to use the reports to illustrate (graphically and/or verbally) how and why your projects would happen. Who is involved? Why would they participate? Can people act independently or is collaboration essential? How would you control what you want to achieve?

- A number of you were asked, particularly by Chris Colbourne, what you have learned from the year. What do you take away from the investigations that you have carried out? The report offers you an opportunity to try to summarise and reach conclusions about your own personal development. You should use the final parts of the report to be reflective and self-critical - not in the sense of undermining what you have done, but to consider the lessons you have learned about the city, about the process of design, about priorities, about relationships between scales, etc.

- At the start of the year you were all set briefs that referred to the issue of sustainability and, in the case of our unit, to the ideas of the city as a system of networks, loops and hierarchies. You have obviously all responded to these themes in different ways, and one of the summary comments at the end of the morning session highlighted this variety as a sign of a healthy studio. We agree. But nevertheless, your reports should reflect also on the original brief that you received, and should comment explicitly on the themes and how you interpreted them. Articulate your position and define the terms you have used.

- The report offers you all an opportunity to expand on the themes of your project and articulate the process of design development, as noted above. But it also offers you a chance to discuss Istanbul as a city in a wider sense, and to comment on broader issues about the city as a phenomenon - including other international references and conceptual frameworks derived from other sources. You should use the report as a chance to draw in bigger ideas beyond the specifics of your design project. The format of the report allows you to cover these wider issues.

- Seeing your work on the wall at a distance, and in the context of the work of the rest of the class, should help you think about the final exhibition and the need for key images that capture the essence of your scheme. In some cases you have lots of work of equivalent graphic weight, none of which is particularly legible, whereas for others it would be obvious what you should exhibit. While it is fresh in your minds, identify what your key drawing(s) will be, and reflect on further work that may be needed to get the best impact for the exhibition, as well as in your portfolios and within the reports.

Hope this makes sense.

Jonathan and Ilaria

[Raymond Lee]

Hello,

I hope everyone is having a pleasant time doing whatever it is you are doing. As for our tutors, drink plenty of fluids and rest. As all of you already know Shanty and I are working on the catalogue for our unit. We have received files through email and this is turning out to be a nightmare. Please hand us your files to us in person. The file we have received so far do not follow the instructions that was outlined in Graciela's email. The images need to be a TIFF file at 300 dpi. Not JPEGs or GIFs. Furthermore, please do not send us your files in several emails, the process is very smooth if you simply go into indesign and click on "File" then "Package." Indesign does all the work for you. Then after if you could please give the file to either Shanty or myself, the rest of the work will be taken care by us.

Time is limited so we will require your file tomorrow morning so it can be forwarded to our tutors for comments. Gabriel, get on a plane now and I will see you tomorrow (just kidding, you are the exception, please email the packaged file to either Shanty or I). 

Anyone who does not hand your drawings to us will unfortunately be left out. Help us, help you.

Charlie, you're ok, ignore this email (yes, I should of wrote this in the beginning and yes, I was fully aware of this the whole time). 

Have a good night,

Ray and Shanty

[Graciela Moreno]

I told you, in person!

But you never listen. Men!

Sent from my iPhone

[anita danialian]

Hi.....

all the images that i have sent have been Tiff Files 300dpi....yet they are farrrr to big to even send as a zip...thus the only option is to send them through individually.....what are ur morning time limitations to be exact ? also the indesign packaging option simply separates ur doc into txt and image folders so its not much help...also it converts the images into Jpegs...

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Subject: [UD1] Catalogue
From: r24...@gmail.com
Date: Thu, 15 Sep 2011 00:35:22 +0100
CC: idi_...@hotmail.com; gracie...@gmail.com; jonathan...@gmail.com
To: marchud_u...@googlegroups.com

[Graciela Moreno]

Anita and all,

You must reduce the size of your images as much as possible. Think that if all the students do that the final file for the catalogue will be huge and impossible to print. So please, do that as soon as you can.

Thanks

g

--
Graciela Moreno
MArch UD, Dip Arch, ARB