CURRENT MISSION

Architectural Legacy of the Olympics

ABOUT ME

This year I was honored to have been awarded the John K. Branner Traveling Fellowship, offered by the Department of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley. The grant is for a year of independent travel and study around the world, looking at some globally significant aspect of architecture.

My proposal is to research the architectural legacy of the Olympic Games, both at the venues themselves, and in the larger cityscapes that they have descended upon.

On this journey, I am hoping to better understand both the Olympics as a cyclical global phenomenon, and the Olympics as a catalyst for change - specifically as the games intersect with the practice of architecture.

My website for the trip, with travel blog and journal, can be found here:

http://web.mac.com/solidvoid

PHILOSOPHY

Open mind and open eyes, no expectations - just following the experience.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

none with couchsurfing.com yet - but plenty of experience sleeping on people's couches.

Interests

Professional Passion: architecture, and pretty much all design in general (graphics, fashion, industrial, UI, etc.)
Personal Passion: fine arts (photography, painting, sculpture)
Sports: sailing, snowboarding and Cal football - these days, anything Olympics as well
Consuming: good food, good wine, good beer, strong coffee

• arts
• humanities
• architecture
• design
• fashion
• photography
• dining
• wine
• beer
• coffee
• traveling
• blogging
• painting
• sailing
• snowboarding
• sports
• soccer
• olympics

Music, Movies, and Books

Books: too many to list; everything from classics to contemporary, non-fiction, and fiction. I seek authors that make me think, challenge my perspective and maybe teach something along the way.
Currently reading, "Disgrace" by J.M. Coetzee.

Movies: Again too many to list, but stream of conciousness; The Big Lebowski, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Manufactured Landscapes, Groundhog Day at least 20 times in a row, Indiana Jones (but esp. Young Indy TV series), Akira and Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi at the top of the Anime stack, and from childhood, Transformers the Movie (NOT the new one)

Music: as the mood strikes me, I don't discriminate against any genre.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Sailing a dinghy in a hurricane... and had fun doing it.

Teach, Learn, Share

Always sand the barcode off the basswood sticks in your architectural models.

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