Thinking on Paper

It might startle you the first time you hear it, but the term 'sexy' is part of everyday banter in the architectural world. We apply it to buildings, graphics, design concepts and attitudes.

The most striking thing about the Boston City Hall Competition Drawing exhibit at the BSA this month isn't necessarily the quality of the final drawings - although they are certainly are the sexiest, and they might be the ones you want to take home with you.

The most striking thing about the exhibit is not necessarily the content, but the curation: the inclusion of process drawings on trace (framed, hanging on the wall alongside their finalized counterparts) that would normally end up in the studio wastebasket. You'd have no trouble finding such drawings crumpled on the floor of an architecture student's bedroom, left behind on the 5th floor of Newbury St., filling the dumpsters in the alleys of firms.

These process drawings range from conceptual chicken scratch to visual math to sketchy perspectives, sometimes all on one piece of onionskin. You can trace the designers' thoughts and see the process unfolding. A plan becomes a space and then a plan again, reworked and revised and revisualized in the paperspace of 8 square inches - this one was done in someone's sketchbook. Nearby, a staircase scribbled as a crude U shape morphs into a meticulously orthogonal elevation, and then is abandoned - but not forgotten, for you see it appear in a final drawing just down the hall.

This is not an exhibit about sexy drawings, but it might be about how they come to exist. Sexy isn't born, but built - it isn't a goal, but a result. The lesson is that there's no magic here, but it's a happy lesson - that there's promise for every architect who can think on paper, that those late night hours spent on trashed trace are never for nothing.

BSA/City Hall outing

Wei and Anastasia checking out City Hall.

Anastasia discussing this drawing's use of light and shadow, while Johnny, Al, and Jaime listen intently...

Johnny found something super interesting on the front porch of City Hall!

On Saturday, we went to the BSA Space to see the new exhibition of Kallman McKinnell drawings of City Hall, as well as Canstruction being installed! We spent nearly two hours looking at and discussing the drawings, and making direct links to how the techniques we saw might impact our own processes and ways of working. Afterwards, we felt it only logical to stop by City Hall and see the real thing. Though it wasn't open, we nosed around the outside. We wrapped up the rainy afternoon with coffee and snacks, and a discussion of the leadership and collaboration challenges faced by students on Gateway teams. I left feeling inspired by this group's engagement with design and design culture, and their dedication to their Gateway projects and their fellow teammates' learning. I'm already looking forward to our next meeting!

2013-2014 Fellows Selected

Wei Gao, Alinsan Esteves, Jaime Bustos de Haro, Johnny Osband, Daliana Zapata-Arroyo, Anastasia Lyons.

Congrats to our six 2013-2014 Huxtable Fellows! Read their bios here.

Applications are in!

Thank you to everyone who applied! We got a wonderful selection of applications, and it was great to see so much enthusiasm from our BAC student community. We will be making selections soon, and alerting those students who have been selected by this Friday, 6 September. Watch your email!

Welcome!

Welcome to the Huxtable Fellows blog! We'll be using this blog as a place for the Fellows to document their experiences, react to and reflect on their learning, and engage with each other in public conversation.