Blog 9 - Advisory Prep 3

1. State whether or not you currently have a mentor, and what the status of your interview is with that person (I have completed the interview, I have scheduled the interview, I have not scheduled the interview, etc).

I have a mentor but my status with my interview is still pending. I am figuring out which date would best serve my mentor and I. 

2. At this point, your research is probably guiding your studies toward more specific areas within your topic.  Name the area or two you find most promising and explain your reasons. 

An area in my topic that I am guided towards may be the designing part of architecture. There are a lot of factors that need to be considered in designing a building. A specific area in this could be the acoustic system on a building. I am interested in this because sound can vary, you need to design a room where it best fits the users needs. Another specific topic I can possibly focus on is the lighting system. Lighting is unique and there are different techniques used. 

3. What kinds of sources do you think will help you in the next month to gain more research depth?  Where will you go to get them?

What kinds of research that will help me that will gain more depth would be actual books about my topic. Article are wonderful, but I feel book will provide more information for me. I can get books where anyone else gets books really. I can either go to the library or if they do not have a particular book, I can possibly rent one online. 

4. Write down a possible EQ.  Please don't worry about wording other than ensuring that it provides the option for multiple correct answers.  At this point, the senior team is most interested in understanding your thought process.

How can an architect successfully incorporate building regulations and a clients demands? 

Blog 8 - Independent Component 1 Proposal

I have some ideas on what I can do for my independent component. My first idea is that I can build a scaled model of a building or complex. My second idea is to help my summer, architecture professor build his house. Right now, he is building his house in Pasadena and I can possibly help him out with that. Building a model of a design is just as important as the designing of a building itself. A model helps visualize a scale model of what the architect envisioned. It gives me a prospective that a computer can not. They are not delicate things to mess around with. They are scaled down and properly measured so the architects know they are meeting the requirements they agreed to. It also helps them decide what needs to be changed and what works. Construction is also just as important as architecture. Architecture like to supervise the construction process because they want to make sure, what they design is coming out the way they want it to. They both go hand it hand together. Architecture is the idea that forms and construction is that magic that brings that idea to life! 

How I plan to meet the expectations of showing 30 hours of my independent component is taking pictures! How much more proof do you need to have than having a primary source? I can take a picture of myself doing some work. And obviously log it into my Senior Project Hours log. 

Blog 7 - Second Interview Preparation

1.  Who is your mentor and where do they work?  If their workplace does not reflect their expertise, what makes them an expert?

My mentor is Mr. Chung and he works at CMC Architects and Engineers. Their work place does reflect their expertise. His office and building space is filled with rolls, folders, and cabinets of blueprints and architectural plans. 

2.  What five questions will you ask them about their background?

Where did you get your architect licenses at? What college(s) did you attend to learn more about architecture? How popular would you say your company is, how well known are you? Is CMC Architect and Engineers are large company or is it a private, locally owned type of business? Did you have a mentor yourself or did you just learn on the way? What other types of activities have you done that relates to your career field? Have you done any other type of profession other than architecture? 

Blog 6 - Advisory Prep

1. What has worked well for you concerning senior project this year?  What has made it a positive experience for you?  

To be honest, it is still too early to decide what is working well for me or not. I haven't done much for my senior project yet so whether something is working or not, I would not know. There has been no positive experience for me nor has there been a negative experience. I guess you can say I am at a neutral state regarding my senior project. 

2. What are you finding difficult concerning senior project?  How can you adapt to make that portion work better for you?  How might the senior team help?

What I am finding most difficult concerning my senior project is that I don't know what to focus on about my topic. Yes, I have ideas on what to do, but I am unsure if I want to actually do some of those ideas. It is not a matter if it is hard or not, it is if it is interesting for me to actually want to do it. I have no idea how to adapt to make that portion work better for me. Maybe I can just suck it up and just pick something, but then again that would suck for me. How the senior team can help is maybe, I don't know, do my senior project for me? That would be fantastic! Just kidding! They could just give me more time for me to decide how I want to further pursue my dilemma, that would be wonderful. 

Blog 5 - Interview 1 Reflection

Link to Interview: https://soundcloud.com/lillego16/1st-interview

1. What is the most important thing I learned from the interview?  Is there anything I would do differently for other interviews?
The most important thing I learned from my interview was how important the design of a building is. This interview actually helped me know what I want to focus on in my senior project. What I would do differently for interviews is to formulate questions to help focus on my senior project. 

2. Did I get additional resources and contacts?  What is the most useful?  Why?

Yes, I got additional resources and contacts. The one that would be the most useful to me are the resources. Resources would be more useful to me because they would be more reliable to get to rather than relying on a contact that may or may not want to talk to me or even have time to talk to me. Resources are more accessible so getting information would be a lot easier. 

3. What makes my interviewee qualified to help me? 

What makes my interviewee qualified to help me is that my interviewee is a licensed architect. This person has been in the architect field for over 30 years. They are also an employee under my mentor and work for the same company. 

Interview 1

Blog 4 - House Advisory Prep 1

What I hope to accomplish through senior project topic is gaining experience of being an architect. Architecture is not as easy as it seems, drawing building and designing structures because they look cool. There are a lot of factors that need to be accounted for and through senior project, I hope to gain as much knowledge about the field as possible. What I also look forward to is be using the AutoCAD system. It is a software that aides the user in making designs and would be awesome to work with.