shyloshepherd.com Blog

100_6568, originally uploaded by shylosshepherd.

People seem to like this photo in flickr, it is an image looking up to the skylight in the new library that we visited in Utrecht.

100_7359, originally uploaded by shylosshepherd.

This is a little shack thing that was created by a young architect outside of Amsterdam.

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Just a note to get started. I’ll be keeping up with my flickr account I think this semester as well. It won’t be nearly as interesting, but it will show a little more of what it’s like to be an architecture student in their final semester. I’ll be in comprehensive this semester, and so it will be a little different for me as usually studios are more design than worrying about codes. Not so this semester, I’ll get a taste of the boring stuff.

Now I have a better flickr address, http://www.flickr.com/photos/shylo/

So I just got off of a train from Paris, I got some food on the way home ( very few things open monday nights so I got McDonalds ) I managed to find a better way to use the tram, and here I am typing while I eat my fries. It was a lot of fun, and I saw much. First of all, it is very expensive to eat or drink anything but tap water in Paris. Second, the metro is intimidating at first but easy to navigate with a map. Third, don’t let Jimmy navigate because you’ll go the long way (I think he just likes Paris that much). Saturday we saw: Sacre Coeur, the museum of Eroticism, the outside of the Moulin Rouge…

Roy is awesome, very smart.  He’s a wealth of knowledge when it comes to Rotterdam.  Before he came by we went over some stuff that was coming up.  I admit I had nothing new since Monday due to the move.  I think a lot about my project, but don’t draw a lot about my project. No one wants to read that much.  I wouldn’t.  So I tried to make diagrams of a sort to illustrate some of my ideas.  Let’s see if I can explain it shortly…

first, my overall intention is to help the residents of Rotterdam Zuid (south) take ownership of their community and revive the once flourishing neighborhood.  The best way to do this is said to be education and through the arts.  However, I think the education that might be lacking could be information about the residents themselves. I have read that the area of Pendrecht was once a nice neighborhood, built after a flood in 1953. It was a garden city with wide streets and lots of green space.  The original plan was designed by Lotte Stam-Beese, having “living units” that were several different houses built around a communal garden.  Then these living units were built around a community center. Shopping was never too far away.  There is a diverse population here.  Some of the residents have lived here most of their lives.  Some streets have been restructured, some buildings demolished.  However, some has remained the same.  There are trees said to have been here since the area began.  The main square, known as the 1953 plein, still has the same pattern in the brick.  But there is more to learn, more to know, and much to be proud to be a part of.  This is how I want to educate the people of Pendrecht.  I want to teach them something I don’t know, but what their neighbors do.

So much for being short.  That’s just my concept.

Basically I want to create an installation that will flash people’s pictures with their first name, and an icon that says something about their creative outlets.  To do this I will need them to volunteer this information and photo…so this installation will gather and put out this information.  It will be on a closed network, that will feed also to a website.  In this way the information is freely given, and easily accessed.  Vague posters & flyers with minimal information, and this would remain the only part of the project in action for a time (to encourage interest and curiosity).  When the timing was right, we would announce a competition for one of the arts (the most popular).  This is to give value to the interest, and offer gain.  In return we get more valuable work, and more quantity than if we asked for volunteers.  The winners would be given the best opportunities at the pavilions which are transformed from the earlier installations.  These modular systems would be able to become the billboard they begin as with a tv on either side and sound, a stage, a gallery, and perhaps a variety of other things.  For now these will suffice to serve many arts, and being placed in several locations would be able to create pathways through Pendrecht so that everyone gets a chance to walk through this beautifully forgotten garden city.  In the end I would also create a gateway into Rotterdam Zuid, redesigning the Slinge metro station to also serve as a grande gallery displaying the arts of the citizens of Rotterdam Zuid.

There, that wasn’t so bad. The more I talk about it the clearer it gets.

Scale was a suggestion, instead of repitition, scale my installations to the location.  And the large scale intervention at Slinge was well liked.

Today I slept in while I knew I could, and got up around 10 here.  I started packing and then Jimmy found me and we took our first load over by hand using metro.  Then later we collaborated with Matt and got a cab to take the majority of it.  I’m glad ’cause it would have taken all night.  We took the last bit by bike and by the time we got to our new place it was 10:30 PM.  Time flies when it’s day time until 11.  Jimmy and I went to a nearby pub for a quick single beer to chat with my new roommates and Zana who used to live in this complex.  Then came back for bed.

We met at the Berlaga and had a meeting about what our process is like for our proposals. I felt that the “manga” style storyboarding was working well for me, and that it might be interesting to create a graphic novel for my presentation. I should probably work at a larger scale than I am and shrink down. Ryan showed us a powerpoint of all of the large scale buildings that are going to be built in the next ten years. His take is that in my area the Zuider park area really needs some work and possibly a real music hall.

My day consisted of mostly drawing, and then Jimmy and I went to Dean Mohney’s to cook. We helped anyway. And he fed us a great meal while listening to Bob Dylan. I felt really sick for most of the day, so I haven’t done much. Everyone seems to feel a little sick. I think it might have something to do with the building that we’re in. I think there’s mold. Becky has a fever. I hope everyone gets better soon, including me.