3000 Well Written Words
April 10th, 2007
Allan Chochinov has a good habit of writing his thoughts down in 1000-word chunks:
And given the propensity for teachers to go on and on, keeping that number to 1000 words—whatever else you may think of them—might earn me a couple minutes of your time reading them.
His 1000-word Manifesto for Sustainability in Design has been getting some buzz recently, but I’m a big fan of his 1000 words for design students and later 1000 Words of Advice for Design Teachers.
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Place insane demands. Then double them.
If you ask students for 2 models, they’ll bring in 2 models. If you ask for 6 models, you’ll get 6 models. The more work that comes in, the higher the chances that some it will be good, and that a tiny bit of it will be great. So ask for 12 models.
My favorite exercise from an architecture professor? “Make 200 drawings. You have 1 hour. Go.” (Vince Mulcahy and Henry Richardson at Cornell)
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April 10th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
He limits himself though by just saying that it’s 1000 words for design students and teachers; it could equally apply to any other discipline I think.
I really liked them, but I feel they’re a bit single minded. Having one class where you have to bring in 12 models is great- but what if you had 4 classes like this? In that case, you start stifling the students and make them think only about doing the next assignment and not about doing cool stuff in their own time (where, let’s face, you learn the most and the most interesting ideas come out of).
April 11th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
It’s odd, Dave – I actually felt that during architecture, our best work was done in class… that’s a huge vote of confidence, I know, but the arch studio kind of takes over your mind, and there wasn’t much time for other work, as I recall. I liked how a huge studio assignment would just kind of turn down the volume on the rest of my life, my other classes, everything. Like in Fight Club where Ed Norton’s boss (cornflower blue tie) is talking to him with the volume turned down.
April 12th, 2007 at 8:36 am
Alexander and I were talking about this –
I think you’re totally right about the best work being done out of class, in computer science – that’s why Google has their 20% private projects rule, right? But in architecture our work outside of class wasn’t subjected to the same scrutiny, and so wasn’t as rigorous. I don’t think architecture education is particularly realistic compared to work in the arch industry. But somehow it’s still a good education. I admit it goes against my general beliefs in education – that it should focus on skills and situations one might encounter in the professional world – experiential education. Hmm.