2 weeks countdown.

My tutor came in for a discussion for the first time since my second midterm. That's a long time to go without some guidance, especially at this point, but I feel that in the end it was really helpful.

I was at first disappointed with our talk because I had so many questions about details: How should the concrete connect to a gabion wall, and should there be stairs between the platforms if they are only .5m high, etc.

She kind of dismissed all those questions and talked of her concern that she doesn't feel everything makes sense.

I just felt heavy. I mean, it's two weeks from hand-in. I don't really have that much time to figure out specific design details let alone contemplate this statement about not making sense. I thought this was what the second midterm was for--to let you know that your general strategies and design proposals are on the right track.

The next advice was a bit better suited. She said that in this kind of project it is important to make careful decisions about where to be very accurate and where to just let things be. In a way that answers a lot of my questions about construction details. If I choose the right 'details' (be those construction or spacial or atmospheric...), and figure those relationships out properly, the others can be left at a more simplistic level.

Anyways. I sat there for a while thinking about my life and whether it's worth half my weight in chocolate, and then emailed my mother.

As I was writing, trying to think of a way to describe my project, I realized that I've been under a lot of assumptions. I assume that everyone knows the details of the context, and what the specific character or each side of the site is. I do not show why it makes sense to have a small set of platforms on one side (the private garden side) and a large public terrace on the other (the road/university campus side). I haven't shown the influence of scale and why I am not making a whole coherent concept for the entire lakes.

So now I see why my instructor said that things don't really make sense. And while it's not a very concrete idea to work on, it's what I'm going to put most of my energy into from now on. To frame, to contextualize, to prove.

I feel pretty lucky now that my instructor actually said something about it instead of just encouraging me to 'keep working' like all the other instructors I've had. Better to be stressed now then stressed during my presentation.