Studio wrap up:

My project was to present a proposal for the reuse of the buiding we were using as a studio space. It was a former tobacco processing station, where farmers would bring in tobacco and get paid according to the quality. The market for tobacco in Taiwan has crashed due to the WTO, so the space has been empty for a couple years. Although we did come up with the design, most important thing was to communicate the potential of the site. The project went ok, not the best I've done. It was hard finding a balance between working as a PR project and actually designing the space, like in a normal architecture studio. I certainly don't feel as though we were able to design a project we believed in, because the instructor kept pushing us in a different direction. In the end I think he wanted something splashy and eye catching, rather than something thoughtfully considered. At least that was my feeling. I think that was the root of my frustration. He kept pushing for things that we knew would be a lot of work to resolve architecturally, but we didn't have the time to resolve them. But likeI said, I have come to realize that the focus of the studio was less on learning design than it was experiencing community activism/ participatory design. We were there to spark ideas and raise support for MPA.