Guess what!

I've been neglecting this little blog because I've been working on another blog (see previous entry) . That blog has been part of a competition entry for a design conference called Tasmeem. The competition is to identify an issue dealing with water and generate design solutions for the problem. I worked on the project with a friend and we focused on the 1.2 billion people who don't have access to a source of clean drinking water and the 6,000 children who die every day from a water-borne illness. It's a little outside the realm of interiors, but it was fun to apply what I've learned to another area of design.

I just found out that we won! The prize is all expense paid trip to Qatar for a sustainable design conference in March. The speakers are some of the best in the world - David Suzuki who spoke at Greenbuild, Cameron Sinclair the founder of Architecture for Humanity, Susan Szenasy the editor of Metropolis, and other architects and designers from around the world.

Yes, that's right! I'm going to Qatar! Where in the world is Qatar?! Here it is:


Yes, I know. It's in the Middle East. But the safe part of the Middle East. I promise.

Qatar has mosques . . .


. . . and luxury resorts . . .


. . . and camels . . .


. . . and this giant pearl.

It is also the home of Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar who is sponsoring our visit.

I'm so excited!

Experiment

I'm starting a blogging experiment. I want a blog to save the world.

We all know the power that blogs have to bring people together, people who would never have met otherwise. Blogs can entertain and inform and shape our lives in unexpected ways. I want to take this power and use a blog to help those who need it most.

Over 1.1 billion people in the world, right now, don't have access to a clean source of drinking water. Children are hurt the most - 1.5 million children under the age of five die every year from water-born diseases. Every one of these deaths is preventable.

Just by having access to a computer puts every one of us in a position of great privilege and power. What will you do with that power?

I want to do something, so I'm starting another blog to explore what we can do to address this global crisis. We are all affected by the way water is used and misused, whether we realize it or not. My new blog will be a discussion of what we can do. I don't know what form it will take. It is something that I hope will start a discussion and grow as we try to figure this out together.

So please visit Water Is . . . I chose that title because water is so many things, to so many people. Water is hope, it is freedom, it is power, it is life. I will update it daily, so check back and help me find ways to make it fun, as well as informative. Together we can save the world, even if it is for one person.

Breathe Out

In less than three weeks I've had a wedding and two funerals take place in my family. Throw into that mix finals week with multiple projects due, the latest in a succession of crappy birthdays (yea for December, everyone is too busy to notice), and weekly trips to Salt Lake to work, and I am exhausted. Overwhelmed and utterly exhausted. All I have to do is make it to graduation, but that doesn't feel like it will ever happen. It's the middle of the night and I'm even too tired to sleep.

So for you, and mostly for me, I present a bit of visual bliss. Next semester my senior thesis will involve research on the work of Santiago Calatrava. Just looking at these images helps me relax. They feel like modern cathedrals.

Thesis

I'm in the honors program and in order to graduate next spring I need to complete an Honors Thesis. It's meant to be a scaled down version of a master thesis and will be combined with the senior project I will do next spring. By the end of October I need to complete a thesis proposal and choose a thesis advisor and commitee. I have a good idea of the direction I'm going and the people I want to ask. The project will be commercial, sustainable and significant. I also want to look into publishing the research paper that I will write to accompany the design. It's a little overwhelming to think of now, but I'm excited to get started.

Publicity is a good thing, right?

Ok, this is definitely outside my comfort zone. Last semester I designed a dialysis center in commercial studio, which I also turned into my honors contract. I made it sustainable and tried to find a design metaphor for spiritual and emotional healing. I submitted it to the Undergraduate Research Fair earlier this month. After the fair I was contacted by a girl named Blaire in the Communications department. She interviewed me for a HASS PR campaign she is working on and issued a press release on my project. A week later I got an email from the Statesman telling me they were writing an article about it.

This morning the last Statesman of the school year came out and to my surprise and a bit of embarrassment, my rendering is on the front page. You can read the article at this link.

Student designs floor plan for dialysis center - Campus News

I'm just a bit embarrassed. Below is my abstract from the research fair.