Tonight: Get some sleep

The second of the 1/4 to 9 film series is playing tonight. Come check out Michel Gondry's The Science of Sleep in the School of Architecture theatre.
You can support your friendly neighbourhood film club in a number of ways:
- attend film screenings
- borrow movies from the library
- suggest new DVD purchases
and most importantly...
- submit your short film for the 1/4 to 9 closing event! It's easy, just send a link to your video via Twitter or email!

It's a 1/4 to 9...

The Waterloo Architecture Film Club is kicking off its fall film series tomorrow night with A Single Man - the first film by designer Tom Ford.

"1/4 to 9" will feature four other films to follow throughout the term, ending with a night of short films created by the school community. For more information about the films to come, keep an eye on our blog. If you want your film screened on closing night, send your entry to us via Twitter.Support the film club by checking out their collection of films available in the library!

Knit CamBRIDGE - the finished product

Knitting was contributed by staff, students and faculty here at the School of Architecture, as well as some nervous-looking parents during admission week! Thanks to everyone who took some time to add a few stitches to the knitting in our basket.

Congratulations to Cambridge Artist-in-residence Sue Sturdy for bringing the community together to pull off such a large scale project. See our earlier post for more information about the project.

We have a great view of the bridge from our reading corner in the library... drop in and check it out!

Drawing the line

Drawing the Line runs during the summer months here at the School of Architecture. The course's aim is to shine a light on "the importance of sketching in the study of architecture."

Under the direction of Hugh Thompson, students work to further their drawing skills with a focus on sites of historical significance.

While this year's students are busy putting pen to paper, the works produced by last year's class of 18 graduate students are now on display at Musagetes. Many sketches outline the architectural forms and details of buildings within walking distance of the school. Drop by the library and see if you can recognize any!
You can find more photos of the display over at our Flickr photostream.

Why Architecture Matters

Because this guy says so.

Paul Goldberger, Architecture Critic for The New Yorker, will be part of the Critical Mass speakers series on May 3rd in Toronto (tickets at hotdocs.ca). The conversation will also include Sasha Frere-Jones, Robin Givhan, Eric Friesen, Michael Enright and Jeanne Beker.

If you can't make it to the lecture you can watch his interview on The Colbert Report, in which Paul and Stephen argue about whether or not American architecture still has "big tits".

You can also check out his latest book, Why Architecture Matters, and many others on display in the library.

...together at last!

Two of my favourite blog topics - Bjarke Ingels and parkour - join forces in the new documentary My Playground.

MY PLAYGROUND - PREVIEW from KASPARWORKS on Vimeo.

The film explores the changing perceptions of urban space and interactive architecture by speaking with freerunners, architects, planners, politicians and philosophers across Europe and Asia. It also follows Denmark's Team JiYo through the process of creating the world's first and largest dedicated parkour park in Copenhagen.

A YouTube search for JiYo Park will bring up plenty o' videos showing the park in use.

Knit CamBRIDGE

Sue Sturdy is this year's Artist in Residence at the Cambridge Centre for Arts.

Her goal is to cover the Main Street bridge in downtown Galt with knitting. We're sure to have the best view in town of the colourful finished project!

We have a basket of knitting in our reading corner. Drop by the library to take a break and help contribute to the project...it's good for your health! You can knit a full piece or just a row or two, and add your name to the knitting journal.

With the [re]growing popularity of knitting, there are similar projects popping up all over the place. Check. This. Out.

Worth watching...

The Third and The Seventh is a "full CG-animated piece that tries to illustrate architecture art across a photographic point of view where main subjects are already-built spaces. Sometimes in an abstract way. Sometimes surreal." Always beautiful.

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

More than meets the eye

We live in a world where we Google the closest cafe, get directions from our phone, send tweets while standing in line and blog about the whole experience over coffee.

Reality is becoming so much more than just what we see in front of us. It is being created by companies and individuals at the global scale and in the palm of our hand. Want to change the world? There's an app for that...

Check out these two examples of the potential that exists to augment our perceived reality of buildings and space:

SARA brought to you by the Netherlands Architecture Institute is "the worlds first mobile architecture application featuring augmented reality with 3D models."



And Microsoft demonstrated the astonishing capabilities for augmenting reality in Bing Maps at this year's TED conference... and you thought Google Earth was cool.

Do you have a burning desire...

...to express yourself in verse? Well get your imagination warmed up for the 2nd Annual

Musagetes Poetry Contest!
February 10th - 24th
This year's theme is: FIRE

Poems can be any length and any style, ranging from witty one liners to passionate epics spanning continents and generations.

Drop your entries into the bag in the library, or post them on our contest board for all to see! You can win Hot, Hotter and Hottest prizes!

Main Entry: FIRE

Pronunciation: \ˈfi(-ə)r\

Etymology: Middle English, from Old English fȳr; akin to Old High German fiur fire, Greek pyr

Date: before 12th century

Function: noun

1 a : the phenomenon of combustion manifested in light, flame, and heat b : burning passion : ardor : liveliness of imagination : inspiration
2 : fuel in a state of combustion
3 a : a destructive burning b : death or torture by fire
4 : brilliancy, luminosity
5 a : the firing of weapons b : intense verbal attack or criticism c : a rapidly delivered series

— on fire 1 : being consumed by fire : aflame 2 : eager, burning

Function: verb

1 a : to set on fire : kindle : ignite b : to give life or spirit to : inspire : to fill with passion or enthusiasm c : to light up as if by fire
2 a : to drive out or away by or as if by fire b : to dismiss from a position
3 a : to become irritated or angry —often used with up b : to become filled with excitement or enthusiasm
4 a : to emit or let fly an object
5 : to tend a fire
6 : to transmit a nerve impulse