The Time Kengo Kuma Lectured In San Diego

My frustration of not having a proper, full-time, salaried position was temporarily alleviated during the Kengo Kuma lecture at Woodbury University two weeks ago. For those who aren't familiar, Kuma is a Japanese architect.

His design theory touches materiality and structural design. There is a quality of emergent complexity to his work, where the structural rationale begins with a component that is iteratively and uniformly applied and repeated, until it populates a spatial span.

He was humble, soft-spoken and inspiring. He sounded like an architect devoted to and fascinated by his methodology and approach, and is committed to seeing an idea through, with a relentless patience.

Hand-drafting Sunday: the beginning of an isometric projection.

And I'm still wearing my hat on a daily basis.

Possible Design Portfolio Segment

Last March, after working on several personal projects with X - P o l l i n a t e Studio, I went to intern for Estudio Teddy Cruz, a local theoretical celebrity whose speculative work is published frequently and reaches architecture schools and publications globally. 

His Social Contracts tactics, the socio-economic and political groundwork for realizing architecture, is critical today more than ever, with the economic gap so drastically disparate. I'm a huge admirer or his design activism, and thus really want to include some of the info-graphics I worked on in the office in my portfolio. However, I'm just not certain that the story-boards read as well out of the context of his retrospect.

Those of you who are design savvy, please weigh in, I'd like to hear your opinion, on whether a diagram like the one below reads well enough to make it into a design portfolio. I've been toying with the idea of other info-graphics, but this one is critical to a local skate park project in San Diego. Thus far I've removed it, but I might add it back in, in some other capacity. Maybe play with scale, add text,or just feature an excerp. Thanks for the feedback!

Knitting As Therapy

So it's taken me about a year, but I've finally finished my first ever knitting project, which I began in Milwaukee last October. The awesome object you see hanging out on my head is my scarf-turned-slouchy hat.


Originally, I began knitting at a time when things were tough for my family in Milwaukee. Last year around this time, my grandmother spent many months in and out of the hospital, following an unsuccesful heart surgery. I flew home in October and helped out by staying at the hospital with her, as the Russian - English translator for the doctors and support and company for her. I decided to take up knitting to pass the time, as she mostly slept throughout the days. One of my mother's piano students, a teacher and expert knitter by the name of Rebecca, sat down with me and patiently showed me how to cast on stitches, then how to maneuver the knit and the purl stitch.

It was a bittersweet Autumn; spending time with my family in Milwaukee and being back home was amazing, while the inevitable situation with my grandma Ida was pressing and terribly hard on all of us. I found comfort in slowly working on my architecture portfolio, practicing yoga, spending time with my grandpa [the funniest and most upbeat individual I've come across in my entire life] visiting local firms whose work I admired, hanging out with friends from high school, drinking way too many cappuccinos at Alterra, and taking walks with my mom and Hadley in the autumn leaves. And knitting at the hospital. Often making mistakes, even starting this scarf-hat over a few times.

My grandma passed away in early February of this year. Tragically, and completely unexpectedly, my uncle, her only son, died suddenly of a heart attack six weeks before this. To even attempt to write about the sentiments and feelings my family has been experiencing wouldn't explain the half of it.

But strangely, as I reflect on last year's events, I can honestly say that knitting helped me; emotionally, it taught me, like yoga, to be more patient and introspective, and less hard on myself. Apparently making stitching mistakes is actually really really good for detail-oriented perfectionists like myself. Go figure. This may come across contrived, but it truly did change me. And even with the uneven stitches, the random switching of pattern and the occassional hole, I am going to wear my hat proudly, as I am doing today, and will be until California becomes too warm for one again.

A Home for Etgar Keret; or, Another Instance of My Thesis Being Realized!

Alley House

Behold! X - p o l l i n a t e s t u d i o 's Spice Holder

I'm a Yoga Teacher...Again!

After the travels and getting back into life, I'm teaching yoga again. So grateful and excited to be teaching at Prana Yoga in La Jolla tonight! It's where I received my training & I really love all of the instructors and the vibe of the place.

I designed a new sequence and even put together an awesome new playlist! I'll post it soon when I get a minute.

So you interested in joining? It's at 8pm tonight! Maybe if you hurry you can make it.

Yoga, or the Catalyst to Raise Western Consciousness

there is the option to embrace these movements autonomously. Without the historic precedent, because why should yoga keep insisting on credibility, anyway? The proof is in how it makes us feel. Agile, aware, closer to our consciousness, more aligned physically, like there's space between our joints, space that allows us to move within our own bodies.

Awathis system of breath with movement, and the soft determination that embodies yoga practice