Architecture Exchange East

On Thursday, the architectural department had an opportunity to go to Richmond for Architecture Exchange East and it was pretty interesting. When we first got there, there was a lecture from an Architect at Snohetta (named after the mountain) and he showed us a couple of projects such as the Olso Opera House in Olso of course. This was one of the projects that fascinated me the most here because of the shape and design and location of the building. Also the fact that I had already seen this building in magazines and websites from previous research for as a potential precedent for my project. But the I would talk about that building...maybe at a later date. However, at the Exchange, I noticed that they were doing a lot of renovations in the downtown area of Richmond which I thought was pretty interesting. I signed up for a tour of a hotel/condominium. It was interesting how they were restoring the building and adding rooms to make the place look so nice with the old structure. We got an opportunity to go in the basement to see the old structure of the building and how it differed from the newer structure. I believe one was built in the 1920's and the other was added in the 1930's. My final lecture of the day was learning about making sustainable homes (which is something I previously learned from Shannon my second year). But I learned some valuable information about U values ( the lower, the better insulation...the inverse is the R value). Net zero homes were also disscussed and he stated that some of those homes produced more energy than needed which I thought was interesting and a something I should look into for the future (they could get money for selling there enegry to the city). Finally there was a social at the end which I didn't get a chance to stay that long but it was interesting seeing architects socializing, drinking, laughing and having a good time without having to worry about a project due the next day. I can't wait to get my degree........