A Reflection on Semester Two
The blog component of MAUD was entirely new to me beginning Semester Two of my studies, having taken a different module to the rest of my cohort in Semester One. I joined in with seminars for the formatting of the blog, scheduling and general set up, however found as the first semester progressed, I unfortunately couldn’t keep up with an additional module. As such, this semester was my first introduction to a new format of writing and engaging with new ideas in the progression of both the Housing Alternatives module and the Design Thesis module.
This new format and experience has not only challenged my approach to research and design, but also allowed for a further element of engagement with peers to develop our interests. It provided a space to think about the future themes of my thesis, and gain inspiration from the perspectives of others, in a format purposely designed for exploration.
Through the last eight months of the course, my overall understanding of what urban design is, the contributing factors different approaches has developed greatly. I feel I have seen a shift in my working and design process from first semester, taking on and applying comments and feedback to improve legibility, concepts, and overall design. While some of this is attributed to general improvement as I develop new skills, I attribute part of this to the introduction of blogging to explore concepts. This reiterated that design-based progress does not only have to be measured through iterative drawings and visual outputs – sometimes it is developing a deeper knowledge of theory and considering how to apply this to design.
As someone who in my working environment largely writes reports (often quite lengthy ones!), I initially found the short-form format of blog posts and our reflexive comments daunting, worried I would not be able to express my thoughts and findings successfully in such short excerpts of writing. However, utilizing skills developed through our Urban Design Seminars module in semester one, through summarizing and drafting my posts I felt much more comfortable in the approach and would like to continue developing this in the future – both personally and professionally to succinctly summarise research aims and findings.
To summarise, taking part in the blog component this semester has improved my overall confidence in visual design and writing both as means of communication and research exploration – areas which will be important in my future on the course through development of my design thesis in Semester Three, but also in my professional life as a planner and designer. Moving forward after completing the course, I hope to continue to improve on these skills as my career progresses.
