MAUD Blog- “Mutual growth is the key”

Chapter 1: EXPANDING

Fig 1: Illustration of shared knowledge by Sabinet (source- sabinet)

“Every end opens window to a new beginning”. The blog entries of last semester were wrapped up with our reflective summary and here we go again. Hence, I thought of resuming from where I left- “Expanding”. Contrastive to the first semester, we had intense studio sessions with two design modules and a thesis proposal to accompany with. Even though it was tiring and stressful the process was congenial and worth the effort taken. Besides, change in the weather and more daylight was a positive support to the process.

For me, from the beginning itself, preparing myself for blog submission had greater impacts in my design development. Indeed, every blogs posted had input in expansion of a thread and I would like to start by thanking each one of my fellow classmates your insightful writings and reflections. It was a great opportunity to understand the similarities and differences in thoughts shared under one roof. Also, quite inspirational in a way to keep up with the quality of blogs published. Besides, forever grateful to Luke who was always been inspiring with his academic experiences and works.  Furthermore, put us on the right track by “what and where to find”, made the process of design development much easier and intriguing.

CHAPTER 2: DEVOLVING

Unlike first semester it felt even more difficult and challenging to summarize the blogs. Because of the limited word count and confining ourselves mostly to single large topic of housing and its impacts on urban context. The scale of the project handled could be a reason for difficulty in narrowing the scale of information acquired.  However at the same time it helped us to channel our perspective in understanding various layers of housing development in detail to develop a contextual reflection to the housing alternatives project.

The specificity of topics and filtration of contents required rigorous reading and self-corrections at regular intervals. These challenges were the reason to read more and more to find a topic where “Less is more”. As a budding blogger, it was a devolving process in-between. Nevertheless, leaving me with a choice of the right topic and keeping the interest alive for the one which I wished to draft.

Fig 2: Devolving illustration from source: (vecteezy)

CHAPTER 3: ELEVATING

However, later the topics selected for the blogs were the cornerstone of my housing development project. Henceforth, helped me to translate the knowledge acquired through reading, into language of design. Thereby, adding essential flavor and elevating the quality of proposed mixed use development. And the other way around, this platform is offering me an opportunity to explain the theoretical evidences of strategies included in the design and its relevance in an urban scale. Referring for the blogs were also helpful in finding relevant precedents for the projects to add foundation and  feasibility of the proposal.

CHAPTER 4: ELAPSING

It is quite shocking to realize at this point, that the module is nearing is completion. I still remember the day I started reading a paper and struggling to understand the basic urban definitions. However it pushed me even harder to go deeper and cultivate a habit of reading. Moreover, this would always be one of the fantastic modules to be incorporated in a design studio which improves our response of constructive analysis to the research topics . Furthermore, the module had a greater impact in improving my writing skills and critical thinking abilities. Consequently channeling us through wide range of topics in urban context with shared knowledge from all parts of the world. The way this initiative works as a collective knowledge hub is a huge achievement to be part of.

Fig 3: Where it all began- Blog banner design proposal by author for 2023- 24 blog module