Reflection Summary

1. Learn BLOG

First of all, we learned some knowledge about BLOG in the early stage of this course. Before that, I also made some small websites myself, but through this course, I learned about the operation mode of an academic community. I have been a volunteer in the Wikipedia community for a while, and the two have some similarities, but BLOG allows people to express their ideas more freely, but at the same time, the reference to the source also ensures the quality of the article.

2. Research case sharing

The research cases encountered in the process allow us to understand the project from different perspectives. Every time there are different teachers with different projects to bring us a new perspective. And these opportunities to contact project participants can allow us to quickly and efficiently understand the reasons for the establishment of these projects or some part of the design thinking.

Impressive is the Herons’ tree project, bold and challenging at the same time forward-looking and sustainable. In recent years, sustainable architecture seems to have become a vocabulary that everyone uses, but because this course has the opportunity to expose us to these, I have a new understanding of this word. I also have a deeper understanding of this architectural concept, which made me realize how shallow my previous impression was. This project is located on an island formed by a river in a city in France. And this project is a huge tree, composed of steel structure and tree parts. It reminds me of a kind of bridge in India. Tree bridge (I’m not sure if it’s called that) where people guide the branches of the river
As the tree develops, the thin connections become thicker and thicker. Add and guide tree growth on top of this. Over time, it will form a bridge that people can pass through. This process may take 100 to 200 years. Unlike most architectural structures that require maintenance and only slowly decrease in strength after they are built, once a tree bridge is formed the tree grows to make the bridge stronger. The Herons’ tree project allowed me to see the modern practice of this traditional building, and gave me a deeper understanding of sustainability.

Another case that impressed me was that the political function of the square was mentioned when analyzing the function of urban space. This is very interesting for a Chinese, because the education of the government makes us downplay the fact that political behavior is part of the function of the city. And some politically sensitive historical cases I think are very important. But this is out of my reach.

3. The Reflect

In the process of writing a blog, I found that this is different from a paper. It does not need to be very precise and objective. We can freely think about some of our own ideas and opinions. But at the same time, we need some material to support our discussion so that it is not as unrealistic as a conspiracy theory. This kind of research between professional and amateur has greatly helped me explore the possibility of professional research. I think such a degree of freedom is valuable, and on a certain basis, it ensures that we can understand and research more knowledge faster and more. I think this is the biggest achievement I have gained in this course.