REFLECTIVE SUMMARY: LESSONS LEARNT.

TIME MANAGEMENT, REGRETS, & MAKING CHOICES.

I must admit that time management was a tough one for me this semester, and I must also admit that writing is not my strongest suit. The longest part of this assignment for me would be the ruminating, and subsequent rewriting and rewriting… and rewriting… Only until I feel truly confident about what my argument and concept is, and that my references are credible down to its essence. This is something I hope to work on – to be quicker but sharper in my thinking and rhetoric, so I can be more productive with my time and my tiny brain capacity. With the module’s timetable clashing with that of my architectural design tutorials, it was pretty difficult to balance and choose between heading for the urban design lectures and subsequent blog workshop, or to attend design tutorials and sit in on group critiques to gain more ideas. Choosing between the workload of either one is not easy as well, especially because I know I am not good at multi-tasking. But ironically, it made me think about why urban design and architecture have been separated as disciplines.

BLOGGING, LEARNING FROM OTHERS, & OVERLAPPING IDEAS.

I feel that the complementary TCP8052 seminar module really helped to bolster this one as a resource pool. Through that module, I have also learnt a great deal, on top of the lecture series.  Additionally, I found my ideas from the M.Arch course overlapping with the realm of Urban Design, which is something I find quite exciting – to look at the smaller and bigger picture at the same time. The opportunity to incorporate and transpose the two realms of study into a blog post was very enriching. Researching and writing with the two in mind, although tough and draining, helped me to clarify my thoughts. What I particularly enjoyed, to my surprise, was reading the posts by other students. It was really interesting to see things from another student’s perspective and their thoughts on certain topics. I also enjoyed replying to the blog posts to add in my own point of view, and perhaps sharing ideas that might be something new for the author to think about or explore. I also enjoyed the format of blogging very much, as a much more laidback form of academic writing. I do regret however, not posting as frequently, because if I got it into a routine, maybe writing would come easier eventually, and I could also write more posts. Another regret would be my second blog post as I feel like I have not formatted my argument quite as well – that some parts of the content should have been more in depth while the others not as much.

CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS:

I undertook this Urban Design module on a whim not knowing fully what to expect, only that I had an interest in it and a curiosity for why it is separate from the field of architecture. However, now that it is done, I can say that I have gained a lot, and that I am really glad for pushing myself to learn something new. Coming from an architectural background, this module was a refreshing new perspective for me to see things outside the confines of singular building and its site, and to think about a larger network of processes. Through this module I have realised how important the in-between spaces are and how much potential they have for design as well. This module has been a great way to learn about so many different concepts and theories, something that architecture school very unfortunately does not really teach for some reason, and I really appreciate that.