Upon Reflection: Part 2
The Consensus
As the modules draw to an end, I would like to reflect on my time during Semester 2. This semester was definitely more intense – the two design modules and thesis preparation felt extremely challenging at times. I have learned a lot about myself, how I need to adapt to be a designer, and how I can improve my skills further. Yet, the contents covered this semester have been interesting to explore through design and the blogs.
The Blogging Experience: Reimagined
After writing blogs for the first time in Semester 1, I approached these blogs with more confidence. As this semester allowed us to choose our own topics within housing alternatives and our thesis, I was able to explore more niche topics within urban design. My approach to researching content took some trial and error since Semester 1, however I think I have learned how to choose relevant sources better. This made my blogging experience a little easier to manage in between the workloads of the design projects. The shorter word counts also challenged me to keep my writing concise. This allowed me to identify the key points which I needed to communicate within the blogs. Although, it was a struggle to maintain the word count as I found I had lots to write about for each blog!
New Topics to Explore
Housing Alternatives covered a range of topics, including housing typologies, ownership and sustainable living. For my blog, I chose to write about modular housing for the student housing demand. As the student housing crisis was a big issue during my undergrad, I thought about how alternative housing can be used to meet these large demands. I have previously looked at modular construction from an engineering perspective but linking it to housing was quite intriguing. Although I didn’t include student housing in my final design, I explored modular apartments which stemmed from my initial research for the blog.
The thesis topic blog offered the most opportunity for exploration. I knew I wanted to look at coastal towns, however I was unsure on what exactly I wanted to proceed with. I drafted several iterations of the blog based on different areas of research during the semester. Since writing the thesis proposal, the blog has been helpful in directing my research towards blue urbanism, which I briefly mentioned in the proposal. My second blog post on coastal revival through blue urbanism has helped solidify that this is what I want to focus on in my thesis.
Onwards and Upwards
As we continue in the final semester, I am looking forward yet again to improving my urban design skills. This semester has helped me learn so much about design which I have never covered before. The blog writing experience has encouraged me to keep reading, learning, and evaluating. The blog workshops ran by Luke have been helpful in discovering other professional blogs which have been fun to read. Also, being able to practice my critical writing has been helpful in preparation for the thesis work. Overall, I am glad to have participated in these blogs which have been a unique and valuable experience!
