Beginning of semester Two

The beginning of February saw the beginning of a new semester with new assignments waiting for us, this time round we where given some tough but interesting assignments which consisted of: AIDA Stage design, Retail design and Landscape design.

The stage design assignment seems to be the most challenging one as its in collaboration with a company all the way from Holland. Nearly all our assignments are group work which has its up's and down's... the good things about it is when you are more than two people in the group you could have more ideas and the work load could be evenly spread out for a better end result. The problem with such groups is especially times management and some people in the group either do not work well together or some people could also have a lot of different opinions on such things.

The retail design assignment which is a double unit consists of groups of two to choose a shop and design it. The located site is Hamleys in the Pama Shopping Village in Mosta. It's also part of a small group work of 2 people per group. My partner and I have chosen to create a tea shop with the brand Mariage Freres. This french brand is one of the most lush and expensive french teas on the current market. It seems as if it will be a very interesting assignment and will be very beneficial for our portfolio. The Landscape design assignment is really interesting and is the first time we had such assignments, we where allocated the small garden allocated in the area between the workshops and studio 1 area. The assignment consists of another group work and we will be working hand in hand to make things better and have the best result we can have.


All these assignments seem Promising and shall help expand our personal portfolio, would help us work better with time and in groups as in the future we will be working as part of a team to make as many good projects as possible. This semester seems as if it will be a good and challenging one.

Last Semester's Refletion

     Last semester was a really stressful but also very interesting. We had a lot of different assignments which consisted of assignments such as agrivoltiac systems, Residential design, Re designing studio 1 and Critical studies. Most units mainly consisted of us working in groups for most of the duration of the assignment,some of which are also stretched on the whole scholastic year.There where two assignments which where especially very time consuming which where the Designing Principles and Methods and Critical studies, Design principles was a time consuming one as we had to come up with ways how to comply design methods and implement them in our studies. It was challenging and time consuming for the fact that we had to find a various amount of users for our located room to re design and ask for the students and tutors to fill in forms.For the other assignment it was pretty challenging as it was something new and I was abit shaky on as it was about my thesis title. My title was about reusing old abandoned buildings. Now the problem I was finding whilst looking for a location was that recently all building where being assorted other projects so its very difficult to find a location. For both assignments I could have dine different things to they make my life easier and get the same or better results, which was for the re designing we could have based more on online surveys and questioners as we git better response as the students are doing it at there leisure and comfort and also not being forced and pressured by their tutor. Whilst for the other assignment I would have re taught the whole title and maybe choose a different sector instead of old abandoned buildings.

Sustainable spatial design

During the whole duration of the whole assignment we where given the task to come up with a design for an agrivoltaic systems which shape shifts, collects water and protects the crops with still managing to give them as much sunlight as needed. The tutors from the engineering side of MCAST showed us a small animation of what they had so far and explained that they came to us to make the design more aesthetically pleasing. Instead of doing like some people I opted to create  a system which consists of a lot of small single structures scattered around the field instead of having a structure with a square frame. 

    My initial inspiration was from sailing and sails as such systems used are perfect as they make use for my design. After extensive research done i found how such systems are used as canopies for restaurants and public spaces all over the world. This research helped me come up with both an aesthetically pleasing and modular design. A problem i encountered was one of how the supporting pillars are going to open up and how they will fold.Other problems I encountered regarding my individual design was the track that the system was all going to fold as a big problem is that when it rains mud will enter the track and consequence to this the track could get jammed. Aspects I liked about my design was one that all modules work individual, could be rotated to what ever angel is best used to collect energy and also the fact that it is all motorised.

   My design was not short listed and joined the group which consisted of Raissa , Jonathan and Mariah. Raissa’s design consisted of panels on a rectangular structure. We started off by allocating certain jobs to certain people and as a group tried solving how the mechanism will work. After a lot of consultation we agreed on a system and did the adequate CAD drawings for the structure. I then started building the 3D model and preparing for the animation.During the process we had some strong opinions on certain things but at the end we certainly managed to deliver a strong concept. 

    Our final result of this assignment was a very positive one and all members where proud of what we presented. Regarding some feedback given to us that it looked like a green house we where initially told to keep the structure as was as it was a good point that helped the structure get chosen. I personally think that such projects wont have a good affect in malta and we would have benefitted highly iff instead of having to design agrivoltaics we should have worked on something more useful and try improve the regular household  structure which PV panels are mounted on as at the moment cause a inconvenience and in most cities especially ones in the countryside such as Bahrija tend to cause a big eyesore. All in all i enjoyed working on this project as I learnt a lot about sustainability and PV systems. 

Progress Week

This week has finally arrived. The week of stress and relief.... these past weeks have been tough ones as of the final deadlines which where approaching.In all good the semester has come to an end after a very stressful time. I was looking forward for a week of no school and relaxation.

The last week of assignments was very stressful because we had 4 deadlines and presentation to give about our group and individual work, which consisted of Residential design, Agrivoltiacs, Re Designing Studio 1 and Critical studies. We had a presentation for each assignment during the duration of the whole week.

During this week of relaxation the first two days where just being lazy and catching up on some well needed sleep. The rest of the week was spent in London where I visited some lovely places such as the Tate Gallery which exhibited some beautiful pieces of art. Now I'm back in Malta all prepared for a very challenging semester 2 with some very difficult assignment titles.....

This semester was a very stressful one but at the same time we have learnt a lot of new and important things that would help us greatly in our line of work in the future. Now I am ready and prepared for the assignments that we are going to have next semester.