The prelude to the studio is the development of a sculpture. The intention of the exercise is to allow the student to work with engineered wood and begin to understand its properties and qualities both in its material characteristics and strengths and weaknesses but also in its ability to be formed and connected. It will also allow you the potential to experiment with the material in a way that interests you. Machining is encouraged and care of craft will be considered.
The prelude shall be any size but shall exhibit a joint between at least two pieces. More pieces are encouraged. The sculpture should be a process of investigation of a material and its connection.
The material should be an engineered wood product of some description: this could include plywood, brisco panel, parallam, lvl, lsl, or osb as examples. Whereas we are all relatively familiar with unadulterated wood and wood grain, a material that has glued joints or assembled pieces of wood exhibits different characteristics when shaped – providing a new area of exploration.
The prelude as a whole should be thought of as an architectural exercise in that it should make some attempt to enclose space in some way – either in one plane or two or a change between planes.
Light should also be a consideration. The significance of the relationship of material to light is key in architecture and also at a smaller scale. Light is scaleless and what falls on a scale model will be accurate on a full scale building.
Requirements
The scupture
A beautiful drawing of the sculpture – in plan and section at any scale