AA has always been a mythical school in the architecture industry, and every student who studies architecture will be eager to see the name of this school. In the UK, the only person who can pk with this great architecture school is UCS, which ranks first in the world in the QS architecture category! Today we are going to introduce an exclusive interview with an urban design art student from AA Architecture Alliance College, and see how his urban design collection got an AA offer? The student interviewed by Xiao Xiong not only joined the cooperation project with UCL in his works, but also got the offer of Grand Slam including AA! Did you get the offer only because of the UCL project? NO! The specific reason is hidden in his urban design works.
Application and admission:
Xiao Xiong is from Chengdu Campus. He learned from the academic administration teacher that he is very kind and everyone calls him Xiao Xiong. Xiao Xiong graduated from Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts with a bachelor's degree in landscape architecture. His application direction is landscape design and urban design in the UK. At present, in addition to the urban design offer of AA Architecture Alliance College, he has also received the urban design offer of Sheffield University, the landscape design of Newcastle University, and the urban design offer of Cardiff University, UCL University College London Waiting for an interview, it's considered as an offer grand slam!
An exclusive interview with urban design art students of AA Architectural Alliance College:
Xiaoxiong has many good experiences in school, such as participating in UCL workshops, participating in foreign competitions, etc. What are his thoughts and suggestions on landscape and urban design? Now let's have a look~
Q: Xiaoxiong, let's introduce your basic information first. For example, the original major, application, and collection preparation cycle.
Xiaoxiong: I majored in landscape design during my undergraduate study, but the direction I applied for as a graduate student may be more inclined to urban design, but they are also related fields.
I have studied natural light for a year, and I have been preparing my collection of works for this year. In addition to AA, Xie Fei, Cardiff and Newcastle, they are still waiting for the interview of UCL, because no specific interview time has been notified.
Q: How many projects do you have in your urban design portfolio? Can you introduce the contents of these projects separately?
Xiaoxiong: There are four projects related to landscape design in the collection.
The first project is more urban design. It is a workshop cooperated by our school and UCL, but the site selection is the urban design of an old block in Chongqing Binjiang. In fact, this project is very comprehensive, because it also includes some factories. This project is also the longest and largest one in my portfolio, which takes four or five months.
The site selection of this project is very interesting. It used to be a major transportation hub during the Second World War, with rich cultural and historical traces. However, due to the uneven terrain and many crowded old buildings squeezing the space for pedestrians, the experience of walking here is a little poor.
The purpose of my project is to make the historical and cultural atmosphere here more friendly, reconnect the surrounding areas, develop well, and narrow the gap with the surrounding areas. It is also hoped that on the basis of preserving the historical features of this place, we can solve the inconvenience caused by the terrain and buildings, so as to make the living space of the surrounding residents more comfortable and attract more people. Then my design was divided into several parts, namely, the reconstruction of old factories, old residential areas, abandoned commercial buildings, and abandoned riverside parks.
The second project is the theme of a foreign competition. It is an urban design related to rivers and also an urban design type. It has been done for about two months.
The site of this project is the St. Charles River in Quebec. There are many residential areas, schools, historic sites and supporting commercial areas nearby. But there are many problems here, such as the aging and backward infrastructure, which cannot meet the basic needs of people's lives; The design of the river bank is too rigid, resulting in a clear separation between the river bank and the city; There are not enough parking spaces around, so there is not enough traffic around.
My design mainly focuses on green space, parking spaces and activity areas. I want to bring about the biggest changes with the smallest changes. My goal is to hope that the riverside can be integrated with the city, so that the riverside landscape can bring different visual feelings with the changes of the seasons. I also hope that citizens can use the riverside to stimulate the vitality of the riverside.
The third one is not a design project. What I did was a collection of works like research, which was a survey of ethnic minorities living tribes. This project is a demonstration of research methods for a site.
This research is about the Stone City in the north of Lijiang. This place is a primitive tribe of the Naxi nationality. It's very interesting. The whole city is built on a very steep rock. This cultural feature and uniqueness particularly attract students majoring in landscape architecture. The survey also brings some questions, such as how did the ancestors find this place and how did they settle here? Why is Stone City divided into inner city and outer city? Why is there only one exit and one entrance in the inner city?
Because I think the first impression of the site is the most accurate and true, I also drew a lot of sketches at that time, and recorded all the places I am interested in with sketches, which can also help people quickly understand the site.
The fourth is the landscape design of a city park, located in Yuzhong District of Chongqing. Because there are many residential areas around this place, and the population is very diverse, mainly divided into the elderly, young people, office workers, and families, it is necessary to consider the different needs of different groups in the design to meet them.
There is also how to maximize the impact of the landscape in the limited space. For example, adding an artistic landscape device in the public space can give people some surprises when they pass by.
Q: How do you decide the topics of these projects?
I first choose the topic I am interested in, and then talk to the teacher of the collection. Then the teacher will determine the presentation method according to the presentation method of the final collection and how to fit the logical thinking of the collection. Topic selection is discussed with the teacher, and then the teacher will give me some suggestions on topic selection.
In my urban design portfolio, the project of the foreign competition was a topic recommended by my teacher, and the project information was also provided by my teacher. Other projects are some international project workshops I participated in myself. Or some topics of the school, and then do some things again on this basis.
There are many international competitions under each branch of the design category. Participating in the competition can enable students to challenge an actual project more completely in the competition. Sometimes it may not be an individual competition, but needs to be completed together with the team. Such experience is also a good opportunity to exercise cooperation ability. In addition, if you have the experience of competing and winning prizes, it can also make the school more sure of your professional ability.
Another biggest gain of participating in the competition is that you can also put the project into the collection. Natural light has cooperated with many international competitions and brands, such as the first International Art Student Global Design Award ArtOne Awards, Natural light × One Show, and Natural light Pinsi Cup. These activities not only provide students with competition opportunities and competition information, but also take students to participate in the competition to guide students how to improve the competitiveness of their works and win with strength in the competition.
Q: What difficulties did you encounter in the process of making your portfolio?
Personally, I think the most obvious difficulty is that the output mode of the work collection is quite different from the usual way of doing homework. Perhaps what we usually do in homework is more important is the presentation of the results, and what we need in the collection of works is the presentation of a thinking process of your logical thinking, which is the process from you know the site to you get the final results, which needs to be expanded in the collection of works.
We may be used to putting the results first in our usual homework, so we often ignore the middle step when creating a collection of works for studying abroad. When we prepare the collection, we will find that the most difficult thing is to deduce the logic of systematic thinking in the whole process.
Q: Do you think the activities you participated in before have helped you?
It's helpful, and it's very helpful. For example, my first project is a workshop cooperated by our school and UCL. The main body of the project is ucl workshop, but the subsequent design content is updated. The teachers of my collection of works think that this venue is particularly interesting, and then we think it is worth considering.
Then there is the fifth small project, which is also an actual project of the school. In this practical course, I did some things related to display and decorative arts.
Chuanmei, where Xiaoxiong's classmate is, has a good opportunity to cooperate with UCL, which ranks first in architecture. Get can be included in the projects of the collection. This is not only a very good learning experience, but also a very good way to enhance the background of academic projects with high gold content. Through participating in the cooperation between colleges and universities, especially projects with international credibility, the ability and background can be improved.
In this part, natural light will also provide students with many opportunities, such as natural light × MIT Media Lab, natural light × CSM buyer store in-depth research project, summer course project with masters from AA, Harvard, Cambridge and other famous schools. Each project is supported by colleges and universities to provide students with unique and professional project practice opportunities, Make the projects with concentrated works more professional and practical.
Q: Can you give some advice to the students in the direction of architectural design&landscape design?
First of all, I think the most important thing is to observe the life around you. Include the city where you live, the school where you live, or the community where you live. Just observe some details in the space around you. I think many design problems can be found by observing some details of life. These problems may also be your design problems, and then you can use this way to judge your own design.
Secondly, I think we must go to the website to learn more about real-time information about architecture and landscape, because these things may help you understand what the most avant-garde design is like.
Then we should read more classic books that architecture students need to read. Our school often gives us some booklists on holidays. These books may not be architecture books, but after reading them, they will help us a lot in consciousness and design concepts.
The last is basic software skills. Basic software skills are necessary. You must have some software that you can be familiar with, because only in this way can the works of architecture and landscape show a good visual effect.
Xiaoxiong's AA Architectural Alliance College This is the summary of the urban design portfolio training. I don't know if you have clicked on the big picture and carefully looked at the details of the urban design portfolio. If you understand and carefully look at each step, you will find that there is no reason to get an AAoffer.
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