Shapes are an important part of all different types of design and science. Today our lecturers discussed the use of shapes in both the atomical level and the large scale in terms of architecture. The section on shapes in design particularly interested me because I love unique, contemporary architecture since it blends both engineering and art.
This reminded me a lot of pictures I have found on the internet that display unconventional buildings made up of unexpected shapes, such as circles and spirals instead of the usual rectangles and squares. One I particularly love was a school in Copenhagen, Orested College. Their desgns include spiraling staircases and circular benches. Here’s a picture:
School in Copenhagen
We also got to see an really interesting plasma lab, where temperatures reach more than 25 million degrees. It’s so hard to imagine such high temperatures! We had the opportunity to see plasma being made. I learned that plasma was actually used in plasma and lcd screen tvs, which I was really suprised by. I never knew that plasma could actually be made on Earth, because my teachers have always told me that plasma only exists on the sun and in outerspace. I think it’s really cool that plasma can be used in commercial items because the first time I head that I was going to the lab, I had no idea that plasma had a use on our planet.
Lastly, we visited a medical library on campus and got to see a collection of rare books such as that of Cupernicus and Darwin. What interested me most though, was that the librarian collects such random things as get well cards and baby books. It really made me wonder what types of items that seem commonplace right now will actually become valuables in the future. Perhaps computers, personal diaries, or even couches could be considered valuable artifacts hundreds of year from now!
http://www.afterdawn.com/glossary/terms/plasma_display.cfm
http://weburbanist.com/2009/04/21/15-cool-high-school-college-and-university-building-designs/
http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/biomed/
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/monitors/display/lcd-parameters_3.html
http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/9/view/4961/high-school-9-by-coop-himmelblau.html