My plan to dominate the world!...er... turn my artistic passion into a profitable business!
I have three goals that I wish to accomplish when I become an architect, three desperate needs that I see in the world:
One) to design a residential building on the monastic model, for housing college students, or itinerant workers, or women and children in need of shelter,
Two) to create safe, navigable and aesthetically appealing parking garages,
Three) to convert abandoned urban buildings into multi-level indoor farms, above storefronts at which the produce grown on the farms can be sold.
The first step in the plan, naturally, is to become a qualified architect.
This step will take the longest: my architecture classes are a benefit of working full-time for a university, but I am not able to take many of them at a time. After I achieve the Master of Architecture, I will work for an architecture firm to get my license.
The second step is to solicit urban renewal grants from cities and local businesses, and to partner with local organizations who are in need of such buildings.
The lack of fresh, high-quality produce is reportedly a great problem in urban areas and the lack of arable land in close proximity complicates the correction of this deficiency. Hydroponic or aquaponic systems that circulate from floor to floor would enable the farmer to raise fish and to grow produce on three to four times the square footage as he would in a field of the same footprint as the building. Since the store-front for the produce would be right downstairs, it would eliminate transport costs and put the produce right in the middle of the target market.
Parking garages are often unnavigable, frequently dangerous (for various reasons), and nearly always ugly, which is sad, as they are an extremely efficient use of space. Separating the pedestrian paths from the vehicular paths, creating long sightlines and good lighting, making vehicular bays memorably identifiable, and cladding the structures with beautiful and edifying facades, would raise the image of the area in which the garage is located, and turn the structure from a drab necessity to a desirable destination.
The monastic model of residence {with small rooms arranged around a central courtyard containing a kitchen garden} provides a peaceful, sheltered, and productive living environment, while still encouraging greater population density, and providing an instant community for the residents.
With good stewardship and hard work, I expect that I will amass sufficient resources to start such projects on my own, without resorting to grants. This will enable me to receive income as a landlord in addition to the revenue from my architectural work.
The need for projects like this is extensive enough that an entire lifetime of work is insufficient to implement them everywhere they would be useful. There are enough buildings to rework, parking garages to be built, and people in need of shelter that helping them all will keep me employed for as long as I want the work.
This is the vision that the Students of the Arts Scholarship will assist me to accomplish.
Arwen Bloomsburg
8/31/2013
This creative plan is a submission for the ModernAbstractDecor and NicholasYust "Students of the Arts" scholarship.
One) to design a residential building on the monastic model, for housing college students, or itinerant workers, or women and children in need of shelter,
Two) to create safe, navigable and aesthetically appealing parking garages,
Three) to convert abandoned urban buildings into multi-level indoor farms, above storefronts at which the produce grown on the farms can be sold.
The first step in the plan, naturally, is to become a qualified architect.
This step will take the longest: my architecture classes are a benefit of working full-time for a university, but I am not able to take many of them at a time. After I achieve the Master of Architecture, I will work for an architecture firm to get my license.
The second step is to solicit urban renewal grants from cities and local businesses, and to partner with local organizations who are in need of such buildings.
The lack of fresh, high-quality produce is reportedly a great problem in urban areas and the lack of arable land in close proximity complicates the correction of this deficiency. Hydroponic or aquaponic systems that circulate from floor to floor would enable the farmer to raise fish and to grow produce on three to four times the square footage as he would in a field of the same footprint as the building. Since the store-front for the produce would be right downstairs, it would eliminate transport costs and put the produce right in the middle of the target market.
Parking garages are often unnavigable, frequently dangerous (for various reasons), and nearly always ugly, which is sad, as they are an extremely efficient use of space. Separating the pedestrian paths from the vehicular paths, creating long sightlines and good lighting, making vehicular bays memorably identifiable, and cladding the structures with beautiful and edifying facades, would raise the image of the area in which the garage is located, and turn the structure from a drab necessity to a desirable destination.
The monastic model of residence {with small rooms arranged around a central courtyard containing a kitchen garden} provides a peaceful, sheltered, and productive living environment, while still encouraging greater population density, and providing an instant community for the residents.
With good stewardship and hard work, I expect that I will amass sufficient resources to start such projects on my own, without resorting to grants. This will enable me to receive income as a landlord in addition to the revenue from my architectural work.
The need for projects like this is extensive enough that an entire lifetime of work is insufficient to implement them everywhere they would be useful. There are enough buildings to rework, parking garages to be built, and people in need of shelter that helping them all will keep me employed for as long as I want the work.
This is the vision that the Students of the Arts Scholarship will assist me to accomplish.
Arwen Bloomsburg
8/31/2013
This creative plan is a submission for the ModernAbstractDecor and NicholasYust "Students of the Arts" scholarship.