#heyzainab
Late night quesmed :)
day 1 of @studywitharmy’s 10 day study challenge: what self care did you practice today?
Today I worked on cleaning off my desk and sorting out my pencil case! I also washed my face really well first thing in the morning and let myself sleep in 2 hours later than usual after I stayed up pretty late last night. Sometimes, one has to compensate!! Hope you loves are having a great day :)
SOME FAVORITE STUDY/FOCUS RESOURCES
online pomodoro timer - perfect for days where you have several assignments to complete, this timer automatically tracks how many 25 minute sessions you complete, bringing up the five minute break timer between the first three, then the fifteen minute break timer following the fourth.
freedom for computer -this website blocks all but a list of websites you choose for as long as you need it to. i’ve found it’s great to keep me on task when drafting a longer essay i’ve already done all my research for.
forest for cellphone- i’ve linked to the one on the chrome store, but the best iteration of this app is definitely the one to keep you off your phone. something about having a small, fake tree’s life in your hands is very motivating and also frightening. plus, it’s satisfying to look back at your tiny forest after a long week.
quizlet- if you’re a student in 2021 and haven’t used quizlet what legitimately what you doing. while there isn’t the benefit of handwriting out flashcards and it’s a lot less aesthetic, it’s way more convenient for those of us with messy handwriting or who need to study on buses and the like. you don’t have to worry about dropping cards on the gross bus floor
notion- notion is already madly popular on studyblr, with many people making wildly aesthetic setups, but it doesn’t have to be all that complicated! in my opinion, lists are a very satisfying way to ensure you get everything you want to done, and notion is very nice for that. plus yeah the aesthetic arty fancy options are a bonus.
friends and family - okay this one is definitely a cop out because it’s not actually a concrete study resource, but i’ve found it works really well to make sure my friends and family are holding me accountable. for friends, this means warning them ahead of time if there’s going to be a few days where they probably shouldn’t try to make plans with me or expect me to be on discord, and for family or roommates this means reminding them to be non-disruptive. don’t be rude to your friends and family though because being a kind person to those you love should definitely should come before academic success.
setting up my notion for the school this year!! how do y'all use notion, if at all? i’d highly recommend it, but sometimes crossing off objects on paper is still more satisfying? hoping to create something to track my independent studies if y'all have any ideas. cheers! – august
setting up my bullet journal spread for the rest of august and the beginning of the school year! feat.: the paperweight my brother made me and full inspiration from @365text! – august
// may 2022
i’ve been really loving the warmer weather recently - though it does mean i’ve managed to get sunburnt almost every time i go rowing
// may 2022
one thing that’s happened while i haven’t been posting original content is that i’ve officially finished school! i’m on study leave and will be doing exams from next week but i’m done with formal schooling. it was so weird to actually have a proper last week seen as my y11 leaving was very abrupt due to covid.
// may 2022
yes this is half way through the month but at least it’s the right month! my may theme is inspired by the leaf doodles in heartstopper, which i watched soon after it came out. i thought it was really cute and definitely a story that needs to be told but probably aimed at a slightly younger age group. i did really love the doodles which is why i chose to recreate them in my planner!
220523 • 10:17pm
As above, so below: Gillespie, Kidd & Coia’s St Peter’s Seminary.
Commentary under the cut.
Visiting St Peter’s Seminary was surreal, and for that reason memorable. For starters, it took us a long bus ride and good hike to get here. The winding journey itself made the result especially exciting - I was looking forward to this the whole trip; the longer we walked through the lush wild lands, the more curious I was and hoped it would be worth the effort.
In a way, it was - but not to my expectations. My cursory pre-travel research suggested it served a religious purpose, now an austere ruin attesting to its once pious functions. And yet, its present state couldn’t be any further from that. The whole structure is virtually covered in graffiti, a huge collaborative canvas of untamed creativity and preposterous delight. With blasphemous words and chaotic colours splayed across its walls, the place hardly retains any holiness. While we were there, some strangers were playing music and raving in the floors above. It felt like the perfect backdrop to the decrepit seminary and its current identity: lawless, self-willed, ungovernable. Perhaps - transformed by these self-claimed inhabitants - it isn’t so much Catholic devotion but Thelemic ‘Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law’ that rules St Peter’s today.
The godless character of the seminary isn’t just a byproduct of its afterlife. My lingering first impression was its impersonal firmness; this is my new definition of Brutalism. I struggled to imagine how this space worked as a seminary - as a religious architecture enthusiast, in the plainest of churches I could grasp traces of compassion and gentility; here I was only met with icy distance. I wish I could attribute that to the ruinous state of St Peter’s, for it has lost the furnishings and materials (mainly timber and glass) that would’ve made it human, but I can’t help in thinking that its obstinate indifference was an intentional act. As much as it was an educational institution for ministers, it too was the architects’ self-indulgent atheistic monument - to concrete, to geometry, to architecture, pushed to an extreme and bursting into lithe lines of austerity.
220520 • 1:23pm
Touring Nairn’s City of London: northern and western edges. I seized a sunny day to go see some of Ian Nairn’s destinations and more.
The Barbican is a good first stop, a lovely bit of City Brutalism (though maze-like). I find Brutalist buildings so attractive when complemented by sunshine. Enjoyed visiting the book fair at St Giles-without-Cripplegate! Wonderful prices and selection with new stock coming in, plus it’s in a sweet little church.
Depending on how you leave the Barbican, you may come across St Alphege London Wall. I’m quite fond of ruins - there is a wistful charm to the fragmented identity of what once was. Broadgate has an amusing (and inadvertent?) modern homage to St Alphege.
Following Nairn, we head to Finsbury Circus for Lutyens’ Britannic House. Coming from Broadgate, the keen eye might notice a commemoration plaque for the old St Mary Moorfields. I’ve probably seen Lutyens around, but this is the first time I’ve consciously visited one of his works; don’t know much about him but the statues and classical details were charming.
We now come to a blooper in my tour. When I mapped out Nairn’s route, I erroneously put down Sun Street rather than Sun St Passage. Nevertheless, it is fascinating to walk down; you fancy the yellow bricks quiver in the face of One Crown Pl.
Exchange Square is a good place to stop and spend a sunny afternoon in. From there, the actual destination of Sun St Passage leads to Liverpool St station. Bit disappointed when I couldn’t find the peek at Hawksmoor’s Christ Church as Nairn described - a consequence of the City’s endless expansion perhaps? The City bleeds further into its surroundings, melting old boundaries with its ever increasing strength of commerce. Is it for better or worse? Maybe only time will tell. Those clusters of glass towers certainly feel a little menacing sometimes.
As I caught my bus, a view of St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate concludes the trip. It’s one of the 3 St Botolphs in the area; there’s also Aldgate and Aldersgate. Whew! Church names amirite. (City church tour eventually, I promise.)
220519 • 11:13am
Caledonia Road Church.
I was recently in Glasgow for a field trip - saw so many wonderful buildings and amazing things while I was there. Did my homework beforehand and had a personal itinerary, feel like I really made the most out of it.
A few thoughts on this building under the cut.
I’m starting out this recap with some favourites, and there is no better place to begin than this shining classic. This is Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson’s Caledonia Road Church - or rather, a ruin of it. While the building looks complete from the outside, it is in fact just a shell; to quote a friend, ‘a literal definition of facadism’. A fire destroyed most of the church and the remains - what we see now - has been left as a ruin since then. I don’t have great photos of the inside but you get a small glimpse of it in the last slide - completely empty, but it’s a marvellous thing that the exterior was so well preserved. As with many buildings, in the sun it looks brilliant.
Caledonia Road Church sits in a rather strange site. While visiting it with two friends and finding our way with navigation apps, we all noticed how it was practically surrounded by a steady stream of traffic. It’s almost an island, but for a building of this scale (unlike, say, St Mary le Strand in London, happy in its little island site) it feels like an oddity. Nearby, new housing blocks are going up as we speak, yet in this sea of modernisation, Greek’s temple sits undeterred. A scraggly laminated notice on the iron gates suggests plans to turn the ruin into a community garden and event space. But will it work? Will it call forth a new age for the grand husk to tread along the steps of modern man? Or perhaps it is better to simply leave things as they are - glorious ruins as a symbol of antiquarian magnificence?
220516 • 10:25am ☀️
Baroque summer: St Paul’s, Deptford. I was in Deptford yesterday on an impromptu trip - took a detour on the way back to find Archer at last.
I wrote about my impressions of this building on IG - if you’re curious, you can find my page via the link below. Should you decide to have a read, let me know your thoughts! :)
220515 • 11:27am
Strap in folks, today we’re taking a little walk through Victoria and Pimlico with Ian Nairn.
I did this mini-tour on a whim as a break from university work. Didn’t cover all the destinations in Nairn’s route, but strove to stop by at least a few of them.
We start with a sequence (he loved sequences, my goodness): Barton Street - Cowley Street - Lord North Street. The photo composition of the third one I owe to Nairn. I don’t imagine these houses and streets have changed much since he was here in the 60s.
Lord North Street takes us to one of Thomas Archer’s contributions to the 1711 Churches Act - St John’s Smith Square. I don’t love Archer enough to post separately, so you’re getting him here.
Nairn is pretty mean towards Archer, a bit too much I might say - I think Archer’s got all the right parts but can’t put them together for the essence. It feels like Archer knew what elements make a good English Baroque building, but he just put a bunch of those together in the hopes that his design would turn out the same way - that’s not what makes good architecture though, you need sensibility in composition, and he didn’t have that. It’s the case with St John’s, which I find too overwrought. Everything feels so extravagant but there’s no hierarchy. It’s sensory overload with all this ornament and motif play, but lacking the ‘knowing how much is enough’ for greatness. (Obviously I think Nairn’s being unfair when he compares Archer to Hawksmoor - that bar is way too high!)
Returning to Millbank and walking along (plus some turns here and there) eventually takes us to Pimlico. Skipped on Tate Britain photos here - surely that’s overdone. Quite enjoyed the resonance between St James the Less and the Lillington Gardens Estate! Lovely brickwork all around, and a great way to give coherence to the area.
We finish on a shot of Hawksmoor at Westminster because Victoria was too crowded for good pics by the time I got there. Some things to see though, expect a follow-up post… eventually.
220511 • 7:39pm ⚓️
Canaletto’s Venice revisited - exhibition at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.
Review under the cut.
Canaletto is a sneaky facade for the exhibition organisers to create a platform for discussing Venice at large - and the challenges it now faces. The realities of modern Venice highlighted in the last section are harrowing. I can safely say my friend and I walked out very upset and outraged. It’s a lot to take in, but I think it’s honestly important to raise this awareness.
As the thesis indicates, tourism is destroying the city. Even though I love Scarpa’s architecture and would like to see some Palladio, I feel that my inner ‘tourist’ is deterred from it by this exhibition. Likening it to a historical Disneyland was one of the most disturbing comparisons for me. Let me reiterate the paintings are worth seeing, but your takeaway ends up being so much more poignant than admiring stunning landscapes.
As the thesis indicates, tourism is destroying the city. Even though I love Scarpa’s architecture and would like to see some Palladio, I feel that my inner ‘tourist’ is deterred from it by this exhibition. Likening it to a historical Disneyland was one of the most disturbing comparisons for me. Let me reiterate the paintings are worth seeing, but your takeaway ends up being so much more poignant than admiring stunning landscapes.
We sat through the film at the end. There wasn’t anyone else, just the two of us sitting there in that room, surrounded by haunting words and exhibits that screamed the horrific fate of a city. You might as well spin Mann’s Death in Venice into Death of Venice. It wasn’t comfortable. But we felt like it was necessary to know, to be aware of the crisis - and it felt even more relevant to us as architecture students. Venice likely won’t be the only one, but a first in a series of unfortunate victims. Maybe collectively we can change that, and awareness is step one. Maybe.
220510 • 3:57pm ✍️
Studio work WIP snap from a while ago.
I’ve just returned from a field trip, which I’ll post about very soon! Gonna get through a few older posts that I’ve already shared on IG but not here.
We’re coming up to the end of the academic year, so it’s grind hour to finish the remainder of the work and get those submissions ready. It feels somewhat surreal that Y1 has gone by so quickly. I’ve learned so many new things about myself and my work since September, met so many amazing people, been to so so many incredible places and experienced so much more.
081921. liminal space late night reading
072421. new pants and keeping up my journal!!
29.05.22
Some of my bujo from april ~
I refuse to believe that it’s almost june, mainly because I have exams in a few weeks time that I am very unprepared for and I feel like I don’t have enough time to revise all the content for, which then in itself is making me less productive. We’ll see how it goes…
