iar 202. jenga 7.0 initial thoughts.

With each new project presentation, I am increasingly impressed by the work of my peers, particularly the level of detail attained in each group's design. I feel that our group Trepide (Kelly, Cassie, Sharon, Dajana, Blakeni, and I) was fortunate to be joined with team Emerge, consisting of Abigail, Corry, Austin, Leslie, Kathryn, and Kacie. Their presentation last Friday was clean, well organized, and professional.

During this afternoon's group meeting, the twelve of us decided on the team name "Portmanteau," underscoring the joining of the two groups. We also discussed the differences and similarities between our two designs. One common approach was a strong emphasis on contrasting horizontal and vertical elements. In Trepide's design, we expressed horizontality through the use of patios jutting out from the building mass; to accentuate the building's verticality (as well as our concept of gradual dematerialization), we designed columns extending through the patios, decreasing in diameter with each successive level. Team Emerge achieved horizontality through elongated, C-shaped patios and verticality through lengthy, upright beams.

It seems that our respective design strategies can be tweaked and used in conjunction to communicate these common concepts. As a group, we entertained the idea of designing a structure in which the first floor is the most unified, expressing strong connections between various parts, while upper floors begin to deviate from that sense of connectedness. Emerge expressed a similar concept in their design. In my thinking, such a design strategy would work well with Trepide's concept of dematerialization. However, Austin mentioned that our potential design could be viewed in the reverse: as disconnected elements ultimately coming together at the bottom floor of the building.

As of now, these ideas are quite abstract and have yet to take shape or undergo revision.