Michael Yanlai Hou: March 2017

ARCH1101 Experiment 1

Creative work;

This is a tower made for ENGG1000 course last year. Since I am an engineering student this is the latest (probably the only) creative work I've done for the last several years. This tower is entirely designed and made by myself, using 100% recyclable materials. It was designed to be as light as possible and to survive several impacts from a toy truck under high-speed collision while carrying 5kg of weight on top. The actual test result turned out well; we became the 4th winning team out of 20.

A great piece of architecture;

I saw this picture from a wallpaper site and I used it as my wallpaper for nearly 6 months. It as not until recently that I know this building is part of the Royal Ontario Museum called Michael Lee-Chin Crystal in Toronto, Canada. It is designed by David Libeskind, a Polish-American architect. In my eyes, this is a great example of 21st-century architecture.

A picture of something beautiful;

I took this picture on a narrow footpath in Canberra about more than three years ago, about the time when I first came to Australia. I couldn't tell it is whether cherry or peach blossom. But back home in China, I remember when I was a kid, every spring on the sides of the roads in my neighbourhood, there were peach trees lined up with hundreds and thousands of blossoms. Sometimes after the rain, you'll see the streets coated by these beautiful flowers. You know spring finally arrived when you see them. I can always go home, but I don't always get to see these spring messengers. I miss those springs, but they will never come back, just like my childhood.