Pushing the Design, Croatia Ball, and the Big Review.

Life is getting to normal here. We have hit the ground running with a regular albeit fast paced schedule. Most of us get up between 6:00 - 7:00, eat, shower, skype with loved ones and gather up all of our materials for the day. Then we head down to the gate of the Lavender Palace to meet Carl at 8:00 to start the work day.

The Palace is in a separate part of the hospital from the main campus, it's to the south and blocked off by a gate that needs to be kept locked at all times even when people are there.

View to the Lavender Palace from the lavender fields.

We design, get critiques, design some more, visit the site, make more changes, decide the new thing sucks, change it, love it, find out it won't work either, change it again, find a stronger concept, get a critique, have the concept change - all before lunch. Lunch time is questionable but it happens some time in the early afternoon. Then we design, edit change, critique, problem solve, and problem cause our way to dinner. Most days so far we've been able to finish working before 9:00pm or so.

laying out flour to understand the scale of our structures

We presented our concept designs on Tuesday to our fellow students, advisers, some of the staff and to our surprise Vesna! Suddenly our big ideas seemed small and unworthy in front of our client and it added an extra layer of nervousness, but we got through it. All the comments we received were useful for our final plans and we have been incorporating them since.

After the review the advisers went around critiquing our projects and we were excused to go outside while they made notes. Someone brought down one of the orange stress balls given to us at orientation and started throwing it around to play catch. More people wanted to join, someone else found a branch on the ground and voila! Croatia Ball!

A much more fun version of baseball, two teams of dubious loyalty and unsure numbers get on the field that is partially gravel and the rest is lavender.. Anyone can get up to bat and try to make it to the bases marked by things found in studio like a coffee cup or a sketchbook. And an extra challenge added because the stray cats wandering on and off the field. When the batter hits the ball they run in the general direction of first base; stopping wherever they feel like it, sometimes skipping third all together and running across the diamond home.
This game is very fun. I suggest you try it out next time you're stressed or feel like being particularly cool.

Firmly in the grasp of the big push, on Wednesday my team worked into the night until we could barely function enough to draw out boardwalks, stages and gardens anymore. At 11:30pm we packed up and left the Lavender Palace for home. But you see, walking through a psychiatric hospital in the dead of night with a thunder and lightning storm rolling in from the east isn't as soothing as you would expect.
On edge, my group stayed close together and marched as quietly as possible the length of the grounds up to the main gate.
Of course nothing happened except for getting a bit wet when the heavens opened and a warm rain fell down on  us.

Thursday was the same story, we got up early worked out the kinks in our final design, got one last critique and started producing. 
Producing is the part of the process where you're not designing anymore, all of the important decisions are made with very little room for change, here you produce a large plan, sections, section elevations, vignettes and explanatory diagrams. Everything with titles, north arrows etc. Producing always seems like it should go quickly but is some of the most intensive work in the process, somehow pen just can't go to paper as fast as it should. Unless you're Winterbottom who can create a gorgeous plan in about 8.6 seconds.

Our cat at the Lavender Palace, she has 4 adorable babies that she sometimes brings around.

Thursday night we were at the Palace till 2:30am producing producing producing. 

Friday morning started off wet and hasn't let up since. My group slogged down to the Palace and rendered till the very last minute. Drinking copious amounts of caffeine as fast as possible and trying not to let our hands shake too much while drawing out fine ink lines and thick marker washes. Carl called us at 11:30 to ask where we were, then again at 11:33 and again at 11:36. At 11:38 we rolled up our drawings and covered them as best we could to protect them from the rain, ready to present at noon.

The work space just before the presentation

The review went well. At the last minute I had to sprint back down to the Lavender Palace to look for a base map that had disappeared and sprint back up to the presentation space. When it comes to public speaking I have a nervousness cycle that's exhausting. I feel fine up until I walk into the space where I have to talk, then get extremely nervous to the point of feeling faint. Then see my cue, stumble up, am scared about starting to talk then once words come out I'm usually fine. It's a ridiculous and unnecessary emotional roller coaster. 

Now it's all stressed memory haze but I think it went ok.

Now we rest and recoup, but get going again soon. We head to Zadar in the morning!