Angels in the Architecture 2: Build it Bigger (Summer 201x)

Old college threads.
Locked
User avatar
Kouign Amann
Forums Staff: Moderator
Posts: 1188
Joined: Sat Dec 06, 2008 12:44 am
Location: Jersey City, NJ

Angels in the Architecture 2: Build it Bigger (Summer 201x)

Post by Kouign Amann »

What’s going on?
Now that NSC is off to the printers, I am very pleased to announce that I have just about finished picking out the answers for Angels in the Architecture 2: Build it Bigger, a new side tournament all about architecture.

Jeez man, you’re doing this to us again? How much more material could there possibly be?
A lot, as it turns out. When I came up with the idea for the first iteration of this tournament and wrote most of its questions, I was an idiot high schooler who didn’t really know a lot about architecture and couldn’t really write that well. There were definitely a lot of cool questions in that event that I will stand by and point to as examples for others—particularly the ones written later on in the process—but a lot of it was just boring dreck about endless lists of buildings in random cities. Looking back over AitA 1 the other day, I felt I could do so much better if given the chance to do it over, so I’m giving myself the chance to do it over. This time, I’ll sort of know what I’m talking about in most cases! This time, individual questions will be written according to a coherent vision! This time, I’ll actually have a real distribution and not just a post-hoc toting up of of the first 100 answer lines that popped into my head! This tournament is actually going to talk about things other than modern and contemporary buildings!

So, what’s this new distribution?
There will be seven packets made up of:

2 Classical Mediterranean and environs (in space and time)
2 Medieval-ish
2 Renaissance and Baroque
2 1750-1890
3 "Modernism" in all its flavors
3 "Contemporary" (approximately: stuff built in my lifetime)
2 Non-Western
1 Books and manifestoes (it’s time we start asking about these!)
1 Urbanism/policy/the city as a system (or, “Wassermania”—this category will be guest-written by Jacob Wasserman)
1 The ever-exciting architectural trash category
1 who knows!

How freaking hard is this going to be?
It will probably be a shade harder than the original (which wasn’t really that hard, I don’t think), because some of the easy answers were done the last time, but to make up for that, it will also be much more interesting. Regardless of what parts of history you’re most interested in, I think you’ll be able to enjoy examining that part of the world from an architectural standpoint. Architecture is about much more than just what buildings look like: if all goes according to plan, this tournament is going to get into a lot about function, ritual, patronage, politics, materiality, theory, and a bunch else. It is my hope that the chance to explore all of these angles through quizbowl sounds as appealing to you as it does to me, and it is my hope that this event will have at least a little something for everyone.

When will this happen?
Trying to get this done for Side Event Weekend would probably be a little ambitious, but perhaps it could happen. Summer 2017 is more likely.

So, is this gonna be fun at all?
The first set received positive reviews from those with only the most casual interest in architecture. This tournament is going to be a lot better than that one. Yes, it’s gonna be fun.

EDIT:
As of ____, this tournament is __% complete.
(6/20/16, 10)
(9/20/16, 20)
(11/6/16, 30)
(12/27/16, 40)
(5/14/17, 55)
(6/1/17, 70)
(6/20/17, 75)
(8/7/17, 80)
Aidan Mehigan
St. Anselm's Abbey School '12
Columbia University '16 | University of Oxford '17 | UPenn GSE '19
User avatar
Kouign Amann
Forums Staff: Moderator
Posts: 1188
Joined: Sat Dec 06, 2008 12:44 am
Location: Jersey City, NJ

Re: Angels in the Architecture 2: Build it Bigger (Summer 20

Post by Kouign Amann »

I know the side event economy is currently dealing with a supply shock of unprecedented severity, so I don’t want to push this event on anyone unduly, but I thought I’d throw out a reminder to hosts that this tournament will indeed be available from early August onward. If you're a host who thinks the players at your site (whether that’s a summer open, a side event weekend, or even a tournament you’re planning for the fall semester) might enjoy hearing 140 fresh and entertaining tossups on almost every aspect of the built environment, I encourage you to get in touch with me.
Aidan Mehigan
St. Anselm's Abbey School '12
Columbia University '16 | University of Oxford '17 | UPenn GSE '19
User avatar
Kouign Amann
Forums Staff: Moderator
Posts: 1188
Joined: Sat Dec 06, 2008 12:44 am
Location: Jersey City, NJ

Re: Angels in the Architecture 2: Build it Bigger (Summer 20

Post by Kouign Amann »

After various discussions at and after CO, it doesn't seem like this tournament is going to find a slot to run in this summer. Given that, I'm not necessarily gonna push myself to finish it in the next week or two. However, it did seem like the interest in this set was pretty substantial and enthusiastic, at least among those I mentioned it to, so, in order to give myself a new deadline, I wanted to ask when people might want to running it. What does everyone think? Side events can be hard to squeeze into academic year weekends—does anyone have a good idea of how to make this fit somewhere?
Aidan Mehigan
St. Anselm's Abbey School '12
Columbia University '16 | University of Oxford '17 | UPenn GSE '19
User avatar
Mike Bentley
Sin
Posts: 6461
Joined: Fri Mar 31, 2006 11:03 pm
Location: Bellevue, WA
Contact:

Re: Angels in the Architecture 2: Build it Bigger (Summer 20

Post by Mike Bentley »

I'd personally be very interested in a Skype mirror of this.
Mike Bentley
Treasurer, Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence
Adviser, Quizbowl Team at University of Washington
University of Maryland, Class of 2008
User avatar
Kouign Amann
Forums Staff: Moderator
Posts: 1188
Joined: Sat Dec 06, 2008 12:44 am
Location: Jersey City, NJ

Re: Angels in the Architecture 2: Build it Bigger (Summer 20

Post by Kouign Amann »

There seems to be some interest in attaching this to CMST in some way. If you'd be interested in playing Angels 2 this spring, peer pressure your TD into getting into contact with me and we'll see what we can work out.
Aidan Mehigan
St. Anselm's Abbey School '12
Columbia University '16 | University of Oxford '17 | UPenn GSE '19
User avatar
Kouign Amann
Forums Staff: Moderator
Posts: 1188
Joined: Sat Dec 06, 2008 12:44 am
Location: Jersey City, NJ

Re: Angels in the Architecture 2: Build it Bigger (Summer 20

Post by Kouign Amann »

This thing is done(!!) and is happening at UMN tomorrow—if anyone else would like it for this weekend or some other weekend, just let me know.
Aidan Mehigan
St. Anselm's Abbey School '12
Columbia University '16 | University of Oxford '17 | UPenn GSE '19
User avatar
Kouign Amann
Forums Staff: Moderator
Posts: 1188
Joined: Sat Dec 06, 2008 12:44 am
Location: Jersey City, NJ

Re: Angels in the Architecture 2: Build it Bigger (Summer 201x)

Post by Kouign Amann »

I much-belatedly sent these packets to the archive yesterday. Before approving them, Mike Bentley asked me if I might be interested in running this set online since it was only played by a few people in one physical location last year. I'm not opposed to this idea, so if this is something that would appeal to you, please fill out this poll so we can see if there is a critical mass for a particular date.
Aidan Mehigan
St. Anselm's Abbey School '12
Columbia University '16 | University of Oxford '17 | UPenn GSE '19
User avatar
Kouign Amann
Forums Staff: Moderator
Posts: 1188
Joined: Sat Dec 06, 2008 12:44 am
Location: Jersey City, NJ

Re: Angels in the Architecture 2: Build it Bigger (Summer 201x)

Post by Kouign Amann »

Looks like Monday it is. Let's start around 7:30 EST? I have no idea how to use Discord, but I think that's the preferred platform these days, so I will try to figure it out.
Aidan Mehigan
St. Anselm's Abbey School '12
Columbia University '16 | University of Oxford '17 | UPenn GSE '19
User avatar
Kouign Amann
Forums Staff: Moderator
Posts: 1188
Joined: Sat Dec 06, 2008 12:44 am
Location: Jersey City, NJ

Re: Angels in the Architecture 2: Build it Bigger (Summer 201x)

Post by Kouign Amann »

Just a reminder that this will be starting in about half an hour.
Aidan Mehigan
St. Anselm's Abbey School '12
Columbia University '16 | University of Oxford '17 | UPenn GSE '19
User avatar
Mike Bentley
Sin
Posts: 6461
Joined: Fri Mar 31, 2006 11:03 pm
Location: Bellevue, WA
Contact:

Re: Angels in the Architecture 2: Build it Bigger (Summer 201x)

Post by Mike Bentley »

Oliver edged out Natan and me to win.

Username 10 -5 Total
Oliver Clarke 28 7 245
Natan Holtzman 29 13 225
Mike Bentley 30 17 215
Derek 15 3 135
Rahul Rao 5 50
Erik Christensen 7 7 35
ryu 4 1 35
Hidehiro Anto 4 2 30
Jeremy Tsai 3 1 25
Alex Schmidt 1 10
Max Wallace 1 10
Hu Ham 1 10
Eric Mukherjee 1 1 5
Jaskaran 1 1 5


Packets will be on archive shortly.
Mike Bentley
Treasurer, Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence
Adviser, Quizbowl Team at University of Washington
University of Maryland, Class of 2008
User avatar
ErikC
Rikku
Posts: 288
Joined: Sat Sep 24, 2016 12:44 pm

Re: Angels in the Architecture 2: Build it Bigger (Summer 201x)

Post by ErikC »

This was a great set - anyone with a passing interest in architecture should play this.
Erik Christensen
University of Waterloo - School of Planning Class of '18
Defending VETO top scorer
User avatar
Mike Bentley
Sin
Posts: 6461
Joined: Fri Mar 31, 2006 11:03 pm
Location: Bellevue, WA
Contact:

Re: Angels in the Architecture 2: Build it Bigger (Summer 201x)

Post by Mike Bentley »

ErikC wrote: Tue Jan 15, 2019 1:06 am This was a great set - anyone with a passing interest in architecture should play this.
Oh yeah, forgot to mention that this tournament was really fun. Thanks to Aidan for writing it and reading it on Discord. You should play it in practice if you haven't already.
Mike Bentley
Treasurer, Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence
Adviser, Quizbowl Team at University of Washington
University of Maryland, Class of 2008
Locked