Diego del Castillo - my bio

[ddelcast]

Hi my name is Diego del Castillo, and this is my story:
I graduated first of my class from the “Universidad Ricardo Palma” in Lima, Peru (that’s were I am originally from) with a “Bachelor in Architecture” degree. There I have a professional license and practiced architecture as a partner in a very small office for about 1 ½ years and then by myself for about 2 years. I also taught at my Alma matter for 1 ½ years during the time I had my own practice. After realizing that I wasn’t making a dime and that people didn’t had the money or the will to do the things I designed (Lima is a very “closed” and traditional society) I decided to go to Graduate School. I went to Cornell University and studied under Nasrine Seraji and John Zissovicci among other Starchitects like Glenn Murcutt. At Cornell I also taught first year design studio with Gaelle Breton for a year and realized that teaching at ivy schools is more about politics and power than actually teaching so I decided to go back to practicing architecture. I got hired as an architectural designer by a big architecture firm based in Princeton NJ, which is where I work and live today.

I first got interested in CG when I was about 17 years old when my uncle who was an architect showed me a copy of 3dStudio 2.0 (I think it ran on D.O.S.). He lent me the copy (he didn’t see the advantage of having it so he did not used it) and I used it to dream of architecture ever since.
I am very interested in how this medium influences our way of designing, and I am not talking about it in Eisenmann and Lynn’s terms (where they surrender control) but more in terms of it being a medium in itself. One of my favorite media authors is Marshall McLuhan and I believe he is right in saying that the medium is the message. That is why I find that talking about how photorealism is changing the way in which we do and understand architecture (we almost no longer need plans to understand a project) or how Ghery’s method of designing is streamlining the generation of complex geometries (which Jorn Utzon used, drew and calculated with an old calculator for the Sydney opera house BTW) is more interesting than talking about the “cool shape” that I created by accidentally pressing this or that command or how morphing and animation is a method to find shapes (BTW morphing is NOT exclusively a digital process since cine-art has been using it since the 30’s)

As you have seen, I am extremely critical of everybody else’s work as well as mine (since I by heart am still a teacher).

Among other things, I am also a water sport maniac. I windsurf, surf, water ski etc. although I barely do these thing now due to lack of time. I am 29 (almost 30 now), married and have 2 boys, one is 2 years old and the other is 8 months old.

I also think that The Flaming Lips is the best band in the world!!

[TheAllusionist]

Diego del Castillo, it is a pleasure to meet you and learn of your background. Welcome to 3DAllusions, we hope you enjoy it here and feel comfortable enough to continue making suggestions for possible improvements for this site.

[vmouffe]

Hi Diego!

The Flaming Lips is good!

Vincent.

[Anonymous]

Welcome Diego to the wonderfull world of graphics.
Enjoy your stay here..

Obi

[Kadious]

I must have miss this post, Great BIO, Diego. Glad to have you here, love your ideas and your work, keep it up.

[Lester_The_Molester]

COMMENT REMOVED

[TheAllusionist]

Prior to Lester, all of our members played well with one another with few exceptions, looks like that is over. Lester if we are so beneath your talents, perhaps you would rather play somewhere else?

[Lester_The_Molester]

Get a life, and talent.

[Lester_The_Molester]

This website is a crock. All critical comments are deleted, and all that is left is a bunch of smoke to blow of the poster's ass. Sugar coated comments don't contribute anything to a person's development. Shame on you Allusionist for a sham of a website.

[Lester_The_Molester]

So.....when's the next contest?