About Me

Hello and welcome to my blog. My name is ZEL and I am a creator, a kid at heart and a dreamer with my head in the clouds. So, a little bit about the dreamer..

I was born in the Philippines, and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. I’ve lived in Los Angeles for college and even had the opportunity to live in Japan. I’m a bit of a nerd…and the following are topics I can fully nerd out on:

Architecture is something that has been my passion since I was a child, and I have been fortunate enough to be able to pursue my passion. I graduated from a small private Architecture school in Los Angeles called SCI_Arc (The Southern California Institute of Architecture) and currently work at a medium sized architecture firm in the Bay Area and am in the process of getting my Architectural license. I have always been inspired by architecture’s ability to evoke emotions and its’ use of cutting edge technology to pursue what Architecture could be. Architecture is a platform for innovation, and it can be used to guide the way we shape our built environment.

Anime is also another passion of mine growing up. Starting in the 1990’s, the moment I watched Sailor Moon to the very first episode of Pokemon – I was hooked.  I’ve grown to love Japanese culture and their use of the animation medium (as well as the manga medium) to create a multitude of stories to appeal to any demographic. I’m inspired by the artwork and the amount of detail that’s developed in it and the limitless worlds that are created for these characters to inhabit. I’m fascinated by the stories and their character development. I’m drawn in by the soundtracks that accompany the show because they can really hype you up or make you feel incredibly emotional and I love finding the links to pop culture.

With that being said, these two topics that I love to discuss, analyze and theorize are what brought about this blog. Whether I feel like writing about a specific anime, a character’s development, a specific type of Architecture or better yet, a combination of both! Thus Architecture + Anime = Archi-Anime.

Archi-Anime
Although architecture in anime is primarily used as a background, the characters’ lives are defined by the use of the environment they inhabit in each scene. Sprawling cityscapes that pan across the screen give you a glance at what kind of city it could be—utopian, dystopian, futuristic, apocalyptic, or post-apocalyptic. Close-ups of homes and rooms used in their daily lives often reflect the personalities of their owner’s. On top of discussion of Architecture and Anime this blog also intends to look at the elements of architecture in anime that have been inspired by their “real-world” counterparts and the exaggeration of fantastical architecture.