ARCHITECTURAL COMMUNICATIONS 1142 COURSE REFLECTION

Architectural Communications has opened my eyes to the wide variety of ways in which individuals, including architects, convey their understanding of space with others.

I have used my eyes, my hands, my feet.

I have spilt paint, dried up pens and cut my fingers.

I have a been a painter, a movie-maker, a designer.

Arch1142 forced me to accomplish a wide variety of tasks in rapid succession. I liked the sampling of different elements, especially as an opportunity for first year students. It felt a bit like ‘workshop sushi’, but I appreciate the broad way in which the course dealt with the absolute fundamentals of design. Spatial organization, narration, precision, construction, style…I feel like I have a solid basis now to branch out from into other courses and activities.

ROTATION THREE - ARCHITECTURAL DRAWING

Final Architectural Drawing Submission - 

[Rose Seidler House in Quotes:]

“The mural, designed and originally painted by Seidler himself, provides a colourful focus to the palette of the minimalist house interior.”

“The need for flexibility and craving for spatial freedom has found its expression in what can be termed in a general way as ‘open planning’, the free flowing flexibly subdivided floor space of a building.”(Seidler)

“The rectilinear form of the house is quite deliberate to be in strong contrast to the natural form of the land. I prefer to see beautiful nature – green tree and grass offset by a man-made geometric square. I think that contrast between nature and what is built is to me a source of what we call tension.” (Seidler)

[These three quotes situate the graphic intent of my project within the greater realm of the design intent of Rose Seidler House]

Architectural Drawing - Process Work

Class Work - 

Cup at Scale 1:1

Contextual, Historical and Design Information on Harry Seidler's Rose Seidler House - 

Graphic Drafts - exploring the mural as a contrasting element to the minimalist interior and also the open planning of the design

Architectural Drawing - Reflection

“Drawing is a form of communication with oneself and with others.” Alvaro Siza

As an elective, Architectural Drawing provided a good opportunity for me to consolidate my new communication skills into a form so vitally architectural.

I liked studying Rose Seidler House – the original setup at the site made it so easy to capture a mental picture of life within the home and how it was informed by the space.

I discovered the graphic style I had generated during the Atlas of Colour workshop translated well to black and white pen drawings. Also, the style complemented the late 1940s/early 1950s building well.

Further, the thread of arranging, navigating and narrating wound its way into architectural drawing. My composition of my A2 sheets was informed by the sequencing skills I had learnt in the previous workshops.

Creating presentation drawings and rendering them in my own unique way provided me with an opportunity to develop my own unique style, which I tried to express through each individual element of the workshop. Working to find a balance between the expression of suggestive and tangible forms is a skill that I hope to be able to use to communicate many future designs.

ROTATION TWO - ARCHITECTURE IN MOTION

Final Film Submission - 

Chosen Theme Words - 

Palpable, Interstitial, Light

Spatial Narrative - 

The narrative of my film focuses on the light that is let in by windows and the capacity they have to frame a room. Movement through the space is dominated by these openings and their relationship to the spaces they enclose. My spatial narrative finds the façade of the building sliding off, exposing areas connected by openings. The windows pump  one through the spaces, until they eventually push  you down the steps and back outside the space. The cutouts provide a way to communicate the ever-changing quality and quantity of light and shadow absorbed by the various rooms of a building.

Architecture in Motion - Process Work (Film Stills)

Task - Meditation on an Old Abandoned Russian Church

The following photos are a combination of still images that made up part of my stop motion animation. The animation is a mediation on an old Russian Church, a space dominated by windows and a staircase. The captions accompanying the images allude to the materials used to create the visual effects.

Window and stairs come down like a curtain onto the black card:

The light through the window appears against the shadow:

Shadows colliding into a single window:

Cardboard window cutout draws back to reveal to space within:

Shadow of the window facade moving away to reveal the interior depicted in ink:

Shadow of window cut-out against black card:

Architecture in Motion - Reflection

“Flex you drawing, seeing, crafting and imagining muscles”

The Architecture in Motion elective provided me with an opportunity to build on the skills I gained through the Atlas of Colour.

The idea of using careful sequencing to inform the viewer was intrinsic to this workshop, just as successful navigation was critical to creating a captivating atlas. I also bravely used my newfound painting techniques/cut-out techniques to create several of my film sequences.

Architecture in Motion seemed scary at first in that I wasn’t sure how successfully I would be able to create a 3D experience using just my hands, pens, paints etc. The process got a bit addictive however, and I ended up taking so many photos that my camera could barely fit them all in.

Making the film taught me a lot about the effectiveness of an extensive drafting period – something that I had always struggled with. I ended up with minutes and minutes of off-cuts and ‘deleted scenes’ that ceased to be relevant as the film unfolded and informed itself.

The process of creating the movie felt more comprehensive than the atlas – I feel like I had too much control over the direction of the atlas whereas my movie my movie directed itself once I fully understood the space I was working with.

I found I liked the term ‘spatial narrative’ after a while, even if it sounded like jargon at the beginning.  

Working with relief and 3D turned out to be a beautiful way of evoking the nature of a space – it’s a technique I would definitely consider using in a future design studio.

ROTATION ONE - ATLAS OF COLOUR

Final Atlas Submission - 

Theme: Pantone Colour 200MC (Deep Red)

Cover: Red food dye was splattered over blotting paper using a toothbrush and strainer. The blotting paper then acted as a jacket for the hard card cover of the atlas

Binding: The inside pages of the atlas were bound in the Japanese style 

Atlas Page Examples - 

Navigation: Alphabetical e.g. j is for journey through time (a reflection on childhood memories and their associated emotional colour - see picture below)

Atlas of Colour - Process Work and Reflection

Contrasting Colours

Colour Symmetry (Balance)

Chromatic Tonal Schemes

Red Graphic And Sketch (Babushka Doll)

49 Veils Diagrammatic Experience

Atlas of Colour Reflection - 

“It is essential to an architect to know how to see: I mean, to see in such a way that the vision is not overpowered by rational analysis…” Luis Barragan

The Atlas of Colour elective honed my capacity to edit and arrange different elements to create a clear composition.

 I learnt to view colour within architecture on a different level – recognising its capacity to influence the experience of space.

Working with paint and ink allowed for the development of a new way of communicating architectural intent – one that is more abstract and expressional.

I discovered the importance of telling a story through visual communication and not simply through the written word.

I enjoyed producing something substantial and long-lasting. I found that I improved my artistic skills as the weeks went on. Throughout the project I developed a very graphic style that I hope to incorporate into subsequent presentations.