process »
PROJECTION
frame, screen, zoom, montage
you need to be developing your proposals along several concerns and at a range of scales simultaneously. make use of successful techniques of representation explored earlier in the year.
a reminder of key concepts:
a time based architecture - how is your proposal occupied over time? what is the narrative of occupation? how does your proposal affect La Muette over a longer time period, and how might it be used in 10 years? consider the re-appropriation of your proposal.
an occupied architecture - your proposal is incomplete without human occupation; consider its experiential qualities, and how it will be used. what is the relationship between your architecture and its users? how do processes of use manifest themselves in the architecture? be attentive to its materiality.
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using the themes of Projection:
frame
what is your response to the site, La Muette? individual site work is key to the portfolio.
all proposals bring something new to the site in order to repair, restore or improve what is there, but you need to be clear about your strategy for doing so, your priorities and attitude.
structural strategy of your proposal - does your proposal generate its own framework or do you respond to the structure of the existing building, trees on site etc.
similarly, what are the organising and material strategies?
your proposal as an armature of occupation
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screen
consider what you want to explore or communicate with each drawing/model and what sort of drawing is appropriate and effective. consider your techniques and processes and how they might be combined in drawings.
drawings must be process work (you do not have time to sketch ideas and draw them up later - and showing process so that it is visible to others is a key requirement of your portfolio).
use your drawings to become analogue registers of your design process.
façade, skin, environmental mediation
filter, register, surface
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zoom
you must work at a range of scales
generative detail - develop a key detail which communicates your architectural concerns; use this to inform the architecture surrounding it (rather than to tackle a problem caused by arbitrary form). this forms part of your technical submission - 5th years may be required to build the detail at 1:1.
develop fragments or moments with full clarity as part of your process work
material and constructional detail
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montage
develop the narrative and spatial sequence of your proposal.
your proposals include different functions - how do they interact or overlap? are there territories to investigate? how do the different uses in your proposal and on site respond and feed off each other?
make hybrid drawings that tell at least 2 ideas simultaneously (such as a perspective/detail-section that describes spatial and material/constructional ideas)
select, edit and assemble - consider the sequence of your portfolio and also what the body of work says about your project.
Montage: a composite work made by combining/juxtaposing different elements together
Montage: a rapid succession of images in a motion picture to illustrate an association of ideas
You already know how to produce a photographic print using a negative, enlarger, and light-sensitive paper in the darkroom. Layer different types of exposure onto the same piece of paper to construct layered drawings. Experiment with a few simple techniques - here are some ideas:
- layer 2 or more negatives in the carrier in the enlarger
- use a print (another photo or drawing) pressed against the paper (use a sheet of glass or clear acrylic to weight it down) to make a contact print
- make large negatives by drawing directly onto draughting film or trace, or printing onto draughting film or acetate, and use these to make 1:1 contact prints. Inverse-photocopy drawings onto acetate.
- use objects laid onto the paper to make photograms
- use small objects in the negative carrier (like a projected photogram - an example is the dragonfy image below)
- draw directly in light - use a small pen torch (be aware of light affecting others in the darkroom)
- photograph models and drawings in long exposure and manipulate light directly in the image
left to right: two “lightwritings” by Lichtfaktor, ‘Abstract Composition’ by Curtis Moffat (around 1925), light drawing and photogram by László Moholy-Nagy
Preparation of drawings and models for inclusion in an academic portfolio.
The scales below are for guidance.
You must decide which is the appropriate scale for your proposal.
All the scales used on a drawing are to be stated on the drawing.
Where appropriate your drawings should show a North Point.
Location Drawings; 1:10000, 1:5000, 1:2500, 1:2000, 1:1250
Site Plans, Surveys; 1:500, 1:200
Urban Site Plans, Preliminary Scheme Drawings; 1:200
Conceptual Sketches; not to scale, or of no determinate scale
Sketch Architectural Drawings (Plans, Elevations and Sections)1:200, 1:100, 1:50
Architectural/Building Drawings (Plans, Elevations and Sections)1:200, 1:100, 1:50
Technical Detail Drawings; As specified in the Technical Strategy handout.
Exterior Perspective Views (Hand rendered, Collage, Photoshop, Computer modelled 3d)
Interior Perspective Views (Hand rendered, Collage, Photoshop, Computer modelled 3d)
Drawings can be a combination, such as sectional perspective.
Architectural Models:
All models should be photographed and compiled in portfolio sheets.
Models are also presented at portfolio reviews.
Urban Design, Landscape, Site and Topography models 1:1000, 1:500, 1:200
Conceptual Models; not to scale, or of no determinate scale
Architectural/Building Models (Final and Sketch)1:500, 1:200, 1:100, 1:50
Interior Models (Final and Sketch)1:50, 1:20, 1:10, 1:5
Detailed/Structural or Technical Models1:20, 1:10, 1:5, 1:1
Strategic Structural/Technical Models1:500, 1:200, 1:100
Union City Drive-In, 1993, Hiroshi Sugimoto
‘Architecture exists in a different reality from our everyday life and pursuits. The quality of architecture does not lie in the sense of reality that it expresses, but in its capacity for awakening our imagination.’
Christian Norberg Schultz
Institut du Monde Arabe, Jean Nouvel
Unit 11 is interested in exploring the capacity of architecture as both a sensual and material experience, and as a dynamic framework of occupancy and use.
Our work this year will be an investigation into an architecture of the senses, an architecture of human experience and the inner language of buildings; of perception, dreams and imagination:
CINEMATIC
aperture, exposure, projection
As part of the unit’s ongoing concerns we will explore ways of representing, imagining, designing and realising spatial propositions; learning from and utilising film technologies, composite imaging, scenography and sound design.
Wireframe, Japan, 2006, David Burdeny
We aim to shift ideas away from the static and towards dynamics and the processes of use within spatial experience. We seek temporal, narrative architectures that use space, time, sound and materiality to communicate a relationship of human interaction.
Facade, Square Mozart, Jean Prouve
‘The sense of self, strengthened by art and architecture, allows us to engage fully in the mental dimensions of dream, imagination and desire. Buildings and cities provide the horizon for the understanding and confronting of the human existential condition. Instead of creating mere objects of visual seduction, architecture relates, mediates and projects meanings. The ultimate meaning of any building is beyond architecture; it directs our conciousness back to the world and towards our own sense of self and being. Significant architecture makes us experience ourselves as complete embodied and spiritual beings. In fact, this is the great function of all meaningful art.’
Juhani Pallasmaa, The eyes of the skin.