Original Sections

Floor Plan 1:200

Above is the Floor Plan with corresponding section lines to indicate the cut plane for my two sections which are below:

I have decided to hand draw all of these images onto brown textured paper to portray my design as an earthy and more natural concept as I felt it suited the site and ethos of Woodfordia. However, this did cause some trouble when it came to scanning as apparently the paper was too thick for all of the scanning shops I went to, therefore all of these images are quality photographs of drawings to scale.

I found my research to be very helpful in shaping and guiding my own style of drawing for this assessment. I took good aspects from all of the drawing and attempted to blend them all plus my own style to create the best sections I could. I was inspired by the way Renzo Piano and Norman Foster were able to depict the intended activities within each space and also their ability to convey details without overpowering to composition of the whole drawing. My use of colour and tones to convey light conditions and materials was inspired by Morphosis, Steven Holl and Jean Nouvel. One of my main goals was to create an image with depth and texture, because I noticed this to be a key component to a successful section through my research. I used a mixture of techniques including pencil shading, water colors and pen work with different line wights to achieve this.

As can be seen in my sections I have shown a lot of site context as this was a major element in my design process as the topography of the land shaped my building (as can be seen in the model photos below). The building sits in a place called the grand canyon in Woodfordia and this is like its name suggest a bit of a canyon. The building sits in a valley surrounded on all sides my bushy hills, my building serves as an escape from city and is a place to return to nature. This is why my building is very open to the elements, it also influenced the choice of materials including rammed earth and lots of raw un-milled timber. I attempted to portray these materials and light conditions with colors and tones using many earthy colors and light texturing.

Details of the building may be hard to see as the drawings are both done at 1:100 but I included as much detail as I could manage with my finest 0.1mm pen. This can be seen in the floor detailing and also in the footings and roof construction .

The most important element of course was the portrayal of the intended activities. As my building aims to function as a retreat or a sanctuary I did not want to fill the scenes with crowds of people (like Norman Foster) as this is not how it would operate, however I did try to display as many possible scenarios as possible without over doing it. I feel I have done my vision justice in this extra assessment as for my final presentation I ran out of time and was quite disappointing with how i portrayed my design because I knew in my mind it was so much better.

Section A 1:100

Section B 1:100

Section B - closer view 1/3

Section B - closer view 2/3

Section B - closer view 3/3

Activities

Seeing as my ability to display the intended activities of all spaces is the main item for assessment in this supplementary I thought I ought to investigate how this is done successfully.To do this i have researched the two suggested authors of well known children books Richard Scarry and Martin Handford. Both create a scene by filling what can be quite a boring setting with many bodies and importantly all doing different things, to create a dynamic and interesting image. It seems you can almost get lost s you navigate your way through all of the people and spaces and when you come out your imagination has been filled by these small situations of possible uses. To translate this to an architectural drawing the important things are to convey a myriad of scenarios and also fill the spaces. This way the building will come alive and most importantly ignite the viewers imagination which will enhance the comprehension of design.

Richard Scarry Illustration

Martin Handford Wheres Wally

Exemplar 5 - Renzo Piano

Many of Piano's drawings are very similar to my exemplar 2 - Norman Foster. They are similar in the way they both show an elaborate scene to depict the activities inside a building. This is a critical factor in setting up a good architectural section drawing, and in my selected section above he has almost created a where's wally image, the building seems to be alive with activity. By doing this the building is almost being celebrated and shown in its best condition.

The level of detail is also very similar to the drawings of Norman Foster. This is a delicate and refined ability to portray enough detail without detracting from the image as a whole and one which i will attempt to transfer to my two sections.

The same criticisms also apply to Piano as those to Foster, there is a obvious lack of context and colour or tone. There is no portrayal of light within the spaces and the drawing seems very flat with no depth to the building.

For my two sections I will aim to bring together all of the strong elements from the 5 exemplar sections.

below is also a Renzo Piano section which does a better job of showing context, this particular example was fro a moat redevelopment.

References:

Pano, R. 2010, Renzo Piano building workshop 1989-2010, A + U Pub, Tokyo.

Exemplar 4 - Jean Nouvel

In an oversized book, Jean Nouvel has brought together some of his projects from 1993-2008 and titles the book "Jean Nouvel." This section was discovered in this book and i believe it represents Nouvel's style and outlook on architecture in general. The building that the section was develop[ed for is the Performing Arts Center situated in Seoul, Korea, which was the winning project from an invited conpetition. Nouvel's intentions were to develop this building so that nature and music would somehow be united (Nouvel, 2008, pg 452). I picked this section because the of the relationship shown between nature and the building something which i think my presentation lacked imagery of.. This section represents the building in an evocative manner by using artistic techniques. The site (an island surrounded by the city) has been shown in detail maybe even more so than the building which helps to blend to two components, and the use of colour and tones highlights the interior spaces of the building and focuses the eye.

This section represents relationships with the occupied internal spaces and the external concept of the building. The relationship of the building and its surrounding context is conveyed through this drawing which allows a better understanding of the design and the possible social impacts on the surrounding society. This section communicates the relationship between the public spaces within the building through the use of colour and displaying the activities inside each space.The need to label rooms is obsolete due the the skillful description of function for each of the spaces by thin outlines of cars or solid black silhouettes of people. Possible applications of materials are represented by using different line weights and textural elements.

***The first image has been taken from Jean Nouvel's Website which was discovered after the book for myself. ***

Below is another section from Jean Nouvel which i think portrays many of the same attributes as the one above however is lacking in context, so just another example of how to use colour and tone:

References:

Nouvel. J., Jodidio. P., 2008. Jean Nouvel. Taschen, Klon. 

Ateliers Jean Nouvel. (2011). Performing Arts Centre: Seoul Korea 2006. Accessed 14/12/13 http://www.jeannouvel.com/english/preloader.html 

Exemplar 3 - Steven Holl

I chose Steven Holl's section of the St Ignatius Chapel because of the way it illustrates the play of light through these voids. Holl conceived of his proposal as 'bottles of light'. His earliest water-colour sketches (shown below) show a Morandi-like group of dull coloured (possibly wine) bottles where similarity and difference are in formal play.

Interior perspective - water colours

Building model

Holl has portrayed the spaces activities minimally, although being a chapel by nature the activities which occur in this space will the slow paced, reflective and possibly done it solitude. In this way i think the activities he has portrayed in section are accurate.

This section is lacking in context like the previous exemplars, but like morphosis Holl uses colour and tone very effectively to portray the quality of space which he envisions. Structural details are minimal, although for this type of drawing i believe the importance was placed on light and not detail.

References:

Holl, Steven, Futagawa, yukio, Futagawa, Yoshio 1996, Steven Holl, A.D.A. Edita, Tokyo.

Raymand. R. 2011. Chapel, Steven Holl Architects. Accessed 12/12/13. http://www.architectural-review.com/1995-november-chapel-steven-holl-architects-seattle-usa/8618947.article 

Exemplar 2 - Norman Foster

For Norman Foster I found he had a very refined style to all of his drawings, which consists of detailed line drawings in black and white and most importantly he always shows how the spaces are intended to be used.He does this my showing the spaces filled with activities, people, and in the case of the Renault distribution center vehicles. He always manages to fill his sections with life no matter what scale or what stage of design (shown in the images below) and as such his drawings successfully portray their validity.

Sketch design still showing activities

Large scale drawing still showing activities

His section clearly shows an appropriate amount of detail in the structure, even including footing types and locations, this adds to the accuracy of each drawing whilst not detracting from the quality of the image. This delicate and refined composition seems to be quite a skill and one which I will attempt to transfer to my two sections. 

Whilst the section excels at portraying acivities and details it lacks in the use of colour and tone to portray light conditions and also showing the context which the building is situated. These are aspects which could be improved upon for my own sections.

References:

Rogers, Richard George, Foster, Norman, Lambot, Ian 1989,  Norman Foster, Foster Associates: Forster Associates: buildings and projects, Watermark, London.

Treilber, D. 1995, Norman Foster, Spon, London.

Foster & Partners, 2013."Projects: Renault Distribution Center, Swindon UK." Accessed on 12/12/13. http://www.fosterandpartners.com/projects/renault-distribution-centre

Exemplar 1 - Morphosis

I Chose this section  of 6th Street Residence mainly because of its dramatic and evocative use of colour and tones, which are effectively used to portray the light conditions of all the spaces. When compared to the unaltered line drawing it is clear how colour and tone can totally transform a mundane section to a very informative one.

This section also portrays a fine level of detail in some interesting areas, particularly in the top ceiling where there seems to be some mechanical elements. However this section fails to show the activities which occur in and around the building without even as much as a single person to convey scale the leaves the viewer quite confused as to what this space might be like to be in. There is also very minimal amount of context around the building making its relationship to its surroundings a guessing game.

The things I have learnt from this Morphosis section is that colour and tone have the ability to transform any line drawing if done correctly like this example.This drawing also has shown me how important it is to show how the space can be used through section to direct the viewers imagination toward its intended use.

I will apply the same colouring techniques to my sections, to attempt and portray light and dark conditions of space.

Below I have also included another example of a Morphosis section which is very similar although uses a slighlty more accurate rendering of colors and textures, which i believe does not evoke the same drama as the above section. This tells me that colouring between the lines is not always the most accurate way to portray light and dark and sometimes a more abstract approach can be more effective.

References:

Mayne, Thom, Cook, Peter, Rand, George 1989, Morphosis: buildings and projects, Rizzoli, New York.

Morphosis Architects. 2013. "Morphedia: 6th Street Residence." Accessed 12/12/13. http://morphopedia.com/projects/sixth-street-residence.

Supplementary Assessment

The first thing I did after receiving the information on what was involved with this assessment was go to the QUT library to research all of the architects on the list provided which included:

• Norman Foster
• Steven Holl
• Toyo Ito
• Morphosis
• Jean Nouvel
• OMA
• Renzo Piano
• Richard Rogers
• Peter Zumthor

I then flicked through all of the books I could find on these architects to find which ones could inspire me the most. I was looking for the ones who used color, context, tone, composition in interesting and effective ways.The architects I chose were:

• Morphosis 
• Norman Foster
• Steven Holl
• Jean Nouvel
• Renzo Piano

Then I researched each architect online to find further information on their drawing styles specifically relating to sections. I had discovered many interesting sections from each architect through my searching in the library. I noted the project of each section then researched the finished building and I  investigated the relationship between drawing and finished product. This will help me to decide on my approach when trying to portray my ideas through section for my own project.