Reflection

In the beginning of the semester, I was confused about this course. I was not very clear about the concept of architectural communication.

I participated in these workshops: fluid thoughts to actions, material modelling and architectural drawings. When I went through the course, moved from one workshop to another, I got a much clearer idea of what architectural communication is and how to do it. This course encourages students to show our ideas in various ways, very specific.

How to draw architecture like Opera House vividly? We can use different tones and different line work. We have to observe the building carefully.

How to make a high quality model and to present your idea through tranforming the model? There are many techniques to make model, such as using a big knife, choosing right materials, squeezing glue slowly instead of just pushing it out and so on. There are lots of actions which help show the idea behind, such as attaching, elevating, wrapping and slicing.

Before I learn the course, maybe I don't know the answer above, or I don't understand it deeply. Now, I’ve finished the course, and I do get a new insight of architectural communication and related skills.

As an architect, thoughts, drawings and model are extremely important. The 3 workshops I chose taught me how to make your thoughts and ideas to real actions, how to make beautiful models and how to show your ideas through drawing, not just put plans and sections together, but really have a arrangement and use some techniques to enrich the drawings. Those communication skills are not only useful for my current study, but also for my further academic study. I will further develop my drawing, model making and presentation skills. Since this is just my first year, I still need to go a long way; these skills will help me communicate my idea much better and play an important role in my architectural life.

Final project - the botta house

When you first look at the botta house, you will be impressed with the shape of the building. It looks like a cube, actually, it is. Thus, I took the idea about 'square'. I noticed that the floor-to-ceiling window is like a combination of grids. So I put the plans and elevation into the grids to emphasise my idea.

Workshop 3 - Architectural drawings

In class exercises


tea cup exercise


two perspective exercise


shadow exercise


the mock-up

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Final Model with two actions

Actions: attaching & sheathing


I tried to explore different kinds of materials to enrich my model. I used different types of art sheet, tiles, deco sand, wire netting and gauze. If I have chance to do this again, I will do more on sheathing. I will make the wire go through the building to show fluidity.

Balsawood Model

Cardboard Model

Group Model

For the gourp model, my partner and I decided to make a bottle. We cut the cardborad, but not cut through, to form column. We really enjoy making this model, because it was quite interesting.

Workshop 2 - Material Modelling

Cubes



This are the cubes I made in class. It was not easy to cut the cardboard because it was very thick. The models are very rough.






This is what I made later. They are much better than the previous ones. I used much thinner cardboard and used the techniques the tutors taught us. like how to cut, how to paste two pieces very well, how to make the cube look neat and so on.

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Final presentation

Collaboration Projects

A:Verbal Directives



My partner only gave me three words : tree, contrast and sunny .
Then I drew a big tree to form contrast with the lake and village in the background. There is a big contrast on size, tone and line between the tree and the background. The shading of the tree also presents contrast and shows strong sunshine.



B: Meet and Draw



We used collage, shading and some line work to highlight the Opera House.



C: Exquisite Corpse



This is the final presention of the 6 drawings from my partner and me. It shows a journey from the Opera House to the garden, to the natural world.

Collaboration C: exquisite corpse[3]

My partner's drawing.

People enjoy the beautiful view.

Collaboration C: exquisite corpse[2]

This is my partner's response to the last drawing.





The spheres creates movement, like the cells of the plants in the garden. It is like an interesting trip that leads people to go into the nature. Opera House is also built to connect with the nature.

Collaboration C: exquisite corpse[1]

This is the drawing my partner sent to me.

This is my drawing. I extended that to a flower like shape, because there is a famous garden near to the Opera House. All kinds of plants are there. Like the Opera House, it has a connection with the natural world.

Workshop 1 - Fluid thoughts to actions

architect: Jorn Utzon

Jorn Utzon used lines to emphasise the shape of the Opera House. In this drawing, he drew the Opera House from different angles, put all of them onto one sheet, it looks a little bit messy, however, this drawing represents his concept effectively.



For these two conceptual drawings, he used lines to high light the beautiful shape and curve of the Opera House as well.

artist: Julie Duell


The artist uses lines as the main approach to represent the Opera House. No many uses of tones.


artist: Emin Sinanyan

This artist used lines to draw the horse from different angles, put them together. It is similar to the drawing from Jorn Utzon. This is a powerful approach to portray the object vividly.