together should prompt analysis and critique. This prompts yet another set of drawings and a final model for the exercise.
A final model
The design of the four quadrants thus far accounts for movement through the ground. The development of both the figures and other vertical elements show only variation in size – planar profiles remain rectilinear. Compared to the articulation of the ground, they remain more homogeneous as surfaces.
For the final iteration, we allow these surfaces to take on some of the char-acter of the field, extending the procedure of adding half-walls to add varia-tion in the poché in plan and secvaria-tion to include addivaria-tions and subtracvaria-tions to the surfaces of the figures. Moreover, in response to the analysis, existing poché is also open to modification.
The result – shown on the facing page – is more highly articulated form throughout the composition. As seen in the rendered plan views, figures that began as unaligned at the outset now display articulations and extensions interweave across the bounding lines (). The space shared amongst the four quadrants – the courtyard – exists as a shifting group of defined spaces inter-sected by expressions of the fields that first emerged in the project, as can be observed in the corner aerial perspective (). Study of that view confirms that, by responding to diagrammatic analysis, the final model achieves a kind of peripatetic balance. As our view moves around the model, the cadence of form in space – figures in a visual field – confirms that experience mirrors organizational principles developed throughout the process in orthographic diagrams (–).
As to the subject of diagramming, this project has shown one way in which three-dimensional structure can emerge from two-dimensional ideas beyond simple extrusion. It also demonstrates that seeing into an image can go well beyond the extraction of information from a document. If we review the proj-ect’s arc, we should recognize the presence of gestalt principle throughout the process.
In one way, the larger lesson is that judgment is paramount in design. Fur-thermore, the subject of that judgment is not just the architectural artifact of building, it includes the whole of the design process. The choreography of Figure 24: Plan view of digital
model (left) showing all four quadrants examined in the previous section (23).
Figure 25: Arrows illustrate in plan (right) some of the spatial relationships within the model – including some of those
encountered in the previous sequence (23). The ensemble shows those relationships that frame the next round of refinements.
Figure 26: Isometric view of digital model shown above in plan. Tonal varia-tion of the ground emphasizes the height variavaria-tion.
Figure 27: The more obvious alterations to the scheme show up clearly in this virtual plan view (left). Elements of each form – both large and small – exhibit visual correspondence across the composition.
Figure 28: In the near-iso-metric perspective (right) the correspondences between the vertical planes lend dynamism to the entire field.
Figure 29: Elevation showing the south edge of the composition as the result of careful proportions that tie together unequal figures.
Figure 30: The perspective from the south confirms the visual result is consistent with the elevation.
Figure 31: From the west the cross-axis appears weighted to the south even as similarities in visual structure remain constant.
Figure 32: Where the south exhibits a planar bluntness, the north shows density of articulated volumes.
Figure 33: In the view from the east the fundamental disparities between large and small figures is most visible.
development from plan drawing to model creates a particular role for dia-grams. It gives precedence to three-dimensional relationships that begin in two-dimensional visual explorations. When an originating relational grid combines with gestalt interpretation of figures and fields, the process privi-leges an orthographic bias. This is its appeal as a teaching vehicle. It allows an understanding of design thinking wherein axis and boundary dominate intent.
It prompts an architecture in which spatial order manifests the experience of physical movement through space.
The inherent prejudice of this project is that this traditional role for archi-tecture – sorting through what the poet e.e. cummings labeled ‘everywhere-ishness’ – opens the door to understanding how architects help define the spatial tissue for their audience. Judgments made during the design process require a particular capacity for sorting through representations of objects and space and articulating a clear framework for experience.
In the next project, we present alternatives within the process, enlarging both the definition and sequence of grids, diagrams and models.
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
: An imaginary straight line that divides any space or figure into two portions.
Axes in diagrams take a cue from their mathematical use as reference line for coordinate hierarchies of cause and effect. Thus, in diagrams, multiple axes can identify the interrelationships of movement,
and grain.
: A type of ; an orthographic projection of an object – such as a building – on a plane inclined all three principal axes.
Alludes to the three-dimensional but without perspective. Architects often use the term in referring to the convention.
-: The surface or shape exposed by making a straight cut through something, occurring usually at right angles to an axis. Also refers to any diagram or drawing illustrating what the cut would reveal. See also .
: A technical or architectural drawing that incorporates a visual projec-tion representing the three principal dimensions along three axes set at °
to one another. Isometric drawings display consistent scale for all linear measurements.
: A method of representing three-dimensional objects in which all parallel lines remain parallel, vertical lines remain vertical, and all ele-ments stay true to scale.
: An axonometric projection on an inclined plane – most often rotated °, ° or ° – with both true measure and true angle maintained in plan. Vertical edges remain vertical.
· In cavalier projection, lengths along the vertical axis remains unscaled.
· A cabinet projection scales the receding axis to seem less distorted.
: In drawing, this indicates any guide line that aids in deter-mining placement or dimension of an element or figure in a defined area.
Typically attributed to the diagonal lines drawn across any geometric field and used to determine proportion or dimension within a relational grid.
: A general term used in architecture to refer to viewing the
-- of a building or object in the context of parallel surfaces behind the section cut. Plan drawings are usually devised to include horizontal surfaces such as floors, doors and windowsills that are below the cut line.
: Term used to identify the formal pattern in architecture wherein constructed space manifests a sequence of importance.
Figure 1: Path, defined here by spatial properties of enfilade.