Diagramming Techniques

A diagram is most successful when it is simple. The goal is to communicate a concept clearly and quickly to the viewer. Some things to consider when drawing:

1. Hard line drawings: diagrams are abstract, that does not mean sketched. Making a clean drawing will help keep the diagram clear.

2. Develop in Series: often your ideas about site or program analysis are too complex to fit on one diagram. Try breaking out your ideas into separate drawings.

3. Highlight the Important: Make sure your diagrams tell the viewer what they should look at. Try using a different color or thicker line weight to draw attention to the main concept.

4. Common Base: Using the same drawing with different overlays. This way the viewer has something to relate to in each diagram and see the various layers of your project.

5. Stretch Reality: The world is complex. Sometimes we need to break things down the most simplest elements and exaggerate those elements to understand things more clearly.

Here are some examples of diagrams I find effective:

UGM Art Gallery Competition, Family

One Museum Place Competition, Carlos Jimenez Studio

Ring Roads of the World, Thumb Design

Villa 1, Powerhouse company

World Village of Women's Sports, BIG

 "The Naked City", Guy Debord's 1957 

Suitaloon, Micheal Webb of Archigram

Thermal Baths at Vals Switzerland

Here is the two articles that I got my information from:

1) Conceptual Approach by Euripides Bziotas

2) Thermal Baths Architectural Analysis by unknown

*Note: both articles taken from scribd.com

Here are the drawings and plans from class:

Pictures 1-6 (Diagrams), 7-8 (Photograph), 9-10 (Sketches) 11-13 (Sections & Plan)

Project Two

Some pictures from the final passage projects...more to come..

Lilly:

Jat:

Peter:

Case Study Sign Up List

ASSIGNMENT_Due April 14, 2011

Case Studies
Choose a building from the list below to study in depth over the next week.

Valleaceron Chapel, S-M.A.O. Sancho-Madridejos Architecture Office, Cuidad Real, Spain
Alesund church, Avanto Architects, Ålesund, Norway (Unbuilt) - JAT
La Tourette, Le Corbusier, Eveux, France - NICK
Thermal Baths, Peter Zumthor, Vals, Switzerland - PETER
Church of Light, Tadao Ando, Ibaraki, Japan - CUI
Tea house, Kengo Kuma, Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany - LILLY
Santa Ana’s Chapel, e|348 arquitectura, Capela Santa Ana
Prada Transform, OMA (Koolhaas), Seoul, South Korea - JAT
Treptow Crematorium, Axel Schultes, Treptow, Berlin, Germany
Crematorium in Kakamigahara, Toyo Ito, Kakamigahara, Japan - CONSTANCE
Igualada Cemetery, Enric Miralles, Igualada , Spain - JASON

All of the buildings listed above involve some sort of ritual (religous, cultural, etc).  While you are researching think about the ritual that takes place in the building and how the building responds to it.

01_Print out visual material showing a plan(s), section(s) and relevant images of your building

02_Compose 4 diagrams explaining how the ritual takes place in your building:

01_Ritual (What makes up the ritual? Is there a series of events?)
02_Circulation/Movement (How do people move through the building? Does it relate to the ritual?)
03_Atmospheric qualities (What are the qualities created by the space? light, sound, temperature, etc)
04_ Essence (Create a simple diagram that reveals the overall concept of your project)

03_ Prepare a CD to hand in with all of your work from Project 2

FINAL REVIEW 04.07.2011

The review will be next Thursday at 7:15pm. 

We will be sending an order for presenting and pinning up out sometime next week.

Please arrive early to pin-up your work so we can start on time.

We are really excited about how the projects are progressing and looking forward to the review!

Sanaa Lecture Tonight at MIT...

Friday, April 1, 6:30 pm, Room 10-250 
The 22nd Arthur H. Schein Memorial Lecture
Ryue Nishizawa
Architect, Sanaa, Tokyo
"Architecture and Landscape"