Visual Preliminary Work

Preliminary Visual Abstracts and Idea Map (October 2010)

Project Description: Examine both the Idea Map from Thesis Prep I and the final collages and section-montages from Project 1 and consider the innate and latent concepts that have already been revealed about your own particular interests in the development of architectural ideas. Develop an exhaustive visual list that you feel represents your current thoughts and feelings about your emerging thesis idea. Consider how they could be organized  in such a way as to reveal something thematic or topical about your thesis. Stated goals or a desired destination may begin to emerge. 

First Attempt

Visual Abstract Based on Eclecticism in Rotterdam, the Netherlands

Second Attempt

Visual Abstract Based on a City that Grows and Expands Over Time

Idea Map Focusing on the City as a Living Creature

Things I Can't Live Without... (September 2010)

Project Description: You will collect images and artifacts that interest you or move you. Think of this exercise as a creation of images and places that influence your architectural thinking. After the initial selection, you will analyze why these particular images are of interest to you. Artifacts and images to support a thesis idea will begin to emerge.

The following are things I can't live without (in no particular order)...

 the Blue Mosque (Istanbal, Turkey)
any works by Carlo Scarpa
the climb up St. Peter's Dome in Rome, Italy
Annie Leibovitz's photography
reading
Vrin, Switzerland
"Never grow a wishbone where your backbone ought to be."
Castelvecchio (Verona, Italy by Carlo Scarpa)
ballerina sculptures by Degas
Herzog & deMeuron
the Grand Bazaar and the Spice Bazaar in Istanbul, Turkey
the Thermal Baths (Vals, Switzerland by Peter Zumthor)
Berlin, Germany (especially Adalbertstrasse 65)
Reina Sophia Museum (Madrid, Spain by Jean Nouvel)
"This too shall pass."
red poppy paintings by Georgia O'Keeffe
Norman Foster
Fondazione Querini Stampalia (Venice, Italy by Carlo Scarpa)
my family
the Holocaust Tower at the Jewish Museum (Berlin, Germany by Daniel Libeskind)
Santiago Calatrava
St. Benedict Chapel (Switzerland by Peter Zumthor)
Hearst Tower (New York, New York by Norman Foster)
traveling
"Work like you don't need the money."
Venice, Italy
Caixa Forum (Madrid, Spain by Herzog & deMeuron)
eating delicious food
Brion Tomb (Italy by Carlo Scarpa)
"Do what you love, love what you do."

Spatial Investigations with Collage and Montage (September 2010)

Project Description: In order to question existing architectural conventions one needs to explore abstract notions of architecture and space. The first part of the course focuses on helping you explore and define your architectural ideas. This exploration will be through collage and montage exercises in 3 phases. 

Phase 1

I chose to investigate three architectural terms: scale and proportion, threshold, and procession. I depicted these terms in collage form, using the Boston Public Library and Copley Square as a location to analyze them spatially.

Scale and Proportion

Scale and Proportion

Threshold

Threshold

Procession

Procession

Phase 2

I further developed the terms threshold and procession graphically and tried to create a "section" of the collage using rules that I determined for each representation.

Threshold: the beginning of a state or action, the line which one crosses when entering, the border or limit of a region, the magnitude or intensity that must be reached for a certain condition to occur

Section of Threshold
The separate objects represent breaks or changes happening in the collage. Unpenetrable areas are solid and penetrable areas are depicted using lines. Orthogonal lines represent movement within the library while lines moving in more random directions represent the unpredictable movement in the city. Sections above the line represent blurs in intensity and sections below the line represent static moments.

Procession: an advance in orderly succession in a formal or ceremonial way, to perambulate the bounds, the emanation of the Holy Spirit

Section of Procession

The continuous movement of the progressive line represents the procession towards the statue in the collage. The tall vertical lines represent moments when the statue is the focus of your view. The vertical lines below the procession line form the path you take when approaching the statue.

Phase 3

I made a final attempt to push the collage and sections to represent the architectural term as best as I could graphically. 

Threshold

Section of Threshold

I was trying to represent the divider between the hectic, organic nature of the world outside the library and the hectic, orthogonal nature of the space within the library. I wanted to depict the similarities of the two spaces while showing that they are divided and different.

Procession

Section of Procession

I wanted to represent the smaller moments where the view of the statue is allowed and the paths that these moments create to pull you closer to the actual statue.