Design Integration Laboratory

Presentation Layout Composition

Some Classic Issues in the Layout of Architectural Presentation Boards

1. * Architectural Content *

   Conceptually speaking, there is no great reason to make a beautiful presentation of bad architecture. Make the building beautiful.

2. Left --> Center -or- Center Outward reading order?

   Either is fine, depending to some extent on the style of architecture being presented. However, it is important to be clear about which approach you are taking. Also, see the next point.

3. Left-justified -or- symmetrical composition?

   In general, left-to-right reading order implies a left-justified composition, and similarly, a center-outward reading order implies a

4. Content orientation at-a-glance?

   It is usually effective to help a viewer get quickly oriented to the presentation by providing a large summary image, such as a rendering of some kind of overview perspective, at the first point of visual focus, which should be about the same as the beginning of the reading order.

5. Top --> Down reading order?

   Roughly speaking, this should be a given, although a certain amount of reading upward and downward from powerful drawings in the middle (like your plans) can also be expectedm, and can make good sense.

6. Horizontal and vertical pattern/consistency/alignment

   Clear, simple alignment of compositional elements is usually a good thing. you should contradict this only for very good reasons.

7. Is the composition weighting neutral, or a little heavier toward the bottom?

   Presentations which have a center-of-visual-gravity a bit below mid-height tend to be more reposed than those with other weightings.

8. Building Presence -- Roofs at top? Earth at bottom?

   These are nice touches which, when possible, help to lend repose to the whole presentation, reinforce stable visual gravity, and give an extra touch of architectural flavor overall.

9. Drawing relationships -- Consistent orientation (North up)? Plan --> Plan? Plan <--> Section <--> Elevation?

   These are extremely important for helping the observer to comfortably and accurately build their mental model of the project.

10. Perspective view selection, composition, and relationship of image viewing vectors to persentation observer viewing vectors?

11. Titleing -- Does it help the presentation? Is it sure not to distract from the archietcture?

12. When viewed from a full range of reasonable viewing positions, do all the drawings read clearly? Does the whole presentation hang together?

13. If you follow these guidelines, with a little luck, and with generous applications of common sense, careful observation, and general good style, your presentation will be a pleasure to look at, and your architecture will tend to get reviews which are both more accurate and more positive.

    What more could you ask for?

http://www.dil.uoregon.edu/computing/tools/layout_composition.html - Posted 96.06.01 KMM, rev. 96.06.01