Design Integration Laboratory

Architecture 222, 410/510, and 610

Final Project - Views of a Building Model

Objectives

To complete your three-dimensional modeling project and exercise your capacity to organize the presentation of three-dimensional building information.

To apply the concept of the four classes of model presentation images.

To document the spatial structure and inside/outside relationships in your project building.

To catalog the results of your project modeling efforts.

Salk Institute Louis Kahn by Sarah Nersesian

Ward W. Willits House Frank Lloyd Wright by Todd Matthes

The Erectheion Athens, Greece by Jacob Turley

Poplar Forest Thomas Jefferson by David Reusch

Cathedral of Pisa Pisa, Italy by Timothy Keil

Cary House Joseph Esherick by Charles Shumate

Gordon Wu Hall Robert Venturi by Corey Meeks

More Example Projects ...

Procedure

In this assignment you will each generate several shaded and shadow-cast color renderings of the model you have been constructing over the last couple of weeks. Assemble these to make a presentation of your project, made up of at least three images from each of the four view types discussed below (for a total of at least 12 images).

This classification of view types provides us with a conceptual framework with which to make careful judgements, in the midst of the wide-open freedom of what views the software can generate. The more powerful your tools, the more you need to think about how to use them.

View Classes

• pretty views, showing the building to advantage regardless of realism - i.e. aerial perspectives.
  

  Avant-garde and shock-value images fit in here. Remember... context can be important. Nice Example

• classical descriptive views, including elevation, section-perspective, and shadowed plans.
  

  Rendered versions of the standard documentation drawings. Nice Example

• analytical views, showing the functional or aesthetic structure of the building through abstraction - i.e. exploded diagrams, roofs-only, circulation only, etc.
  

  These illustrate or diagram specific ideas, such as spatial organization. Nice Example

• realistic views, showing the building and its interiors, from anthropometrically correct vantage points and with shadowing based on accurate sun angles.
  

  And these simulate the actual direct experience of a space. Nice Example

Although realistic sun angles are specifically essential in realistic views when using shadow-casting, you should also stick to realistic sun angles for other renderings. Otherwise the views you show will be inherently misleading, which is altogether different from simply being expressive.

Output

When you have created these views of your model, you will need to create two complete sets of output to hand in -- a full set of color hard copies, and a set of electronic images. You will probably also want a set of each for yourself.

First, use the File menu Export > PICT command to make each image from DesignWorkshop a PICT format image file (or create PICT files for each image using Capture). Title each PICT file according to the instructions below, to hand in.

If you want to enhance any of the PICT images from DesignWorkshop using the Photoshop skills you developed way back at the beginning of the course, be sure to import the DW PICT(s) into Photoshop using the Photoshop File menu Acquire > Anti-aliased PICT command. This takes advantage of the inherent object structure of the DW PICT, to create smooth anti-aliased edges all through the DW image as it is turned into the Photoshop painting-type format. Nice Example

(Note: You could just Open the DW PICT(s) into Photoshop, but they would come out with harsh, yucky 72dpi jaggies.)

Hard Copies

There are three different formats or approaches you can take to producing the hard copies, which we'll discuss in class (a single D-size composition, printed on Anthemios, four tabloid size sheets with one for each view type, printed on Saarinen, or twelve 8.5"x11" sheets, one for each image, also printed on Saarinen). Whatever form they take, the titling of your final hard copies should be complete, including the building name, location, dates of design and/or construction, name of architect unless vernacular or historically unknown, plus your own name, the professor, course, and term.

To Hand In

-- Please submit the hard copy report to Professor Matthews' faculty mailbox (in the mail room adjacent to the Dean's Office) by 10.15am on Friday, 8 December 1995. (Reminder-- since we will keep the printouts you hand in, make extras for yourself.)

- Submit the following items electronically to the class folder on the Architecture Forest server in the Pacific Hall network zone:

1) In the "Final Views Folder", one folder containing your complete set of final PICT images and the ClarisWorks cover document. The folder must be named "A222.f95.views-YourFamilyName ". The files inside the folder should be named:

analytical views
a1-YourFamilyName, description
a2-YourFamilyName, description
a3-YourFamilyName, description

classical views
c1-YourFamilyName, description
c2-YourFamilyName, description
c3-YourFamilyName, description

pretty views
p1-YourFamilyName, description
p2-YourFamilyName, description
m3-YourFamilyName, description

realistic views
r1-YourLastName, description
r2-YourFamilyName, description
r3-YourFamilyName, description

cover and contents pages -- a ClarisWorks word processing document
t1-YourLastName, description


2) In the "Final Models Folder", your final three-dimensional DesignWorkshop model, named "A222.f95.model-YourFamilyName".

Grading criteria

Pretty views 10
Realistic views 10
Classical descriptive views 10
Analytical views 10
Quality of hard copies 10
Quality of computer files 10

Total Points 60

Due in Professor Matthews' faculty mailbox, and at the file server, by 10.15am on Friday, 8 December 1995.

These view types are the building blocks of a new way to communicate architectural design information. Have fun admiring your construction and learning more about the structure you've chosen. And rest up for next term!

Reading

Building Model Quality Tips