Reflection Selection Documentation - Fundamentals of Design & Built Environment I | COA 1011, Assignments of Architecture

Download Reflection Selection Documentation - Fundamentals of Design & Built Environment I | COA 1011 and more Assignments Architecture in PDF only on Docsity! 3.0 reflection selection documentation e1 coa 1011 . fundamentals of design and the built environment I . Fall 2006 georgia institute of technology joseph minatta, instructor There is a delicate empiricism which so intimately involves itself with the object that it becomes true theory. Goethe Students, in groups of three to five, will carefully look at and re-describe an everyday object, one of a family of objects selected by their section instructor. To unpack and play back an object is not simply to illustrate it. Attentive looking and close description require both an interpretive framework and strategies for representation. For this exercise you will look at the object in three distinct ways; each is linked to a particular set of representational possibilities. The final presentation will draw upon the understanding produced by all three ways of looking. 1. Sustained Looking Attentive looking over time -- the kind of looking exemplified by Cezanne's daily sessions with his apples -- offers the possibility for an ongoing dialog between the object and the observer. The focused attention paid to the object on a daily basis implicates the observer in an intimate and evolving relationship with the object. While each encounter produces particular insights into the object, the sessions collectively provide an account of the observer's subjective understanding of the object over time. The procedures and requirements for sustained looking are described below in the section on Looking over Time. 2. Translation/Measured Drawings Translating a three-dimensional object into a set of conventional orthographic drawings is more complex than it may first appear. The act of measuring and then drawing an object requires forethought and a leap of faith; both our cognitive and our imaginative capacities are put into play. As we negotiate between the reality of a physical object and the conventions of a representation system we move back and forth between abstract and analogical thinking. Through this process we begin to understand the object as a series of symbolic representations. The procedures and requirements are outlined in the section on Measured Drawings. 3. Dissection/Analysis The third kind of looking will require you to analyze the object from particular points of view. The goal is to fully understand the object from a number of particular perspectives. Using a set of analytical filters, one at a time, to take apart an object reveals the traces of the many different external factors that are embedded within the object. All the objects chosen for this exercise will be analyzed according to the same set of filters. This common framework will allow for a comparative understanding of objects that, at first glance, may appear similar or dissimilar. The four analytical categories are: Use and Operation; Fabrication and Assembly; Form and Composition; Analogs and Precedents. The analytical categories and procedures are described in greater detail in the section on Analysis. 3.0 reflection selection documentation e1 coa 1011 . fundamentals of design and the built environment I . Fall 2006 georgia institute of technology joseph minatta, instructor Looking over Time Each studio period will begin with a half-hour drawing session with each student drawing the object he or she is studying for half an hour. Over the four-week period of the exercise, each student will spend fifteen half-hour sessions, both during studio and as homework, drawing the object under study. Students will be expected to think about how they will draw the object during each session: the media they will use; the type of drawing they will make; the point of view from which they will draw; the number of drawings they will make (one or a series of quick sketches). Students will be expected to select from the whole range of drawing types, media, and approaches that have been introduced, from 1.1 to 2.5, when making these drawings. In addition, students will be encouraged to consider other modes of looking and/or representation after the first few sessions. At the final review, each student will present all the drawings produced during these sessions. Measured Drawings Step One: Taking its Measure Taking the measure of an object (or for that matter a building or a space) is more than simply putting a measuring tape to it: for designers and fabricators measuring something is as much a conceptual, perceptual, and cognitive operation as it is a physical one. There are other measures beside the actual dimensions of things. For example: the proportional relationships between parts; the modules determined by materials or by structure; the anthropomorphic correspondences between the human body and the object; and the ergonomic mapping of uses and tasks upon the object. The first task, therefore, is to sketch and diagram the object in an attempt to discover the various measures embedded within it. Spend at least ninety minutes (in class) taking the object apart in a series of diagrams. These diagrams will you develop a strategy for taking precise measurements: they will help you determine where to begin taking measurements, in what order to take them, how to 'chunk' or partition the object. They should keep you from getting lost in a forest of possible measurements. On a practical level, these diagrams could also serve as common 'cheat sheets' for group members to annotate with dimensions taking in the field. Work done individually and as a group. Step Two: Field Measurements, Dimensioned Drawings Once you have a cognitive grasp of the object, and the relationships between its various parts, you are ready to take precise measurements. A suggested sequence for taking field measurements and producing a base set of dimensioned drawings is as follows: • First takes: establish the basic relationships and dimensions through sketching and diagramming on trace, on Strathmore paper, or in notebooks/journals • Field notes, first pass: take precise dimensions, annotate sketches/diagrams • Use these diagrams and measurements to produce, as a group, a base set of drawings on vellum • Before you begin, each group will need to identify which drawings need to be made and at what scale. Discuss number, type, and scale of drawings to be included in the group’s base set of drawings with the section instructor. The basic set of dimensioned, hardline, drawings on vellum will include a plan (top view), sections (cross-sectional views), and elevations (side views) • Field notes, second pass: re-measure the object to supplement or correct information included in the base drawings Work done individually and as a group.