With the architecture profession currently amidst its prime digital age, it can be fun to explore expanding digital tools and our understanding of conventional means of representation as an aesthetic medium. As architects, we are interested in presenting our designs in meaningful ways, and at the same time, in a manner that suggests the design can still evolve. In an age where technology can give us photorealistic renderings very early in the design process, axonometric diagrams give a simple, sketchy feel to the presentation, which also suggests the project can still be affected by the client’s feedback and reinforces the collaborative process of design.
As a different take on graphically representing our ongoing project, Glen Paul School in Eureka, CA, these axonometric projections explore monochromatic texture and poche at two scales to highlight the project’s unique qualities.
A site surrounded by its local conifers, the repetitious plants become a texture that frames the elementary school. The dark poche illustrates the outward circulation of transportation that borders the school’s main program. The addition of the new buildings begins to characterize the existing play area as a courtyard that becomes the school’s core.
At the smaller scale, the partial section cut illustrates the classroom’s relationship to the play area and the room’s access to air and light. We can see how people use and move through the spaces, as the gabled classroom building serves as a programmatic boundary between the courtyard and parking lot.
By abstracting color, this mode of representation puts into focus the relationships between architectural elements and the context it becomes a part of. The texture overlays and poche help set up a parallel projected scene that captures the already-beautiful school site.
Blog post authored by Klaude Matias, Architectural Intern
-
- Axonometric Diagram of Glen Paul School
-
- Section Diagram of Glen Paul School
