Drawing Workshop

Like the other workshops, the Drawing workshop sought to nurture and develop particular necessary and transferrable skills with hand drawn and graphic media. It did this is a far more logical, direct and self evident manner to the other workshops. The succession of in class exercises explored different ways in which to effectively communicate what we saw on paper. The cup and saucer exercise was particularly effective in getting one to break free iron bound rules and geometry and to truly try and test our perceptions of proportion as well as free hand drawing skills.

The perspective and shadow casting exercises in a similarly fashion sought to develop a trust in self judgement and a personalised style in communicating themes and concepts. In all individual honesty, that was the true focus of the workshop, to encourage unique, individual and in some cases innovation methods of communicating significant concepts and themes in architectre through drawings, graphics, layouts, composition, texturing and so on. Indeed, some may argue for the superiority of computer aided methods, but to this mind, such methods without personal drawing experience lacks feel and spirit. One, after all, must learn to walk before one can run.

Workshop 2: Material Modelling

The Material Modelling workshop to start off with, highlighted the importance of having the most appropriate and suitable equipment with which to work with. The quality of an individual's model, while largely depends on the person's skill, is also influenced in a large way by the tools with which he works.

Secondly, patience and precision with your modelling work were qualities highlighted to be most critical in this workshop. The quality of the model, as in the first card scale model then the balsa copy, can be vastly boosted by the patience and care one devotes to it.

The final submission with the double tranformative action model was a very good way in which to put the skills and concepts developed in the workshop into practice. The idea of transformative actions really forced the individual to see spaces and buildings through a whole new different perspective, and often many at the same time. It also forced us to really explore the boundaries and limits of the media we worked with, and to look at interesting solutions and compromises.

Workshop 1 : Atlas of Colour

This workshop was a surprisingly enlightening exploration into the uses of colour theory in architecture.

It was surprising in the impact and the strength of the response particular colour themes and combinations, the patterns and arrangements of colours can have upon the observer.

Certain colour combinations can instil specific feelings, emotions and responses to the observer of architecture and in turn convey particular encompassing concepts and themes. The usefulness and pragmatics of colour in architecture cannot be underestimated and is often understated.

As important the focus on colour theory though, the workshop wasn't solely about that.

The careful selection of different media to use in the atlas, innovation design and planning, and the development of skills in creating layouts with Photoshop and InDesign were all areas which the workshop nurtured.

Despite the mountain of work required of students, provided one completed weekly exercises on time, the final finished product is something to be proud of.