11th EAEA Envisioning Architecture: Design, Evaluation, Communication Conference in 2013

Track 3 | Conceptual Representation | Exploring the layout of the built environment

The drawing as a knowledge instrument

Domenico Chizzoniti, Matteo Noviello, Gaia Preta, Letizia Cattani, Luca Preis

Keywords: analysis; concept; spatial simulations

ABSTRACT

The theme of this paper regards the conceptual visualization and the research for a general method that evaluates the key elements of an architectural composition. The methodological experience here demonstrated refers to a specific case study that belongs to the scientific research. The research, begun in October 2010, is the result of a work about the bohemian architect Josef Gočár (1880-1945), done by a group of research at the Milan Polytechnic, within the Architectural Design Laboratory. The investigation method plays a role of a knowledge instrument that verifies the structure that subtends compositional procedures. The graphic processes used are the tools for conception, verification, evaluation and communication of the individual project components and the architectural space.
First step: the first step consists in to select the architecture by principles that follow the main aim of the research. It is necessary to have enough documentation for a proper investigation. Following the identification of the primary sources it is necessary to proceed with two-dimensional drawing reconstruction of the design according to the traditional representation of the architectural project: plans, sections, elevations. Second step: after re-drawing, a work of interpretation based on the proportioning of the elements that compose the project is developed. The resulting schemes are geometric reconstructions checking the correct reproduction and also the critical reading of the architectural work. This allows us to go back over the process used by the architect in the conceiving design project, from the idea to the concept. Third step: finished two-dimensional drawings we proceed to three-dimensional reconstruction of the project, through conventional graphics programs, focusing on an overall reading of the architectural form. Fourth step: it involves the combination of three significant bi-dimensional drawings (a plan, a section and a façade) with the exploded axonometric view derived from the three-dimensional reconstruction and drawn using main construction lines. The proposed work aims to purchase a method also useful in the design phase. In this way, the design becomes a device that helps prefiguring a clear idea of architectural space. This procedure makes it possible to trace the original intuition underlying architectural work, where the ideation is translated into clear typological choices. Form and construction are summarized symbolically in a form of language closer to the formulation of the architectural idea.

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