Idea, Reality & the Drawings Between

Idea[

]Reality

+The drawings between

David Solano | CityLab-Orlando UF GSoA Fall 2013

Idea[

]Reality

+The drawings between

Preface

[

For architecture, hand drawing emerges from a particularly interesting intersection of ideas and reality. Architectural hand drawing beckons ideas to the medium of time + space and animates reality in ways that help articulate the character of this unique intersection.

In architectural hand drawing, ideas and reality are related.�The things we learn about our environment when we draw on location help us as we imagine, draw, and design the future.�

(Richard, xii)

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Contents 1 3 15 23 29 35 41 45 47 48

Preface Street Views - Elevations Street Views - Thumbnail Sketches Pure Speculation Speculative Renditions View from Above View Inside Money Shot Conclusion Bibliography

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Street Views- Elevations

This project is comprised of 10 different elevation sketches of an urban streetscape in Downtown Orlando.

One of the purposes of this set of sketches was to exercise my “sketching muscle� by animating this reality using various utensils (pencil, ink, & computer).

Drawing the intersection of idea and reality in this case is ensured through 10 opportunities to animate the existing building. I wanted the drawings to animate regularity, clean lines, and modular rectangles because this is the sense that I get when I experience and remember the building.

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Photoshopped strip photo of building on 9x12 Canson drawing paper

Graphite pencil analysis sketch on 9x12 Canson drawing paper

Graphite pencil on-site sketch on 9x12 Canson drawing paper

Graphite pencil without shadows on 9x12 Canson drawing paper

Graphite pencil with shadows on 9x12 Canson drawing paper

Technical pen without shadows on 9x12 Canson drawing paper

Technical pen with shadows on 9x12 Canson drawing paper

Graphite + Colored pencil on 9x12 Canson drawing paper

Technical pen + Colored pencil on 9x12 Canson drawing paper

Technical pen + watercolor on 9x12 Canson watercolor paper

Technical pen + Photoshop on 9x12 Canson drawing paper

Street Views- Thumbnail sketches Working with the same urban streetscape in downtown Orlando, the story is now to be told through thumbnail section cuts. The progression of drawings toward the building could be combined to create the beginnings of a flip book. There was also a written component to these sketches.

In this series of drawings, the intersection of an idea and reality is rendered in three dimensions. Unlike two dimensional drawings, the third dimension adds the touch of reality we all experience naturally. What I am animating in this series is the experience of the form as I traveled along the street - it pushes and pulls from the street front.

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H

ow could I forget the first time I spotted this area on E South Street? It was a sunny Sunday afternoon and I was trying to get my bearing on navigating the local roads in Orlando. I planned on traveling to the Lake Como area every Sunday for church, and so I needed to have a memorable and efficient route to travel in order to get home. I mapped out my travels online, but actually driving the route can sometimes add a layer of difficulty. This is especially true in urban contexts like Orlando where there are plenty of one-way streets.

E South Street is a one-way street and feels like a quiet side street (in spite of the busy 408 highway running alongside it). It is a perfect road to drive on before ramping onto the often congested I-4. There are a lot of oak trees giving canopy to the street. There is also a mix of residential and office space driving along this road. Most of the residential buildings stop to the east of the S Summerlin ave. intersection. After this intersection, I began to get a feel for downtown Orlando. The buildings began to appear more like commercial office space than residential, but still spread out.

It was in this commercial office space corridor that I spotted this building on E South St. It stood out to me among the other commercial buildings for the fact that it looked residential (apartment), but modern enough to speak the same language as the surrounding commercial buildings. Another reason this building stuck out to me was because of how densely packed the apartments looked. This building looks like a bunch of smaller buildings that work as one unit. The two buildings across the street from this building, to me, are plain looking and don’t give drivers or passersby the opportunity to admire intricate design. This was probably their designer’s intention, which all the more made the building I admire, grab my attention.

Whenever I am driving on E South St., this building always becomes a focal point for me—no matter how many times I pass it.

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1

Technical pen on 9x12 Canson drawing paper

Technical pen+Colored pencil+Marker on 9x12 Canson drawing paper

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Technical pen on 9x12 Canson drawing paper

Technical pen+Colored pencil+Marker on 9x12 Canson drawing paper

3

Technical pen on 9x12 Canson drawing paper

Technical pen+Colored pencil+Marker on 9x12 Canson drawing paper

4

Technical pen on 9x12 Canson drawing paper

Technical pen+Colored pencil+Marker on 9x12 Canson drawing paper

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Technical pen on 9x12 Canson drawing paper

Technical pen+Colored pencil+Marker on 9x12 Canson drawing paper

Pure Speculation

These next drawings illustrate a proposed design of mine in downtown Orlando. Beckoning the idea I had to the dimensions of space and time meant portraying this street front in the existing context of the downtown fabric. My intention with the design is to strike a healthy balance between designing a modern styled building while remaining consistent with the existing proportions of the adjacent historic buildings. I ventured to evoke the sense that this building’s existence belongs in context, but stands out just enough to be inviting.

What was important about this assignment was not necessarily what I designed, but that my thoughts and ideation process became visible, helping to communicate my idea to other people. (Douglas, 3) 23

Imagery Š 2013 Google images

Graphite pencil + Photoshop on 9x12 Canson drawing paper

Graphite pencil on 5x6 trace paper

Graphite pencil + Photoshop on 9x12 Canson drawing paper

Graphite pencil on 5x8 trace paper

Graphite pencil + Photoshop on 9x12 Canson drawing paper

Speculative Renditions

The rest of the drawings in this book coincide with the work I did in the graduate design studio.

At this point in the design process, I was still exploring the overall look and feel of my proposed design. These next sketches proved invaluable in my understanding of the dimensions of my concept and the emotions it evoked from all directions (north, south, east, west,and birds eye). Had I not sketched these drawings, the idea of the building could remain lucid and proportion-less - not bound by the constraint of real connections, materiality or scale. By forcing me to understand the building through illustrations, I was able to release the concept from its early stages of an idea in order to move it toward embracing the more developed opportunities of reality.

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Graphite pencil + Photoshop on 9x12 Canson drawing paper

Graphite pencil on 5x5 trace paper

Graphite pencil + Photoshop on 9x12 Canson drawing paper

Graphite pencil on 6x9 trace paper

Graphite pencil + Photoshop on 9x12 Canson drawing paper

View from Above

One of the realities of buildings is that they are in context with other buildings. This is especially true in urban settings like downtown Orlando. In drawings, articulating the context can be conveyed through conventions of scale, style, and information. All of which contain several factors that inform the progression of an idea for a building, into the reality in which it will exist.

For the next set of drawings, I explore two different scales as well as a figure ground to inform my design.

Along with what the design is evolving into, “the drawing has its own expectations, dictated by the scale and framing of the image.�(Seidler, 8) 35

Imagery Š 2013 Google images

Technical pen on 9x12 drawing paper

Technical pen on 9x12 drawing paper

Technical pen on 9x12 drawing paper

Technical pen + colored pencils on 9x12 drawing paper

The View Inside

Details are becoming more and more articulated about my idea at this point in the process from idea to reality. I am beginning to understand the overall look and how the idea sits in context. But what about the inside? This next assignment requires a section cut through the building in order to speak about the spaces, voids, and activities, and how these spaces exist in the larger fabric.

As I draw the spaces and their activities, the relationship of the program to itself starts to become graphically clear.

These sketches are also beginning to reveal some of the necessities of structure, HVAC systems, and daylighting requirements. I find that in this set of sketches, the building starts to take on the reality of becoming operational.

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Graphite pencil + black marker on 9x12 drawing paper

Graphite pencil + black marker + Photoshop on 9x12 drawing paper

Graphite pencil + technical pen on 2x12 trace paper

Graphite pencil + technical pen + Photoshop on 9x12 drawing paper

The Money Shot

Through a combination of digital techniques, the money shot illustrates the character of the intersection of an idea and reality. Found in the money shot is perhaps, the most succinct opportunity to tell a story of my vision.

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Sketchup + Photoshop on 9x12 drawing paper

Conclusion

“A great sketch is an unself-conscious fusion of pen and place and personality. It will have its own unique creative energy, reflective of its subject and its maker.� (Richard, xiv) Whether the architectural hand sketch is depicting an idea or a reality, it is irreplaceable in how it characterizes one of the most important intersections for designers - where the lines of idea and reality intersect.

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Bibliography Google images (c) 2013 Google images Richard, James, and Francis D.K. Ching. Freehand Drawing and Discovery: Urban Sketching and Concept Drawing for Designers. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2013. Print.

Seidler, Douglas R., and Amy Korte. Hand Drawing for Designers: Communicating Ideas through Architectural Graphics. New York: Fairchild, 2010. Print.

Farrelly, Lorraine. Drawing for Urban Design. London: Laurence King, 2011. Print.

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