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Assemble Studio's design for Limborough Gardens,
images from assemblestudio.co.uk |
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| Collages made up of both photo-realistic and sketchy elements, a fun series of images, playful and conceptual yet they still give an idea of how the gardens will slot into the estate. This is a community project, which is aiming to provide residents with enjoyable spaces to cherish and develop. |
It seems these days there are a number of different ways to fill out our drawings, we have a licence to express ourselves and be free in the way we represent space. In this post I would like to share some of the ways artists and architects alike have used human forms to create a new dimension within their work.
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Competition winner SANAA, design for a Budapest museum,
images from dezeen.com |
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| These images are a mixture of rendered and photo-realistic elements. The people are almost drawn as a series of ants, the wider landscape and the connection to the rest of the city is the focal point. Each public building relies heavily upon it's footfall and from these representations I can gauge the significance of the museum's civic presence in Budapest. |
At times I have struggled to understand what I want to show, how I will create it and what the eventual outcome will look like. I have dabbled with painting, sketching, model-making, screen-printing and now rendering too. Over the past few weeks, the topic of best representing my ideas in a 3D image has been resonating on my mind. I have been creating a number of spatial representations for my professional work and it is now that I am understanding what I do and don't like. Forming projects in BIM software has helped and I cannot recommend it enough as you can move through a model, place it into context and select the most relevant views.
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Herzog and De Meuron's design for a library in Israel,
images taken from dezeen.com |
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| These representations are atmospheric, detailed and bright. The reflections, the green in the foreground and the cutout people enhance the views of this building, each image appears to be light and evocative. |
Some of us have little input into the design of architectural space, so graphic is everything. We control the colour palette we utilise, the style we create and the layering of textures, activities and ofcourse the people we include. This sometimes means we watch hours of tutorials to achieve those desired effects!
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A photomontage between old and new, it almost looks real!
Royal Academy of the Arts Masterplan, David Chipperfield Architects |
The best way to sell our scheme is to create images and drawings filled with scenography. We evoke emotion, we set the scene and create the beginnings of a new place through these images. It helps to imagine how one may make best of use a new gallery, courtyard, public square, entrance or home extension if we show people doing everyday things.
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Retail design and display proposal for the V&A museum by Bureau de Change.
A montage of silhouettes and forms, this style leaves much to the imagination., particularly for a project which is designed as an installation against a backdrop of something more permanent. Alternatively when the proposal has not been finalised, this is also a good technique to employ. |
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The placement of human figures in our drawings, presents a sense of scale. We immediately grasp how it would feel to be that person, walking through that park, gallery or wherever else the artist is taking you.
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| Brent Civic Centre, WWM, images taken from pinterest.com |
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| Human Rights Action Centre by WWM. A variation of collages and sketches created by Witherford Watson Mann. I enjoy the use of line, colour and opacity in these drawings. The images are exciting and break free from the norm of creating renderings of buildings which may or may not ever come into fruition. |
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| London Almshouse, a project based upon sociability for the elderly, WWM. An animate and vivid drawing, which captures the earthy tones of the view, with layering of shadows, trees, objects and ofcourse people. Ironically this image has a youthfulness about it. |
But hang on a minute...which person should I use in my drawing? Should it be an animate figure, an outline, a silhouette or a cutout, the list continues as we are forever evolving our drawing styles. I am sure we all know what we do and don't like graphically, so that's part and parcel of the selection process. We know if something is too obtrusive, distracting or too loud against the backdrop of our projects, so this aids the process. What do we aim to achieve from this image? It truly varies from practice to practice and person to person, do we want to create a photo-realistic effect, is it more of an artistic collage or is it rendered down to a tee?
And a few more...
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Kvosin Hotel, DRDH Architects. The building, the figures in the public square, grass and the
sky are painterly, each element is part of this beautiful composed view. |
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School in Riaz, TEd'Arquitectes. I particularly like the colour palette, textured graphic
and the hot air balloons in the distance! |
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| Baptist Church, Allies and Morrison. A sketchy and colourful set of figures blend into the streetscape. |
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| 8th Street Market, AHMM. This scheme is for the re-purposing of an underused warehouse. There is a clarity to the visualisation, the people are using the space as a backdrop to their daily lives. |
I hope you enjoyed flicking through the images on this post today, if you have any comments then please do contact me and do not forget to follow and share! All the best guys!
