Week_05- Piranesi Posterboard

For th posterboard, I thought about the way that Piranesi's works had many different elements in them and many different diverging paths in them, and decided to incorporate them into this posterboard, which has many different phrases and different pictures. I used pictures of the Piranesi work that I studied, "Drawbridge" and the sketched and paper folding images into the board, to help express the main elements of Piranesi's works. The words I incorporated relate to the very strong elements I found within his works, and the concepts that he developed and revealed in his works.

With the broken pieces and the diverging lines, I also used a strong and vibrant red colour to draw the eye of the viewer, to draw attention to many different parts of the posterboard and to contrast with the black and white of Piranesi's works. With the interruption of the red,it cuts through the blandness of the posterboard and attracts the viewer to analyse and observe the posterboard more closely.

Assingment 1 Progress 01

Week_04- Exercise with Piranesi

I have used this image by Piranesi, "The Drawbridge" as the main focus of the excercise for today

This was a very confusing one to do, with the many paths and the impossible structural/ architectural elements and different paths that I found when I was analysing this picture. It is very architecturally convincing, with very realising structures and representation of architectural elements in the space, but on closer analysis, there are very impossible and confusing additions and elements. 

Some problems in the drawing:

One of the main elements that confused me was the large column in the middle of the sketch. It seems to go through the second floor bridge, but if you look at the draw bridge, it seems to be right above the second floor bridge, so it would be reasoned that the column would also pass through this structure as well. 

This column also reaches the top, at the fourth floor, and the intersecting pathways is also depicted incorrectly and impossibly. The paths reach behind the arch and also in front of it, but it seems to be all on the same level, with makes this also impossible to do.

This is my section/ elevation:

Some corrections I made in the elevation is that:

1) the column is behind the bridge, not going through it

2) one of the 'impossible' pathways that meets at the top of the column, I have placed set back, on a higher floor than the fourth floor, to accommodate for the seemingly "impossible" structure that Piranesi has drawn.

These are the floor plans: I have placed them levels 4 down to 1 to make it easier to visualise the floors being on top of each other:

There is a door way that exists on the column that is lined on the second floor and to accommodate for this existence, I made a smaller path that joins the column to the second floor. You can see it in the second floor plan. I have also kept the spiral staircase that reaches up to the fourth floor, and was one the original sketch Piranesi did.

This excerise was very interesting, and it really had me analysing Prianesi's depiction of architectural space, and consideration of circulation and space represented in his drawings, but it is far from being real. The theory of intersecting, diverging and overlapping circulation within the sketches are very prominent, and a strong concept, but because Piranesi has no background as an architect, the techniques and the architectural realism escapes Piranesi's grasp.

Week_02- Arrangement of Shapes and spaces

These boxes are stacked in different ways to show different styles and relationships of each room to each other. Some are stacked offset to each other but are still interconnected in their space and their size.

These three primative shapes are what I have chosen to be the premise for my assignment: the Rectangular Prism, the cylinder and the cone.

These are all different shapes, and are not similar to each other at all.
First Composition:

This shape is balanced on the rectangular prism, and has the cylindrical shape cantilevering over the structure. It would be a very interesting building to do- the floors within the space would obviously be parallel to the ground, but the space within the slanted cone would be small, due to it's scalar shape, (from big to small). The relationships within the spaes are that they are joined together at their ends. This is because all rooms and all areas within each shape will connect and meet at a single point (or as I imagine, a single large room at the point of contact of these shapes where the people would convene or meet.

Second Composition:

 The shapes here are interlocked in a circle or cycle, where the circulation between the rooms is linear. To get to another shape, one must travel in a circle around the structure. There is a gap between the three shapes, and creates an interesting structure, where all the shapes balance on one another to maintain its shape. The rooms within the shape would vary in size due to the odd placement and arrangement of the shapes, The shape is small, and enclosed within itself.

Third Composition:

 The third shape is balanced on the rectangular prism, and the two other shapes are stacked on top. The cylinder is once again cantilevering outwards, and the cone is connected at its point. This is an odd shape, albeit and interesting one to do. Because the cone is at its point, the hallway ere would be significantly thinner, but the rooms at the wider part will be more spacious.

Week_02- Paper folding excercise

Impressions of the excercise:

It was very different, and challenging to figure out how to create a model with a single piece of paper, that represents concepts or aspects of the designer we chose. Prianesi was a horrible (!) choice for this excercise, as his building is not composed of one component, ie. the single piece of paper, but of many different structures and elements that make his etchings and concepts within the prisons a reality. The abstract models that I made were more focused on concepts in the space rather than the literal staircases and diverging paths.

The literal was the easiest as it was a direct representation of the stairs.

Abstract Model 1: 

Represents the structural aspects revealed in Piranesi's prison etchings. The rigid shapes represent structural aspects, as well as the rippling effect, which represents how all these structural elements work together to create and make a bundling and architectural space. The flowing and interconnecting zig zagged shapes represents these connections to create a standing 3D model

Abstract Model 2:

This model was made by tearing the paper and making accordion folds. This represents the stairs and the various paths that are within Priranesi's prison  etchings. I wanted to show the various paths and circulations that one takes if they were in the prison themselves.

Literal Model: 

This was a much more easier model to do because we could make a literal straight to the point model that represented our chosen designer. Because we could make speedster parts and en stick em together, the process was far more easier to do to show one who we studied. Because Prianesi shows many paths that one could take in his prison etchings, I made that in my model, with many stairs, paths and platforms that circulate around the diorama itself.

Openings and arches are also present in the etchings, so I have also included this features, to better represent how complex structures work in the building to create various paths and various methods of circulation through the space, as well as shows structural cohesion, ie. the different paths and structures work together to create a dynamic and grandiose space 

Week_01- Giovanni Battista Piranesi

For the rest of the semester, I would like to research and analyse the Artist
Giovanni Battista Piranesi. If Piranesi is too popular, I would like to choose MC Escher :D

What interested me with Piranesi's prision etchings was that, even though he is not an architect, he can roduce many detailed shetched ans etchings of architectural structures.
 He is most famous for his etchings of prisons, certainly, but what interested me was the fact that they are all fictional pieces.

I understand that I am to only analyse his prison etchings, BUT I believe that some context in his Rome etchings must be explored first:

I look back to his early works, with the sketches of Rome, where he used pre-existing buildings as reference for his drawing, and I believe that he he learned to some extent, his architectural, foundation and analysis from doing these sketches.

The Colosseum Etching, 1757

The Arch of Trajan, as it would have been in the 18th Century

However, through further reading of his works in Rome, I was more and more drawn to the fact that, with the remains of Rome as bases for his drawings, he included smaller details in his drawingas to complete the architcture: that is to say, he drew the remains as they would have looked all those centures ago when they were still fully intact.
They are very convincing and intricate in design and details, that it's fascination how wide his imagination and accuracy is in depicting them, even though they weren't fully intact when he drew them.

Not only did he use reality as a canvas for his works, but he visualised on the (somewhat) abstract plane to create a more complete picture of the ruins.

The Prisons (Carceri)
This collection of sketches consist of 16 Prints which were unnamed by Piranesi and titles were allocated according to content description. These prison sketched intrugue me with their grandiose and amazing designs, of subterranean spaces and trhe presence of machinery and various stairs and walkways.

Piranesi influenced the surrealist and romantic movement. This is and odd combination, yet is somewhat correlated- The Romantic period consisted of flights of imagination and feelings, more focused on human perception rather than rationality and science. Surrealism, from what I myself can understand, is a movement in which imagination and reality mingle together to create an entirely different viewpoint of the world.

I think Piranesi would be a very interesting person to explore in the following semester and it certainly is different from just simply choosing an architect and working with them. Piranesi is an artist, yet he is able to attain essential qualities the same as an architect would through his works.

VI- The Smoking Fire

VII- The Draw Bridge

XI- The Arch with the shell ornament

References:
Author Unknown, Date Unknown. Giovanni Battista Piranesi [Images and information]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Battista_Piranesi  
(accessed 4/8/13)