Storyboarding Interior Architectural Spaces: Week 1

This week I started my second workshop, which is also the second storyboarding workshop on offer. I chose this for two reasons. One, I don't really want to do either of the modelling workshops, and two, I wanted a more traditional exploration of storyboarding.

The workshop started with a lecture type presentation on storyboarding, which was basically common sense, but useful nonetheless. What was especially interesting were the examples shown. They were far more artistic and developed than I was expecting.

After this, we were given our first in class task, and this involved creating a storyboard of a space from memory. I found this quite difficult as I draw much more realistically when I can see what I am drawing.

After a genuine attempt, the tutors could see what I was trying to create but suggested I be more expressive with my drawing style and focus more on a continuous journey through the vignettes.

After this, I began drawing a single vignette taking on the tutors advice. The tutors responded much more receptively to this; they even got me up to talk about it.

(Re)representing Representations: Week 4

This was the time of our first submission.

During the week, Christina and I gathered our thoughts and really tried to follow the advice given to us by the tutors. At this point, we still wanted to use transparency paper as our main medium but we needed to use it in a way that better served our main concept. We decided to create transparency slides of one facade of the space rather than a single slide of three of the facades.

Through creating multiple copies of the one facade, we were able to isolate a single hole on each layer, while keeping the rest of the slides semi-opaque. The idea behind this was that when the slides were overlayed, the holes would be very obvious against a fully opaque background. We also ordered the holes in terms of size, so the biggest hole was at the very back, and the smallest was at the very front. Even so, the user can arrange them in whatever order and orientation that he or she would want.

The point of the slides is to emphasise the holes but to also show that the holes are still apparent no matter how the slides are positioned. This is what was produced:

The tutors really liked our project. At first, Haris said he didn't know what it was and he wondered how it would work, but during our explanation, his excitement and enthusiasm was apparent. Meeray really liked the fact that we created two copies of the slides only because we felt the first weren't effective enough. She likened this to "being your own tutors".

GRADE: D+

OVERALL WORKSHOP GRADE: D

(Re)representing Representations: Week 3

In this weeks workshop, the tutors decided to have less of a focus on discussion and more of a focus on production. They went around to each pair individually to assess how they were going with the weeks task of translating last weeks 2D propositions into 3D.

Christina and I focused on creating a diorama like model of the space that was hinged off itself so that the user could manipulate the dimensions of the site. Amongst this were two smaller models, one of the water feature and one of the nearby tree. At this point, our idea developed beyond reflections and depth and focused on holes instead, as even in reflections, you can see holes. For example, the sky being framed by the trees in the reflection would be considered a hole.

We were really happy with the two smaller models, as they were exploded to explore the varying holes in each.

The tutors responded well to our proposition, but were afraid that by creating such a literal model, we were losing the metaphorical side of our idea. They said the model was architectural in construction but it needed to be pushed further to explore our idea fully.

GRADE: C+

(Re)representing Representations: Week 2

This week, my partner Christina and I presented a 2D storyboard of our thought process. It involved a large sketch of the space with small digitally captured images around it. These focused on particularities of the site that could perhaps form a larger part of our project. Here's what was produced:

The tutors were slightly underwhelmed by our presentation mainly because we had such a strong idea last week. They said that since our concept was so strong we should have taken it upon ourselves to extend beyond the 2D requirements of this weeks work and made a conceptual or working model.

GRADE: C+