Namirah's reflection

Taking this course, Architectural Communications had been one of the most challenging courses throughout the semester. Personally, I have to say that I am an International student, thus my English skill is lacking. Therefore I faced a few challenges in ‘communication’ especially at the beginning of the course. At the end, this course certainly encourages me to do a lot of researches and at the end to talk about our work or give a brief presentation about them. This course slowly teaches me to be more confident when speaking and build up self-confident with the result of my work. Other than that, I am obliged to be more hardworking. I am not a really consistent with work and lack of motivation.
At the beginning, I chose Atlas of Color and I had been really inconsistent and less motivated. I wanted to do Architectural Drawing for the first rotation because I can then learn to draw axonometric, sections and plans properly but that workshop was full and I chose Atlas. However, I tried taking it positively because I don’t have good knowledge on paints. I was never an artsty fartsy person and since high school, we don’t have design class and I studied sciences subjects, therefore, these painting and drawing thing is really new to me. I was glad that I was in Atlas though because at the end, I enjoyed painting. I may not be good but at least I was given an opportunity to do it. I learn a few skills in the workshop especially the facts about color and their effects on a building.
Another thing worth highlighting in this course is that we are allowed to choose which workshop we are interested in instead of being forced to choose a specific one.
In the second rotation, I thought hard on which workshop I should choose. I had done colors and I was thinking fluids would be good in developing my observations and interpretations if I want to be an architect. That workshop has been so fun and drawing using charcoal was so new to me. I liked the idea of getting my hands dirty and not bothering how neat my ‘sketch’ could be. In a nutshell, we aren’t being constraint in this workshop. Moreover, everyone’s drawing was beautiful and it is obvious how well they interpret their work and transforming them inside a drawing paper.
In the third rotation, I was in the lecture when Ainslie showed us the skills we developed in each of the workshop and noticed the percentage of development in my modeling skill is the lowest. Moreover, knowing that my modeling skills aren’t so good, I chose Material Modeling. We were taught on how to cut materials properly and neatly and showed slides of buildings being transformed. Anyway, this workshop was very interesting and I had fun trying to build my interpretation of a house, designing and trying to put the materials together. It took awhile and sometimes taking risk didn’t work but the guts I had put on my work showed my courage. I didn’t want to appear too mundane and used the easy way on the modeling. I had used to take the safe route before this. I hope that some other time whenever I take risk, I can make it work. Anyway, material modeling helped me a lot in my design workshop as wel.
Honestly, I am very impressed with all my tutors. They have been very, very concerned with the student’s progress. Each of them always walked around to talk to every student, helping us to move forward when we are stuck and their willingness to assist the students to produce more quality work are appreciated.
In my opinion, this course is really important and suitable for the freshie architecture students in developing their abilities and skills.

final product

I've changed the ramp

The concept i am trying to convey is 'connecting'. The actions that I used are separating and elevating mainly. I am trying to show the buildings are connected even though they are separated by sections.

The rope implies the sections being connected. and the balsa painted in pink are glued on the base to show the same idea as well.

The wrapping of the facade of the two bigger sections are made alternatively. i am emphasising its separation but connected in some ways.

Thinking back, i wished i had the balsa painted instead of splashing red+white on strip of papers because it caused the cluttered effect. initially i wanted to splash red paint on the model but the balsa doesn't turn up the way i wanted it to be. so i took another alternative by wrapping it. thus made it looked not as sophisticated and girlish at the same time.

i don't really like pink. i dont know how my red turned into pink. probably i added too much water and didn't notice the color when it dried.

attempt

The paper makes it looked so cluttered. and the ramp doesnt communicate well with the idea. and the first impression when i looked at it, it looks like junk. haha.

i tried improving on this

My house model -scale 1:50

This is half of my house.
scale 1:50





apprently i selected the most easiest and lamest section of the house. i hope the person who gets this house would transform it to make it interesting.

Material Modelling

Christian from my first rotation Atlas of Colour mentioned something like this;if you want to break the rule, you can

But make sure you did it damn well
apparently this one is *hit. i better follow the rules. no ribbons.

that little boats are random. it looks cute. like a fisherman village in thai i think. or was it the floating market in thailand, im not sure. but this arrangement reminds me a scene when oneof the states in my country experienced floods. walls got torn down, roof dropped and everyone travelled with little boats around.

im still thinking of ideas. drew sketches of them randomly but i can't seem to make it work, not just yet. we'll see how it goes from here.

Fluids in thoughts

Sydney Opera House
This piece of mine shows me being too careful and afraid of drawing on top of another drawing. This was my second piece. I wished i didnt throw away the first one (i had to becuase it smudged since i didnt spray fixative) because it is VERY important to be at the location and draw. Then you can see and transform the movement in the paper.

And this is the desription drawing i received.
You’re walking down a dark narrow hallway with only one long strip of skylight that allows natural light to penetrate through and shine in the hallway. However, the overall lighting of this hallway is relatively dark although it is in the afternoon. This hallway is about 2 metres long, and as it ends, it opens up into a larger space that is much more open and free. The ceilings of both spaces are quite high. You are viewing all of this from eyelevel and you are standing from the start of the hallway. You can’t really see the whole of the larger space but can see the opening from the hallway. The larger space is a lot brighter, and strongly contrasts with the lighting of the darker hallway.

Unfinished drawing because the tutors moved it so many times and i tried catching up. But it was fun trying to fit everything in. i started with untidy sketch and when i was about to draw, the objects changed.

landscaping.

one of the drawings was gone, unfortunately. anyway, my teammate drew a specific hallway in different angle and perspectives and we joined them together to make sense of it.
this was one of fun part in fluids. collaboration task.
my team decided to make 3D and things popping up but ended up with a collage.So during class, we started tearing. without scissors or blade but seriously, tearing. we used the cloth as the base. and it looks as if we threw things on the cloth, lamp books bottles etc. and there is a sense of objects being swallowed and moved.

so fluid.

Atlas of color

ATLAS

OF

COLOUR

Personal Colour Themes. A4 page with five areas which relate to your five themes, as handed out in class.

I specifically use collage for this one. Yellow is the colour of the ideal me and i make it the centre and surrounded by other colours of the four themes. Though i do not have yellow hair.

Drawing/diagramming a space from you past that relates to colour. Plan and Perspective. PS: I might exaggerate a little on the things at the board. it is not that tidy and my desk is a mess. and one of legs of my chair is broken but i fixed it already.

Mapping: Your fictional content based on a timeline of memories.

Summary of a book and color object presented in class

I have chosen Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 for my favorite book review. This science fiction cover page background color is not totally white. It looks more like an ‘old paper sheet’. The man on the cover is made of pages in books and he’s crying while getting burnt along with the books on the floor. This story is about an ignorance society and the firemen job was to burn books instead of putting of fire. The main theme of the story is censorship. The government thinks if books, knowledge and informations are burnt, leaving the people in ignorance, the people will be happy. They let them speed on the road and fine them if they drive really slowly. They put up TV around their walls and leave them unaware of the current news. In the end the society is destroyed by a nuclear. They sort of knew there is a war happening but had no idea why it happened and what is the current situation. The only survivors are those who realized they are unhappy being ignorance and attempted to leave that society.

The layout inside is just like normal novel books. Divided by chapters. But the coverpage is what struck me the most because it's unique and makes me question why is that man wrapped with papers and what are the books down there and why is he crying.

OBJECT of my COLOUR
This was my first attempt in drawing my object. I tried making it as harmonious as possible but it didnt stand out.

Then, i tried using contrast colour with the help of colour wheels distributed in class in choosing which and which.

This book is the object of my colour. I always hv this book with me everywhere. Trying to be more organized and force myself to jot down everything inside, assignments, tips, ideas etc. I thought this blue book is very me. It gives me the impression of cool,calm and collected.

Loose Drawing Exercise. From presentation and in-class exercise demonstrated by Sarah in week 2. Ink, Pastel, Gouache.

Four photos of buildings exemplifying colour principles of Contrast, Harmony, Rhythm and Balance to be rendered in
colour and ink.

Interpretation of Wall exercise, showing your own personal colour square and its relation to the class’ overall colour exercise.

Everyone produces an object of their color and that object describes the person itself. As each of the work are arranged according to the arrangement of the color of rainbow, it produces the ‘walltherapy’. Each of the work is unique, reflecting own personalities and color preferences. The image that mostly stands out the most is the ones contrasting in colors. Apparently in this exercise a lot of the work uses harmonious colors to balance three colors use in this exercise.