How architects/architectural studios communicate

Version 2 Methodology in Architecture 7X811 1st semester 1st quarter 2011, December 20, 2011

Jan Kropik, Romain naudy, Denis Simonis, mohammed Kamel 0777805, 0785328, 0786752, 0789284

contents

Introduction Theory Method Case studies Classification

u u u uu u u u u

[Jan] [all] [Jan] [Jan] [Denis, Mohammed] [Romain] [] [Romain]

Practical relevance Results Bibliography

final production [Jan]

0. introduction
topic As architects produce designs, have ideas and visions, these need to be in some way delivered to other people. Architectural studios around us use various ways of communication, however for many of them, the ways of communication seem to be well grounded and repeated. The curious question that arises is if there is a reason why particular ways of communication are used. If the decision on using a particulat way of communication is influenced by something. Also, there is a number of ways of communication emplyed by architects, and almost an infinity of their combinations. A collection of all the various ways of communication coupled with an investigation into why a specific way of communication was used might be a useful tool for other architects to decide on what way of communication to use. Research question architects people

How architects/architectural studios communicate to people? ways of communication available are the ways of communication influenced by something, and if so by what advice to decide on your way of communication

Research field The research is in the field of architectural theory.

method Existing theory in the field of the research is studied in order to obtain deeper orientation. This knowledge is used for the study of case studies. Case study architectural studios are selected and studied, with the use of the theoretical knowledge already gained. Case study studios are brought together and compared. A general outcome of the study of case studies is outlined. The general outcome is compared with the goal of the research research question. Is it answered or not? Also, the method that was used is reviewed. Was the method good, clear and appropriate, did it provide relevant results? Or does it need to be changed? If research question is answered and method found relevant, the research is finished and ready to be published. If the research question is not asnwered, research will continue. If research method had to be changed, research will continue. Questioning the research question and the method relevance will be repeated. Further elaboration of the method is covered on following pages.

1. theory
mean of communication

architects use means of communication to communicate their ideas, visions, designs...

People encounter means of communication produced by architects. People interpret these means (=what they encounter/see) in a certain way.

Visual cognition encompasses issues of how cognitive processes interact with vision to enable us to interpret the world and our apparent ability to mentally manipulate visual information in the form of images.
* MacEachren, Alan. How maps work. London: The Guilford Press, 1995. p. 33

* MacEachren, Alan. How maps work. London: The Guilford Press, 1995. p. 45

* MacEachren, Alan. How maps work. London: The Guilford Press, 1995. p. 364

After relating our study of the book How maps work by Alan MacEachren to what we observe and encounter during our studies of architecture we conclude: architects, in order to ensure that their means of communication deliver the message to people (=people interpret the mean of communication in a way that they obtain the message the architects want to give), need to understand the way people interpret means of communication. If architects do understand how people interpret means of communication, they can create such means of communication that will be interpreted by people in a way the architects wants. In other words, architects need to understand how people interpret architects means of communication in order to allow that the message/idea/vision/design architects want to deliver to people is by people received and understood.

theory, theory, theory...

(presentation structure, presence, magic.... all our research done so far put together in a sensible way)

Psychology of graphic images

The psychology of graphic images, Manfredo Massinori Defining Visual Rethorics, edited by Charles A.Hill and Marguerite Helmers Gerald Allen, Richard Oliver, Architectural drawing: The art and the process. Whitney Library of Design, New-York 1981

Descartes a bit of ink scattered over a piece of paper But this bit suffices to represent forests, cities, men and even battles and storms Communication with drawings relies on the understanding of the perceptual system .The practice of writing derives from the practice of drawing: first where the drawing and symbolic forms. Representation was, and stills a way of transmitting and storing information. Based on the authors theory, he Divide the drawings in two categories: representational and non-representational. There is an in-between, half figurative, half abstract (ex : technical drawings) The role of the context: a text is efficient if it activates knowledge that the reader already has. The context removes the ambiguity of the representation. So there is an interpretation by the observer according to his own knowledge. There is always an interpretation of the subject made by the emitter of the drawings: making choices to explain the reality in a certain way. The drawings inform in a purposeful manner: the full veridicality is not necessary. So the communication plan works if there are common rules, if the emitter and the receiver share the representations codes. Rhetoric, in a presentation, the audience is often likely to accept the viewpoint, which is the closer to its own viewpoint: the relevance doesn't really matter. In this case the aim of the rethor is to make the elements he wants to communicate stand out upon the others. Here is introduced the concept of presence, by Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca. The rethor tries to increase the presence of the elements he wants to outline in his discourse: repeating, symbols... to focus the attention on those particular points, and make all others appearing unrelevant. Then those elements are the ones remembered by the audience. Images are more powerful because they seem more trustful to us. They carry emotional perceptions, and vivid information. Kjeldsen says that the power of vivid images is shortlived, and they don't change a long-term point of view. That's why in communication plans; it is the combination of all images on a wide period of time which is more efficient. Architectural drawings, and other people could includes other arts, predict what it may be like and also after it to describe what it is or was. Thus they are relevant to the entire cycle of design, construction, and evaluation of a building. An architect begins a design by making a variety of sketches and diagrams for what it might be, and almost always these either consciously or unconsciously reflect other buildings and places previously seen and remembered, tempered now by the demands of the particular kind of building that is being requested. The design is then studied further first in more sketches and then later in refined drawings, as well as in three-dimensional models. Throughout history, the architect change his way of representation, related to all participants in design process. Before modernism, when the relationship between architects, builders, clients, and others was close, guileless drawings were enough, especially for builders, to get the idea. These drawings were to study and for getting it built. Then, if we consider all viewers as prospective buyers, a drawing could also be more convincing, by a scenographic way.

The international style in the 20th century leads to improve communication through the medium of drawing and creates specific style. Some of their drawings are done with dazzling colors and in varying mediums, others are done in cool and precise lines; still others are freely styled and cartoonlike. Some drawings stay well within conventional modes of expression, relying on ink, watercolor and pencil, tracing paper and vellum, while others stretch traditional limits to inched collage, bas-relief, photo reproduction, and other new devices. But in each of their different ways, all of them are trying very hard, and in most cases urgently, to tell us something.

Representational Meaning

Charles Jencks and George Beird, Meaning in architecture. Barrie and Rockliff: The Cresset Press, London 1969 Leeuwen,T.Van and Jewitt Carey , Handbook of Visual analysis ,British Library Press , 2003

Platonists supported this kind of meaning and this it is not surprising to find Renaissance architecture based on simple, absolute forms which were believed to carry intrinsic meaning (such as the circle which signified harmony and repose) . (Jancks, p.172) . Since however the red light usually means 'stop' one has to resort to another theory. The extrinsic theory contends that it stimuli from the environment which form meaning-the primary stimuli being language. Thus the way we perceive any object is determined by the concepts we have, or in Combrich's terms, schemata. The example with duck and rabbit. . (Jancks, p.173) 'La dimension amoureuse' in architecture. It's not unprecedented to suggest that architecture occupies its place in human experience through some kind of communication. By the mid-18th century, German Boffrand has already speculated that the profiles of moldings and the other parts, which compose a building, are architecture what words are to speech. (Jancks, p.79). Nowadays, we know all too well that Eero Saarinen's TWA terminal at Kennedy Airport symbolizes 'flight' .SEE Cedric Price ' the role of architecture or a provider of visually recognizable symbols of identity, place and activity The definition of representation meaning is close to that of denotation. Panofsky speaks of it as the primary or natural subject matter (1970:53) (meaning in the visual arts) and describes it as recognition of what is represented on the basis of our practical experience, taking into account the stylistic conventions and the technical transformations involved in the presentation, or the fact that in photography the three dimensional world is reduced and flattened. Its also intended to send a message in order to show expresses about something in your mind Iconography symbolism is one way of showing a meaning of the presentation object signs not only to donate things or place, but also the ideas or concepts attached to it. Iconography does establish that a particular image represents a particular (kind of) person (or object, or place)? Following Hermeren (1969), to whose work this chapter is much indebted, we can distinguish five types of answer to this question in the work of art historians; - The tile indicates who or what is represented. - The identification of whom or what is represented may also be done on the basis of personal experience. - Identification on the basis of background research. - Identity establish through reference to other pictures. - Identification on the basis of verbal descriptions.

Visual Anaylsis and Explanations

Tufte, Edward. Visual Explanations. Cheshire, USA : Graphics Press, 1997. Leeuwen,T.Van and Jewitt Carey , Handbook of Visual analysis ,British Library Press , 2003

(The aim of the analysis) Visual content analysis is a systematic, observational method used for testing hypotheses about the ways in which the media represent people, events, situations, and so on. It allows quantification of samples of observable content classified into distinct categories. It does not analysis individual images or individual visual text. Instead, it allows description of fields of visual. Magicians, like other theatrical performers, are professionals in communicating and presenting information ... magical performers may well contribute to our understanding of information design. To create illusions is to engage in disinformation design, to corrupt optical information, to deceive the audience. (Edward, p.55) Magical illusions are based on techniques that deny, conceal, observe and manipulate optical information. In viewing magic performance, the spectators astonishment ...is a species of perplexity caused by concealing important facts or factors or by obscuring the issues... Since bafflement and its various shades of meaning, including mystification, mean frustration by confusionby concealment of important factors and by making intricatesuccessful deception is exactly the act of doing these things plus blocking the spectator from penetrating through them to solution of the problem. * p. 64 *Fitzkee, Dariel. Magic by Misdirection. San Rafael, California, 1945. p. 124 Architectural visual representation has a real meaning, which requires identification of observable dimensions of the images and drawings. This paragraph of the research outlines the image side of the representation, as well as judgment about how frequently various visual features appear in the different kind of presentation. Based on the theory of Philip Bell and his article about the content analysis of visual Images by analyzing a magazine covers Celo in order to exemplify the process of the visual content analysis. So representation contact analysis begins with some precise hypotheses (expectation) or a question about well define variable. In addition of the variable could include types of magazine, size of published advertisement, pose of represent models (say, standing, seated, walking, ..ect) and depicted context ( eg: home, office , outdoor). One explicit hypotheses might be that women will be depicted in fewer outdoor situation that men. (Philip2003) Let us know become more precise with architecture representation as a sort of communications to begin to observe how architecture representation are depicted, thus, are required an explicit hypothesis. This kind of hypothesis you build it based on the overall context of the image, which allows you to see beyond that. A basic model for analysis should apply for any architectural presentation in order to insure the quality of the presentation; the following model adapted from Collier and Collier (1986) outline a structure for working with images: First Stage: Observe the data as a whole, look at listen to its overtones and subtleties, to discover connecting contrasting patterns. Second Stage: Make an inventory or a log of all your images. Third Stage: Structure your analysis. Go through the evidence with specific question. Fourth stage: Search for meaning significance by returning o the complete visual record. Respond again to the data in an open manner so that details from the structured analysis can be places in a contact that defines their significance.

Representation structures

T. Van Leeuwen and Gunther Kress, Regarding Images, The grammar of visual design. Second edition, New York 1996

Elements or objects in a picture are called participant.

Action

Reaction

Actor: Active participant

Vector: Make the link between participants

Actor is Reacters. Goal is Phenomena

Goal: Passive participant

Narrative
Accompaniement Mental process Verbal process

Setting

Means

participants in the foreground overlap formed by the tool with which the and hence partially obscure it, because action is executed. usually also forms it is o en drawn or painted in less deal, the vector or, in the case of photography, has a so er focus, and because of contrasts in colour saturation and overall darkness or lightness between foreground and background

is a participant in a narrative structure which has no vectorial relation with other participants and cannot be interpreted as a symbolic attribute

Agentive

Non-agentive:Conversion Non-Transactional Bidirectional

chained process with a beginning and an end ( actor and goal)

ird kind of participant which is the goal with respect to one participant and the actor with respect to another.

We dont see the goal

e participant is now the actor now the goal.

Conceptual: Classi catory

Conjoined Compounded

Line

get together but keep their dinstinct identities. ex: section in a machine

Hierarchy order. SUBORDINATES and SUPERORDINATE. Species of genus, belong to a overarching category.

Disengaged

Connected

Analytical

Carrier and possessive attributes related to this carrier. Ex: Landscape is a carrier. Possessive attributes are trees and rocks

Unstructured
by a layout of the possessive attributes which separates them. Ex: Pie chart

Topographical

Topological

Exhaustive

Inclusive
physical spatial relation ex: real map Dimensional: Pie chart, Bar chart Quantitative: represent quantity with quantity. ex: Women at work ( small icon) logical relation ex: electrical circuit, metro map

Abstract

Concrete

ere is assembly: e possessive attributes are joined together to make up a complex shape

Show us only some of the possessive attributes of a carrier

Symbolical

Attribute

Suggestive

Two participant: Carrier whose meaning or identity is established in the relation and e attribute which represents the meaning or identity itself. Common in Middle age and Renaissance Human participant usually pose for the viewer.

One participant, the carrier. Meaning is established in another way. Cannot be analytical because in this kind of image detail tends to be de emphasized in favor of what could be called mood or atmosphere.

2. method

research question

theory
selection of case studies

case studies

classification

results comparison

is research question answered?

if not, study more theory and more case studies (go again)

is method relevant and working?

if not, change method and go again

research question answered publication of the research

case studies selection of case study offices 4 case study studios are selected based on this criteria: Width of ways of communication they employ and the extent to which they differ from one another in relation to the ways of communication they use OMA is selected for a wide width of communication tools (including books and lectures), JDS for the use of now very popular diagrams and for the fact that one of the researchers (Denis Simonis) has a relative in the office that is able to provide information from the inside of the office. SANAA is selected for their different cultural background that is refletected in their designs and their apparent difference in the visual presentanion to other examples we usually encounter, Zaha Hadid for her way of extensive presentation of the process of designing with less emphasis of the resulting design and for the use of up-todate technology. The number of researchers (4) corresponds with the number of studios selected, each researcher studies 1 studio and these are then compared.

Classification The theory studied provides these categories, which are then used for classification of the case studies and their comparison. 1 tools used drawings sketches models writings (books, articles..) lectures photos, renderings teaching website diagrams talking, discussions art work other

presentation structure (mechanism)

narrative

processes circumstances

conceptual

classificatory analytical symbolical

perception

readability

0 ease of understanding 10

impression

appeal, mood (pleasant, attractive, arrogant... )

persuasiveness illusion (believable?, trustworthy?)

Elaboration of 1 Tools used:

Tools used Drawings : 1 - Representational drawings : illustrative : photos renderings... comics perspective 2 - Not-representational drawings : diagrams graphs perceptual research Physical / models : 1 - representational 2 - not representational Writings : 1 - theoretical 2 - biographic 3 - novels Oral : 1 - lectures 2 - teaching 3 - talking, discussions Other mediums : 1 - websites 2 advertisements

Cartography Technical drawings

Results and comparison Study of case studies give results. These are then compared. Attention will be paid to accuracy as comparison might easily become misleading. Even though a lot of attention was put to create a clear classification, the field of study is rather complicated and judgement is sometimes very difficult. The research question is not only to summarize facts, but also investigate into if the ways of communication are influenced by something, and if so by what. Therefore, during the comparison, an attempt will be made to figure out, if there are any general rules (that might later become advice for architects see chapter Practical relevance). Findings will be looked at several times with an attempt to figure out any possible relationships and analogies. The theoretical basis will be an important source for this part.

Questioning When previous phase is finished, the result will be compared with the research question. Is research question answered? If not, more theory will be studied and more case studies will be used. Then the comparison with the research question will be done again (and the circle will repeat until the research question is answered). Also, the method will be reviewed and examined. Was the method good, clear and appropriate, did it provide relevant results? Or does it need to be changed? If the method need to be changed, the case studies part of the research will need to be repeated. After repetition, method will be reviewed and examined again (and the circle will repeat until the method is perfect enough).

Question answered Eventually, the research question will be answered and research finished and ready for publication.

3. Practical relevance
The research outcome might be useful and relevant for: 1. Architects Architects will obtain information that will help them decide about their own presentation. Research will gather as many ways of presetation as possible, which will enhance architects knowledge of possible options from which they can choose. Reading of the research will also allow them see the consequences of the desicions regarding the presentation, which will allow them better decide on the particular way of presentation for a particular design, with a particular intent, for a particular audience. It is possible that the research will add more points while it is carried out.

2. People in general

People will be provided information and way of thinking how to read and orient themselves in architects presentations. Also, judgement about relevance and trustworthyness of the presentation might be for people easier after studying the outcome of this research.

3. Architectural theorists and critiques

Architectural theorists and critiques are skilled in reading presentations, however their knowledge might become enhanced in the field of illusions and tricks they will be more skilled to discover when architects are trying to cheat on them.

4. Results
do we already have any results?

has our elaboration of the method changed the original intend/original research question? or is it more specific now? have we obtained more information?

have we obtained a theoretical framework?

???historical facts and interpretations, design tools and systems??? I dont understand how to deal with this

Research results and process will be published in a form of a book. Expected issue date: June 2012 Expected extent: cca 200 - 350pages A4

Bibliography
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] Alan MacEachren, How maps work, London, The Guilford Press, 1995. Manfredo Massinori, The psychology of graphic images. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2002 Charles A.Hill and Marguerite Helmers, Defining Visual Rethorics. Gerald Allen, Richard Oliver, Architectural drawing: The art and the process. Whitney Library of Design, New York 1981 Charles Jencks and George Beird, Meaning in architecture. Barrie and Rockliff: The Cresset Press, London 1969 T.Van Leeuwen and Jewitt Carey, Handbook of Visual analysis. British Library Press, 2003 Edward Tufte, Visual Explanations. Cheshire, USA: Graphics Press, 1997. Fitzkee, Dariel. Magic by Misdirection. San Rafael, California, 1945. T. Van Leeuwen and Gunther Kress, Regarding Images, The grammar of visual design. Second edition, New York 1996 David S. Birdsell, Leo Groarke, Toward a theory of visual argument. URL http://findarticles.com, viwed on December 15, 2011.