UNIT 1 - A TALE OF 3 CITIES

A Tale of 3 Cities Alex Kaiser Trevor Flynn Anderson Inge

“Futures not achieved are only branches of the past: dead branches.�

7KH 7DOH RI 7KUHH &LWLHV XQFRYHUV WKH EUDQFKHV RI WKH SDVW DQG ÂżQGV them very much alive. We will act as archaeologist, forensic observer and oracle, extracting evidence of the people, stories and architecture of these times. From here we will discover and construct new realities as an unfolding set of “Citiesâ€? that weave together the past, present and future.

Using selected London sites as catalysts to delve into these different realities, we will extract and explore the forces that shape past and future narratives using a series of intense, varying drawing methods, both explorative and experimental, digital and freehand.

In a completely additive process of sketching, stamping, drawing, printing, tearing, gluing, cutting, throwing, we will record, modify and extract information from these drawings. The Drawings will become the “cities� where we will discover the architecture, people and their stories. Each city will have a mentor that provides stimulus and differentiation – an architect (Soane), a writer (Calvino), and an artist (Piranesi).

The passage of time will be composed through a singular drawings that allow one to understand the past and unravel the future, As Cobb mentions in Christopher Nolans Inception, We will both “create and perceive our world simultaneously�.

We will be extracting information from different times/eras in order to create new architectural interventions and narratives in the current world; this will be expressed through the development of three VHSDUDWH SURJUHVVLYHO\ GHVLJQHG ³FLWLHV´ 6WXGHQWV ZLOO JDLQ ¿UVW hand experience of working in small teams in a collaborative and supportive environment; building a richness of architectural and spatial reference that can be drawn upon throughout the project.

With this experience of visual research through drawing, students will then visit seed sites. Each group of 3 will decide on an individual site they will work at. Through drawing and research students will begin to discover the social conditions that used to exist and the rich layers of architectural history that prevailed to support this existence.

Groups will work on 3 large scale singular drawings 1.5-2m. Each drawing corresponding to one city. Students will split the work in creating these drawings and all individuals will gain experience with a range of techniques.

City 1 (Soane) :H ZLOO FUHDWH RXU ÂżUVW FLW\ LQ WKH IRUP RI D ODUJH VFDOH GUDZLQJ WKDW FRPELQHV VWXGLR SUDFWLFH ZLWK YLVLWV WR WKH JURXSÂśV VSHFLÂżHG VLWHV Including – John Soane Museum, St Giles church, and the futuristic interior / engineering of Westminster Underground. Individual’s drawings will serve as a gateways into the alternate realities from which we will deconstruct forms and spaces. This will be the basis of larger collaborative “clustersâ€?. Juxtaposing formal and narrative fragments WKURXJK VWRU\ERDUGLQJ DQG H[SHULPHQWDO DVVHPEODJH WHFKQLTXHV RXU ÂżUVW city emerges raw, heterogeneous, provisional. This city does not have a scale, it is neither urban nor atomic but is dictated by our perception.

Drawing visits to John Soane Museum, St. Giles in the Fields Observational perspective drawing, technical perspective drawing Welding orthographic plan, section and axonometric Thumbnail Techniques, Drawing with tone & line, developing a narrative Drawing with graphite, conte, pen, pastel, ink, wash, coloured pencil Introduction to Photoshop - Transition from reality to digital

City 2 (Calvino) The second city will be a city of intentions. We will decide and focus on HPHUJLQJ LGHDV WKDW WKH JURXSV KDYH EXLOW XS ZLWKLQ WKHLU ÂżUVW FLW\ WR draw the second city. This will require large-scale redraws that dip into the students growing architectural repertoire. Students will now begin to formulate the critical discussion that underpin their decisions. The group iterate their growing vision in a series of written paragraphs. This will EH D VWHS DSDUW IURP RXU UHDOLW\ ,W LV WKH UHÂżQHPHQW RI WKH ÂżUVW FLW\ -XVW as in Alex Proyas ‘Dark City’, where the city is manipulated or ‘tuned’ to see how people respond to changes in infrastructure we will manipulate the initial city into a purer concept of itself. Observing the society, the buildings, the narratives.

Accentuation / inattention to detail – prioritising information Composition and image complexity – layering, collaging, juxtaposition Fast explorations through brushwork and quick concepts Digital Collaging - Photojunk integration and painting over Introduction to 3D Studio Max - Rough modelling Using 3d Studio Max as tool offset to painting/drawing Painting/drawing over and into 3d models, using 3d max as base YLHZ¿QGHU

City 3 (Piranesi) 7KH WKLUG &LW\ ZLOO GHYHORS PRUH VSHFLÂżF QDUUDWLYHV GHVFULELQJ ULFK stories, characters and architectural visions. We have set the scene, we know the society, the typologies (whether they be existing or imagined), the landscape. What does one see, hear, taste, touch, smell. Through the development of the 3 cities we aim to provoke real occupation.

With the culmination of all the drawing and painting techniques learnt throughout the course, our aim is to create clear sequential drawings that GHVFULEH D YHU\ VSHFLÂżF VHTXHQFH RI VSDFHV DQG HYHQWV Storyboarding techniques, sequential drawing Advanced digital painting techniques - Light, tone, texture, detail.

Approaches to drawing and representation The psychological and narrative implication of light and shadow Painting mood, atmosphere, depth

Alex Kaiser AADip, RIBA II, BAarch (Hons) http://apkconcepts.wordpress.com

Alex Kaiser teaches Painting Architecture – A Media Studies course at the Architectural Association, London, where he teaches students in the art of architectural drawing and digital painting. He has also given workshops for units within the AA and D’Ecole Special d’Architecture in Paris and, through Drawing At Work, workshops for AHMM Architects, ORMS Architects, and RSHP. Following studies at the Oxford Brookes School of Architecture and the Architectural Association, Kaiser brought his design, modelling, DQG YLVXDOLVDWLRQ VNLOOV WR WKH /RQGRQ DUFKLWHFWXUH RI¿FHV RI 5LFKDUG Rogers and Moxon Architects.

In Kaiser’s recently co-founded studio he is currently researching trans-media methods for design through drawing and painting. ([SHULPHQWLQJ ZLWK OLQH EH\RQG WKH UHSUHVHQWDWLRQDO DQG LQWR ¿HOGV IURP architecture and industrial design to beyond bio-mimetics.

Trevor Flynn MA Fine Art Goldsmiths (London University) http://www.drawingatwork.co.uk/

Trevor Flynn teaches in Media Studies and Housing and Urbanism at the Architectural Association, and at Central St.Martins School of Art . He is director of Drawing At Work and holds honorariums at Virginia Commonwealth University and Rochester University U.S.A

7UHYRU KDV PDGH D VHW RI VKRUW ¿OPV ¹³)UHHKDQG 'UDZLQJ Now� for Architects Journal, and illustrated several books including WKH VFUHHQSOD\ IRU WKH 1RWWLQJ +LOO ¿OP E\ 5LFKDUG &XUWLV ,Q KH established the Drawing Gymnasium as a resource for large architectural DQG HQJLQHHULQJ RI¿FHV WR LPSURYH WKHLU YLVXDOLVDWLRQ WHFKQLTXHV +LV clients include Foster and Partners, RSH-P and Expedition Engineering Anderson Inge AIA, ARBS BAarch, MSc Civ Eng, MSc Arch, BFA sculpture Anderson Inge is an architect who also trained as a structural engineer and as a sculptor. Anderson initially studied architecture at the University of Texas at Austin and at the Architectural Association in London, followed by post-graduate degrees in architecture and structural engineering concurrently at M.I.T. His training in sculpture at Central Saint Martins as a mature student made sense of it all.

Throughout his career, Anderson has interwoven architecture SUDFWLFH ÂżQH DUWV SUDFWLFH DQG WHDFKLQJ +LV ZRUN DQG WHDFKLQJ continually integrate concerns of aesthetics, materiality and structure.

He has practiced, exhibited and lectured extensively in the UK and the US. Based in London, Anderson has taught on undergraduate and post-graduate programs in the USA and Europe, including the Architectural Association (since 1997; in Technical Studies, Media Studies, and Housing & Urbanism); the Rural Studio at Auburn University (since 2001); Royal College of Art; Ruskin School at the University of Oxford; Central St Martins sculpture; Kent Institute of Art and Design in ÂżQH DUWV DQG DUFKLWHFWXUH DQG 6LU -RKQ 6RDQHÂśV 0XVHXP /RQGRQ Reading/Reference List Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure Charles Dickens, Hard Times, for its characterization and narrative structure Edward Tufte, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information.

Steen Eiler Rasmussen, London: the unique city Gordon Cullen, Concise townscape 'RQDOG -XGG HVVD\ 6SHFLÂżF 2EMHFWV Michael Fried, essay Art and Objecthood Peter Ackroyd, Hawksmoor. London, the biography