Thematic note Individual timeline Site visit Journaling first impressions Mind Maps Questionnaire Annotations Analysis
Narrative
Task
● Visualise a place of significance to you and your community. Visualization should include spatial relationships, people,affiliation and significance.
● Describe the same place and relationship in 1000 words.
Points to consider.
● In what way are these sites or places represent a larger group you belong to?
● What is the relationship of these sites to a larger context ( urban transformation, national development ) ?
At the beginning, it was hard to narrow down to describing one place of significance, as I had many. But the brief gave pointers, which helped me narrow down to choosing one place. It also helped me understand what scale of project I could choose to describe. I think the word limit propelled me to approach the project as an essay with supporting visuals.
1. Sample of the essay. 2. Cognitive map depicting circulation 3,4. Visualization of spaces.
The spaces are depicted as jigsaw puzzles. Hands represent the mind, which is trying to correlate the spaces. All humans become monochrome against the colorful spaces expressing the idea of universal brotherhoodthattiespeopletogether.
During a review, a common feedback was that our narration of the place was not sufficiently supported by the type and number of visuals. We were asked to rework and come up with one such visual that explains everything.
Ideating on this made me explore collage as a means for representing a wide spectrum of ideas.Through the review, I realized that I often missed out on questioning the basics while looking at a wider spectrum of subjects.
What kind of visuals can be used to effectively narrate the subject?
● Use the given 2D drawings to reconstruct 3D model.
● You may make a digital or analog model.
Points to consider.
● Do not worry about identifying house type, region or building tradition.
● Focus on the evidence of structure, materials, levels,openings and most importantly on the logic of architectural graphic technique.
The given 2D drawings did not have any scales mentioned or dimensions annotated. In some cases, they did not have enough sections and elevations to effectively visualize the plan. It was hard to choose a reference dimension to scale the rasterized drawing. We assumed the riser height to be 200 mm, as the steps appeared to be square in proportion. While reading the drawings, we marked our understanding of materials and techniques in red and errors in drawings in blue.
1. Drawing marked with construction detail and errors.
2. Drawing marked with errors.
3. Flooring detail ( Source: Thennal Mud Homes)
The exercise did not seem new to me, as I had generated 3D models using construction drawings. However, the exercise seemed more like analysis than synthesis. As I had not drawn the 2D drawings, I did not have an understanding of the material or the construction technique.
While drawing and generating the 3D model, evidence like the thickness of the wall and the materials in the slab gave a clue to speculate on the construction technique.
The exercise helped me understand how to extract layers of information by making sense of drawing.
Team: Chinmay U S, Ishitha Jain
● Co-produce framework for architectural analysis.
● Get exposed to active reading and developing strategies for conducting literature survey.
● Collate and analyse architectural information from secondary sources for Mundra and Mandvi.
In this exercise, the whole studio gathered for a brainstorming session. We started identifying what constitutes a town and who the stakeholders are. We all started to write and pin the sticky notes, and a larger framework was generated.
In the later stage, we started collecting the literature and drawings from various sources that seemed relevant for our studies and started rasterizing the drawings.
1. Research Framework sample
2. Sample of sources for research.
When we collected all the sources, we had to rasterize the drawings, and it was a mundane exercise to do. There was not much coordination among both group members, and it was quite irritating to work under unnecessary pressure. I was tasked with generating the urban morphology maps, and I really had a tough time stitching the maps and overlapping the old map with the map I had generated. The exercise and work environment were very uncomfortable. It was probably because the exercise was quite new and I did not see much of a learning outcome immediately. However, I continued to believe in the process.
Team: Chinmay U S, Meghavi, Pravallika and Gokul
Literature survey and Annotated Bibliography ( Week
Task
● To conduct a literature survey
● To identify relevant sources of ideas and information
Each one of us was asked to go through a minimum of 40 literature sources and make notes. The idea was to cover more ground than dwell on the details of one particular piece of literature. The challenge was also to learn how to find relevant sources of information from various sources and have a nice balance of research articles and archival data.
1. Literature survey sample
I understood that the literature survey is the bedrock for any research project. I really enjoyed the process of quickly skimming through the contents of the sources and making notes. There was absolutely no space or time for overthinking.
I always thought I had to read the book from beginning to end in order to understand its contents. This exercise made me understand that we do not need to go through the whole book to get what we want. We can always choose what we want. I learned to search for indexes and bibliographies and got quite comfortable with reading dry memoirs and archival material while carrying out the literature survey.
● Organize information into a coherent narrative
● Generate a timeline relevant to the theme.
For the midterm review, we had to choose a topic from the literature survey that interests us and make a narrative and timeline for it.
Each of our themes was discussed in the studio with reviewers, and input was given as to how the chosen topics could be taken forward after the site visit.
1. Consolidated essay sample Task
When we were asked to choose a theme of our interest from the range of literature we had surveyed, I thought we all had our individual themes ready. The mode in which I presented was not able to communicate my ideas clearly. The essay was not well structured, and looking back, I feel there should have been a little more effort that could have been put into the detailed reading of the shortlisted literature. The exercise made me generate hypotheses about aspects like construction technique and craftsmanship, which were very much needed before visiting the sites.
Capturing and Journaling First Impressions at Mandvi and Mundra. (
● Observe and record fieldwork impressions.
Points to consider.
● Recording your observations consolidates and emphasizes specific details in your mind.
● Sketching is best since tracing the lines of what you are seeing will imprint in minds eye.
● Writing is important to articulate why you chose to sketch something.
● Reviewing, labelling your photos will help in articulating response or first impressions.
The site visit was overwhelming, as it offered lots of information for me to absorb. The task was to record what we find interesting in terms of the built environment, culture, and landscape. The challenge was, What do I record? It was about how fast I could record the observations and make notes about them. I always saw sketching as a slow, meticulous process, but in that circumstance, there was a need to find a quicker way to record and make notes.
1. Sample of the rough site notes
2. Dropped pin locations as reference for photos taken at the site.
3. Notes of dropped pin locations.
Outcome
Site notes and sketches were redrawn and consolidated as per days. Some sheets captured mostly buildings and details, as well as some stories of people and places. The exercise helped me develop a new perspective on how to record the built environment.
When I was challenged with working faster by making notes of observations, I learned new ways of working smarter as there was a limit to how fast I could sketch. I started taking videos of the places with my voiceover, capturing the observations. In order to remember where the video was taken, I pinned the nearest landmarks on Google Maps with short notes containing references and remainders.
While interviewing people at the site, I realized how important it is to learn to ask the right questions while keeping the questions simple. It would have been much better if I knew Gujarati, but since I had a few friends who could speak the local language, interviews were fruitful.
Identifying Individual Thematic Focus. ( Week 12,13 and
Task
Task 01
Choose a theme and generate a mindmap with three layered connections. Generate at least ten mind maps with various themes of your interest.
Task 02
Derive a questionnaire from the mind map with four key words leading back to the central word. The questions should aid in understanding the central theme better. Generate at least 20 questions for each theme.
Task 03
Shortlist and categorize the 200 questions under five themes.
Doing these tasks in a limited timeframe was not just intimidating but also mentally exhaustive. However, the range of questions generated helped me in discussing and narrowing down the area of my interest. Making mind maps was helpful as it gave rise to lots of points, which might not have been possible if I had just sat down to write them. By framing questions, I started to learn to make connections between the points.
1. Sample of the mind map
2. Sample of the questionnaire.
Reading Exercise. ( Week
Task
● To understand the difference between observation and inference.
Points to notice.
● How the written piece is structured in terms of contents.
● How the author situates the object of enquiry within the existing knowledge.
● How the connections are made between the observations.
● How inferences are derived from making connections.
As a class, we read a chapter titled Swimming Reindeer from the book A History of the World in 100 Objects We made notes of the contents of the chapter and started zoning them into parts like the introduction, body, and conclusion in an attempt to understand how the piece is structured and narrated. We started categorizing them as observations and inferences. This book acted as a reference for us to write the essay.
1. Cover Page of the book
2. The Swimming Reindeer sculpture
Annotations and Analysis.
Task
● To triangulate architectural information and information from secondary sources
Once we had our individual themes, learning methods became unique to each of us. I was told to shortlist the facades based on some categories and annotate the photographs of the shortlisted facades. Once the annotation was done, I was asked to draft the facades in CAD in order to get a sense of the scale of each facade relative to one another.
1. Annotated photograph
2. Shortlisted sketch from the site journal.
3. Drafted drawing of facade.
Outcome
The visual matrix helps in effectively consolidating all the observations. It also acts as a medium through which we can carry out comparative analysis and derive a whole new set of observations.
The mind map provided me with a range of questions I could look at. And I personally enjoyed the whole process of annotating photographs. While sketching, I had filtered out a lot of details and captured overall proportion and a sense of composition in the facades. Through annotating photos, I started noticing details that I had overlooked while drawing on site. I never realized how the act of consciously annotating the photos can help us notice new details and change the way we think. Making the visual matrix across the common elements was the icing on the cake. That opened up me to a whole new set of observations, which I did not have while drawing each of them individually.
Consolidated matrix and facade elevations indicating the filtering of wide spectrum of observations.
