Brave the Colours

brave the colours

Graphics for architecture and more

let pictures speak

Icons in conjunction with a few words, are a simple way to allow for effortless communication. It adds a sliver of playfulness which subsequently triggers visual, intellectual and emotional engagement. It also guides the viewer’s attention gently into the intended direction.

This set of icons result from a range of architectural projects representing technical information. It was key to show a visual hierarchy visual hierarchy which appears condensed but digestable.

They also form a framework for a library: easy accessible and modifiable for everyone.

1. vibrant neighbourhood

2. community learning

3. social value & cohesion

4. natural ventilation & lighting

5. education & awareness

6. green views

7. street lighting & planting

8. low energy building

9. biodiversity & sustainability

10. playspace & recreation

11. retaining communities

12. food growth

13. masterplan

14. local accessibility

15. plot

16. private amenity access

17. domestic pride & ownership

18. job opportunities

A. health & wellbeing

B. home

C. affordable homes

D. community library & garden

E. public space & social interaction

F. commercial growth

G. climate change resilience

H. permeability & soft mobility

I. wheelchair accessible homes

J. market infrastructure

K. food security & prosperity

L. community education

M. varied playspace

N. safe & secured homes

O. making connections

P. food waste recycling

Q. community gardening

R. market

Community engagement growing diagram

Time Commitment

Informal Volunteer Community Growing

Organiser of Community Growing

Commercial Urban Farming

Capital Growth Enterpreneur

Consuming

Regular Volunteer Community Growing

Organiser of Community Cooking

Home Growing

Social Enterprise Community Growing

Observing

Regular Volunteer Community Kitchen

Informal Volunteer Community Kitchen

Levels of Engagement

a garden for the city

This concept design was from a competition entry which proposed research on high density living in an urban environment. It focuses on an integrated local food system to allow a growing community a healthy, more sustainable and collective life.

The two reports were created which communicated a high volume of information. That required a common language to tie it all together. The colours and limited shapes and proportions used on graphic elements guaranteed coherence throughout.

Biodiversity

Social Value

Health & Wellbeing

copyright @ Bell Phillips Architects 2020-21

/ in collaboration with Jay Morton & Alix Martin

bite size information

Like icons, information graphics are a strong ally in communicating data. It is impossible to imagine a technical output without it. Furthermore, they facilitate the visual identity of a project by highlighting its main focus.

The following pages show a collection of data visualisations: statistics, organigrams, charts, manuals and icons. One example features a document section tracker as an adaptation of the project logo.

Extraction of project related demographic statistics

Project team diagram

Mobile pavilion structure allowing for individual use in different locations or reassembly

Cover design proposal of the document series / section tracker icons / colour strategy offering document complement colour and palette for diagrams / document layout comprising two templates: section opening and further contents pages

Document contents pages showing adapted information graphics

(data source: LETI and regenerate)

schwein gehabt!

This project was in the form of a seminar which addressed the gap between climate crisis, fuel poverty and the adoption of Passivhaus standards to affordable homes.

The presentation divides into two parts emphasised by two colour themes:the first familiarises the audience with the subject in general while the second half demonstrates with a case study on how Passivhaus standards are achievable.

General data and Passivhaus requirements

copyright @ Bell Phillips Architects 2021 / in collaboration with Emma Carter, Richard Brindle, Ashmi Thapar, Ned Scott, George Entwistle / 3D images by darcstudio

Case study achieving Passivhaus

method and means

Concept diagrams help to aid decision making and explain why a design approach was chosen but also what obstacles a site is exposed to caused by technical, geographical and demographical issues. Visually, analytical diagrams offer the possibility to become a playing field of colours, patterns, lines and shapes as long as the message communicated remains clear and its context is self-explanatory.

Different flat types

A. existing site / 1. communal courtyard / B. routes through / 2. green courtyard / C. green connections / 3. active courtyard / D. water features / 4. open courtyard / E. views

Travel distances between hubs

Routes linking amenities

Pedestrian routes across the green

finger on the map

Beyond contributing to a sense of orientation, maps have the incredible ability to tell a whole story about a region pictured: routes, distances, density, demography, terrains, landscapes, localities. They can even show the composition of soils and weather conditions. They are witnesses of time and change.

The maps and plans shown on the following pages range from informative, abstract and reduced to almost decorative with only landscape areas highlighted.

in collaboration with Emma Carter

in collaboration with Lina Intaite

Farnborough as regional connectivity hub

Majority of ethnic groups represented in Church Street, Westminster, before 2020

Cuba

Haiti

Dominican Republic

Puerto Rico

Western Sahara

Mauritania

Morocco

Algeria

France

Tunisia

Italy

Libya

India

Saudi Arabia Yemen

Bangladesh China

Philippines

window with a view

An axonometric projection is a synopsis of a building with its massing, composition, spaces inside and out, enables the viewer to see a three dimensional glance of the future. This type of image is successful at providing both a general understanding of the architecture and showcasing its function in a clear and tangible way..

Axonometric showing the different levels and their uses

Axonometric highlighting the landscape and green spaces

behind facades

It is somewhat a challenge to create an accurate version of a building when reducing its scale to fit a page or even an A1 sheet. Materiality, colours and proportions translate very differently. However, an elevation has the ability to translate. Rather than being a precise adaptation of reality they spark an impression of how the building is going to look like, standing on its own or sitting within its surroundings.

Set of pavilions, elevation study

4 person working Hide elevation

4 person working Hide elevation

Meeting room Hide elevation

Meeting room Hide elevation

Informal Hide elevation

Informal Hide elevation

0 500mm 2500mm

Tree perforation to the staircase

12 stories

12 years. 12 projects. 12 stories.

Each of the book’s entries is a symbiosis of the project’s best and descriptive images and an inset telling the individual stories of the architect involved.

The two part concept of the book reflects the vital and fruitful collaboration within the practice but also throughout the industry and is accentuated by the different media, individual layouts, graphics and personal syntax.

marmelade, Melissa Dowler, Hari Phillips, Lyn Ang, Jay Morton, John Lineen, TomMorgan, Annecy Attlee, Naomi de Barr, Tim Bell, Ashmi Thapar, Banksie Critchley, Grant Mitchell, Jamie Campbell, Emma James

Inset front, back & main

A. Book cover

1. St Chad’s intro

2. St Chad’s CGI’s

4. St Chad’s inset main

5. St Chad’s inset back

3. St Chad’s inset cover

time to celebrate

The publication of the book “12” provided the framework for the practice’s 12th year anniversary. This coincided with a launch party and a week long exhibition was held at the NLA galleries in London.

The following pages feature the invite sent out to clients, colleagues, friends and two of the four sets of boards printed on canvas and mounted to the exhibition walls in the gallery.

Each of the projects corresponds to its appearance and content in the book.

copyright @ Bell Phillips Architects 2016 / in collaboration with Melissa Dowler, Hari Phillips, Lyn Ang, Tom Morgan, Annecy

Attlee, Naomi de Barr, Emma James / 3D images by Forbes Massie

/ Photos by Kilian O’Sullivan, John Sturrock, Tom Crocker

the way to school

With the completion of the new extension to the Skinners’ School in Tunbridge Wells, accommodating an english department, sixth form centre and a library, the demand for new signage and wayfinding was required.

Two fonts were selected which best characterise the school’s image. This formed the basis of the new signage. Next, a colour palette was created which worked harmoniously with the building’s interior to ensure that the signage was clear without being dominating to the place.

School crest redesign option

The Skinner’s School

Royal Tunbridge Wells

man made

“artæfact” was in need of a logo which inherited the qualities the design studio stands for. Between technical simplicity and expressive warmth, they understand to link the long-established trade of luxury watch design with the boundless field of fine art.

Using the ligature æ in the logo underlines the duality. The representation of the a and the e adapt the classic, engineering element while its background follows the artistic path and joins the two letters to become one glyph at once.

Portfolio. Sandy Sterzl