Architectural Communication 1 - Reflections

The Architectural communications course this semester definitely provided an abundance of 'key lessons', that will surely apply to the rest of the Architecture degree.  Each workshop, though unique provided opportunities to build on the knowledge and skills gained from previous workshops, giving much room for development as well as learning.   

All the workshops I accomplished (Fluid Thoughts to Actions, Atlas of Colour and Material Modeling) have allowed me to develop my skills in drawing, model making, presentation and especially viewing architecture.  Each have also opened my eyes to weaknesses I was never fully aware of.  Particularly, the issue that I feel, seemed to underly every workshop which was how to view and hence express or create a space.  It wasnt until I completed Fluid Thoughts to Actions that I realised how little 'space' my drawings expressed,  and how I created too much narrative behind each of my creations.  There was also an experimental element to this workshop that encouraged a braver use of tools and materials which I never thought I could apply to architecture.  With all this in mind, it was easier to enter into the following workshop which was Atlas of Colour, I was far more ready to experiment with new materials and ideas than I was in the previous workshop.  Through precedent studies and various exercises that at first seemed pointless (such as imagining your essence as a colour) I was able to gain an appreciation for colour in architecture as well as in the expression of architecture.  While I did not use 'colour' in the following Material Modeling workshop, the presentation skills (verbal) accumulatively gained from the previous workshops as well as the confidence and experimentation practiced in both, provided a far more braver creative approach to material modeling.  Hence, a far less rigid model in approach.

While I have learnt so much this semester, the 'lessons' that I value most in this course are the experimentation in the expression of architecture as well as how architecture can be 'looked' at. Both have allowed me to see my weaknesses in this course and have as a result given me the opportunity to fix them.