Abstract:Green facades are becoming more and more frequently used tools in the process of urban transformation. They are treated by architects and town planners as a new material which allows them to transform grey and unattractive urban environment. Their final look, however, requires careful decisions and selecting adequate floral arrangements. Graphics, paintings and drawings backed by the knowledge of botany may result in creating green walls which can be veritable floral masterpieces. Virtual 3D models, on the other hand, enable us to understand better the mutual interaction between the ‘green facades’ and the surrounding urban environment. When designing vertical gardens and green murals, it is worth remembering about all the possibilities offered by sketches and the computer in order to transform urban areas thoughtfully and consciously.
Abstract:Perspective, as a term used in the fields of architecture and photography, describes a method of depicting three dimensional objects within a space. The designer has the possibility of creating attractive perspective views within an urban composition of a residential complex, as well as views that have aesthetically pleasing foreshortenings and openings towards open vistas of the surrounding environment, or the creation of such an environment within the public spaces of a complex. During the various stages of the real property development process, the composition of a sequence of urban interiors is one of key elements, one that does not often suffer from bad influence on the part of the client, local zoning law or the restrictions of the building code. The aforementioned composition of a housing complex is largely left in the hands of the architect. A precision tool for supplementing one’s spatial ability is offered in the form of computer aided design programs, which can help in the creation of a pseudo-photographic image, which becomes the best possible carrier of information regarding the appearance of a housing complex to its future residents. The level of meticulousness with which an architect must balance out the requirements of the market against the need of a user-friendly public and private space that should be designed for the residents of a particular housing complex can prove to be a challenge. The article is thus an attempt at finding a set of rules to be followed by designers in the creation of interesting public spaces of housing estates, based on contemporary examples of residential complexes of Germany.
Abstract:What was and still is free hand drawing as an architect’s tool for conveying the vision of an object, presenting the concept of creating, shaping the balance between the constructive matter and the creative abilities of the maker? Drawing serves as a presentation of an idea. The architect’s draught is the result of a dialogue between thought, hand and an idea. Creating without emotion is not art. Drawing is only a form of recording. It is an endless act of perfecting the author’s work. This text presents the main stages of development, examples of artistic narration, which is an alternative to the individual form of constructing conceptions of space and its critical factors. This article aims to explain the relations between life and art, which are analysed through two similar problems: how to successfully influence the investor’s senses through the use of the drawing art. The author (through presenting the rank of drawing in his profession) aims to prove, that the architect’s freehand drawing stimulates imagination, sensitivity, spirituals values, traditional aesthetics. It emphasizes colour, rhythm, order and dynamism. A work doesn’t have to be created in the virtual world to become the full interaction between the inner and outer factors. The architect’s freehand drawing reflects the unconstrained creation of the mind concerning the status of the form in space as an artistic event.
Abstract:The article describes the importance of freehand drawing in the daily practice of an architectural design office. It presents the areas of activity in which freehand drawing is essential as well as those in which its importance has decreased. It presents the function of freehand drawing in communication with both an investor and other entities participating in the design process. The author emphasizes the individual character of every creator’s freehand drawing as well as the easiness and freedom of thoughts expression offered by this tool in daily professional work.
Abstract:Apart from learning experience and reinforcement of knowledge required to pass tests and exams, the sketchbook enhances students’ understanding of architectural forms and helps them develop the ability of conveying complicated historical spatial and urban facilities. Despite the common use of computers in the profession of an architect, this form of improving drawing skills is invaluable and fully justified. The maintaining of a sketchbook builds up students’ skills and teaches them how to freely express themselves while conveying their objectives, ideas and designs.
Abstract:As a discipline, architecture constantly needs to take on new challenges. Currently, a significant share of them regards presenting architectural ideas in the face of the IT revolution. In this context, it is reasonable to return to the question of why architects (still) draw. What – especially now – really is architectural drawing? What is the array of its unique features like in comparison with computer techniques? What is the unique potential of the latter, and is there a choice between them or are they mutually exclusive? One of the provided answers is to indicate a need for a critical analysis of the methods to present design ideas, regardless of the means used.
Abstract:The creator of a drawing in the process of unifying idea and architectural material is giving that relation a suitable aesthetic dimension, trying to see in it a clear unity of form and matter. Recording, sketching, drawing – in the face of such delimitation, establish an appropriate range of imagination and organize thinking about architecture ‒ from the idea of illustrating the shape of the intention to making it materialize. Drawing requires an effort of mind and thoughts, matter - that of ordering and selection.
Abstract:An architectural design is still the main means of artistic expression in illustrating the elements of the world invented by architects. For the last two decades this elementary way of expressing artistic intentions has been consequently replaced by new devices – a computer and software which enable digital modeling of the designed objects. This phenomenon proceeds mainly in the issues connected with presenting an architectural idea, so that it concerns the analyses that finish the artistic process of an object designed. Even at the level of competitions more and more often visualizations and not the drawings of an object are becoming the obligatory element of the work submitted. The article discusses today’s role and importance of an architectural drawing in the artistic process and architect’s artistic workshop.
Abstract:The sketch is an inseparable part of the process of creating an architectural space, being present at every stage of its development ‒ during the stage when an idea is formed, all the way to the moment of the work itself. It is useful as a means of writing down an architect’s thoughts, in presenting his work to a client, as well as a supporting tool during the process of overseeing the construction of a building. Thanks to its indeterminate nature it stimulates the imagination during the early stages of design, being at the same time the easiest means of communicating one’s thoughts on the construction site. The article outlines the usefulness of the sketch as a tool that an architect can use, basing on the examples provided by contemporary creators of architecture.
Abstract:My day-to-day observations made me reflect on whether the role of colour in architecture today is properly understood and whether it has not been pushed into the background. In this paper, I intend to show that painting classes in architectural schools aim at filling a certain gap. Using multiple examples and selected tasks, I hope to demonstrate the inseparability of the colour from the form, the influence of an appropriately selected colour on the architectural shape and the importance of combining colours depending on the form, space and light, as well as the way such combinations effect the perception of the shape and colour itself. This last variable inevitably makes us realise the significance of the so-called local colour. To conclude, the understanding of space, form, colour and light begins with practising the skills of “seeing”.
