15th Jan 2019

I continued my research for part 1 of the course by briefly looking at the work of 3 key practitioners recommended in the course work; Daniel Libeskind, Peter Zumthor and Olafur Eliasson.

I created a mind map, plotting the elements which stood out for me and further expressed some of the thoughts and feelings I had, as well as expressing some thoughts and feelings I think their work might induce in others?

In the main I wanted to look at what was different about their work, what stood them apart from one another. I felt however, that light had to be attached to them all. All, I found used light to a great extent and is a large part of what evokes the strongest emotions from their work, even when light was used to a minimum.

In particular I looked at images from; Libeskind’s Holocaust museum, Zumthor’s, Therme Vals Spa and images from the book Atmospheres and Eliasson’s Your Uncertain Shadow exhibition

Drawing Skills

I have begun reading Archisketcher by Simone Ridyard in the hope to build drawing skills. Some of the sketches in this book appear so simple and misleadingly led me to believe that it would be easy to pick up pencil and paper and start drawing with some skill.

I drew a lot when I was younger and felt I had a reasonable amount of skill at that time. Today I found much it harder than I imagined, it was neither a simple or easy to pick up again.

I began with using a viewer which I created but soon found that my perspective and dimensions were still out. I dropped the viewer and continued to draw. I then had to drop some of the elements within my view.

In retrospect I think, for a first attempt, I gave myself too many elements within the view to consider – even with omitting at least 2 more fence lines! I also suffer from back pain and I stood for the 50 mins or so it took me to complete this, which was a mistake. I will need to consider positioning for future sketches and when undertaking sketching on site visits.

I shall continue to practice.