First Thoughts

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After going through the brief, I have been able to consider the three themes, primitivism, pop art and industrial. 

Primitivism relates to the early stages of humanity. It takes into account early traditional cultures and historical events. It relies a lot on natural resources and how to use the land around us to create pieces. In relation to my progression route, primitivism takes into consideration of earlier architectural forms and materials. For this theme, I will have to take in the element of sustainability and the use of natural and recyclable materials. Primitivism does not only have to rely on culture and old methods but I can also take my inspiration from nature like flowers, animals, the ocean and so on and be able to build up on that. I am most drawn to this theme because it allows me to look back on things that are not common to see nowadays and I can also trace back to the origins of architecture. I also think it will allow me to be more creative with my designs and be able to move out of my comfort zone. When going through the brief for this theme I thought of symbols and patterns common to my culture, I also thought of organic forms, mud and clay art. Another thing that popped into my mind was creation, Anno Dominio and Before Christ, evolution and cavemen and so on. An artist I could possibly research is Antoni Gaudi because of his use of organic forms.

 

Casa Milà by Antoni Gaudi (1912)

The next theme we looked at was pop art. This is influenced by popular culture which can be taken from various forms of media such as print (magazines, books, comics), broadcast (movies & TV, music & radio) and also social media. The era of pop art was from the 1950s-60s and was heavily influenced by magazines and comics. This style of art takes very bright and colourful imagery and a lot of things were either blown up in size or used a style of repetition. Pop art's influence on Architecture did not go unnoticed as architects started to design 'attention grabbing' commercial buildings such as restaurants. 3D structures were normally erected on the roof of the building which gave it a key visual appeal. When considering this theme for my project, I thought of popular things today especially among Gen Z. Japanese animation and comics have become increasingly popular nowadays, I also thought of popular music and celebrities. I also took into consideration the shift in social and political stances, I thought of eco friendly designs, climate change and sustainability. Colour pallet is also significant so a choice of bright colours and vivid colours will have to be applied. A club, festival or fair concept will go well with this theme. An interesting building that I think depicts this is the binoculars building by Frank Gehry

 Binoculars Building by Frank Gehry (1991)

The last theme given to us was Industrial. The Industrial Revolution caused a shift in the economy with the introduction of new technology and more efficient manufacturing process, it also caused a great shift in building designs as well. Functionality became the forefront of building design and buildings took a more modern approach. For this theme I could take a more 'simple' approach to my design focusing on the use of line and simple geometric shapes and also the use of more industrial materials. On the other hand, I could focus on one product of industrialization such as Decay and the ruins of modern architecture. I could implement the negative effects of the industry and capitalism into my project by depicting a crumbling building or a 'failed' design. A building that comes to mind when thinking of this concept is the Sathorn Unique Tower in Bangkok, Thailand whose construction had to be halted due to the financial crisis at the time thereby leaving an unfinished building till date.

 

Sathorn Unique tower in Bangkok

These are just my initial thoughts regarding the three themes given, when I choose one I will further develop my ideas.



Comments

  1. Sam DarganApril 15, 2024 at 6:21 AM

    Good, clear and concise post, you have clearly thought through each of the three themes. It would be good to see some images to accompany this text, to give a sense of what you might look at for each of the three themes whether that is for background research or designer research. Edit this post with the addition of some imagery to illustrate it.

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