Developing my concept

My Concept

The invisible and visible, absence and presence, although contrasting in idea, coexist to create the spaces we live and work in and how they operate through time.

A thoroughfare, a forgotten corridor, visible and invisible.. it is not its physicality but the emotion it invokes on the people who pass through it everyday.

The widow is caught neither here or there, in the present or the past. Light streams into the open space, but she still feels enclosed in the vastness of memory.

Tiles on the floor, disintegrating outwards

Panes of glass represent people passing through and also provides barrier to the elements.

Initial Sketches

Looking at the geometry of the painting, I identified the main elements and the grid formed. Through this I tried to look at the proportion of this room, and the relationship between the size of the people, the door and the window.

Images - Site and Context

Context

I included a map of Delft in 1652, the exact date and place in which Pieter de Hooch painted my chosen scene, as well as other paintings of his which are similar to mine - such as the black and white tiles, and the arch and courtyard, the background of my painting. The image on the bottom right suggests the type of building which my scene could have taken place in.

I will set my site in the countryside of Deflt, remaining loyal to the historical context of my painting. From the map of 1652 and the current arial photograph, the city houses are quite narrow and close together. The solidarity of my concept suggests a more remote site - the countryside of Delft is not at all far from the main city, and yet it seems to portray the same serenity and tranquility of my chosen painting.

Inspiration

Project 2: Room and Narrative

Pieter de Hooch: Cardplayers in a Sunlit Room

1658

oil on canvas 762 X661cm

Analysis

I was first attracted to the pearly quality of the light in this painting, and the use of the large door and window in creating shadows and light upon the card players. The atmosphere seems to be very light, open and airy but not silent, as we see movement and sound through the group of characters. I find the way that de Hooch portrays the full height of the room exaggerates height and gives a clue to a possible meaning of this painting. Indeed if the painting extended only from the feet to the heads of the characters, it would be a very different painting, as seen below. De Hooch not only frames the scene but gives the viewer a sense of grandness and emptiness. There is a tension between the luminosity of the light and the shadows and darkness. The floors are dirty, a broken pipe and a lost playing card is discarded close to the viewer. There is contrast between grandness and humbleness, earthiness and fragility within this image

My Narrative

My character is the seated woman. She is in the middle of the group, but the most detached, while the body language of the other characters seem concentrated solely on her. Compared to the rest of the room, she seems very small, even to the height of the coat rack. I have deducted that it is early afternoon, and her three sons have come to pay her a visit. Her husband died some years ago, and she is left to tend to a huge, grand house. She is belittled by the house - its vast emptiness and the memories it holds. The space that they are in is a thoroughfare at the back of the house, the scene was spontaneously set up making this otherwise plain space significant.

House for Doctor Bartholomeusz

Project 1: Artifice

Tutor: Catherine Lassan

Project Group: Joey Liang, Ethan Kang

1. Final Parti Images

2. Final Poche Images

3. Final Model Images

4. Week 3 Progress

5. Week 2 Progress

6. Week 1 Progress

7. Initial Research

1. Final Parti

Geometrical Relationships and Masses

A progression from the basic linear elements of the building to the actual massing and structure, analysing the conceptual construction of the space.

Relationship between trees and building

Trees are seminal to the structure of this villa, and I attempted to show the similarity between the spaces of vegetation and habitation. They are almost like bubbles or pockets of spaces that interlink.

Circulation

The first parti attempts to portray how the most used paths through the tiles on the ground - darker tiles represent the main routes through the building. In the second parti, circulation is shown as linear passages throughout the building and between the two levels. I wanted to contrast the way we might see circulation.

2. Final Poche

Section poche

Plan poche

Photo of the same poche -

some of the details didn't show up in the scan

Poche using shading

Through all my poche renderings I attempted to portray the blending of the inside and outside spaces, how the courtyards become rooms of the building and the rooms become a labyrinth of screens and lines within an outside space. I tried to show this ambiguity by creating a background shading or hatching, linking the interior and exterior spaces together. Indeed, the atmosphere of the more closed rooms differ from the open feel of the larger rooms and courtyards and this can be seen through the density and darkness of the rendering I chose. The lightness and fragility of the trees are represented through a series of dots, suggesting that they are not 'solid' forms, but forms which shift within its general area. I wanted to contrast a lightness through the courtyard, pool and surrounding vegetation to the few enclosed rooms of the house.

3. Enlarged Poche and Final Model

4. Week 3 Progress

Poche

Experimenting with different hatching/shading techniques

Parti

incorporating trees to the structure of the building

Circulation through the tiles - darker tiles represent pathways most travelled throughout the house

5. Week 2 Progress

Poche
Influenced by Palladio-style hatching

Parti

Circulation

looking at relationship between trees and rooms

6. Week 1 sketches

Poche

Parti