Architectural Design

1st ProofTitle: BA: Architectural Design

Job No: PD0710-67/4028

Chapter 3 final (3.5)_.qxd:layouts to chapter one 7/24/10 12:24 PM Page 166

The design project

Construction and occupation

Cross section

Unfolding Hamlet by Joseph Brown.

This cross-section drawing of an

actor’s house designed to unfold and

open out into a stage set shows the

building occupied by the actor and

his party guests.

The student experience

This section follows the progress of a group of architecture

students as they reach the end of a 12-week design studio

project to design an outdoor theatre. The theatre company

then commissioned the students to design and build an

information booth as a live project.

At the final review students presented process work,

orthographic drawings in two and three dimensions and

detailed models of their resolved proposals. The drawings

represented the function, activity, experience and occupation

of each proposal as well as the human and urban scale of

the building in context. Models, mock-ups and prototypes

were used to explore tangible qualities such as materials and

structure. Although the theatre designs were not expected to

be built, events such as the final review, portfolio review and

end-of-year exhibition brought the opportunity for students to

receive feedback on their designs from a wider audience and

to test how well their drawings and models communicated

to others.

Construction

With the commission to design and build an information

booth for the theatre company, the whole design process

began again, from client brief and site visit to initial ideas and

design development. This time the students were designing

as a group, using ideas workshops to generate and test

multiple design ideas before agreeing on the ones to

develop. The brief was for a demountable, lightweight

booth in which to display and hand out information and to

sell tickets. Budget, time and construction skills were very

real issues that informed the design. A full-scale prototype

was constructed to test the design and this improved

understanding of material tolerances and buildability. Seeing

and trying out the prototype allowed the client and designers

to raise issues of ergonomics, usability and materials.

Sectional perspective

Outdoor theatre for Romeo and Juliet

by Rodolfo Acevedo Rodriguez.

Experiential sectional perspective

of cinema, showing occupation and

mirrored reflections.

Text

1st ProofTitle: BA: Architectural Design

Job No: PD0710-67/4028

Chapter 3 final (3.5)_.qxd:layouts to chapter one 7/24/10 12:25 PM Page 166