Architecture Study

The Trinquetaille Bridge, Vincent van Gogh

Thee things: observe, explore and practice.

Observe everyday the world around you. How people move in a space, sizes of spaces, how light affects the spaces and a million other details we take for granted everyday. Research the type of building you are designing and see what makes it work (or not work). Visit them and learn from floor plans of previous successful projects.

Explore options, never start with a preconceive notion of what you want the floor plan to be.You might have starting points like allowable area of the site to use or an entrance point but try out different configurations. I would start with simple bubble diagrams or adjacency diagrams but do not confuse those with architecture they are only to help you visualize the connections between spaces. Do not ignore this step and jump right into drawing rooms.

Practice makes (near) perfect. The more options you ty the better you will get at resolving the project’s challenges. The more projects you do the better you will get to resolving a floor plan. Many architects get stuck on a concept and try to make the plan fit that idea. Let the idea gow organically with the basic organization of the structure. I have found that a good plan tends to almost resolve itself and I am just a medium to draw it. 

Interior of the Jupiter Temple (Mausoleum) in the Palace of Emperor Diocletian in Split by Charles-Louis Clerisseau 

French, 1757

pen and Indian ink and brown wash, brush and brown and grey was

The Queen Margaret Union, University of Glasgow, Walter Underwood & Partners, 1968

Florence, Italy - photography by: Michelle Heimerman - Saveur April/May 2017

Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flower Il Duomo di Firenze: was begun in 1296 in the Gothic style with the design of Arnolfo di Cambio and completed structurally in 1436 with the dome engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi. The exterior of the basilica is faced with polychrome marble panels in various shades of green and pink bordered by white and has an elaborate 19th-century Gothic Revial facade by Emilio De Fabric.

styles: Italian Gothic - Renaissance - Gothic Revival

THE CORINTHIAN ORDER

According to Vitruvius, the Corinthian capital is a stylized representation of acanthus leaves growing through a basket. The volute scrolls at four corners, which have been transformed into downward-turning foliage, are carried over from the Ionic capital. The slender, fluted column shaft of the Ionic order is repeated, but the overall proportions of the Ionic and Corinthian orders differ considerably, due to the doubled height of the later capital.

The Corinthian order remained in continuous use for a much longer time than the Doric and Ionic orders. Although the earliest examples date from the classical period, the Corinthian order was not widely-known until Praxiteles chose it for the circular temple sheltering the Aphrodite of Knidos (c. 330 BC). The order was used in the Hellenistic kingdoms and adopted by the conquering Romans, who used throughout the empire. The order persisted through the 11th and 12th centuries, when Corinthian capitals in southern France and Spain served as models (and often as materials) for Romanesque foliate and historiated capitals.