Please complete four of the following five assignments in your sketchbook by 10am April 22. The assignment for the MACBA must be one of your four. Feel free to complete the fifth assignment for extra credit.
1
Site: MNAC
Palau Nacional Parc de Montjuïc
Assignment: SCALE, APPROACH, PROCESSION
Please draw a diagrammatical plan and section (figure ground) at the urban scale showing the location of the museum building and the stairs, pathways and landscape that surround and connect it to the remote urban environment. Indicate alignments, axis, connections, etc.
Sketch two perspective views – one from your ascent (looking to up to the MNAC) and the other from your descent (looking down to the city.)
Questions to consider:
How do the architectural elements choreograph your movement?
Are there moments of pause, acceleration?
What is the situation of the complex in the larger urban environment?
How does scale establish hierarchy?
Is the experience (rhythm, pace, perception, view, etc) different between your ascent and descent?
2
Site: CCCB
Carrer Montalegre, 5.
Architects: Estudi Viaplana/Piñón Arqs. Ricardo Mercadé Ass. 1993
Assignment: INTERNAL ORGANIZATION
Please draw a diagrammatical axon revealing the insertion of the new building addition into the existing hospital complex.
Sketch a diagrammatical plan including the interior space and the exterior courtyard. Your plan should suggest the materiality of the vertical planes. For example, glass should read differently than stone and masonry.
Indicate on the plan or in separate diagrams the layers and gradations of public and private spaces, and the zones of circulation.
Draw a panoramic of the interior courtyard facades. Indicate how the existing complex is reflected in the façade of the new addition.
Questions to consider: Please answer with visual and textual notes in your sketchbook
How does the form of the new addition and façade reinforce the internal organization?
What is the relationship of the complex to the street and surrounding public spaces, boundaries, views, thresholds, connections, etc.?
How does the interior space organized to respond to the internal organization?
How does the interior and exterior façade of the complex establish hierarchy?
3
Site: Picasso Museum
Casa del Baro de Castellet, Montcada, 15-23
Assignment: DOORWAY, GATE, THRESHOLD, PORTAL
Begin by drawing a plan of the museum spaces you can access. On the plan indicate the location of doorways, gates, and portals. Sketch a series of 5 to 6 small axon in scale to one another. Each axon should show at least one door gate portal and the two adjacent spaces. Please represent the consistencies and inconsistencies of your spatial experience as you pass though the gates, doors, and portals. This can be achieved by articulating elements such as light, compression, expansion, enclosure, size and shape of spatial volume, etc.
Questions to consider: please answer with visual and textual notes in your sketchbook
How are these openings are articulated (size, shape, material, ornamentation, etc.?)
Is there a relationship between their design, size, function, location and/or spaces they provide entry for?
How do the openings frame or edit a view into the space beyond?
How does your perception of what is inside and what is outside shift as you move through the doors, gates and thresholds?
4
Site: MACBA
Pl. dels Angels, 1
Architect: Richard Meier
Assignment: ?
Please visit the interior and exterior space of the MACBA. You will write an assignment for yourself in your sketchbook. Please use the format of the above assignments. You should indicate what topic you are examining (e.g. layering, hierarchy, circulation). You should specify drawing types and diagrams (e.g. axon, perspective,) and then propose questions you will investigate or answer through visual and textual note taking.
5
Site: Fundacio Joan Miro
Parc de Montjuïc
Architect: Luis Sert 1975
Assignment: CIRCULATION
