“Drawings are not just end products: they are part of the thought process of
architectural design. Drawings express the interaction of our minds, eyes and
hands.” Michael Graves
Assignment:
Part One:
 Select a place, not in your bedroom, (nor in someone else’s), in which to read
this and create both a written response and a drawn one.
 Read this article there:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/02/opinion/sunday/architecture-andthe-lost-art-of-drawing.html?_r=0
 The space should be something in the public realm, but not a commercial
environment (i.e. not Starbucks). It should be a place in which you feel you
will be comfortable for 1/2 hour.
 It should offer the degree of privacy necessary to read and write. It can be in
a living area, a library, or commons, outside school or inside school.
Critique the place you chose. In a paragraph or two, write about both the
positive attributes of the place you chose, and on what is negative about it.
Consider the following topics for each (positive and negative attributes):
Why did you choose that place; what drew you to it?
What is the nature of the light? The space? The room? The privacy?
What are the materials? Are you comfortable?
Is it an exposed place? Is it enclosed?
What are the views? What can you see? What can you hear?
How well does it facilitate what you are doing?
Please answer in architectural/spatial terms, with particular reference to
what you are doing there, and the positive and negative impact on your task
(i.e. reading and writing).
Discuss dimension, space, light, material, spatial zones, etc.
Now, as Michael Graves discusses in the NY Times article, use drawings to capture
your experience of the space. Make at least two “referential” drawings of the space
you have chosen. These two drawings should show the space from different views,
i.e. plan, section, perspective, etc. These drawings are a record of your experience
of the space, much like, in Architecture I, the drawings of the Commons.
Part Two:
Create at least three “preparatory” studies. These drawings should be the
beginnings of a design for a space that would be your ideal workspace.
This assignment is not about simply improving what you have documented, but
rather a chance for you to take from those exercises what you feel to be positive (if
anything), and abandon what you do not. As a designer of a place for someone like
you to work (read/study/research/write), what would this idealized place be like?
Make a new proposal, one based on your needs and your critique.
 What is required in the space?
 What features/capabilities are needed?
 What type of light is optimal?
 What are the materials?
 How does it feel?
In designing this new “third space”, here are the parameters, or “rules” of the
problem:
1. The space you conceptualize in this design problem is relatively small, it should
not exceed 6’ x 8’ x 8’ (width/length/height).
2. It is a study of an idealized “pod”, in which to work while not at home or office.
3. It should confront the issues you raised in your own critique of positive and
negative attributes of place in Assignment 2.
4. Think of what you design as a free-standing element. Any access or control of
light/sound/view/privacy, etc. must be defined by elements you place. i.e. it does
not depend on an existing place for its quality.
5. Consider your “third space” to bridge the gap between furniture and architecture.
These are the rule of your submission:
1. Submissions must include free-hand sketches.
2. Supplement your drawings with textures/ materials/ color/ collage, etc.
3. Communicate your intention clearly.
4. No computer-generated images.
5. All submissions must fit on one 15”x20” board – use it all.
“Constraints have long been the best friends of architecture”
- Frank Lloyd Wright
Build your Third Space:
Use color and/or texture in both models and drawings only as appropriate to
illustrate intention.
Continue to draw, as before – drawings and models should co-define each other.
Be prepared to build several quick sketch (study) models as part of an iterative
process before attempting to build a final model.
Product – one model at quarter scale, one quarter scale plan, and two quarter scale
sections (longitudinal and cross).
Plans and sections must be presented along with your Assignment 5 submissions on
boards for review.
Submissions will be evaluated on:
 Richness and density of concept.
 Personal ability to evaluate and improve concept.
 Apparent use of iteration in the design process.
 Legible incorporation of critique into process.
 Completeness, clarity and craft.
You have constructed your third space. How would you tell someone how the spaces
you have designed could be used in a larger context? How would you show someone
how they would be organized? How would you illustrate the impact that using them
could have on the architecture that would enclose them? What would be the best \
and clearest way to explain their intention and use?
• Consider your third space as a cellular element in a larger construct.
• Consider the zones of circulation required to connect them – to each other, to
external space, to internal spaces.
• What do their needs for light, physical access and structural support suggest about
how they might be organized?
• Are they linear? Horizontally or vertically?
• Do they access light better if staggered?
• Do they enclose space, or make an enclave?
• Are they elevated, submerged, both?
• Are they floating above a space?
• Are they a space outside a space?
• Do they require special structure?
• Do they require special fenestration?
Working in sketch model form, illustrate a variety of ways your third spaces may be
organized.
Work at a small scale using massing models to illustrate a minimum of 5 possible
methods of organization. Each model must include a minimum of 5 third spaces, a
minimum of one larger public internal space, elements representing circulation, and
an abstracted element suggesting peripheral building edge. Each model must be
substantively different in terms of organization.
These are meant to illustrate options that remain consistent to intention.
Product :
A minimum of 5 sketch models at 1/8” or 1/16” scale. These must be small freefloating models that could be handed to a client (or critic) and be immediately
understood. One hand drawn diagram of each organization showing how it works.
These are diagrams, not plans or elevations, and they may be done in SketchUp or
by hand. Use any and all graphic techniques to make your point immediately
understood.