University of Virginia
School of Architecture
Architectural Design
ARCH 201
Fall 2002
John Quale, coordinator
Susan Carpenter
Lance Hosey
Jason Johnson
Jason Kreuzer
Michael Stouse
PHASE I: Mapping the Lawn – part b
Description:
In this next part of Phase I, you will continue to develop your ideas and observations generated in the first
“analytique” drawing. Working from the plan of the Lawn that we have given you, you will learn to use graphics
and models to express ideas. You will diagram the area of the Lawn, distilling issues and concepts into their
essential images. The culmination of these studies will be the use of models to layer these ideas into a
composite armature, registering multiple readings of the Lawn simultaneously. On Friday, September 6, in
review, you will present your thesis about the lawn as a progression from the fresh impressions of the sketch, to
the abstract clarity of the diagrams, to the layered complexity of the analytical models.
Expectations:
During this project, you will be exposed to and expected to develop skills in the following areas:
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Observation, Documentation, Abstraction, and Analysis of Place
Diagramming by hand – various strategies of representation
Presentation and composition – the coordination of different types of information to strengthen the
communication of a specific concept
Woodshop and modelmaking skills
Requirements:
After first discovering ideas about the Lawn through the sketch assignment, you will spend the final week of the
project working in diagram and model to develop these ideas into a coherent thesis.
diagram
On Friday, you will be given an 11” x 17” plan of the Lawn and its surroundings at 1” = 200’-0”. You will produce
(12) diagrams from this plan to further clarify and explore your ideas from the first “analytique” drawing. It is
important to remember that these drawings should not just be considered simple “tracings” of the drawing, but
RE-presentations of the existing information; each point and line should represent your design intentions. Your
diagrams may be in plan, section, or axonometric, but you will be required to do at least (2) diagrams of each
type, and they all must be to scale. Be sure to consider the entire sheet—remember, the context is as
important as the organization of the lawn itself. Each diagram is to be titled: you may choose your own
subjects for your diagrams or choose from among the following subjects:
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cardinal points / solar orientation figure / ground
views
precincts / fields
center / edge
axis / organization
hierarchy
layering: literal and implied
symmetry / asymmetry
additive / subtractive
memory / trace
associations
history
model
Through a series of study models, construct the diagrams you have made for the Lawn as a layered construct
of frames, volumes, and surfaces. Develop the way you build and connect these layers to emphasize ideas and
relationships discovered within the site. Your final model should be able to be understood “in the round”; that is,
without a conventional base. Rather, rhythms of site and building, organizational axes, spaces, and views
should be threaded together to structure the model in its entirety. Layer the model to be transparent, to reveal a
hierarchy of material and concepts and do NOT represent the building literally; each element you build should
be an abstraction of an idea or concept previously diagrammed. You will be encouraged and expected to use
the woodshop, to some degree, in making this final model. Construct the layered armature of this final model
from wood and weave 1-2 other materials into it to represent ideas such as volume, texture, and surface. You
may choose from, but are not limited to, the following materials:
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corrugated cardboard
chipboard
museum board
plexiglass / acetate
metal
wire mesh
fabric
Deadlines:
For Wednesday 09.04.02
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(12) total diagrams of Lawn and its context, ink on trace paper trimmed to 11” x 17”, scale to 1” = 200’0”. These diagrams should at least include:
-(2) plan diagrams
-(2) section diagrams
-(2) axonometric diagrams
analytical model, of Lawn and its immediate context, at 1” = 200’-0”, layering systems and rhythms
revealed in the diagrams
Final Review
(1) final analytical model, at 1” = 100’-0” - use structure and material to talk about lawn and its context
as a single, integrated construct
revise prior work if necessary
organize presentation strategy for entire body of work as a thesis—both verbal and graphic—for review
For Friday 09.06.02
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Resources:
graphics
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Ching, Frank, Architectural Graphics (1975)
Ching, Architecture, Form, Space, & Order (1979)
Ching, Drawing: A Creative Process (1990)
Dripps, R. D., Primer on Composition, available as PDF on course website
Morrish, William, Civilizing Terrains: Mountains, Mounds and Mesas (1996), available as PDF on
course website
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Burns, Carol, “On Site”, in Andrea Kahn, ed., Drawing / Building / Text (1991), available as PDF on
course website
Clark, W.G. “Replacement,” Modulus 20 (1991), available as PDF on course website
Holl, Steven, Anchoring : selected projects, 1975-1988.
site
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Lawn / Charlottesville
 Brawne, Michael, University of Virginia: The Lawn Thomas Jefferson
 Hershey, George, The Lost Meaning of Classical Architecture
 Kaufman, Emil, Three Revolutionary Architects
 Pierson, William, American Buildings and their Architects, pp. 316-334
 Scully, Vincent, American Architecture and Urbanism
 Tzonis and Le Faivre, Classical Architecture, chapters 1 and 2
 Wilson, Richard Guy, ed., Thomas Jefferson’s Academical Village: The Creation of an Architectural
Masterpiece
 Wilson, Richard Guy & Butler, Sara A., The Campus Guide: University of Virginia
 Wilson, Richard Guy, “Jefferson's Academical Village”, Jefferson's Lawn: Perceptions, Interpretations,
Meanings, (Chapter 2)
 Wittkower, Rudolf, Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism, parts III and IV
 http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/giscoll/va_gisdata.html#aerial (good aerial photography
source)