How a specific technique supports Architectural representation

Abstract

Previously, architects transferred their ideas from their mind and intellect directly to the paper. Now, computers and advanced devices are instruments that have integrated themselves as a middle layer in this process. A subtle effect of this development is that along with the architect’s ideas, the output is also dependent on the architect’s understanding, comfort, and skill in the technological layer and instruments, which are not unlike a vehicle carrying the architects thoughts to the desired destination of the output. This essay analyzes the relationship between architectural drawings and the use of computers to create those drawings. In the 2019 Spring Semester Option Studio, the students explored how drawings can be expressed and enhanced by Computer Numerical Control (CNC) technology. CNC machines operate along the X, Y, and Z axes. Because of this mechanism, drawing paths can only be implemented through a change in the code of the X,Y, and Z axis values. This restriction affects the development of architectural ideas. Users need to make the decision regarding how the code will be formed and read. There is another way of exploit computer using coding program Python and Processing. Two case studies from coding program demonstrate how certain drawings are not possible without the knowledge of the technological instruments that are able to make them. The last seminar class focused on the conversion of written text to 2D drawing. In the process, a black-and-white hatch and tone was used to create spatial depth and atmosphere. The purpose of this exercise was to acknowledge the potential and efficiency of expressing spatiality and other ideas in written text with simple black-and-white options.