Stage one diagram

Architect’s model

Architect’s storyboard

Stage one

Materials: camera and film, glue, mirror tiles, Blu Tac or Plasticine, Sellotape.

Choose a building on which to base your investigation – for example, the school building.

Select parts of the building which you consider to be of structural or aesthetic importance. (Such as entrance, staircase, balcony, different types of rooms.) Include any interesting details, like door handles. Record in written and sketch form reasons for selection. Make note of details like textures, materials, colour, form and shape. Make rubbings of textures, and collect samples of natural/found materials.

Photograph your selected part of the building twice. Take the first picture. If you are close to the item step 50cm left or right then take the second photo. If you’re far away, step 2m left or right before taking the second photo.

Paste each photograph to stiff card. Set up as shown in the diagram above and here.

Follow the diagram and instructions below to view the images.
You’ll see a 3D illusion of the parts photographed.
In the photographs of small details (such as handles) abstract images will appear.
Can you work out why?

Stage two

Materials: two sheets of stiff card per student (25cm x 25cm), acetate/clear plastic, extra card, straws, Sellotape, Uhu glue, craft knives/scissors, scale rulers if available.

Develop a 3D model of a human dwelling. The design should include vertical and horizontal levels.

Construct a 1:25 model. One sheet of card should remain intact as the ground floor of the shelter. Using the second sheet of card only, work out how to create your desired horizontal planes. These may take the form of different floor levels, balconies, stairs or canopies.

Consider carefully the scale you are working to, how you might break up vertical spaces (think about floor levels) and whether you can extend floors horizontally outwith the original ground square. Walls and partitions breaking up the space should be constructed from the extra card or acetate available.

Describe and evaluate each view in writing. Select one elevation and sketch this on A2 sugar paper with chalk and charcoal.

Stage three

Each of the modern masters used collage in their work. Mies van der Rohe would superimpose drawings for skyscrapers against the photographic urban backdrops. Aalto used collage when designing the Villa Mairea. Wright used it in working plans for buildings.

Use the texture rubbings, drawings and photographs created in stage one and other modelling materials to influence which materials you use to make your model.

Using your chalk/charcoal elevation drawing and a variety of textures and materials, collage elements of these resources to create a story-board of your idea for a project, just as an architect would.