Course Reflection

ARCH1142 Architectural Communications has not so much taught me new skills, but rather guided me to discover and develop my own skills. I find the exploratory nature of the course to be incredibly helpful as well as enjoyable.

In Atlas of Colour I was taught basic colour theory, but more useful than the theoretical breakdown or examples in architecture, was the excercises in applying what we had learnt, developing our own favoured colour schemes, etc. Despite it's heavy workload, the colour workshop will probably continue to be of the most help in the future, and as an often overlooked element in architecture, this workshop has lead me to a new degree of consideration for colour.

Fluid Thoughts to Action was a workshop of true exploration. We were encouraged to discard the rigid rules of traditional architectural drawings and instead try to capture spaces and objects as they were experienced, rather than what they ought to look like, as well as seeking 'the bigger picture'. The 2 sketches per day truely honed my eye to see the important elements in a space, as well as finding a real comfort in spontanious drawing. This workshop guided us to free our drawing styles, achieving less literal and systematic drawing which is able to communicate the space even better.

With Fluid Thoughts developing a freedom of expression, the Drawing workshop now called for the bigger picture to be focussed. Not only capturing the 'feel' of the space, but depict every detail to precision. Most useful in this workshop was the increased understanding of architectural rendering and linework. With little prior experience with that (ARCH1102 calls for unhatched, single line weight drawings), i found the tasks outline here, not as restrictions but options, interesting and educational (in a free, discovery manner). Also worth noting was how much the previous 2 workshops assisted in raising my standards of presentation!

To re-iterate, the best part of the course was the amount of freedom of expression the students have, developing our own techniques, our own schemes, our own styles... All of these are vital in communication as they'll assist in reaching a "comunicatee" on a much more personal level.