You’re going to be an architect for this assignment. You’re going to design a building for the 21st Century—a home, an office building, a school, anything you want—and draw a representation of it from the outside. (I drew houses and blueprints for fun when I was a kid, so don’t think I’m asking for the impossible here!) Just a pencil-and-notebook-paper drawing is fine with me. I’m not going to grade you on your artistic ability but on the thought you put into your design.
Before you begin, you’ll need to do a little looking into two terms and look around at examples of each:
Vernacular architecture and conceptual architecture
In short, vernacular architecture is locally-based in terms of tradition and materials (think of how houses look in colonial Williamsburg versus Cape Coral) while conceptual architecture takes inspiration from ideas outside of architecture (think of the Futurist City we looked at at the beginning of the semester).
First, choose either vernacular or conceptual architecture as your starting point. Tell me why you made the choice you did and what your inspiration was. How does it tie into the location (vernacular) or society on a larger scale (conceptual)?
Second, tell me what problem you’re trying to address in your design. Think big here—not just a house with a gigantic family room so people can spend time together (snoozefest), but something like a structure that might help with Florida’s water issues (in fact, for hundreds of years, buildings in Bermuda have had stepped limestone roofs to catch and save rainwater), climate issues (look at examples of rooftop greenspace), or population concerns (in a dystopian way, look into the new dorm at University of California Santa Barbara).
Third, describe your design. Why did you create this structure in the way you did? How did your design address the problem you identified? You might want to think about the degree to which your structure is sustainable (currently the amount of concrete on earth is thought to outweigh all organic life combined) and the non-monetary cost of constructing it. You may also want to talk about who will have access to the design and who will be able to use it—if you’re creating a one-family house your answer to this will be very different than if you’re creating a community center.
Imagine you’re writing this essay as a contribution to a news website–you’ll want to provide concrete details, a clear inspiration, and a specific justification for your design.
Finally, tie your thoughts together in a concluding paragraph. The entire essay should be 500 words, minimum. And remember to attach a photo of your drawing.
Ps: if you can draw something simple that would be great, I really don’t understand this assignment or else I would provided a drawing myself.
