You will choose an architectural precedent from the list below. It is recommended you pick a precedent that will compliment your thesis work if possible. Amass as much information as possible on your precedent (site, material type and source, structure, method of construction, immediate context, historical influences, lighting, environmental conditions, etc.) through the use of drawings, diagrams, and photography. When you have accumulated a significant amount of information, identify a key plan or section drawing of your precedent. Thoroughly measure this drawing and draft it at a scale that will appropriately fit within a 12” x 12” drawing area. You must work from the measurements you recorded and cannot trace from nor underlay your key plan or section drawing. From your plan or section drawing, draft a three-dimensional wire-frame oblique projection (plan to plan oblique, section to section oblique). Your oblique drawings should focus on central elements of the architecture, but also include as much information as possible. There may be discrepancies between your sources of information, which will require you to negotiate how you represent these conflicts and which information is privileged. Be precise to the ‘truth’ of your drawing methodology over accurate to the ‘real’ architecture by discovering and depicting relationships. Throughout this process, you will accumulate a great deal of construction and computational marks, and notations. Do not erase these lines or notes but allow them to become apart of the drawing. Feel free to explore with other media, but be critical how the addition of alternative media will augment or supplement the reading of your drawing, and therefore the ‘truth’ of the architecture.
+ Alvar Aalto, Wolfsburg Cultural Center, Wolfsburg, Germany, 1959–1962
+ Alvaro Siza, Ibere Camargo Foundation, Porto Alegre, Brazil, 1995
+ Charles Moore, Sea Ranch Condominium #1, Sea Ranch, California, 1963–1967
+ Eladio Dieste, Church of Christ Obrero (Atlantida Church), Atlántida, Uruguay, 1952
+ Herzog & de Meuron, M.H. de Young Museum, San Francisco, 2005
+ James Stirling, Engineering Building, Leicester, England, 1957
+ Kenzo Tange, Yoyogi National Gymnasium, Tokyo, Japan, 1964
+ Lina Bo Bombardi, Sesc Pompéia, Sáo Paulo, Brazil, 1977
+ Mario Botta, Cathedral of Resurrection, Evry, France, 1988–1995
+ Rem Koolhaas (OMA), Casa da Musica, Porto, Portugal, 2005
+ SANAA, 21st Century Museum, Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan, 2004
+ Toyo Ito, Sendai Mediatheque, Sendai-shi, Japan, 2001
+ Alberto Pérez-Gómez, Prelude (pg.2–pg.9)
+ Paolo Belardi, Why Architects Still Draw (optional)
+ Randall Davis, What Is A Knowledge Representation
+ Robin Evans, Translations from Drawing to Building