Design, place and time.
How does design reflect and respond to
the time and place in which it is made?
What do those columns mean?
This task is from the field of Environments.
Students learn about contemporary and historical design styles and traditions as well as contextual factors that influence environmental design projects. Students will explore the timeline of architectural styles, learning the meaning of style and the key features that define them. They will learn about factors that influence environmental design projects, including context. Students will learn about how ideas are presented to clients in schematic drawings and practice incorporating a selected architectural style in documentation, pictorial drawings and a model.
outcome
What students need to do
ON COMPLETION OF THIS UNIT THE STUDENT SHOULD BE ABLE TO
-
present an environmental design solution that draws inspiration from its context and a chosen design style.
(VCE VCD Study Design 2024 – 28 p.28. )
Introduction
What is an architectural style? How have they been formed, and how have styles influenced architects' ideas about form and function? What are form and function anyway? An architectural style is a common approach to the form and function of a building. This means a common or shared approach to the shape of architectural forms and the ways buildings are constructed and used. The terms form and function are often used to describe aspects of architecture. Form refers to aesthetics – the look of a building and function refers to how spaces are designed to be used. Architectural styles have changed over the course of thousands of years. However, some key styles were ground-breaking and can even represent powerful ideas formed in the civilisations from which they emerged. This Area of Study will explore architectural styles, the ideas they represent and factors that have and continue to influence architects and provide an opportunity for students to practice a range of skills used by environmental designers.
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learning intentions
Learning intentions should be set at the commencement of each unit, and then at regular intervals during the task. Read through the content on this page. Discuss what you think the topics are and form them into three ‘Learning Intentions. Use noun sentences like, ‘I will learn about making 3d drawings, or I will learn about Good Design. Write your three learning intentions.
For advanced learning intentions, go with 3 different levels.
- What you will learn. (For example, Good Design describes the qualities of all designs)
- How what you will learn can be used to create meaning or communicate information? (For example, The Elements of Design can be used to create aesthetic effects).
- How could your understanding of the learning be extended or related to other learnings? (For example, The idea of Good Design can be used to frame better solutions to design problems in any field of life)
success criteria
Success criteria can be negotiated between students and their teacher. The class group can agree on how a skill can best be demonstrated. Identification of success criteria is done at the commencement of each unit, then at regular intervals. Now that you are familiar with what you will learn in this task (Learning Intentions), it's time to lock in how you will be able to show that you know it or can do it. Write three success criteria, using verb sentences like in the examples below:
I will demonstrate that I have mastered the learning by;
- I Can identify the Elements and Principles of Design in the visual communication
- I can use three-dimensional drawing to visualise a range of ideas
- I can explain how three-dimensional drawing is used to present ideas to a client
Stages of the design process and research
In this section, students revise the design process and how it can be applied to the design of built environments. They then explore a range of research methods that can be used to identify and understand environmental design problems.
key knowledge
What we will learn about
key knowledge points for this outcome
- stages of the VCD design process and their role in developing environmental design solutions
- research methods used to identify environmental design problems
(VCE VCD Study Design 2024-28, p. 28)
Introduction
In this Area of Study, students work will take them through the whole Design Process. They will build on the knowledge they gained in Unit 1 and understand how the Design Process is used in designing environments. Before moving to a more detailed examination, do Task 1.1 below.
To understand how an architect may begin working on a project, read about how Cox Architects worked with their client in the ‘Design Problem’, ‘Roles and relationships between designers and stakeholders’ and ‘Practices, processes, methods and conventions used by designers’ sections of this page. With the knowledge you have gained in this section, do Task 1.2 below.
Aerial view of complex highway interchange in Los Angles, California. (Image: Iofoto@shutterstock.com">Iofoto@shutterstock.com).
Brisbane Town Hall. 1930. Architects Hall & Prentice. An amazing conglomeration of Italian Renaissance and Neo-Classical styles overlaid on a strong Art Deco form. (Image: SchnepfDesign@shutterstock.com).
Research methods
Designers of environments use research methods such as site analyses, interviews, surveys, focus groups, competitor analyses, audience or user personas and ethnographic research and how they can be used to identify and understand an environmental design problem.
task
Show I know ...
1.1 How architects work
Create a table with four columns to represent the four stages of the Design Process. Consider the following tasks an architectural studio might do in designing a built environment. Position them correctly from the top to the bottom in each column.
- Research similar projects
- Present a schematic presentation to a client
- Conduct a stakeholder analysis
- Create a board to display samples of the materials and surfaces that will be used
- Conduct a studio evaluation meeting
- Discuss an environmental design need with a client
- Document the project in construction drawings
- Conduct a site visit
- Live or work with a client in their present space
- Draw loose initial sketches
- Create an audience persona
- Synthesise understandings about a design problem into a return brief
- Produce a massing model or low-fi model
1.2 Case study Cox Architects
Consider the following tasks Cox Architects did during the design of the ‘March of the Titanosaurs’ and the ‘Waltzing Matilda’ buildings. Compare the similarities and differences between the points below in both projects. Alternatively, teachers could ask students to investigate each point in small groups and feedback to the class. (Note: not each aspect is explained for both buildings)
- Framing a design problem
- The brief
- Relationships between stakeholders
- Visualised initial ideas
- Visualised initial forms
- Presented the concept to the client
1.3 Frame a design problem using ‘How might we…?’
1.4 Methods used to identify and understand design problems
- Choose one of the same two images above. Identify and describe it.
- Determine who the stakeholders might have been for the project you have chosen. Include primary and secondary stakeholders in your answer.
- Referring to the research methods listed above, identify and discuss the most appropriate method that would yield the best insights into the perspectives of one group of stakeholders.
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Design styles and contextual factors
Designers’ concepts are formed and influenced by the ideas and values that dominate the societies, cultures, and economic, technological, and environmental contexts in which they live and work. One only needs to look at and compare the kinds of buildings constructed in Australia up to 1900 with those found in the ‘Mother Country’, Britain; a love of Greek, Roman and European architecture informed those styles. The styles that architects had grown up with and had been educated about came with them across the seas and served as a benchmark upon which to build, quite literally, a New, South, Wales and other replicas of English landmarks. In the twentieth century, architects' attention turned to the United States, particularly to the emerging trends found in the buildings of Chicago. Gradually, Australian architecture developed a more independent identity and has its place on the world stage in the Twenty-First Century. In this section, we will explore architectural styles and traditions and the influences that shape them, as well as develop ways to describe and analyse them.
key knowledge
What we will learn about
key knowledge points for this outcome
- contemporary and historical design styles and traditions
(VCE VCD Study Design 2024-28, p. 28)
Historical and contemporary design styles and traditions
Throughout history, people have built structures that offer shelter and build communities. The chronological development of the built environment is known as the history of architecture. During this history, builders and architects were and still are, involved in a continual quest to create and improve the capacity of structures to fulfil the human need for shelter and security and to represent and celebrate the values and ideals of the civilisations within which they are built.
The practices used to build structures, such as the materials available, tools, processes, and equipment, and the technologies and methods for design, construction, and assembly, greatly influenced architects’ abilities to create an envelope for private, public, community, or institutional places.
Architectural practices developed in waves propelled by design trends, partnered with building technology improvements. Architects working in similar historical, geographical or cultural contexts and with similar intentions designed and constructed buildings and sites that share similar functional, aesthetic and structural characteristics. Each of these waves in the development of architecture is known as a style or a period.
Each historical and architectural style is seen to reflect the ideals and values of the civilisations in which they exist. As such, structures built using specific styles, comprising specific aesthetic characteristics, methods and technologies, function symbolically, projecting social and cultural ideas to the world. Examples of architectural styles with separate distinctive features in Western History are Greek, Roman (Classical), Byzantine and Gothic architecture. Similarly, the African, Middle Eastern and Asian worlds possess sequential architectural development and achievement histories.
Examples of key Western architectural styles that demonstrate technological and aesthetic growth include the following buildings. The Great Hypostyle Hall, Egyptian (BC 1250), The Parthenon, Greek (BC 438), The Pantheon, Roman (126), Hagia Irene, Byzantine (300), Pisa Cathedral, Romanesque (1092), Cologne Cathedral, Gothic (began 1248).
The Renaissance period in Europe (1400s—1600s) was a wholesale, historical reset and complete rebirth of society. Key examples of Italian Renaissance architecture include The Dome of Florence Cathedral, Brunelleschi (1420), and the Basilica of St Peter, Rome, Bramante, Michelangelo, Maderno, and Bernini (1620). Renaissance architecture referenced ancient and Classical architecture and adopted characteristics of these periods.
The next major upheaval of civilisation in the Western World occurred as a result of the First Industrial Revolution (1760). Major increases in science, engineering and technology facilitated dramatic shifts in social structures and changed the attitudes of artists, writers and musicians. They no longer sought to reflect the ideals, narratives and practices of the past but wanted to participate in the reality of the ‘now’. The period of modernism, as it is known, began in all fields of art practice as a response to this social change. An initial progression of building design was with the use of steel frames, applying the principles and practices used in bridge building for steam railways. Nineteenth-century monuments, such as the Crystal Palace, London, Paxton (1851), used glazed steel frames, creating the first entirely transparent building.
By contrast, during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Revivalist styles paralleled these conquests of the ‘new’. Examples of revivalist architecture include Neoclassical, The White House, Hoban (1792), Romanesque Revival, Sacred Heart Church, San Francisco (1852), Neogothic, St Patrick’s Cathedral, Wardell (Began 1858) and Italianate, Werribee Mansion, Chirnside (1874). Architecture within these periods frequently selected and used aesthetic and structural features of earlier styles symbolically. For example, the shape of a Classical Greek temple, its columns, and triangular pediment evoke the ideals of democratic and institutional purity and are seen in government buildings around the world. Pre-Federation architecture of Australia is built on foundations imported from Great Britain, which in turn reflected European and Roman stylistic traditions.
However, by the late nineteenth century, the tenets of modernism surpassed those of the revivalists. Styles that developed the ideas of modernism included Art Nouveau, Casa Batllo, Gaudi (1904), Art Deco, Chicago Board of Trade, Holabird & Root (1930), Streamline Moderne, Coca Cola, Derrah (1939), Prairie, Robie House, Frank Lloyd Wright (1909), Modern, Farnsworth House, Mies van der Rhoe (began 1945), Â International Style, Segram Building, Mies van der Rhoe (1958), Brutalism, Boston City Hall, McKinnell & Knowles, Campbell, Aldrich & Nulty (1968), Futurist/ Fantastic, TWA Flight Centre, Saarinen (1962).
Art Deco was a powerful period that was as influential as neo-classicism and Italianate architecture in Australia. During that period, principles of contextualism, relationships between buildings and between buildings and their surroundings, became more important. The period of later Modernism, seen in the second half of the Twentieth Century, is also referred to as Formalism. This is when artists and designers placed utmost importance on clean, reductive forms, eliminating decoration and allowing the natural characteristics of materials to be seen. During this period, architect Mies van der Rhoe used the now famous term ‘Less is More’. Not surprisingly, industrial designer Dieter Rams also proclaimed that Good Design is ‘As Little and Possible’.
As good as Modernism was, this formal, utopian and reductive ideology would ultimately end in nothingness. Hence, the period known as Postmodernism was the reaction against this period of the single, creative genius. Whilst it is said to date from the 1950s, it is more widely recognised to have begun in the mid-1970s and was a dominant style in the 1980s. Postmodern architecture is deconstructed, colourful, and collaborative, focusing more on community and inclusivity. The M2 Building, Tokyo, Kuma (1990) and the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Gehry (1997) are examples of postmodern and deconstructivist architecture. Postmodernity lives with ‘difference’ and incorporates styles and forms from a wide range of historical and stylistic sources.
Twenty-first-century architecture is equally diverse and builds on the entire history of the built environment. Buildings during this period develop in their sensitivity to their social, cultural and geographical context, adopt principles of environmental sustainability and benefit from advances in Building Information Modelling (BIM) design technology, Parametricism, algorithmic processes to create form, huge-scale 3D concrete printing and Artificial Intelligence. Examples of iconic twenty-first Century architectural styles include Contemporary Modernism, One World Trade Cente, New York City, Childs (2012), Green Architecture, The Bosco Verticale, Milan, Boeri (2024), Parametricism, Heydar Aliyev Centre, Azerbaijan, Hadid (2007), Socially Aware, Gando, Primary School, Burikina Faso, Kere (2004) and Contextual Regionalism, March of the Titanosaurs, Cox Architecture (2022).
Watch this space!
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Australian Architecture
Architectural styles
Eighteen iconic approaches to form and function
Hypostyle Egypt
1550-1070 BCE
Hypostyle halls were expansive chambers with rows of closely spaced columns supporting massive roofs. These temples, facilitated gatherings, rituals, and religious processions. Their dense forest of columns created a majestic and awe-inspiring atmosphere, emphasising divine presence and grandeur.
Greek
900-100 BCE
Known for its harmony, proportion, and emphasis on columns, particularly the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders. Key features include marble temples, open-air theatres, and democratic civic buildings, reflecting the ideals of balance, democracy, and humanism.
Roman
500 BCE-400
Developed arches, domes, vaults and concrete construction, enabling larger public buildings like amphitheatres and basilicas. Embraced grandeur, engineering innovation, and urban planning, embodying imperial power and civic life.
Byzantine
330-1450
Influenced by Roman and Eastern traditions, featuring domes, mosaics, and intricate ornamentation in churches and palaces. Focused on religious expression, conveying divine transcendence and Byzantine identity.
Romanesque
800-1200
Influenced by Roman architecture, this style is noted for thick walls, round arches, and barrel vaults, which are seen in churches and castles. These symbolise spiritual strength and feudal power, with fortress-like structures and religious fervour.
Gothic
1100s-1500s
This progression was characterised by pointed arches, ribbed vaults, and flying buttresses in cathedrals and castles. It expressed spiritual aspiration through height and light, with intricate stone tracery and awe-inspiring interiors.
Renaissance
1500s-1600s
Revived classical forms, symmetry, and perspective in palaces, churches, and civic buildings. It emphasised humanism, rationality, and artistic mastery, fostering cultural rebirth and civic pride.
Neo-Classical
1700s-1800s
A revivalist style inspired by Greek and Roman motifs, featuring columns, pediments, and symmetry in government buildings, banks, and museums. It conveyed ideals of democracy, order, and enlightenment, popular during periods of political change and cultural revival.
Italianate
1800s
Influenced by Italian Renaissance architecture, it adopted elements like terracotta roofs, arched windows, domes and decorative brackets in residential and public buildings. It was favoured in Victorian-era architecture.
Art Nouveau
1850s-1920s
This organic style used flowing lines, organic motifs, and asymmetry in decorative arts, architecture, and graphic design. It embraced natural forms, innovation, and decorative exuberance, reflecting modernity and artistic freedom.
Prairie Style
1880s-1930s
Pioneered by Frank Lloyd Wright, it features low-pitched roofs, horizontal lines, and open floor plans in suburban homes and public buildings. It is integrated with nature, promoting simplicity, functionality, and democratic design principles.
Art Deco
1920s - 1940s
This style used cascading geometric forms, patterns, and luxury materials in skyscrapers and theatres, some with interiors containing columns in the Egyptian Hypostyle. It exuded glamour, modernity, and optimism, epitomising the Roaring Twenties and interwar elegance.
Streamline Moderne [and P&O Australia]
1930s-1940s
Evolved from Art Deco, it emphasises the forms, shapes and colours of luxury liners, aerodynamic forms, smooth surfaces, and industrial materials. It symbolised progress, efficiency, and the Machine Age aesthetic.
International Style
1920s-1970s
Championed by architects like Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe, these buildings feature functional, minimalist designs with geometric forms and open plans. It denounced decoration by using raw and industrial materials. It embodies ideals of universalism, efficiency, and technological progress.
Mid Century Minimal
1940s–1960s
Embraced simplicity, clean lines, flat roofs, and organic integration in residential and commercial architecture. Influenced by post-war optimism, it promoted comfort, functionality, and the fusion of indoor-outdoor living.
Postmodern
1960s - present
It rejected modernist dogma by embracing historical references, ornamentation, and contextualism in playful and eclectic designs. It critiqued uniformity and celebrated diversity, reflecting cultural pluralism and architectural experimentation.
Contemporary modernism
2000s – present
It utilises industrial materials, structural expression, and technological innovation in iconic buildings and infrastructure. It celebrated engineering prowess, transparency, and the aesthetics of machinery, symbolising the digital age.
Parametricism
1990s - present
Employs computational design tools to create complex, organic forms with variable parameters, as seen in avant-garde architecture and urban planning. It explores fluidity, efficiency, and biomimicry, pushing the boundaries of architectural expression.
Additional video resources for architecture and its styles
Find a range of videos to broaden students’ understanding of architecture and its styles and influences below.
Context
What is a style?
Roman
Mosques
Asian Architecture
Indian architecture
african architecture
Gothic
Art Nouveau
Art Deco
Modernism – Reductive Order
Brutalism
Diners
Googie
Postmodernism
Deconstructivism
Guaudi Sa Gradia Familia
Social architecture
Francis Kéré interview
task
Show I know ...
Teachers may set one or more of the following tasks. They can be done in groups, pairs or individually.
2.1 Architecture Timeline
Research all of the styles shown in the examples above. Create a timeline to illustrate five styles of Western Architecture in chronological order. Annotate each style with;
- the dates for the period
- an example of the style
- some of the key features from the period that would be needed, if building in that style now
2.2 Architectural and Historical Timeline
Make a timeline of twentieth-century architectural styles. Illustrate your timeline with iconic images that represent each style and describe one major aspect of the time in which each style was made. For example, World War 1, (1914 – 18)
2.3 Influences of historical styles and traditions
2.4 Architectural precedents
Make a timeline showing how three elements from buildings made in the nineteenth, twentieth or twenty-first century can be traced back to previous styles. This timeline will show three modern and three ancient buildings.
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Factors that influence environmental design projects
key knowledge
What we will learn about
key knowledge points for this outcome
- contextual factors that influence environmental design projects
- economic, technological, cultural, environmental and social factors that impact environmental design projects
(VCE VCD Study Design 2024-28, p. 28)
context
The term context in VCD, refers to where (and when) a design is made, read, or used. Although every design has an important relationship with its context, this is of prime importance for environmental design.
The chief concern of context is where a design will be located. However, it’s not quite as simple as that. Architects consider aspects such as what a site looks like, what other designs around the site look like and how the site functions with respect to a desired or undesired view and its orientation. Designers respond to context by conducting a detailed site analysis before beginning a design. A site analysis will identify a site's orientation (North, South, West, East), views, the influence of shade and other environmental aspects. The materials used and the styles in buildings adjacent to a site are of major importance. Designers make choices regarding materials, colours, and heights with a full awareness of the other buildings around them. The architectural style of Regional Contextualism is based on designing buildings that incorporate naturally occurring materials and geographical features, literally or metaphorically, into their designs. Examples of this style include the March of the Titanosaurs, Cox Architecture (2022). By contrast, designers sometimes want to make a statement in opposition to the context in which a building is to be built. Paris’s Centre Pompidou art museum, Piano and Rogers (1977), a prime example of postmodern architecture, is made from colourful steel and glass in an area of the city comprised of traditional cream and brown brick apartments.
How does context Influence Architexture?
Piano and Rogers (1977) (Image: Jorge-felix-costa@shutterstock.com).
Surrounding buildings in Les Halles area near the Pompidou Centre, Paris. The new building has been designed to contrast with its context.
Other factors and building practices
Economic
The economic factor is evident if there were design decisions made that would cut the costs of design, construction, maintenance or use of an environmental design. Evidence of cutting costs in these areas typically include;
- Choosing cost effective materials and construction methods, prefabrication for example
- Sourcing materials locally to minimise transportation costs
- Using local, contextual design and manufacturing methods to minimise labour costs
- Designing in cost effective measures to minimise energy to heat, cool and light a building.
Environmental
The environmental factor is evident if there were design decisions made that are aimed at improving environmental outcomes. Damage to the environment occurs in the sourcing and processing of materials, construction, maintenance, energy required for the operation of a building and in the ultimate destruction and removal of a building. Evidence of design decisions made in response to environmental factors typically include;
- Sourcing and processing materials, transportation and construction methods that minimise or eliminate pollution and releasing poisons into the land, air and water systems
- Using passive or solar powered systems for heating, cooling, such as eves and double glazing and reduced lighting to minimise pollution created by power generation
- Designing with flexibility in mind to enable buildings to be extended or repurposed in the future
- Choosing materials that can be effectively separated and recycled at the end of the building’s life.
Technological
The technological factor is evident if improvements in technology, enabled design decisions that would not have been possible had they not been invented or available. Whilst technology strictly refers to any tools or equipment that may be used in design and construction, the influence of technology as a factor refers mainly to electronic or digital technologies. Evidence of design decisions that are enabled by technology include;
- Using tools for effective communication and collaboration
- Using visualising and designing with computer-aided design (CAD), building information modelling (BIM), algorithmic design (parametricism) and artificial intelligence (AI)
- Materials technology for processing, cutting, assembly, etc,
- Testing and prototyping digitally
- Using robots to cut labour costs
Social
The social factor is evident if design decisions are made to improve the lives of individuals or societies. Australia has laws that prohibit discrimination in age, physical and emotional disability, race, sex and gender identity. Environmental designs can develop communities by encouraging inclusion by ensuring accessibility for all. Evidence of design decisions made in response to social factors typically include;
- Providing access and amenities for all people, including ramps and lifts/ eliminating steps, wide door widths, playgrounds
- Providing affordable housing design in mixed-income developments
- Providing spaces for community engagement and participation with shared community gardens that reflect the needs of residents, open or circulation spaces within buildings, open plan living in homes to encourage social interaction, common meeting and relaxation space for students in schools and universities, device charging and workspaces in airports, pedestrian-friendly streetscapes that facilitate walking and cycling, promoting a sense of community and reducing reliance on cars
- Universal signage that does not require literacy or language to understand
Cultural
The cultural factor is evident if design decisions are made that accommodate and demonstrate respect for intercultural and indigenous knowledge, histories, traditions, imagery, iconography, and practices. Evidence of design decisions made in response to cultural factors typically include;
- Providing places and spaces that welcome and are sensitive to the habits and practices of people who belong to a diverse range of cultural or religous groups. Examples are indigenous gardens and prayer spaces in shopping centres and airports
- Creating buildings and spaces which are aesthetically considered and durable that add to and develop the cultural capital of a community
Creating buildings and spaces that celebrate national values and build nationalism. Examples are the use of dominant or heroic architectural styles to represent ideals of democracy, wealth or power in town halls and city buildings
Other factors and building practices
St Paul’s Cathedral, London. Wren, 1710.
Queen Victoria Building, Sydney. McRae, 1895.
Post-invasion (1788 settlement and colonisation), Australian society was imported from the United Kingdom and Europe. Aspects of society and culture that came with the white settlers included religion, systems of government, cultural values, beliefs and practices, and, of course, knowledge of the domains of education, including the humanities, sciences and the arts. Whilst the colonisers initially constructed temporary stick, bark and stone shelters that bore some resemblance to examples of indigenous architecture, the first permanent buildings they made were, not surprisingly, copied from buildings they had seen and used before they settled here. The first architects to work in Australia were, in fact, English men who had trained in the United Kingdom. Hence, our early colonial architecture was based on the English. The influence of British architecture continued through the nineteenth century until shortly after federation in 1901. One only has to recall the great Victorian edifices of Flinders Steet Station in Melbourne and the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney to be reminded of the powerful influences of the domes, arcades and churches such as St Paul’s Cathedral by Christopher Wren in London.
Following our newly founded nationhood, Australia’s architects turned more to the United States and Europe for inspiration and influence. Although the ideas that formed modernism can be traced back to the Arts and Crafts movement in England and to Western European experiments into abstraction, the development of modernist architecture in the United States had the most influence on our architecture. Organic Modernism, Art Deco, Streamline Moderne, and Mid-Century trends in minimalism profoundly affected the form and function of Australian homes and commercial and public buildings. By the late twentieth century, the Australian architectural landscape was truly international, with many of our major landmarks designed by overseas architects and our Australian architects also contributing to the world stage.
In the Twenty-First Century, Australian architects have broken free of the stylistic shackles of both our convict heritage and the long shadow cast by Modernity. Now, we are inspired by our natural contexts, are influenced by styles emerging from every corner of the globe, including the Middle East, Asia and the Americas and respond and contribute to architectural discourses on the environment, reconciling colonial pasts with First Peoples and social challenges facing modern societies. Australian architecture is independently Australian.
task
Show I know ...
Teachers may set one or more of the following tasks. They can be done in groups, pairs or individually.
2.5 Contextual design
2.6 Site context
Take a look at your home. Consider the patterns of sunlight and shade that have been provided for you at different times of day. Explain one way the designers of your home responded to the context of the site to meet the needs of users. Alternatively, suggest one way your home could be improved by demonstrating more sensitivity to the sunlight or shade patterns of the site it is on.
2.7 Contextual regionalism
2.8 Factors analysis audit
Referring to the descriptions of each factor and how it can influence design above, conduct an audit on one building in your school. (Teachers, may select appropriate old or new buildings for examination and comparison). Find out how environmentally friendly, accessible or inclusive buildings are.
2.9 Factors that influence design decisions
2.10 Trace the line
Pick an example of Australian architecture for which you can find a precedent, that was itself, influenced by Classical or Roman architecture. Establish aesthetic connections between the three buildings and explain why Classical or Roman architecture is so influential.
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Design elements and principles
Environments; buildings, and spaces are the most embracing and consuming designs. Through their immersive qualities, they have the power to transform and influence those who enter and experience their forms. This section will explore the ways environments use the visual language of architectural design to communicate ideas and influence, stimulate and create engaging experiences for users.
key knowledge
What we will learn about
key knowledge points for this outcome
- features and functions of the design elements and principles relevant to environmental design projects
(VCE VCD Study Design 2024-28, p. 28)
Introduction
The Design Elements and Principles appear to work more subtly in environments than in messages or interactive experiences. Nevertheless, the design elements can be identified and play important roles in the ways aesthetic qualities are created and the ways environments evoke emotions and create experiences in the minds of users. Locating relevant design principles in environments takes a bit more practice. Whilst nearly all of them can be applied, it may be useful to begin with balance and then progress through design principles such as contrast, proportion, scale and pattern.
Collecting evidence
Design Elements
Identifying relevant elements is the first step to understanding how the Design Elements and Principles create aesthetic qualities in environments. These will become key components in explaining how environments communicate ideas. The second step is to describe them. To describe is to elaborate on their visual characteristics. Examples of descriptions for colour are the names of the colours and the colour groups to which they belong. Similarly, for form, one could use terms such as geometric, organic or biomorphic. The key takeaway is not to explain how the Design Elements create an effect or function in a building’s composition. An example of this would be to say that the colours are contrasting. This aspect of an analysis comes later.
Design Principles
Similarly, students should identify and describe the use of Design Principles. Key principles in an examination of built environments include balance, symmetry and asymmetry, proportion, contrast, and scale. Others may apply. Also, as shown for Design Elements, students should resist the temptation to explain the effect of Design Principles in this stage of an analysis.
Consider the identification of Design Elements and Principles in two adjacent buildings in Melbourne in the following image.
A simple identification and description of the design elements and principles used in two buildings.
What does a building say?
You may be familiar with the idea that Visual Language can be used to communicate ideas and information to users in Message or Interactive Experience designs, but did you know that it is used in Environmental design to communicate abstract concepts like awe and power, equally as well?
Flick back up to the ‘Eighteen Iconic Approaches to Form and Function’ section. Read the brief descriptions of each style. Note the sentences at the end of each description that describe the concepts that each one embodies. Consider each description and make a list of the different concepts.
Berlin Cathedral. 1894-1905, Raschdorff. Built in Renaissance and Baroque Revival styles. The largest Protestant Church in Germany. What does this structure say about God, about religion and authority?
Explaining an effect
In this step, students use the evidence they have collected to identify and describe the Design Elements and Principles in built environments. An example of this is shown below.
Model answer
Two landmark buildings sit side by side at the top end of Melbourne’s Exhibition Gardens. The first is the Royal Exhibition Building, designed by Joseph Reed and constructed in 1880. The second is the Melbourne Museum, designed by Denton Corker Marshall and constructed in 2001. These two structures help to define Melbourne’s cultural identity through their links with the past and the future of design. This essay will examine how the design elements and principles function to communicate ideas to audiences and users.
The Royal Exhibition Building uses design elements of colour, form, texture, and design principles of balance and scale to communicate a sense of power and authority. The building’s face is coloured in a warm, beige render. The single colour of the main body is offset and complemented by a dark slate colour on the roof of the dome. The Exhibition Building is comprised of three main forms. In the centre, a cube forms a large, imposing entry. Its vertical face is contrasted by a long gable roof that intersects and projects left and right, in the horizontal plane. This creates a strong connection with the ground, literally underlining the importance of the building. Finally, a large conical dome, in the style of Renaissance Revival architecture, sits on top. This form is topped by a golden sphere, acting as a focal point, drawing one's eyes skyward to the heavens and reminding users that strength is and should be maintained by one, empirical force. The building is symmetrically balanced. Its two, wide wings emanating from a central point become a metaphor for the British Empire's ever-expanding reach, stretching right around the globe. These strategies and its imposing entry and awe-inspiring scale present a single, monolithic, well-ordered institutional structure.
The Melbourne Museum also uses the design elements of colour, form, and texture and the design principles of balance and scale, but to a completely different effect. In this instance, the museum presents a deconstructed façade designed not to impose but to engage and draw users inward. A range of colours, from the lightest tones of yellow, reminiscent of the de Stijl colour, to dark blues and black, create a vibrant exterior. The forms are predominantly rectilinear, although some are tilted. Others are deconstructed and described with line. This gives the impression of a building under construction, rather than a resolved statement. This strategy mirrors the concept of change in the modern world. A range of smooth and rough textures also underlines this. The museum is dramatically asymmetrically balanced, again creating a surprising, dynamic and unstable whole. The scale of the entry portico is enormous in relation to a viewer and creates an imposing view. Its somewhat haphazard composition can be seen as a metaphor for the inclusive and pluralistic society in which we live.
Together, components of visual language were used to create different, equally important, yet contrasting architectural statements reflecting dominant styles and societal concerns of their social contexts that draw users to these two important sites.
task
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3.1 Identify and describe design elements
3.2 Identify and describe ideas or concepts embedded in environmental design
Consider the purpose and historical and social context for the buildings you selected in Task 3.1. Identify and describe ideas, concepts, feelings or statements the building might be trying to communicate to users. Examples are: God is powerful, Institutional authority is right and just, Nature should prevail, machines are a necessary part of our present, society is mixed and diverse and future, and Democracy is right and just.
3.3 Explain how design elements and principles communicate ideas to users
Using the evidence collected in Task 3.1 and 2, explain how the design elements and principles were used to communicate ideas or concepts in two buildings. Write your response in essay form.
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Technical drawing and resolution of ideas
In this section, students will learn how to visualise ideas for environmental design ideas and concepts and then present them as schematic drawings and plans and elevations. They will explore three-dimensional methods to represent the form of environmental design projects, including paraline and perspective drawing and model-making. They will consider the requirements of a brief to prepare drawings for their client using the correct technical drawing conventions for environmental drawings.
key knowledge
What we will learn about
key knowledge points for this outcome
- two-dimensional drawing methods used to visualise environmental design ideas and concepts, such as schematic drawings, plans and elevations
- methods for representing three-dimensional spaces and structures, such as planometric and perspective drawing, and model-making
- resolution of effective design solutions to meet the requirements of a brief
- technical conventions used in documentation drawings relevant to environmental design projects
(VCE VCD Study Design 2024-28, p. 28)
Brief
A client wishes to have a family house designed in the 1930s Art Deco—P&O style to fit in with the houses on their street. For the initial phase of the design process, the client wants the designer to produce a sample component of the house design that incorporates elements of the style that will be used in the whole design. The client wants the designer to produce two, three-dimensional schematic drawings and a model. To fulfil this need, the designer has produced schematic plans and elevations, a planometric projection of part of the interior, a two-point perspective of the exterior, and a massing model to demonstrate the form. An isometric projection of the concept is also shown below.
An isometric projection of a small house concept in the style of Art Deco P&O. Note the curved brickwork, balcony with railing and porthole window. These features all reflect the nautical theme emphasised in this style from the 1930s.
Schematic drawings
A schematic drawing is a documentation drawing that includes a plan and elevations. It is used to communicate ideas to a client about the form and function of a building a designer is proposing. They can also be used for marketing purposes. Schematic drawings are more formal than rough sketches. They use the conventions for environmental technical drawings yet do not contain the level of detail necessary for construction. These later drawings are called construction drawings.
The first stage of designing is to visualise ideas. This is best done in plan (top) view. Two images of the visualisation stage are shown below.
Using the app Procreate for iPad, I roughed out the shape of the house and rooms with line.
In keeping with the conventions for plans and elevations the walls were filled with black. Note the interior walls are half the thickness of the exterior ones.
Following the visualisation stage, it’s time to complete the two-dimensional documentation drawings. These will be plans and elevations with dimensions, symbols, and other schematic documentation information.
The completed schematic plan to 1:50 scale. Note the symbols of furniture and fixtures, floor surfaces, annotations, dimensions, North point symbol and title box and information.
The completed elevations sheet, also to 1:50 scale. Note the elevations names and dimensioning.
I began with creating rectangles for the walls. Then rectangles for the windows. The dimensions in this image indicate the true-life sizes used on the actual drawing. I used the dimension tool in Adobe Illustrator ® for this purpose.
Here is a view of the completed plan before adding dimensions. Note the use of textures for the floor surfaces.
This image shows the use of blue guidelines. One must be added to every point where a dimension will be extruded. Don’t skimp on guides!
This image shows the process of extruding an elevation from a plan. Group the plan and copy it to a new artboard. Use blue guidelines to plot every point on the vertical plane.
To make an elevation from a different view, simply rotate the plan and use the same procedure of adding blue guidelines to plot every point in the elevation. Make sure you get the heights to match as well.
Three-dimensional representations
Planometric projection
A screen shot showing the use of an action to distort figures into planometric. Students can download actions for Illustrator ® or create their own.
A planometric projection of a section of the interior of the Art Deco-P&O style house. This drawing uses the media of Adobe Illustrator ®.
The Planometric projection is a great way to create a dimensionally accurate representation of the interior of a house. This was done by copying the plan and rotating it by 45 degrees. Each component was then extruded upwards. I used an action for Planometric in the Actions palette of Illustrator ®, to distort simple figures such as walls and windows.
Two-point perspective
A two-point perspective was made from the plans and elevations using ruled sketching quickly using the media of Procreate ® on iPad.
The first step was to draw a horizon line, set vanishing points and the closest vertical line. From this, a crate was roughed out to ensure the proportions were correct. Note the use of diagonal lines to find a centre in the left side of the drawing.
The whole form was drawn roughly on one layer. Don’t worry about overlapping lines at this stage.
The final drawing was done on a second layer. Note the opacity of the first layer, the background structure of the house, was turned down for clarity. Zooming in was used to get the details right.
Here is the completed drawing with both layers visible.
The completed two-point perspective projection of the exterior of the Art Deco-P&O style house. This drawing uses the method of manual sketching on the media of Procreate ® for iPad.
Model
Foamcore board was chosen for a simple massing model because it is strong and easy to cut, and the thickness matches exterior walls in a model of this scale. It was glued together using a hot-glue gun. A model could also be used to create a two-point perspective accurately – cutting down the need to visualise a form correctly.
This image shows how a model can be used to support the construction of a two-point perspective drawing.
Resolution of design solution
Documentation drawings
Each of the drawings and photos of the model are added to a presentation package for the client. The image below shows a version of this method. Don’t forget to add title boxes consistently for your presentation.
A completed presentation for the client, all ready to be exported as a print PDF.
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Plans & Elevations
Planometric
One-Point Perspective
Two-Point Perspective
task
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4.1 Styles influence design
4.2 Documentation drawings
4.3 Three-dimensional representations
Using the schematic plan and elevations you created in Task 4.2, create either a planometric drawing or a model of the house. Remember to work to a convenient scale. Your teacher may allocate a method for this task.