Introduction to Design Thinking: Cubist Composition in 2 and 3 Dimensions

Introduction

This exercise introduces early architecture students to compositional thinking through the use of cubist painting. Students are asked to analyze major cubist works through a series of 2 dimensional studies focused on construction axes, basic geometry, relationship of figure/ground, color, depth and compositional unity. The goal is first for students to be able to simplify and isolate major compositional elements in a work, then to use this information towards the creation of a new composition of their own. Students will arrive at individual compositions that will serve as plans for a 3 dimensional model. In this study students are following along with modernist experiments in pictorial space that were occuring during the early 1900s- first through painting and later in relief, sculpture and architecture. The objective is to gain knowledge of the formal elements that create a composition and to build flexibility in the transition between 2 and 3 dimensional space required for architectural thinking, as well as to gain familiarity with the pursuits of major modernist movements including cubism, suprematism. constructivism and futurism.



Methodology

Students are asked to choose one of the provided paintings for this study. They will first complete an analysis of primary and secondary construction axes, simplified geometric forms, directionality and depth using trace paper over the selected painting. 

Precedents

They will then layer these papers and draft new compositions as a result of experimenting with the extension and shortening of edges, completion or destruction of forms, and interventions on the overall structure. Students are asked to complete three drawing proposals for a new composition. 


1. Simplified Line Drawing    

 


Next students will complete three collage studies using their drawings, one which analyzes the relationship of figure ground in black and white, one using 3 tones of gray and another using the 3 basic color relationships of the original work (as well as the white of the paper). 

2. Figure/Ground



3. Depth Analysis in 3 Tones



4. Color Study



These collages will serve as plans for the construction of a 3 dimensional model. Students will assign height values to each color or tone of their collage and extrude its forms in modeling board on an A3 base. This is a challenge to start thinking about how compositional elements like line, form, tone and color can be expressed spatially. 


Students are asked to make compositional choices related to what they want to accentuate, what they want to distort, what they want to bring forward and what they want to erase. They should be able to show pictorially what they believe to be important to retain in the work and what they are interested in altering/subverting. The challenge is to create a work which maintains a readable relationship to its precedent while also expressing clear compositional choices in its alteration.  




This process will be supplemented by discussions on the transition of sculpture from practices of direct carving and modeling towards the attempt to “draw in space” employed by the modernists, the use of geometric planes and mixed materials and the new significance of the “object” or “still life” as a sculptural subject. We will consider what impact this blurring of the traditionally separate fields of painting and sculpture had on the practice of architecture, and the advancements of abstraction in painting towards the development of the International Style (with resulting later movements like deconstructivism). Recommended reading from Penelope Cutris’ Sculpture 1900-1945 and Hal Foster et. al Art Since 1900. 

Students will participate in a group critique and have an opportunity to speak about their working process, their choice of precedent and their decision making at each step. 



Objectives

• The reading of a composition for its basic structure and the ability to manipulate compositional elements
  
• The establishment of primacy of elements - separation of “lines” from axes, “shapes” from forms, etc.
  
• Ability to recognize what is important in an image formally not subjectively 
  
• Decentralization of the “object” or “building” towards a synthesis of the “total landscape” (whole site integrated composition)
  
• Familiarity with the processes of abstraction
  
• Practice of draftsmanship and the creation of ideas through repetition 
  
• Workflow with the use of a study or precedent
  
• Flexibility between two and three dimensions
  
• Familiarity with collage as a compositional tool
  
• Development of basic model building techniques
  
• Practice with the architectural tool of extrusion to establish relationships in space 
  
• The building of an academic language to talk about composition and works of art
• The establishment of a personal relationship to a piece of art history
• Working understanding of the impact of modernism on contemporary architecture
  

Delivarables

• Three A3 line drawings of new compositions in pencil
  
• One A3 collage in black and white
  
• One A3 collage utilizing three tones of gray 
  
• One A3 collage utilizing three basic colors and white of paper
  
• One model (A3 base) using modeling board 

Expectations of Quality

All drawings, collages and models are expected to meet a standard of clarity expressed through the neatness of the physical construction as well as the clarity of synthetic elements being used (line, form, color). Excellent work will demonstrate a clearly legible coherence between original work, student’s drawing, collage and model, thoughtful consideration of structural elements retained from the original piece as well as strongly articulated interventions with a sense of purpose or intent while maintaining an excellent quality of neatness. Good work will demonstrate neatness, coherence among deliverables and the legible execution of compositional choices. Passing work will demonstrate completeness of all materials with some coherence and evidence of compositional thinking. Poor work will be partially complete, unacceptably messy or demonstrate little to no understanding of compositional thinking. 


Grading

Drawings 20%
Collages 30%
Model 35%
Ability to Articulate Ideas in Presentation 15%