Modern architectural facades have taken on a number of different forms and functions throughout the last 100 years. More recently the different ways of using facades as an expression of the architectural intent of buildings has increased to include a number of complicated systems and processes. The reproduction of an image on the elevation of a building has been a relatively recent architectural technique. The evolution of this idea has seen the image being created through the process of printing images and then applying them to building facades. The next iteration of this is the movement away from applying images onto a facade by using a separate medium like adhesive film and instead using the existing common place architectural facade features to reproduce an image. This is done by using the facade elements almost like pixels to create an image on the building.
The research project proposes to investigate the possible ways of creating imagery on a building facade. Exploring the way existing architectural elements of building facades can be manipulated to create a desired effect. The research will be analysing existing examples of architecture that use building facades to recreate images. This will explore the different techniques that that have been used to make these images. One of the main focus points of the research project will be to decipher the processes that are used to translate the original photographic image to the building facade. In doing this it is expected the there will be a number of computer software programs and processes that will be essential for the translation of the images. After the analysis the project will attempt to design a new way of using building facade elements to recreate an image.
This research by design project will investigate the process involved in the recreation of images on and as building facades as a design element. The process will be explored through the analysis of existing projects and will use experimentation as a way of understanding and decoding the processes used in the existing examples. Further experimentation and modification to the process will be used to create a unique and new way of representing image in a building facade.
This Blog show the process and experimentation of the project and proposal that is described above. Through the study and analysis of the existing precedent of image re-production on buildings a number of things have become apparent. The process of translating an image from the photographic to the medium of a building facade is an extremely complicated process. I the progress of this project I have explored a number of ways in which to possibly translate an image onto a building. I believe that I have been relatively successful in exploring these options. Although it is apparent after these design based explorations that there is in fact many possible ways to achieve the desired outcome. The processes that I used could defiantly be used and may have already been used to represent image on buildings. However I was unable to find the exact process used in some of the precedents studied. In particular the ARM Dupain building and the Camberwell Rd office building. The proposal of coming up with a new way of representing image using building facade feature turned out to be unfulfilled through the process of this research. However the techniques and processes that were successfully explored proved to be complicated and still showed much potential for variation and applicability to the buildings. The possibilities of the use these techniques and other within a number of different contexts and meanings are almost unlimited. There are yet still many opportunities that could be experimented with for the use in the re-creation of image on building. The following explores just some of the possibilities.