graphic and photographic

With the physical layering of materials in mind, the overlaying of a graphic image seems like a logical continuation. 

figure 3
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I remember seeing some of Herzog and De Meuron’s work an architectural history lecture; both the Ricola storage building (fig 3) and the Eberswalde library utilize graphic images on their facades and John Wardle has also made use of a cropped photographic image on the Education building at RMIT in Melbourne. The graphics displayed on all of these buildings give clues to the buildings programme but the idea of the photo as decoration, on its own seems two-dimensional to me. It has however lead me into some interesting territory.

Moving on from investigating the photographic image as a cladding, I have decided to read briefly about the production of a photo and the mechanisms used to capture an ephemeral moment. Can this make architecture?

My exploration has led me to the Arab institute in Paris by Jean Nouvel. The southern façade of this building is made up of 30 000 apertures which detect the light outside and either constrict or dilate to control the solar penetration. Though high-tech facades don’t enthrall me, the simple idea of the aperture and consequential exposure caught my attention.

I don’t know if you have ever done this, but standing inside a building and trying to take a photo through a window capturing some of the frame is a trying task. The camera heightens the contrast of the shot so something that to the naked eye may look like figure 4a when photographed, develops more like figure 4b. The idea of aperture and exposure is apparent in this photograph at Warrock shearing shed. This task also made evident the instance of the figure ground relationship created as a result and heightened in figure 4c. 

figure 4a

figure 4c

figure 4b