In the Space and in the Time. Representing Architectural Ideas by Digital Animation

Roberta Spallone

doi:10.3390/proceedings1090962

Abstract

Since the late Nineties, digital architectural animation emerged as one of the main methods for representing design ideas. The ‘spectacle of architecture’ created by digital representation of space and time, arose as one of the most effective media for the prefiguration of architectural design. The great complexity of architectural video’s production quickly led to the birth of new professionals and creative companies specialized in modelling, rendering, animation, graphics, montage, editing and post production. The author investigates on the methods, techniques and languages of the fourth-dimensional representation of architecture, almost unexplored area of research thus far, by relating them with the architects’ personal poetics. To support observations, discoveries and theses, this paper provides analysis and critics of several case studies and traces an ideal interpretative path, considering both to the changing technologies and the emerging specific languages.

Highlights

Some essential references aimed to understanding the language of this medium applied to architectural representation could be recognized in the works of Maldonado (2005), Manovich (2011), and Engeli (1999).Maldonado underlines that the syncretic nature of digital models offers new opportunities to the scientific research and architectural design
The author investigates on the methods, techniques and languages of the fourth-dimensional representation of architecture, almost unexplored area of research far, by relating them with the designers’ personal poetics
Tests and errors occur in a space in which our experience of problems is rendered fluid and immediate as in an architectural promenade, “3D computer models ... are able to cover the whole range of possible models in a single system of representation” [3] (p. 104)

Summary

Introduction

“I would like to encourage all architects to tell the story of their designs by using videos, because it is a tool which helps people to see a design in a different way. “we might learn from other artistic disciplines, such as moviemaking (cinematographic approaches, sequencing and animation), theatre (physical expression, interaction, improvisation) and music (rhythm, harmonic variation, and digital recording and sampling). These may expand the Proceedings 2017, 1, 962; doi:10.3390/proceedings1090962 www.mdpi.com/journal/proceedings. Proceedings 2017, 1, 962 palette of architecture (traditionally making use of drawings, models, pictures and symbols)” [2] This triggers a critical discussion on the ontological nature of films, on their narrative form and on their character of exploring human emotions, and it implies the attention of the videos of architecture to the perceptual effects produced by relations between persons and space. Discoveries and theses, this paper provides analysis and critics of several case studies, collected by the author from the beginning of the phenomenon, and trace an ideal interpretative path, considering both to the changing technologies and the emerging specific languages

Background

Case Studies

Conclusions