De-coding the Vernacular - Dynamic Representation Approaches to Case-based Compositional Study

Representational approaches have always played an important role in the designdriven development of built environments, the analytical study of architectural compositions and their effects. With the introduction – and successive steady development – of computer-based platforms of visualization, the professional and intellectual palette of designers, as well as researchers, have expanded considerably. Nonetheless, in recent years the opportunities for systematic scrutiny and understanding of the expressive qualities of design proposals and artefacts have all too frequently been overshadowed by high-flying conceptual developments and seductive representation modes. It is time that the objective description and unravelling of architectural compositions – so to speak the discipline of Ekphrasis in design practice, education and research – is once again given more prominence in architectural discourse and debate. The central idea behind this contribution is that, by linking instruments of design with the methods of formal composition and decomposition, renewed opportunities for representation-driven study in a scholarly context, focusing upon elusive compositional attributes and their workings, may be given a new impulse. The project that is presented here concerns a case-based explorative study into the domains of aesthetic convention and invention, making use of a variety of virtual and physical representation techniques. These include digital as well as tangible modelling and sketching approaches (separately and in combination), in conjunction with computer-based image manipulation techniques, making use of systematic data identification and denotation. The opportunities, merits and shortcomings of the computer-based and physical visualization approaches, which were applied and tested, are discussed on the basis of results and findings from the ongoing AA Variations project.