Abstract:
The architectural thread of inquiry of this thesis is to speculate on expanding methods of spatial representation through the synthesis of 2D hand-drawing techniques and the act of coding in a 2D software programme. For this thesis I have created a software tool that reinvigorates a traditional drawing methodology. I have elected to use a 2D game creation engine called GameMaker: Studio because it allows me to bring together hand-drawn and digital 2D drawing in an experimental way to explore spatial qualities. 3D vector and point-based drawing software such as Rhino and Revit have consciously been avoided, as they focus on volumetric representation and prioritise form. The project will not use GameMaker to design a game, but to be used to help me with design process and to expand my thinking in the representation of space. Expanding representational techniques of space allows one to change their conception of space, and to design space differently. Through the coding language of GameMaker, the drawings can be explored through a digital avatar that can navigate through and ‘teleport’ between different drawings. The drawing is transformed into a reactive, psychosomatic landscape that animates and transforms in response to the avatar’s movement, and have drawings that overlay and interface in a powerfully intriguing aesthetic. The historical role of the drawing has always been affected by technological innovation. During the early 1900s with the development of the camera, the role of the drawing was put under scrutiny. Its historical function of representing the world was done much more efficiently by the camera, and that allowed art movements to spatially represent reality differently, such as Cubism. Similarly, the relatively recent development of 3D vector-based software has superseded the functional role of representational hand-drawing perspectives from the architectural practice. This has freed up the role of drawing in the design phases of architectural practice, as the drawing need not be as concerned with its role as a signifier of a realised architectural project. From the rise of the computer and increasing computerization of the architectural discipline, digital tools and analogue tools have proven not to be enemies standing at different camps, but instead interesting companions to one another and this proposal proves that one can enhance the other.