Exercise 11 - Architecture Competing: Redesign THS Courtyard, due November 1

An architecture competition has been announced!

You have been chosen to design a new courtyard for Tucson High School.  The school is in need of a new landscape to be created inside the property between the school buildings.  You must come up with a design that not only creates a more welcoming space for students, faculty and staff but one that pleasingly displays the natural beauty Tucson has to offer.  The courtyard or courtyards that you design can include art works, fountains, flora, (animals?), and anything else you think the school needs to elevate the experience of going to school.  Your design might include areas for students to find peace and quiet, areas to congregate, and areas that tie into the natural surrounding (or at least try).  You are also encouraged to design a space that the neighborhood might be able to also enjoy when school is not in session.

Due November 1, 2012.  The top entries will be reviewed by an independent jury.  

For Graphic Design (1/2):  You will present your design, your sketches and a brief description (in english or spanish) of at least one paragraph.

You must have:
1.  2 hand drawn pages, one of your perspective drawing and one of your initial designs.  One of those pages may include your designs drawn on top of the map (the plan) of the courtyards which will be provided in the Mr. Komar Shared Folder.
2.  At 2 pages 8.5" x 11" with your designs created using the existing photos found in Mr. Komar Shared folder.  Use Photoshop or Illustrator or both to create your design.
3.  At least 1 paragraph written that talks about your design, who will use it, if it will have special areas for faculty/staff or will the neighborhood be able to share the space.

For Graphic Arts (2nd Period):  You will present your design as a two page document, one with your design and the other with your sketch work at description.

You must have:
1.  2 hand drawn pages, one of your perspective drawing and one of your initial designs.
2.  1 page 8.5" x 11" with your designs created using the existing photos found in Mr. Komar Shared folder.  Use Photoshop or Illustrator or both to create your design.

Your teacher will printout your pages when you are complete.

On October 22/23, class is to be outdoors sketching the courtyard areas to better familiarize themselves with the dimensions, dream of their designs and practice perspective drawing.

On October 24/25, classes will create a second hand drawing page with their original sketch ideas.  Next, classes will then start to bring in their concepts to Photoshop, Illustrator and any other program you want to incorporate.  Remember that you can always draw your ideas by hand, scan in the hand drawing and bring that scan into your images in Photoshop!

Your teacher will present some examples of how to use Photoshop and/or Illustrator to demonstrate an architectural design.

Also, use the Plan view of the courtyard

From October 25 to November 1,  continue on your designs and your description.

Remember, that your final presentation is also part of the "design" and will be graded as well.  You need to think about how your initial design drawings, design images and description page are presented to make it a well designed presentation.

Good Luck!

To see great interior courtyards from a Mexican modernist, Luis Barragan:
http://www.barragan-foundation.org/

To see modern architecture and how projects use Photoshop to present their designs:
http://archinect.com/news

To see a local modern architect projects:
http://robpaulus.com/projects/timeline/

To see a great Landscape architect, Peter Hargraves, visit:
http://www.hargreaves.com/projects/Academic/