Visualize It!
In the arts visual communication is essential, urban design
and architecture are no different when it comes to this. Urban design relies
highly on visual communication due to its scale and therefore often the fact
that concepts can be hard to grasp. But there are so many ways one can
visualize and often not all are equally effective so today I will run through a
couple of urban design projects that I find interesting and discuss the elements
of spatial, information, and visualization that makes these projects so
successful (or not). Now I’ve chosen each of these because they are all so
different from one another; one is a small scale urban infill project, another
a medium scale urban design project, and another rather large urban planning project
this way there is a range of distinguishable characteristics about each
project.
- The 685 Third Avenue Pocket Park in New York, NY is a small park designed by Gensler to improve 3rd avenue’s value (but they did do this for a not for profit company TIA CREF). The team reimagined what once was a plaza into a pocket park with food and beverage offerings. There are waterfalls, a 30-foot living wall, infinity pools, and a bistro all contained in this 4,000-square foot park. This now is a unique asset to the heart of Manhattan. The reason I picked this because it is a great design and the outcome has achieved what they had intended for the target group however the idea of visualization is not there. The images below have a way of storytelling but they are not showing us enough of the story to be effective. The strengths of the images i will say is that it shows us the current story, the current success, view, use, and need of that space. The major weakness is that we can not see enough of that space's story, there is a lack in story telling visualization along the lines of comparisons for example a before and after shot would have helped the conviction of "plaza vs. park". Also data visualization of the company, building, or 3rd avenue could also have been useful for this project just to give the viewer a fuller grasp of the situation at hand.
- The Downtown Rockwood project in Gresham, OR designed by YBA architects is a planned long term project on a five acre site. The project plans to create three new buildings as well as a new public area which they hope will be the catalyst for urban regeneration in one of the pacific northwest's most socioeconomically challenged areas. The design is based around a public plaza and a food oriented market hall which are programmatically linked and integrated. The project hopes to be a prototype for urbanization and local economic revival within decaying suburban communities while engaging locals and mitigating gentrification. From the diversity of this project and the medium scale the expectance for this type of project is diverse and artistic story telling with a medium level of data visualization (that is on a personal assessment of project typology). I personally saw their extended work on these and other urban projects and they as a firm have a set visualization technique that is quite effective. YBA does quite a good job at story telling through images and so telling the story in the moment but also of progression and of the design much like a before and after much as is visible in the first row of images below. YBA however in this particular project did not do much data visualization in its traditional way, it showed socioeconomic and even geological elements in an artistic way which i still believe is a way of visualization. The appropriateness of its is according to the project and the firm and in this case i personally think it is quite appropriate as the entire entity of the project is not cohere to the gentrified norms. Therefore i think there the artistic qualities of the visualizations comes in as a strength and that this project in terms of visualizations will be the most successful in this post.
- Lastly there is the Midtown Detroit TechTown District this is a plan proposed by Sasaki Associates in Detroit, MI on a 149 acre part of midtown that has amazing potential for a future bustling community. This is by far the largest chosen project out of the three and also the most proposal based, however this project is strong in data visualization. its weaknesses are in story telling much like example one where there is only one story of only one scenario as shown in the first line of the image below. The strength however lies in the first real data visualization we have seen in these examples, as shown in the second part of the first line and the second line of the image below. TechTown uses socioeconomic data and integrates it with cartography and graphic design to visualize it building blocks of its conceptual ideas which for a project this size is crucial. Though not all of these are effective (for example the one on the bottom left is practically useless without verbal explanation), most of the data visualizations can truly help the viewer grasp the sale and nuance of a larger project.
The thing most important to take back from these examples i believe is to take a step back and look at what we did earlier in the design process and look at the significance of that. We often get so infatuated with the idea with telling a story through an image but that is not all the representation of space is it is so much more, its energy, feelings, economics, politics, circulation and so much more. Adding just a few items of information or just a few pops of color in the correct places can make all the difference in the representation of your work and your concept and the idea and space you create, visualization should never be an after thought or "just a story" it should be THE story.
~Hanna
685 Third Avenue Pocket Park | Projects.
(n.d.). Retrieved October 24, 2017, from
https://www.gensler.com/projects/685-third-avenue-pocket-park?e=planning-urban-design
Downtown rockwood. (2016, July 18). Retrieved
October 24, 2017, from http://yb-a.com/downtown-rockwood/
S. (n.d.). Midtown Detroit TechTown District.
Retrieved October 24, 2017, from
http://www.sasaki.com/project/279/midtown-detroit-techtown-district/
You are 100% correct that visual communication is everything. Whether it be urban design and architecture, maps, documents, etc. The amount of information and the story you can tell without using words is everything. Visual communication is universal. Great visual communication can be translated and understood by everyone no matter what a persons background is. It simplifies any project and eliminates the miscommunication through decreasing the technical jargon and more importantly it lets the design speak for itself and tell it’s own story.
ReplyDeleteExactly but it can often definitely be very challenging especially when dealing with theories and ideals like we were in the last few modules!
DeleteI agree with your statement about needing to go back to our conceptual designs and look at what we were designing when we first got the project. Often, our main ideas change and that can turn our designs into something that is a great improvement or it can negatively affect it. I often get very metaphorical when I begin designing, and after critiques I often lose sight of why I chose the design elements in my conceptual drawings and the meaning behind them, making my design less creative and more standard.
ReplyDeleteI have exactly the same problem often when we get to midterm and finals and i'll have diagrams of my initial concept and often critiquers and professors will as "what happened to that" because it was better informed than the convoluted final design.
DeleteI really like these visual communications. These perspective and section diagrams clearly show the design details. And the three-dimensional model is the most intuitive way for people to understand the intent of the project and how it works with its surroundings. The photographs of first project are composition accurate and balanced too.
ReplyDelete