This first project explored the notion of the blueprint as a data set or a matrix of information that reveals a spatial truth. It allowed to explored multiple methods of research and representation. A blueprint can be one drawing, or many drawings. Interestingly, a sequence of multiple drawings can refer to one floor plan, or one room, or one house. Blueprints, similar to architecture, have rules and conventions. Architectural drawing can be read as a set of projections.
The movie Paprika was used as a starting point for the second project. The students explored how this catalyst can inform a design process encouraging the understanding of spatial qualities, the relationship between spaces, scale, materiality, tectonics, and movement. Paprika creates a world where reality and fantasy/imagination are superposed. As we observe and identify the spatial principles used, we challenged ourselves to create spaces that superimpose layers or “thoughts”, spatial qualities and ideas (whether imaginary or deduced) into an experimental model of a house. We aimed to design spaces that answer to needs, requirements, and constraints, yet beyond the functionality of the space, we hoped to create poetic spaces that evoke emotion and re-assess conventional systems.