Look at all the people like cows in a herd..

well I like.. birds

Individual

or not...

Wise, ever watchful, mysterious.

Moments of genious

Taking Flight - Submission 1 Equus

Design 1

It's not easy to live a life unquestioned. It is hard to stay in the shadows, to hide, to cease to exist, without someone to question, why? what? how? My design needed to achieve this. It could not be invasive, it could not attract attention, it merely needed to exist, basking in its own beauty.

This is my first design, developed through my numerous beloved monstrosities. The idea all began with the birds wing, however developed as I tried to incorporate the 12 units. The main point to be made regards the tower. Although not necessarily obvious, the glass windows inbetween act as a point where the public is able to look in at Uccello, rather than him at the public, allowing a glimpse into the mysterious character, and also allowing him to reflect on what he has become.


I have tried to keep the design relatively simple, only using necessary space, as that is all that is required for the obsessive nature of my character.

Design 2

In terms of the facade it is extremely similar to the initial design, however, in producing a card version I found significant changes needed to be made to the interior and general size of the building. The study in the initial building was bugging me, I wanted it to be purely dedicated to his work, rather than sleeping, eating etc incorporated into it. In doing so meant a general change of the entire building into something much more refined.

Here is the study showing relation to stairs and the floor below. I wanted to keep everything very simple as I wanted the house to be a frame or boundary for Uccello to exist in, not something he is part of,so by keeping it simple it is not dragging attention away from what truly gives the building expression; Uccello.

Design 3

After finding it difficult to let go of the first two designs, I have tkaen yet another step back to where I was looking at the birds wing, and taking another literal approach by starting to look at flight, and the idea of a bird taking off.

There was a large problem with light in the last design, so certain adjustments have been made to help with this.

Design 4

This final design is based on a bird taking flight, again using this pixelated, distorted view on how a bird actually looks.

There are still similarities within the building such as the general floor plan, and the idea of the central viewing tower.

However the distorted shape I feel allows for the building to be more versatile with its surroundings. I feel the main highlight is the public space created beneath the left block. Floor area is reduced to a minimum.

Light has been addressed well in this design, while still using the simple, single window approach, light can now be delivered without shadow due to overlapping. Only question is whether the direct light may become too much...

I am also worried that the design may attract attention more than the earlier designs, however I do feel it keeps the peculiar, distorted feel that Uccello's personality holds.

ps. If you are wondering why it is a bit all over the place, the blog keeps doing that, it doesnt seem to matter what I change, it still rearranges itself. ARGH

Theory for my design.

The sketch up models I did, were not really getting me anywhere, however there were a number of positive outcomes within the buildings that Im still using.

After that last car park design I took another step back and got back into thinking more about the character, (Im easily sidetracked).

I want to take a minimalist approach, I want to incorporate the idea of these one way windows as an idea for a tower, and I want to separate Uccellos study area from the rest of his living area. There will always be a division between the building, his basic necessities ie. kitchen, bathroom, living, and then an area completely divided from society, a place he can call his own, where there are no refridgerators, stoves, bench tops, just an empty space for him to create.

So I started to think more about his name, Uccello- meaning bird. I looked up a few images and though it would be good to incorporate some sort of bird imagery but something that is not obvious, using the idea of looking at something with a new perspective, and this is what i got thanks to photoshop.

Ok so this doesnt look like much but I started to extract the shape into a more rectangular form, which gave me this...

and from here... I went to this....

so this is what I plan on working on for my final design. Much happier now, Ive been doing a fair bit of developing so keep an eye out on my next blog in the next day or so to see what ive finished with!

Its been a while...

It's been a while since my last blog, however I feel great progress has been made!

Uccello has been racking my brain for a while now, and I think I have finally ripped his personality far enough apart that I can effectively design for the guy.

I went through a few wierd kinda experimental phases with Sketch up with the hope of it all working out, but as we all know, that rarely works... so heres a few of my earlier vvvvery average designs.

So most of these didnt have much theory behind it, I was justing getting it out of my system. I wasnt getting anywhere with this so I took a step back and went back to the drawing board.

I wanted something that was not imposing into the surroundings and something that wasnt going to attract attention, but still having some form of expression and meaning to it. So I was looking at minimalist essentially, which as we all know is not easy.... anyway heres a few more designs that Ive been working with.

This came after thinking about the movie that sean showed us and some of the buildings that were in Berlin, Looking fairly simple so far but essentially Im trying to work into the design the idea of the tower being a place where people can see in at Uccello rather than him only being ablew to look out at them...

This sees me taking the idea a bit further, but I stopped here after remembering its not meant to be a car park!

Character Profile

Preliminary Submission

Uccello - Uccello and Breughel's Structures

What is it that we strive to achieve? Is it money? fame? success? objects? or maybe simply a definitive place in today's society? I bet all this sounds pretty good to you all doesn't it? WHY do we feel the need to live life as a stereotype? We can spend a lifetime trying to earn the above, but when we get them, we feel no happier. Why? Because there is more to life than this. We should have a right to spend our time doing something we TRULY love, not what others love.

My client sits in the dark, with a single ray of life coming from a small window, which he sits in front of to view the world. Everything is a photo to him; a picture, a painting. To call him a hermit, or a loner would be generous. He is quite content living on the outside. His love is not to exist within our society, but to watch, to analyse, and to represent the world we are in, from the outer. He is fascinated by our world, our obsessions, our achievements. He has no need for television, or the internet. His window is his television.

People know he exists, there's no denying that hes there, they have seen him in the streets on rare occasions, getting himself a loaf of bread, perhaps the occasional few slices of meat, vegetables, but never any more, just simple foods, enough to supply basic nutritional needs. In his late 20's he is poorly groomed wearing clothes so heavily coated in paint that it becomes hard to tell what they once were. People are generally unaccepting of him, but that's what he wants, he doesn't need to fit in. He doesn't need contact, he has all he needs.

He paints what he sees day to day out of the window. Endless amounts of paintings, surrounding him, inspiring him, motivating him, to try again, to get the perfect shot of the society of which he has analysed for so long. Obsessively, he paints the seen outside of his window; a shop, with the news on a television in its window. Business people, school students, buskers all walk past his view, changing every day. To us, this change goes un noticed, to him it gets more obvious day by day.

His childhood, although a happy one, was a lonely one to the average person. Forced to look after himself, he secluded himself from the world, ridding himself of the need to fit in. His lonely upbringing allows him to have a new perspective of the world, one without trends, without pressure or politics. His paintings are unexplainable, unseen in our society. There is something different in his art, something that no one else can see. It attracts you, its uncomfortable, its brutal, its love.

"What a wonderful thing it is, to see the world from the outer"

Uccello - Uccello and Breughel's Structures

Ok so ive been doin some research over the past couple days, I still haven't been able to understand how or why Hejduk has used Uccello as a character in Berlin Nights so I'm just going to ignore that aspect for a while. Soooooo onto some more literal facts...

The man himself, Paolo Uccello, born Paolo di Dono (1397-1475) was an Italian artist known best for his breakthrough work on perspective.

'Uccello's wife told people that Paolo used to stay up all night in his study, trying to work out the vanishing points of his perspective, and that when she called him to come to bed he would say: "Oh what a lovely thing this perspective is!"Giorgio Vasari, The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects'

A notable point is his change of name, Uccello is in reference to his love of birds, not sure whether there can be a relation here with perspective, who knows, its a bit of a long shot me thinks. He took part in a lot of work in architecture and arts in his time which I beleive may be where this Breughel lad may come in. Another Italian painter famous for his landscape paintings of land heavily populated by peasants. unusual I know... aaaanywho hopefully this can provide me with enough info to build up a bit of a profile. Im thinkin I should avoid directly referring to Uccello himself, but to base someone around what Ucello believed in... if that makes sense... you will see!

Josh