develop purposely a critic, a rendition, or even a fictional

Education in Architectural understanding of the architectural object under study.

Analysis through Hybrid Architectural Analysis & Graphic Palimpsest

Graphic Means: a Setup Robin Evans has observed that architects manipulate their
creation's object only by means of graphic representation, in
for Critical Thinking opposition with painters or sculptors who are in direct contact
with their creation's object. The architect's work is then displaced
in the creation process instead of the creation itself, which is
Denis Derycke
providing graphic devices with a huge generative potential 1.
AlICe Lab, Faculté d'architecture La Cambre-Horta de
Through the design process, information is conveyed from one
l'Université libre de Bruxelles
document to another, and the knowledge of the conveyed
denis.derycke@ulb.ac.be
architectural idea is modifying in each transfer: some ideas are
lost and some other appear. These inputs derive on the one hand,
David Lo Buglio
from the designer's imagination, and from the other hand, are
AlICe Lab, Faculté d'architecture La Cambre-Horta de
inherent to the use of specific graphic techniques. Graphic
l'Université libre de Bruxelles
techniques are involved in the formal definition of the
david.lo.buglio@ulb.ac.be
architectural object. Architectural representation is indivisible
from what Philippe Boudon calls the property of secondarity2:
one representation calls another that calls another, etc. Each
Created in 1994, AlICe – Computer Laboratory for Conception
representation reacts to the previous one with an evolution of
and Image in Architecture – is a teaching and research unit
figures. In the same manner one can observe the evolution of a
treating issues related to architectural analysis, architectural
design process where information evolution constantly occurs, a
representation and graphic communication. Besides research
formal analytical process of an architectural object can also be
projects, the laboratory aims since 20 years at educating students
understood as a system where information is conveyed from one
to a critical understanding of contemporary architectural
document to another. Both design and analysis aim at stating an
representation, using both traditional and digital media within a
architectural discourse through successive layers of
framework deeply rooted in history and theory. The field of
decomposition/recomposition in order to manipulate geometry in
experimentation for this educational project is architectural
an abstract space. In that sense, analysis can be seen as a reverse-
analysis since the examination of an existing architectural object
design process, and the graphic spaces of design and analysis are
(built or not) constitutes an ideal starting point for a student to
strongly connected. Therefore, it is inferred that this translation
start challenging his understanding of architectural
procedure and its inherent generative potential – thoroughly
representation, pristine from design ideologies. Students proceed
described by Philippe Boudon and Robin Evans – can operate as
to examination of compositional grammars and formal
a reference for the examination of manifold formal analysis
vocabularies, and postulate analytical interpretations by
undertaken by the sole graphic means by master degree students.
understanding and exploring several media, conventions or
projection techniques, regarding their specificities. They are
Architectural representation is based on a paradigm that can be
likely to combine pencil sketching, 3d modeling, filming, 3D
defined as the set of graphic rules that have – since more than
printing, photogrammetric data acquisition or even procedural
500 years – allowed the architect to handle and communicate
scripting for well-documented experimentations of canons of
the architectural object on the basis of drawings composed, on
architectural representation. By focusing on the meaningful
the one hand, of figuration and analogy, and on the other hand,
relationship between architectural discourse and a set of
of a language made of symbols and codes commonly admitted3.
adequate – sometimes customized – media, they set up an
Codification anchors any type of graphic object in such a
analytical critical thought linked to a graphic outcome.
paradigm which gives a proper meaning to architectural
representation. It introduces rules and limits, it creates a context
Within this theoretical context, AlICe laboratory offers a three
for architectural representation to exist. Consequently, a key
module studio program to master degree students. The first
indicator for reviewing our students' works will be to consider in
module focuses on the development of a graphical investigation
what way students take a stance on the matter of codification –
linked to procedural scripting, the second one is dedicated to an
intrinsic to one type of projection or representation technique.
analytical process expressed in a 10-20 minute short-movie, and
The way students make use of, or react to codification will be
the third one explores the realm of graphical analysis based on
observed according to whether:
3D photogrammetric data acquisition of existing buildings.
Considering the production of the studio, this paper proposes to
1 Robin Evans, “Translations from Drawing to Building,” in
account for the successive decomposition/recomposition layers
Translations from Drawing to Building and Other Essays (London:
that constitute an analytical process, and to scrutinize the Architectural Association Publications, 1997), 156.
relationship that appears between the graphic technique at stake 2 Philippe Boudin and Frédéric Pousin, Figures de la conception
and the architectural discourse that a graphic representation is architecturale: manuel de figuration graphique (Paris: Editions
likely to convey. Illustrated by three cases study, this article will Dunod, 1988), 80.
observe in what manner the deliberate choice of various graphic 3 Denis Derycke, “La complexité inhérente aux modèles numériques
techniques shapes the perception of an architectural object. Then et le paradigme de la représentation architecturale. Brèves
will be evaluated the manifold outcomes of such processes: considérations sur les pratiques contemporaines,” in Complexité(s)
des modèles de l’architecture numérique, ed. François Guéna et al.
graphic objects that often divert from the original referent, but
(Nancy: Presses Universitaires de Lorraine, 2012), 155.

Design & Communication Association Conference 2014 – Southern Polytechnic State Institute, Atlanta – Oct. 01-04, 2014 p.1/6
- how they take advantage of a given codification system for a
given type of paradigmatic representation method in order to
stress a specific architectural idea.
- how the shift from one type of codification to another brings
out a generative potential in a process intrinsically composed of
manifold graphic techniques.
- how overcoming the limits and transgressing codification
stimulate innovative outcomes and subsequently, support
original understandings of the object under study. A new type of
codification transgression occurs increasingly with tools like 3D
photogrammetric data acquisition, 3D printing, or laser cutting.
These tools allow some hybridization of media by mixing the
digital and the tactile. They tend to partially redefine the
traditional paradigm, yet they cannot really escape it. They rather
acknowledge new renditions of canons of architectural
representation by making fuzzy boundaries between media 4.
The other aspect of our review procedure will be to identify, in
each process, three sequential stages in which we can observe
how a student appropriates the architectural object in a cognitive
manner, how he builds a critical discourse by means of graphic
representation, and therefore tackles with the issue of
codification:
- the first stage concerns the examination of primary material –
graphic and/or built artifacts constituting the architectural object
– so as to extract meaningful architectonic elements. Students
read the object, its materiality and its complexity. They proceed
to its decomposition in order to withdraw only elements that can
help them in understanding and explaining composition
principles. This dismantling is a sort of reduction that occurs
through representation, and constitutes a first critique, as Eric
Jenkins would argue5.
- the second stage deals with the geometrical recomposition of
selected elements through proper graphic means. This
recomposition phase leads to a second critique, where the
graphic objects produced by the analysis gain autonomy and
detach from their initial referent. At that point, analysis by
graphic means becomes a vector of interpretation, and is even
likely to engender fiction.
- the third stage is about observing and considering the motley
set of representations produced during the analytical process,
and comparing them to the initial artifacts in order to put
forward a particular understanding of the architecture under
study. To take into account the new visual universe, the graphic
palimpsest that these multiple layers of representations are
outlining together acknowledges its value in terms of critique,
interpretation or fiction. Some processes end with a set of
graphic objects that constitute in themselves some sort of distinct
and autonomous architectural objects, driven by inventive
graphic procedures.
4 We basically still use three types of projections – orthographic,
axonometric and perspective – as well as we make models as
before. What tends to be redefined are the limits between the tactile
and the graphic and flat, or between the material and the digital
which has now explicit extensions in the embodied world.
5 Analysis is a process through which we can develop some
understanding of complex situations, objects or systems by
disassembling them into simpler, fundamental components. Rather
than merely separating, compiling or describing individual
components or subsets, analysis is an active exploratory critique of
what is observed. Eric J. Jenkins, Drawn to Design. Analyzing
Architecture Through Freehand Drawing (Basel: Birkhäuser, 2013),
38.
Design & Communication Association Conference 2014 – Southern Polytechnic State Institute, Atlanta – Oct. 01-04, 2014
Case Study #1: Candilis-Josic-Woods' Berlin Free
University – Investigation through Procedural
Scripting
Drawn between 1963 and 1967 by Georges Candilis, Alexis
Josic, and Shadrach Woods, Berlin Free University is an
emblematic instance of Team X structuralist design. Challenging
and redefining the institutional understanding of a university,
architecture is now a system made of micro urban structures and
sub-structures wherein various modules take place according to
specific rules. Students were asked to proceed to a formal
analysis of the project, and then to translate their observations
into a procedural model: a piece of code written in Python, the
scripting language embedded in Blender, an open source 3D
modeling software. Compositional rules are programmed to call
3D shapes, and then to generate architectural configurations
based on random – but within a range – parameters. At a first
glance, this type of structuralist approach of a structuralist
architecture might just bring out very conventional results. Yet, if
we leave open the process for some sort of rendition, an
interesting understanding of structuralism can appear through the
use of well-chosen graphic means, as we will expose here-below
with the work of student Arthur Lachard6.
The first stage of this analysis is based on very few documents:
two original plans of the floors and a section. But this is
sufficient for discovering the hierarchical structure organizing
main and sub-units, main and sub-axis, horizontal and vertical
circulations. The decomposition process focuses on isolating
various modules (auditoriums, offices, classrooms, etc.) in that
structure, and on finding out their recurrent relationship. These
observations are gathered in a single axonometric diagram that
has no context nor scale. It just shows the structure and the
modules of the existing building as separate planar graphic
layers. Simultaneously, square patterns are identified in the
global composition. These sub-systems are represented by an
alphabet of black and white diagrams revealing the existing
building's density. All these representations are likely to serve as
a base for the first scripting sequence (Fig 1).
Fig 1. Density diagram alphabet and procedural development.
Then, the first instances of the procedural prototype under
development are produced: 3D printed models expressing, not
the whole project, but only parameters related to density and to
various relationships between modules. Here, one can observe an
interesting shift of codification. Until now, representation had
left the realm of the previously defined paradigm for the sphere
of firmly abstract diagrams, combined with programming. Our
3D printed models are the product of such a conceptual
6 Under the co-supervision of Teaching Assistant Michel Lefèvre.
p.2/6
framework (Fig 3). But because of the type of shape they
demonstrate, because of the rough materiality of plastic 3D
printing, they engage with reality and acquire then their own
architectural singularity. Actually, the student is taking advantage
of the generative potential of a transfer from one type of
codification to another, as well as the ambiguity inherent to
digital fabrication.
The second stage of the analysis is about recomposition. From
this point, all the representations extracted form the procedural
prototype will be presented within the same axonometric space,
so as to allow comparison in an identical visual universe. The
alphabet of square patterns previously mentioned is now
developed.
Fig 2. Exploded axonometry: project recomposition and
rendition.
Design & Communication Association Conference 2014 – Southern Polytechnic State Institute, Atlanta – Oct. 01-04, 2014
The Python script turns them into an endless series of
small axonometric diagrams that connect with architecture by
using the shade as a graphic codification (Fig 1). Besides
tackling with local scale, the script also generates the global
composition in terms of density, and for each floor, scatters the
various modules in the global structure, according to the
previously observed rules. An exploded axonometry exposes this
procedure, and recomposes the whole building by merging a flat
density scheme to the different architectural sub-systems (Fig 2).
These are not abstract diagrams anymore, but 3D instances of
the procedural prototype. Observed from bottom to top, the
various layers of the axonometric recomposition evolve from
abstraction to tangible. The second to last layer is a line drawing
that presents the closest kinship with the original existing
building, fully enclosed inside a rectangular wall. The very last
layer is self-contradictory: on the one hand, it engages with some
sort of architectural materiality by the use of shade, and on the
other hand, it disconnects form any potential reality by deleting
the project's limits: the enclosure wall. The project now appears
as dug in the infinite plane of the axonometric space.
The ambiguity of this last representation leads to the third stage
of the analytical process: the student's critical understanding of
the initial project. In this case, it could be summarized as:
structuralist architecture is conceived to develop infinitely in
space and time, reality is its restriction. Conjointly, it is
interesting to observe how the graphic objects created during the
process swing from conceptual to concrete, and how taking
advantage of the attributes of axonometry makes ostentatious the
final ambiguity. The very last outputs produced by the
procedural prototype are floor plans for laser cutting. Several
instances of the project were placed next to each other, like tiles,
and then laser cut in plywood (Fig 3). The structuralist system
can now deploy without limits, the analytical process has
disclosed its fictional potential, and at once, the ambiguity of the
graphic representation is twofold: the targeted abstraction is now
completely tactile.
Fig 3. Tactile instances: 3D printed plastic and laser cut
plywood models.
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Case Study #2: Analysis through advantage of the procedural attributes of axonometric drawing, a
Photogrammetric Digital Survey of an Art Deco set of 20 diagrams describes some sort of reverse-design system
(Fig 5). This dialogue between an exhaustive digital imprint and
Church in Brussels some simplified analytical instances has confirmed that the
Saint Augustin Church, built in the 1930s in Brussels, is a major church is thoroughly designed according to the √ 2 harmonic
icon of the Art Deco movement in Belgium. The building proportion, from the wholeness to the singular element.
presents mainly sobriety in the organization of its facades.
However, a closer look suggests that composition rules of the
entire building might be much more complex. A further
examination, combining archival research, digital
photogrammetric survey, and 3D modeling, will show that this
prominent simplicity is the result of complex geometric
operations. Archive documents indicate that architects Leon
Guiannotte and André Watteyne developed the composition on a
strict use of the √ 2 proportion. They mention that this very
proportion can be observed in the global composition, as well as
at different scales of the conception: from the outer perimeter to
the design of structural elements. Therefore, students Youssef El
Hachemi, Omar Essaadouni, and Hicham Benjelloum, were
asked to use graphic means to investigate about the existence of
such a proportion in this building: is it rhetorical or is
measurable? Besides gathering archival documents, students'
work focuses then on the production of representations likely to
help them understanding and documenting the design of the
church. Moreover, what is at stake is to assess the way these
graphic objects, by exploring manyfold projection methods,
achieve to inform about the architects' intentions.
Fig 4. Polygonal model: section and harmonic development.
The specificity of this approach is that the analysis will be
mainly based, not on drawings, but on the building itself, or on
its digital imprint. Consequently, the first stage of the process is
to produce an accurate 3D photogrammetric digitization of the
whole object, and then proceed to an image based modeling7 of
the artifact. A new graphic object turns up, matching precisely
with the building in terms of geometry and colorimetry. This
representation is mainly figurative, it has no cognitive value. The
results of this first procedure aims at providing an information
set on which students can take a stance; they will extract only the
elements needed for setting up their observations.

Hence, the second stage of the analysis targets the discrimination

of the information so as to grasp only a part of it. This results in
the creation of simplified instances of the original graphic
object: polygonal 3D models – excluding textures and
ornamentations – that intend to express the geometrical structure
of specific architectonic elements (Fig 4). This shift from a
graphic representation of uninterpreted information to a
simplified (but meaningful) model imposes an understanding of
the architectural concepts under study, and the ability to Fig 5. Recomposition process diagrams based on the √ 2
demonstrate such concepts by well-chosen graphic means and proportion.
appropriate codification. Therefore, representation becomes
completely analytical, both in terms of results and means. The Here comes the third stage of the process. The set of
simplified model evolves into a research object that allows to representations produced in this analysis pointed out a possibility
question and to validate the compositional rules foreseen of hybridization between different media types. In order to take
beforehand. The reduction of the geometry is compelled in order advantage of the informational richness of each graphic object
to validate each step of the composition process. Taking involved in the process, the prevailing issue was to compare
them according to one single paradigmatic projective mode: the
7 Image-Based-Modeling allows creating 3D models from axonometric worm's eye view (Fig 6). In this case, hybridization
photographs of real scenes; applied to architecture, this solution is is rather related to architectural representation's capacity to
suited to document historical buildings current conditions and to expose different layers of information than to an original graphic
give support to researchers. Architectural Image-Based-Modeling mode. The result is a graphic object that diverts from the initial
Web Portal, accessed June 10, 2014. material object. This very posture disclose a critical attitude
http://www.map.archi.fr/aibm/Portal_of_Architectural_Image-
because it separates from the original building for exposing a
Based-Modeling/Home.html

Design & Communication Association Conference 2014 – Southern Polytechnic State Institute, Atlanta – Oct. 01-04, 2014 p.4/6
new singular rendition of the church. Like in Auguste Choisy's
axonometric views, graphic representation takes over the
architectural object, it becomes a cultural artifact and generate its
own fiction8.
Fig 6. Hybridization of polygonal model and 3D
photogrammetric digitization.
Case Study #3: 1960s Modular Architecture
Invades Victor Horta's Solemn Space – Graphic
Account of an Antagonism
The Palais des Beaux-Arts, built in Brussels during the 1930s by
architect Victor Horta, was supposed to give Belgian people an
easy access to Fine Arts. But in 1969, the Grand Hall of the
Palais was a solemn empty space, in complete opposition with
the anti-establishment mindset of that time which intended to
dismantle the institutional aspect of art, and to really connect
people with it. The same year, architect Lucien-Jacques Baucher
won the competition for a project that completely transformed
the Grand Hall, yet with the possibility of removing the project
and returning to the initial state. Baucher proposed to build a
forum surrounded by passageways inserted in a modular
structure. The new resulting space was polyvalent and flexible
for both artists and spectators, and pleasant for people to walk
around. Disregarding a strong opposition movement, this
interesting project was demolished in 1996 so as to reinstate
Horta's initial solemn space. The Faculty of Architecture La
Cambre-Horta owns Baucher's complete archive, and the now
85-year-old architect is interested in helping researchers who
8 The fictional aspects of Choisy's floating figures are developed in
Thierry Mandoul, “Une histoire dessinée,” in Entre raison et
utopie. L’Histoire de l’Architecture d’Auguste Choisy (Wavre:
Mardaga Editions, 2008), 111-162.
Design & Communication Association Conference 2014 – Southern Polytechnic State Institute, Atlanta – Oct. 01-04, 2014
process these documents. Given that stimulating context and
under the co-supervision of Assistant Professor Irène Lund and
Associate Professor Maurizio Cohen, students Éléonore David
and Raphaël Padovani were asked to use 3D modeling to reinsert
a restitution hypothesis of this 1960s modular architecture into
an imprint of the Gand Hall, and to account for this architectural
antagonism in a 26 minute short-movie.
Creating primary material is the first stage of the analytical
process. The Grand Hall and the 1960s project need to meet
again in the same – digital in this case – space. This reunion is
legitimated by the degree of authenticity of both 3D models.
Therefore, Horta's architecture is rendered by an accurate and
exhaustive 3D photogrammetric digitization of the Grand Hall
(Fig 7). Baucher's project is represented by a 3D model based on
a thorough examination of archives undertaken under the
supervision of the architect himself. The couple of digital
documents are reunited in one, but information is split on
different layers, according to its origin, and remain then
traceable. Gathering heterogeneous sources under the same
graphic codification system generates a new kind of hybrid – but
genuine – archive that enrich the initial fund. The creation of this
material establishes a first critical rendition and is ideal matter
for further analysis.
Fig 7. Grand Hall photogrammetric 3D digitization combined
with an original Baucher's drawing & axonometric view of
Baucher's project.
The second stage deals with the analytical process itself. It
evolves on three levels, each founded on its specific sources, and
graphic means. Firstly, in terms of composition and
architectonic, the analysis is demonstrated only following a
single axonometric view of an abstract model (Fig 7), with no
colors and neutral lighting. The sources are the original plans
and the architect's memories. Secondly, the restitution hypothesis
is shown in an embodied perception of architecture: a
perspective view and a textured model with a realistic lighting
simulation (Fig 8). The sources are the analytical 3D model
previously created, the photos and films from the archive fund,
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and memories of people who witnessed the project. Thirdly, the
confrontation of both architectures and the resultant controversy
finds development in the film's scenario. The sources are, in
addition to 3D models and documents from the archive fund,
filmed interviews of characters who were involved in the project.

In this case, the film relates directly the successive graphic

layers that constitute the analytical process. Hence, in the third
stage of this case-study, the final outcome merges with its
origins. It collects disparate graphic elements under the
codification of film. The set of working documents embeds a
great deal of knowledge about Baucher's project and is now part
of the archive fund. Instead of being demolished, this project
could have been part of the belgian architectural heritage, like
the space that served as its cradle. Nowadays, the graphic objects
constituting this critical reading of a polemical architectural
issue are probably the best way this architecture can still exist.

Fig 8. Baucher's project: restitution hypothesis.

Conclusion
Architectural analysis through graphic means is never objective,
it necessarily prompts rendition. As we have seen, when
gathering fragmentary elements from various sources and
transferring them in a common graphic space, a critical posture
is inescapable. This critical posture occurs firstly in the
understanding of sources usually containing much more
information than what is required, and in the selection of the
elements to pick in these sources. Secondly, a critical
interpretation happens because documentation about a project is
never exhaustive. Missing parts have to be invented, there is an
inexorable extrapolation when shifting from one projective mode
– often orthographic – to another projective mode including
three dimensions. In this projective shift, students have to call to
their knowledge about the object under study as well as to their
architectural culture in order to fill the gaps with new
geometrical information. This leads to a new object, graphic and
singular, both critical and interpretive, that confronts its initial
referent. We have shown how this new object can gain a certain
autonomy and generates its own fiction, its own architectural
fantasy through the distance the analytical palimpsest puts
between the initial referent and the graphic objects. In the end,
what is at stake through our education in architectural analysis is
a rhetorical reflection process of decomposition and
recomposition of architectural vocabulary, so as to come up with
new thoughts. We do not aim at developing instrumental
methods that students can directly implement in their own
designs, even if the fallouts of such creative thinking procedures
become compelling afterwards in the students' architectural
practice.

Design & Communication Association Conference 2014 – Southern Polytechnic State Institute, Atlanta – Oct. 01-04, 2014 p.6/6