eroded images :: design research :: 2020

For the past 50 years the Japanese publication ‘Global Architect’ (GA) has been one of the primary vehicles through which contemporary international architects have disseminated their work. Yukio Futagawa, GA’s founder and one of its principle photographers, is known for photographs that are very clear in terms of how an architectural idea is communicated. But as with any architectural representation, his images are also critical re-interpretations or representations of the architect’s original idea.

These drawings carry this reinterpretation much further in a process that corrupts the original architectural image beyond recognition until it arrives at an entirely different place, creating something new. The starting point is a Futagawa photograph of Gwathmey Sigel Architects’ de Menil Residence. First a formal analysis is done using glitchy projection techniques, then the resulting image is projected into three dimensions, light is projected into the model casting shadows, and curvilinear forms are introduced. The resulting ‘eroded’ image the becomes the basis of a projected multi-view drawing, which finally leads to study a farmhouse renovation project. Drawings of the farmhouse use Hudson River School imagery to help reimagine how an aesthetic for a house in the county fits into a larger cultural dialogue between ideas of city and country.