Essay

USING PHOTOGRAPHY TO UNDERSTAND ARCHITECTURE

AND GENERATE ARCHITECTURAL IDEAS

(NOT NECESSARILY TO REPRESENT ARCHITECTURE)

Architectural design from photographically constructed views

Photographers: Helene Binet, Lucien Herve, (James Turrell, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Aitor Oritz, Thomas Demand)
Architects: Zaha Hadid, Le Corbusier, Peter Zumthor, Daniel Libeskind, Caruso St John, Sverre Fehn

INTRODUCTION
-the visual
-aspects of space and the photograph (light, shadow, materiality, shape, frame, time etc)
-constructing the view... framing
-generate ideas
-trigger imagination
-reduction
-scale
-telling a story
-lines and directions
-generator

“Hélène Binet has emerged as one of the leading architectural photographers in the world. Every time Hélène Binet takes a photograph, she exposes architecture’s achievements, strength, pathos and fragility.” (Daniel Libeskind)

''Lucien Hervé is one of the few photographers to combine humanistic philosophy and architectural thought. Its framing in diving, its views in oblique, a certain counting and a willingness of abstraction characterize a photographic style very different from that of his contemporaries.'' (web translation from lucienherve.com)

What interests me is how we can perceive these images and how they can trigger our imagination. Does the photo simplify the space or make it more complicated? I believe that simplicity (the abstract) can be very complex. What happens beyond the frame? What scale is it? What type of space is it? Or is it an object, not a space? Even though a space is empty of 'life' there can still be a presence of light, atmosphere, shadow, colour, texture, surfaces, direction, form, pattern etc. Can you imagine /create the space in the photograph as part of an architectural structure /building and inhabit it? Can you then use this to design a building?

-a medium of discovering the reality in front of us (helene binet)
-capturing the initial dream that an architect had at the start of a project
(helene binet – zaha hadid)


FRAMING / ISOLATING / EXCLUSION
-fragment vs whole
-contained space vs open space
-the world out there vs the world as it exists in ones mind
-distance and perspective
-context, what happens when 'it' is taken away from 'its' context?
-Framing …. way of creating a window between 2 perspective
-exclusion
-frame reality which is too complex
-creating your own view
-Frame = format. Proportions of frame.
-power of framing and composition
-one point of view
-can create different volumes and shapes

Lucien Hervé - Mill Owners Association, Ahmedabad

Hélène Binet - Zaha Hadid

SIMPLIFYING REALITY / REDUCTION
-detailing
-less information conveys more
-2D vs 3D
-senses: sight, smell, taste, touch, hear
-its not space it is a photograph (helene binet)
-reduced message

Hélène Binet and Lucien Hervé draw on the concept of the reduced image. Binet says in her lecture at Harvad 'composing space' that less information conveys more.

Hélène Binet - Caruso St John

SCALE
-distance and perspective
-playing with scale
-ambiguity
-create a moment of amnesia: what are you looking at?
-refer to your own knowledge to decide...
-abstract

The scale in architectural photography can become very ambiguous, especially when you draw from the concept that less is more.

Hélène Binet - Zaha Hadid

LIGHT AND SHADOW
-light is the photographers tool
-we need light to see the object and vice versa
-an object is needed to disperse the light
-volume variation
-embodying light
-camera … box collecting light … compare to arch (libeskind Jewish museum) (helene)
-time and space
-shadow is an absence of energy
-penetration of light at a specific time
-light needs material to exist
-objects become shapes/form
-zaha hadid by night … isolate form/shape, take away context, play with light

Hélène Binet - Le Corbusier

Hélène Binet - Peter Zumthor

(MATERIALITY)

CAPTURING MOMENTS / NARRATIVE / FREEZING TIME
-atmosphere
-image of an idea
-image of a space
-how the conscious subject observes the world
-private experience
-change, fluidity
-moments in time are unique
-limitation
-commitment
-create a story
-combine the above
-a medium of discovering the reality in front of us (helene binet)
-capturing the initial dream that an architect had at the start of a project
(helene binet – zaha hadid)

Lucien Hervé - Chapelle Notre Dame du Haut, Ronchamp

Lucien Hervé - Mill Owners Association, Ahmedabad