Architectural Designers?

[sunandshadow]

So who here likes to design architecture? What architectural styles do you like? Do you know of any online communities where people talk about architectural design and post sketches of their designs?

Personally I love art nouveau and biomorphic architecture. Although other styles can be cool - like neoclassical architecture with columns and arches and caryatids, or gothic with flying buttresses and gargoyles... :}

[Cthogua]

I've actually been doing alot of architectural doodles on a little note pad at work...I'll see if I can get em scanned and posted tomarrow. And yeah, art nouveau architecture, furniture...everything is fuckin awesome. I got to see a gigantic show of all kinds of art nouveau styled things at the National Gallery in DC a few years ago. It was incredible. There was a bronze cross there that had a briar vine growing up it then forming a really intricate wreath around the top with little red roses, I'm not particularly attached to christian imagery or crosses but this thing was incredible looking. Theres something about the curves of some of it that almost causes a physical reaction in me. Some of its scary looking, and some of it is incredibly beautiful, just like the nature that it emulates

http://www.cupola.com/images/bldgstru/artnouv/slide/tasse03e.jpghttp://photos-de-nancy.altata.org/image.php/Rues_-_Anatole_France_(rue)(44-probablement-Art-Nouveau)-1.jpg

I also like that there is often alot of mystical symbolism in art nouveau paintings and graphic arts. Certain flowers, stones, seasons ment certain things. It was almost like a visual code, similar to what alchemists did.
http://vovo2000.com/who/master6/56.jpg

[Ilaekae]

To relax, I mess with architecture in a theoretical way--mostly city-plan and "neighborhood/village" schemes that are ecologically friendly, and play with unified home/work and cooperative home concepts.

When I have time, I'll transfer some of my rough ideas to Illustrator and post 'em...AFTER I post some stuff that proves I really do know how to draw... :)

[AngryScientist]

I'm into Art-Deco and architecture from the 1920s-30s. Great inspiration for me, I also enjoy designing stuff but rarely put it down on paper. Sort of creating a library of architectural ideas even before I do something related in my art or for my projects at uni (tho I don't study architecture.. yet. only engineering :p).

[sunandshadow]

Glad to see I'm not the only one who likes architecture. :)

I had a survey af architecture class in college, and it was fun - basically every class was a slideshow of gorgeous architecture from one or two periods/movements, with some lecture explaining important elements and concepts. I was sketching in my notebook the whole time - columns including the sadly neglected caryatid/atlas type, arches and domes, flying buttresses, and staircases (I <3 staircases), not to mention scribbling down lots of names to google after class. That class inroduced me to Antony Gaudi, and from him I found my way to Victor Horta, and also to the concept of biomorphic/zoomorphic architecture.

So where do you look for architectural inspiration? Architecture Digest magazine usually has one interesting thing per magazine - not worth a subscription, but definitely worth acquiring stacks of old ones if you can get them for a buck a piece. I love these big art books, like the Taschen ones, with big pictures you can actually see the details in. And of course there's Google image search, but that's hard to use if you don't know the name for what you want to look up.

I'm interested in architecture currently because I am the lead designer of a video game and we need to get some buildings and rooms designed and modeled so our character have somewhere to walk around in. And each different race in the game has to have its own style of architecture: biomorphic opal caves with tree roots for the spiritual race, art nouveau with a cyberpunk twist for the techno race, and fantasy medieval with maybe some traditional chinese flavor for the magical race. I wish I had more knowledge of architecture and perspective drawing skills so I could do some of the architectural design myself, but I don't really have time either - managing the team, their assignments, and the documentation, not to mention working on the actual design of the game, already eats all my free time... :[

[Cthogua]

To relax, I mess with architecture in a theoretical way--mostly city-plan and "neighborhood/village" schemes that are ecologically friendly, and play with unified home/work and cooperative home concepts.


A buddy of mine who studied architecture spent a summer working at Arcosanti (http://www.arcosanti.org/) in Arizona. Very cool concept, but he said the reality was that it was mired in politics and that nothing much was really moving forward with the project.

I can't believe I forgot to bring him up in my first post but Lebbeus Woods is probably my favorite "architect" I put that in quotes because nothing he designs ever gets built, its more conceptual. I have a book of his called "Radical Reconstruction" that has an essay talking about many of his ideas regarding anarchic architeture, as an expression of socitey's breaking away from older heirarchical structures (social structures, not buildings) that have failed. I know that sounds rediculous, but the essay makes sense in an intensely philosophical kinda way. He also is very interested in rebuilding areas destroyed by war with this anarchic architecture, as a scar would form over a wound. Infact in the essay he talks alot about cities and societies as organisms. Sadly my scanner is broken and most of the pics I could find online were pretty small and grainiy. The man is incredible with colored pencils. This one is way looser than his normal renderings, but gets the idea across
http://arch.eptort.bme.hu/kep/Image514.jpg