Studio Brief 1- Ideas, Development & Digital development,

Studio Brief 1- Ideas, Development & Digital development

Expanding on the refined concept and focused initial ideas a number of explorations into scamps and possible formats for the publication will be generated. 

Create a publication that raises awareness of current housing issues and possible solutions for multiple audiences.

Do it yourself style guides, concise presentation of information and plans for ease of communication and potential of self build houses. No need for large bodies of text as it will confuse audiences who are new to building, tell them the important information and how to resolve issues. 

Play around with colour texture to emulate material without the need of explanatory texts.

Dont just concentrate on exterior and structure concentrate on solving issues that Brutalism aimed to solve, creating a sense of community and functional living. Think about adjustable rooms, sliding walls allowing different formations for good use of small space. 

Think about self sufficient and sustainable builds, if theres money to be saved by councils and self builders theres better chance of involvement and backing from planning permission.

Consider the re-use and re-purpose of materials from demolished sites or local recycled materials before considering other materials to keep things sustainable.

Expand on the idea of modular houses for functional solution to social housing, and shipping container homes for promotion of self building. 

Scamps, structure and format
Aesthetic need to be emulate construction in a concise way, stripped back aesthetics with use of colour and texture as a key system for communicating important information. 

Make 3D pop up kits, make a campaign that supports the campaign focusing on the re-purposing of unused space. These small 3D kits would be a good visual metaphor for representing this.

Consider the preservation of urban space, take photos of abandoned space and create plans for residential structure to fill these space as a solution to social housing. 

Play on the idea of blank space as a way of referencing un-uses space. 

Create a typeface that has a structural feel, this would be a good support for the campaign literally placing the message within the medium. 

Create a physical typeface influenced by past iconic architecture like brutalism. Take forward the use of angles. 

The publication could be made of many loose pieces, lots of content can then be included and important documents kept by the end user.

Take influence from architectural kits, create a pack that clearly reflects architectural process's.

Structured system will help concise digestion of information.

 Inform grid system around architectural drawings to keep everything in context and consistent. 

Show change and progression.

Outline and draw attention too cost effective and efficient, sustainable and economically friendly solutions.

Think of ideas of promoting an Urban renewal for social housing solutions avoiding the mistakes of past Brutalist structures. (Crime, ugliness etc)
Preservation of urban living, making it better and more sustainable, an expansion on the Seizure installation by Roger Harnis.

Take influence from surrounding area and how homes interact with it, an expansion on the Asha Munn exhibition. 

The structure and format needs to be functional like the proposed housing solutions, think about sustainable use of repurposed materials while incorporating self sufficient living eg rain water collecting and solar panels. 
Think about customisability, adaptability, how to emulate 3D in 2D drawings in a concise way. 

Plastic wallets have a corporate or architectural aesthetic think about this as a support for publication. 

Incorporate the shapes from drawings of structures into high impact posters to be positioned around corporate locations or housing related businesses'. 

Scamps and plans for build structures
Social
As mentioned a concise system needed to be created so the main focus on this was going to be the drawings so a number of scamps where made to figure out how to best strip back aesthetics to a very concisely communicated final outcome. 

Sustainability and low environmental impact is a current issue at current within the building sector so to make governments feel like there doing good a number of potential build methods and self sufficiency systems will be explored.

Brutalist structures where known for high crime rates, mainly due to the positioning of the high rise flats giving lots of area for anti social behaviour, taking forward elements from my research on modular housing I proposed a system made up of modules that stack and interlock together and can be positioned effectively within small urban spaces or fit within open rural environments. 

These solutions would be good for elderly and disabled as they can be made on one level.

Students as these small spaces are adaptable with sliding partition walls making the space customisable to peoples needs. 

Family's large and small, more modules can be added for larger families.

Working professionals in urban or rural environments, there was an issue with social housing having ugly aesthetics, these structures are contemporary and have a high end aesthetic. 

Proposing room plans will show councils the effective use of small space. 

A sense of community can be established within these estates, the original intentions of the "streets in the sky"

These modules are prefabricated, allowing quick build times,

Self Build

Self sufficient systems; rain water collection and solar panelling. 

Sustainable materials;

Clay bricks

Repurposed wood, recycled car tyres for waterproofing and wall structures. 

Straw and nature fibres to make fibre board for insulation.

Dirt, aggregate, clay mixed with minimal concrete for lower impact foundations. 

Container home focus. 

Emulate material through simple line drawing and colour application to help aid concise information and tone of voice within minimal supporting text and well communicated images. 

Experiments on how these shipping containers can act as a base to form a range of different structures offering lots of options for the self builder. 

Present the information in 3 main sections to maintain smooth delivery of information in easy to digest sections,; Skeletal structure.
Rendered example.
3D breakdown. 

Single floor or multiple floor structures with option of balconies with rooftop gardens for a feel of rural living in urban environments. 

Digital development
Before making the publication the main content needed to be created, this been the imagery. It needed to communicate as much as possible without the need of much text to explain it to keep things concise and precise, often what architectural drawings are known for. 


The basic drawings start off with the base of the concept, the shipping container, the drawings are then broke up into stages clearly showing the versatility of the frame work and how easy these modules can fit together. Simple shape and colour communicate the 3 main rendering options; clay brick, recycled or re-purposed wood, and clay render.

To place the 2D sections into more context a 3D overview of the structure was made, originally this was made up of the colour that represented the render but this seemed a little garish and playful in its tone of voice. It needed to suggest precision and concise presentation of information. 

A 3D break down places all these stages into context and gives a good overview of the simplicity involved within these self build projects.

To maintain consistency and apply conceptual context to the publication the grid system that informs the main framework in these container modules will be used for the layout and how all the pages of the publication interact together. Everything will interlock together nicely. 

I can now be more conceptual now the basic format and content has been created, adding subtle references within the design. The alternative position of these social housing modules presents progression as a subtle representation of social change. The grey and black tones support the architectural feel while the typography hints towards corporate and architectural files. 

The information and content needed to be very clearly communicated so the high impact from the spine caused slight illegibility, not usually an issue but everything needed to be clean and precise within these layouts. 

The outline typography works better as it references the detail seen in the drawings. 

The idea here was to reference compass points to reference how plan A was aimed at multiple locations, it looked a little confusing and the mirrored aesthetic didn't fit with the theme of precision and accurate presentation, this was more an altered reality presented. 

Rasmus was used for body copy for its legibility and Madras was used for headers as it had geometric accuracy that worked perfect alongside these detailed illustrations. 

The angular aesthetics of the build structure takes influence from modernist buildings and brutalist architecture but to compliment these angles I tried out curved typography, this felt out of place though and lost all structure and balance within the page causing confusion of the information. 

Attention was drawn to "Solution" as this was the focus point, with the main advantages outlines in this section of type, this page was part of the opening document, stage A so it was important the first bit of information provided an overview of the whole document. 

To aid with precise and concise communication of information I created material break down so the reader could interact with this as a key to explain the materials in the drawing. I played around with vertical and horizontal positioning, vertical suited the introduction as it referenced corporate/architectural files but with larger amount of body copy it was best suited horizontally. 

DIY and lists go hand in hand, I subtly referenced this with the strike out on the headers, like a checklist of materials required but it faulted the concise presentation of information I wanted to portray. 

A visual connection was added to these material informations to aid precise and concise presentation of information.

I thought it was needed to add the benefits of each construction stage but it looked a little cluttered repeated on the same stage so it will be applied on a singular tab page to neaten things up. 

A cover page was made for these plans, not only did this act as a visual breakdown of what was to come but it could double up as a poster to expand the message and purpose of Self building and Sustainable social housing solutions. 

A balance between space and tone was achieved, the outline text was used here to place the title in context with the content it was introducing, the outline references the architectural drawings inside the documents. 

To further reference construction and progression a number of arrows were added.

A mock up of how all 3 documents will interact, there was a little space in the top left corner and the materials and plans tabs looked a little lost so Idea was added.

This uses the space better while also simulating stages more with support from the addition of arrows. 

An example of the interaction of the social housing modules and how a sense of community can be created, this doesn't really support the idea of plans for construction though it more shows the final result.