That sounds like a very, incredibly broad topic.

yeah, i know that its a very wide topic. i've borrowed some books (the Prada OMA/AMO project, Harvard's Guide to city projects) to read a bit more and hope to tighten it up.

Especially interested in the way these projects are approached. For eg. how OMA/AMO delves into other topics such as sociology to attempt another way of creating urban spaces and also buildings. So, i'm interested to explore how i can link the field of graphic design and architecture together. However, it is way too broad and needs to be a lot more focused.

Any suggested readings?

Perhaps you are limiting yourself by only studying OMA later (and more prolific) work. Your idea has an implicit historical dimension -- think Archigram, Yona Friedman, etc, and about their specific use of graphical materials. Remember that OMA's beginnngs came from an environment that was not too much later from the work of 60s-era speculative architecture. Perhaps that can set you in your desired direction? It also sounds like you should also read stuff about graphic design theory/history?

An important part would be the idea of a gesamtkunstwerk, and you should look into Legers ideas, also other developments of the fusion of design and architecture around the 20's 30's(eventhough they talk about the fusion of painting and architecture. same shit.)

Joan Ockman gave a "run-through"-talk on this at the Alvar Aalto symposium in Jyväskylä a year back - her lecture might be found... try the alvar aalto academy website or just check ockman other writing on the same subject.

maybe have a look at the open city in/close to valparaiso. their work is explicitly founded on collaborative design in which architecture, poetry ( ! ), and graphic design are entwined inseparably...

this is the home of one of the profs (self built, with students, a few decades ago if i recall correctly)



personally i find their work as academically rigid as the folk they are supposedly defying, and the architecture tends to always come out in a hippsy folksy version of liebeskind's work...but they do quite interesting things, and the pedagogy is quite different than what north americans are accustomed to. the students are expected to build things 4 months out of a year and they also gets to collaborate with poets and graphic designers...so there is something special going on. and it is a very nice alternative to the over-refined work of oma et al.

unfortunately not so much on the internet that i could find but there are a few books on them, and an article or two.

luck

I think Graphic design is effected by Human taste....just like how ppl love kinds of food.....like they eat burgers and they love it because they know what it is....and how some dont like SUSHI....or "asian food".......its just a matter of taste......
i need to understand how graphic design elements are so appealing to us....as designers....and as consumers.........and what kinda elements are we using to reach to the ppl.......
like i remember long time ago.....i used to see 01 01 010 1010 01010 101010 1010 1010 1010 10110 100110 01010101....like every where it gives us the sense of technology........who invented this theory and how did we relate the numbers to technology.....
on the other side who invented burgers how it became so tasty to us????????.........

These are a few thoughts i have on the topic.

1- Perhaps the research shld begin by looking into the link between archi and other art forms which have always existed since long ago (poetry-archi, sculpture-archi, theatre-archi, computer-archi, graphic-archi)

2-After that, there could be an attempt to quantify this link between graphic design and architecture. Possible exploration on whether there is a parallel development between the 2? Modernist Architecture vs Swiss layout techniques? Socially oriented architecture vs Tibor Kalman's social critique approach?

3-Attempt an explanation/proposal on how this link might change (or is already changing) the way architecture is made.

There has been plenty of discussions on how certain architecture has been reduced to an image rather than architecture in purist form (spatial experience, light and shadow, etc) so was thinking that perhaps i could read up on that too.

Comments?

are you saying that you are starting your phd in arch? it doesn't sound like you aready for it given your apparent lack at even a cursory understanding of what (and how specific) a dissertation is. Also, the books you mentioned although useful seem to be the most popular ones that undergrads flock to their first year, I hope you have a slightly deeper understanding of architecture history/theory other than Rem.

i is assuming this is for a masters degree, or maybe an undergrad paper...

but that is ok.

dibster, is good to get all the background info you describe above, but in the end you will have to pick a single idea and focus, and forget about all those broad ideas...

i would also pretty much recommend not reading rem except for fun. although he is a brilliant commentator/journalist i am not so sure if he is a credible researcher...

Dibster:

We at the Department of Standardization are pleased that you are pursuing, augmenting, and not only that advancing the Architecturalization of ALMANACH D'ARCHITECTURE MODERNE Standards that your and my master standardizer, Le Corbusier, long ago gifted us standardly. This is a great moment in this era of architecturalization of standards as we see the torch of the Master Standardizer pasted to the next generation where world standards are united under the banner that is the common goal of a standard mankind in will, power, and as all Standardizers know- Unitary Standardization.
This glorious era of the AIA has been a long time coming and we want to encourage those who have been selected and not only that rightfully identified as Standardizers to accept your power through position in standard and joint standard committee in the further standardization of the Architecturalization of the Standard.
Evoke the Standard in Standard Will by this power given!!!

Thank You for all the comments.Its been very encouraging.

Of course I will have to be A LOT more specific in my eventual thesis. What I'm trying to do now is to establish and build a framework of thought that will eventually guide me in my continuous path towards architecture. Still learning and understanding what it takes to build a strong and credible thesis.

I'll be the first to admit that my background knowledge isnt good enough. And this is why I'm trying to ask around so as to allow me to get a better understanding of what i'm dealing with and the scale and magnitude of it.

Its been advised to me that it is important for one to research on a thesis based on one's ineterest or else it would never be good. And it seems that although this is what i'm interested in, i'm unable to have a strong base to work from. So, i hope all these suggestions will continue to come in..

p.s my uni offers archi as a direct masters programme. So thie paper will be written as a dissertation for the honours requirement. Then developed into a thesis for the masters requirement.

Graphic design and architecture should in my opinion be approached historically through the periods/movements bringing all the arts together: Art Nouveau, Art Deco, early/late Bauhaus design, the Ulm school - those and other examples usually are based on approaching design in general with the same attitude and sets of rules - producing work that is linked through having the same source, more or less.

Then there's a link between architecture and graphic design when they are both viewed through traditions in drawing and reprsentation - Robin Evans would have interesting essays about this - also, all the strictly imaginary architecture of the 60's-70's is architecture that relies on presentation effects and incorporating marketing into architectural design.

still a step from that, are the tools as creators of a certain type of images - 3d-and animation software that are shared by designers of different branches, but which produce some pretty similar looking stuff.

There's a lot of undercurrents in the question of a link between architecture and graphic design - you should not focus on contemporary case studies that much if you want to get a meaningful grasp of what is going on - the contemporary projects that explicitly incorporate graphic design into arch might not be as interesting or telling than the projects where there is no declared intention of doing this.

lol @ cf's post! You are right - choose something you can tell you've always had a personal interest in. I chose film + arch (and oldie but a goodie) and really enjoyed it.

it might be interesting to look at the development of graphic design and the parallels in architecture... maybe even from victorian through art nouveau, art deco, also the arts and crafts, modernism... maybe think about evolving ideas about form and space? and where contemporary graphic and architectural design fall now

sorry just read helsinki's post... ya, i agree, anyway it might be a good starting point to discover something...

Also, to follow Helsinki's and bRink's impulses .... ask yourself what is it about the topic that keeps you interested. You will probably find that there much more to this than a relationship between architectural practice and graphic design. For example, I think someone at Columbia is writing their PhD dissetation on Otto Neurath .... check it out ....

cool..thanks for the pointers friends. I'll be starting research very soon. Will check back with updates.

Hi Dibster,

As a historical precedent, you could check out the Vienna Secessionist Movement (and Otto Wagner) as among the earliest avant gardistes. The Secessionist frequently used 2D graphics to communicate their revolutionary/progressive stance (eg the poster for Ver Sacrum).... and you can still see it for example in the typographical lettering on Wagner's Vienna Post Office.

I get the sense that the relationship between architecture and the 2D image comes in many phases. There are the earlier days when architecture was a natural extension of art, with sculpture, painting, frescoes, etc. Then at the dawn of modernism and with the rise of avant-gardist, there was regular adaptation of 2D graphic abstraction into architecture. A good example would be the planar Schroder House being inspired by the rectilinear paintings of Piet Mondrian.

There seem to be countless ways you can frame your investigation. One is to approach it with the mind that graphic design/2D communication was a new medium for many avant gardistes and its translation into architecture was the next natural extension as part of the same avant gardist wave.

Another is to consider graphic design as solely being a tool used by architecture to communicate. (in that sense, I will think of the way websites for architecture design firms are used)

Then there is of course, the interdisciplinary approach and i can't think of a better example than the collaboration between Koolhas and Mau.

Then there is the literal application of the 2D image onto architectural surfaces, which calls on the work of Venturi or Thai architect Sumet Jumsai.

And I guess you could look into the history of Graphic Design too... and what is a specific definition of it...... do we measure from the start of the Bauhaus era?

Okay, I think I said a bit too much. Hope you have fun with dissertation. Oh btw, I'm Singaporean also.

=D))))

why not do it on the appropriation of revolutionary graphics as applied first to advertising/marketing/style which are in turn appropriated by those who nothing of the woks original intent !!!!

I've been flipping a few books and the range of stuff is overwhelming.

but anyways, i found a few research papers on graphic design and will be slowly digesting it. Kinda busy with other projects at the moment.

I'm beginning to feel that i am moving towards something focused within architecture, moving towards an issue rather than just exploring forms or ideas that seem to be interesting (not that its such a bad thing in my opinion) .

Its really a contrast to my first 3 years in archi school where i was just grappling about in the dark trying to make sense of it all..