EXP2 Week 3: Progress

Landscape

Over the past few days I have put a lot of thought into what I think the landscape for my CryEngine model will look like and how it will enhance or complement (or challenge) my monument.

Original Concept

The main intention with my monument was to have it mimic and/or accentuate certain features of the landscape while still being alien to it. Drawing from the general shape of my monument I decided to have it perched on the edge of a deep valley, overlooking a river and a vast mountain range that encompassed the whole of the clients view.

After discussing this concept with Matt we agreed that having mountains towering over the monument would dilute the monumentality of it, and that this monument needs to be in a place where it dominates the landscape before it.

Revised Concept

We settled on the idea of the monument overhanging a cliff face, an idea I experimented with earlier on. In this landscape the monument dominates all, as the land before it drops completely into the endless abyss of the ocean. Relating back to my main intention of the monument I modified the design, exaggerating the horizontality and verticality of the monument to accentuate the stark drop of the cliff face into the sea.

The portion of the monument at and over the cliff's edge.

 I built the environment around the cliff concept and continued to develop it to a high resolution.

 Current stage of Monument

Settling on the cliff location, the work on my monument has progressed quite nicely.

The stacking of 'blocks' right at the edge of the cliff face accentuates the verticality of the cliff face and adds to a sense of weight and inertia with the monument, which contrast heavily with the thin, planar elements leading up to the cliff's edge. 

This synthesis of light and dense, the contrast between horizontality and verticality reflect on the differing views Mateus and Wright had towards architecture.

This monumental checkerboard window/screen was inspired by the windows in Aires Mateus' project, Nursing Home.

 Over the next day or so I aim to add the micro features including stairs, as well as further develop the landscape.