INVERSION: An Axonometric Journey into Architectural Representation and the Discovery of the Underground

The Three Core Themes: Explores inversion through three lenses: 

Above/Below: 
The underground connection has many complexities to explore concerning the concepts of above and below and the interplay of light and dark. Using laser-cut models and black-and-white imagery, these experiments shed light on the importance of the hidden qualities concealed within the underground space. Here, primary ideas build upon the inversion of atmospheric space, extending and borrowing light from above to below, and vice versa from below to above. Inversion is defined as the flipping of positions and changes in state. The projected light and shadows were prioritised over the object, and in some cases, these were used as plan generators and vertical planes in the axonometrics.

Light/Shadow:
In this process of light and shadow, the interplay of qualitative elements in the underground is explored through the tracing of shadows using light, resulting in parallel projections. This translates into the ‘drawing of light’ through cyanotype exposures across three different materials: paper, plaster, and fabric.

This experimental series analyses variations in material, shape, and size, opening up the potential for incorporating light-induced drawings beyond paper, and ‘drawing’ directly onto building surfaces experimented through the plaster blocks. The trials with fabric introduce a qualitative sense of softness and a more pronounced bodily relationship; aspects not typically linked with quantitative axonometric drawings.

Conceal/Reveal: 
The axonometric drawing can exist in a constant state of manipulation through decisions around concealing and revealing. In this series, elements are tested to show or hide, extend or compress. These drawings shift between worm's eye view and bird's eye view, achieving an inversed spatial perspective. The translation of the axonometric language, characterised by a 45-degree angle, from drawing to physical modelling involves a series of formal experiments. These explore the application of the 45-degree angle to solid forms, slicing, and shadow projections, challenging the viewer's relationship with the object.

Taking on the representation of the axonometric drawing, the dichotomous tension between the revealed and hidden is depicted. The result is an inextricable link between plan, section, elevation, roof, and subfloor drawing, each reimagining the building. Subsequently, the drawings are enriched with new information while concealing old details. Due to the interplay of elements showing and hiding, the design process begins with the exploration of two-dimensional drawings, exploring atmospheric ideas of texture, lighting, and materiality as a starting point to create an interconnected sequence of drawings. 

The process begins with the analogue act of drawing and sketching the printed drawings and overlaying them with tracing paper. It is a constant dialogue between analysing the plan and section drawings and translating these observations into axonometric drawings. This involves the act of critiquing and marking the plan and sections through superimposing sketches to generate the axonometrics. These analogue and digital mediums simultaneously play a role in the psychological process of delaying the decision-making process. The dexterous act of physically engaging in drawing also allows for an immersive connection with the body through the act of sketching. 

The integration of cyanotype in the underground has led me to draw with light, not as a form of drawing done by hand but by architecture. Using the architectural thresholds of light: windows, doors and voids, the building paints the spatial qualities as the drawings become an evolving canvas of time. The mapping of light through the inversion of vivid blue (cyanotype) against the building's raw surfaces orchestrates an inversion of contrasts wherein light becomes dark while shadows become light.

The design outcome of the Karangahape Road train station and the Pitt Street lane box encapsulates the ideas of above/below, light/shadow, and conceal/reveal. The project attempts to shed light on the contemplative qualitative and quantitative elements expressed by the axonometric drawing style through the concept of inversion and rigorous drawing experimentation. 

This thesis allowed for insight into how the qualitative attributes of architecture not typically associated with axonometric drawings can be interwoven with their quantitative aspects. This synthesis offers a more comprehensive understanding of the underground spatial condition. Therefore, axonometric drawing is not merely a method of representation or a communication language; it is a critical design tool that influences decision-making. 

While the characteristics of the worm’s eye and bird’s eye views remain visually consistent across both mediums of paper and modelling, the axonometric drawing type can transition from a worm’s eye view, showcasing the roof, to a bird’s eye view, highlighting the floor plan. This interchanging shift between conceal and reveal is translated into the final model; when flipped over, the model presents views of alternating sides, and when a mirror is introduced, the visual presentation is amplified. This creates a dual conversation in both the above and below perspectives of bird’s eye and worm’s eye views. 

This research has taken me on an exploratory journey around ideas of inversion – from themes of the underground and light and darkness to site and function selection to the inversion of several of the dominant rules of the axonometric drawing type itself. The interplay between light and shadow in relation to ground(s) also fuses qualitative information into the drawings and the final built project. Depth, atmosphere, and context are explicitly portrayed as qualitative elements in the representation of the final axonometric drawings.

This thesis project sits within the field of research that considers architectural drawing theory and its relationship to design process and outcomes. While design processes can vary for all designers, typical patterns tend to rely heavily on site and function early in the brief-forming stages to generate design decisions, yet here these decisions were deliberately delayed in favour of prioritizing a close reading of a specific architectural drawing type – the axonometric - as design propagator. 

The axonometric is a rational, quantitative drawing type, which is dominated by the plan. Here though, several axonometric drawing conventions have been broken, such as the use of qualitative information to generate the axonometric (and not a plan), the application of inversion (leading to the privileging of qualitative information over quantitative), and drawing with light rather than ‘matter’.

A series of carefully proposed and analysed experiments using the axonometric drawing type were organized into three themes: Above/Below, Light/Shadow, and Reveal/Conceal. These led to decisions on form, material, spatial orientation and qualities, site and function. The architectural investigation focused on ascending and descending through varying light conditions at the threshold of subterranean and above ground spaces. The built-form expression of such ‘slices of light’ were inserted adjacent to two City Rail Link station entries currently under construction, as alternative/extended vertical pathways. (As additions to the Pitt St and Cross St entries to the K’Rd station, designed by Jasmax).

Robin Evans has shown that there is loss of information in architectural drawing to drawing translation, yet here the aesthetic and architectural intention evident in the axonometric series of experiments has survived into the detailed and rigorous final design drawings (presented in axonometric, of course). The design has been thoroughly tested against the generative experiment drawings as proof of concept, shown in a selection of ‘side-by-side’ images. By quite literally placing photographs of light conditions from the physical and digital models against early non-representational qualitative drawings, their similarities are revealed. This establishes the thesis methodology as valid and that it is possible to maintain qualitative information right through to developed design, within a normally quantitative-dominant drawing type.

By Lynda Simmons, supervisor