Portugal
Elderly Home

This is an excellent example of a clear, effective four-panel competition submission. The layout is simple, in many ways reflective of the project’s design. The boards are organized using a primary full-span image and the mostly-white boards are anchored by the strong red facade components which appear throughout the renderings and sections. The presentation would benefit from two additional items. The first is basic annotation and labeling to describe the intent and spaces of each of the renderings on the final board. The second is an enlarged detail to describe the construction of either the facade or the planted roof, to solidify this project as a serious architectural proposition.

The submission is clear and organized. Split into two halves vertically the boards are consistently laid out with some variation to lend a reader dynamism and interest. The renderings are beautifully balanced in color and work well with supporting, crisp line drawings that make use of a range of line weights to differentiate the project’s overall form from the landscape and the interior layouts. The submission would benefit from a detailed sectional drawing to describe the buildup of the cork facade on the primary structure. It would also benefit from reducing the length of the introductory text or dividing this text into more manageable bites across all four boards. While the story is clear, it would help that each of the main points in the description be supported by adjacent drawings.

The project benefits from its use of a limited number of large, outstanding visuals. Both rendered images and drawings communicate design intent and leave little room for confusion. A single-image introductory board is followed by three sheets based on a clear and variable grid. While plans are well annotated, the rendered images and section would benefit from basic information such as materiality, dimensions, structural grid and labeled spaces. The final section in particular appears incomplete for its lack of annotation, though it clearly describes the building form as it relates to the site. A larger-scale sectional or plan detail would also help to complete this presentation.

The project is stellar in its ability to communicate its form, program, use and aesthetic. Beautiful line drawings, renderings and photos of a crystal clear model work  together to offer an easily legible and sophisticated design proposal. The presentation does not lack much, but a constructive detail or enlarged section of a unit or the envelope would be helpful to more fully understand the project construction and make it convincing to both a client and a juror. 

The project intelligently mixes rendered imagery with an appropriate amount of digestible text, clear annotation and thoughtful diagrams. The visuals are extraordinary and beautiful. The three general sectional drawings would benefit from additional lin work to provide hierarchy and depth and, as with all the projects commented on above, a construction-level detail to describe the project buildup would solidify the author’s design intent and clarify the project’s ability to be realized.