Yoga House
in the Bog

The project above all is commendable for the quality of its rendered visuals. While photorealistic renderings are not a requisite for a competition, when done well they can be very influential on the juror or reader of a proposal. The imagery here, in particular an impactful fill-spread introductory perspective, makes use of materials, light and shadow and natural landscape elements to show an imperfect building that unquestionably blends with its context. A mix of simple short texts, clear diagrams, and clean plans and sections leave the reader without confusion, and give the impression that this is a project that has been well considered and resolved. Given there are four sheets and ample room, the project would have benefited from an enlarged detail to better describe the roof,  wall or skylight construction. In particular the expression of hempcrete blocks - which this project places much focus on - would have been expected to be more present in the project.

The presentation very clearly communicates the project form, planning and layout, and materiality using excellent line drawings and renderings. It also makes use of drawings of all scales to describe the project, from its construction to its placement within the large site. The project would benefit from additional annotation to describe dimensions, materials, and design intent. Annotation helps complete a sheet and provides invaluable detail to support visuals, even if content is repeated over multiple drawings. The third sheet is void of such detail and appears unfinished, for instance. The sections and plans would be strengthened with clearer scale figures to better communicate how visitors use and inhabit the space. The presentation would further benefit from a reduced and more distributed use of text, as well as a more refined use of line weights on the site plan to provide additional variation and clarity. Finally, an image describing the experiential path of the yoga park would have helped to complete this project. 

The project is commendable for the range of information at various scales it provides. The four sheets are densely packed, but not overwhelmingly so, and the layout and level of detail gives the impression that the project has been thoroughly considered and designed. The introductory sheet includes an excellent site plan which is complex and textured and, paired with a rendering, communicates well the proposed building’s situation within its forested context. A mix of font sizes provide clear hierarchy among title, explanatory text, annotation for diagrams and drawing labels. Enlarged details and a developed section describe the intended constructive buildup and sophisticated consideration of materials needed to realize such a project. Buildner recommends a reduced use of introductory text and explanatory text for details, both in order to free up white space on the sheets and to summarize the project more succinctly (jurors may not read such lengthy texts in full).

The presentation balances simple diagrams with well-developed plans and sections and renderings which communicate well the project’s intended materials. The introductory sheet is especially effective, commencing with an image describing the strong entry axis of the project supported by excellent diagrams with bursts of color to explain the building form and orientation relative to the site. It would benefit the organization if the descriptive text here used labels, subtitles, or bold words to immediately convey the main points of the project. As written, the reader must seek out these points to fully understand the project. On the third sheet where the section is paired with an interior rendering the presentation would benefit from additional annotation: basic dimensions, labels for spaces, conceptual topics, or material descriptions. This sheet as presented appears unfinished relative to the others.

The project effectively uses renderings to describe different interior and exterior moments within the project. The use of fog is a bit excessive in that it takes away from the detail, especially on the introductory sheet. The full-span image at the top of the second page would benefit from annotation to describe materials or the situation of the building on the site, especially given this image is being paired with drawings of a technical nature below. The use of line drawings is excellent. While the detailed section describes well the proposed materials and solidifies this presentation as a serious architectural project, the general plan and section would be strengthened with the use of basic labeling to describe the spaces.