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Architecture and Comics: The Visual Narrative - ARC60903

Project 1: Building Narratives

“As the most ubiquitous forms in the built environment, buildings are backdrop to all modern human stories. They shelter, comfort, glorify and represent us, as individuals, cultures and societies. All the best modern stories involve, relate to, or take place in buildings. Our houses, schools, work places and public spaces are the panels to the stories of our lives.”

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In this project, we were required to choose any building and conduct research on it and find relevant architectural drawings. The research conducted could be technical, historical, fictional, anecdotal or even autobiographical in form. Based on the research gathered, we were required to design a 2 paged comic while incorporating the design elements of the building including its architectural drawings into the layout of the comic. I chose Architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water for my comic.

Project 2: The Architecture of Comics

“Comics are built to tell stories, and stories are told to represent abstract ideas and concept, convey histories and backgrounds, and to show examples of idealized characters or behaviors.”

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Project 2 was a group project in which we were to create an 8 paged black and white comic covering one of the following themes:

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  1. A concept or movement in Architecture/Design (e.g. “-ism” like modernism, futurism, etc)

  2. A streamlined retelling/adaptation of a significant event or historical vignette from Architecture/Design

  3. A story (or intertwined stories) that reflect ideas or lifestyles related to Architecture/Design concepts

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Joyee, Jun and I dove back into the life of Frank Lloyd Wright and decided to create a narrative based off of his popular televised interview with presenter Mike Wallace in which Wright spoke of his work as an Architect, his philosophy and his thoughts on a variety of other topics. The challenge here was to find a way to create movement and flow within the pages of the comic as the story would primarily consist of two individuals: the guest and presenter seated together conversing. Therefore, the comic is created in such a way so that the dialogue between Wright and Wallace is presented in abstract form by the use of a variety of metaphors.

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