A Sense for Detail and Style

A Sense for Detail and Style Interpreting buildings. Steps & tips for seeing “more than meets the eye” on the trail of the city’s soul and identity. All buildings can be appreciated in terms of their form and content independent of its age or historical” value”. Therefore, a good idea is to start by observing and describing the physical features and characteristics of the building and then interrogate its meaning, the architect’s intentions, and most importantly how the building makes you feel. “Good” interpretations can be more or less reasonable, convincing, enlightening, and informative and make us self-reflect, see the world, the others and ourselves in “new eyes”. Let buildings release your imagination!

We develop a vocabulary for reading buildings. Texture, details, geometry, signs and symbols, color, structure, contrasts, art and decoration, function, and services, positive/negative, scale, light, ambience, different forms; rounded, square, flat, wavy, hard, soft. A sunny day in the green countryside or a rainy, dark, autumn morning on the way to work may bring out different emotions, materials: wood, earth, clay, bricks, marble, granite, limestone, sandstone and slate, concrete, plastic, glass. This is what a sense of detail and style is about.

Players will be able to:

• I´ll not merely passively read the city; I´ll also write the city!
• I can describe a building for somebody who has never seen it.
• I´ll sense how a specific building can be related to me and my life.

This activity offers you ways of understanding a building (any building) by making a visual or written description. Can you describe this building in pictures or words for somebody who has never seen it? Complete the activity by making a sketch / film clip / poem / blog / vlog / song of how you perceive the building!