KRob 2008

Brandon Shigeta, HARVARD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF DESIGN, STUDENT, DIGITAL/MIXED

I was in Dallas on November 6Th. to jury the annual KRob delineation competition.
The three people jury have struggled with over three hundred entries in different categories. Agreed, disagreed, fought for, and at the end selected a winner, best of show, that reflected or suggested the generational change in the world of architectural delineation.
In a way, as a jury we have delineated the state of affairs in architectural visualization, and/or, depiction.
The process of arriving the building, urban design, conceptualization was the focus of this year's winner.
Perhaps for the first time in the competition's thirty year history, we have maneged to select a winner that was more of a diagrammatic depiction of an idea rather than a depiction of a building in 1:1 imaging we see in front of construction sites or in newspapers titled "artist's drawing of the development," etc...
Sure, there were also winners and citations and traditional renderings at the end.
But make no mistake, the winner was clearly reflected a thought process rather than picturing a finished building, a building-morte as in nature-morte, still life...
It was rather a speck of time started from nowhere, made its mark and just like it was conceived, disappeared. A rendering that captured the 4Th. dimension, a rendering suggesting things had to go beyond the modern 3D echole. This made the drawing a lot more interesting.


J. Arthur Liu, FXFOWLE, PROFESSIONAL, DIGITAL/MIXED

On the other hand, one entry clearly caught my attention, reminding me my own background and familiarity of miniature style of drawing that predated the western perspective that was put in action by Filippo Brunelleschi in 15 Th century.
It was drawn in familiar Eastern miniature style, combining plan, elevation and distance in 2D, letting mind to construct the volume, exploiting the information that can be shown in a drawing. A map, a mood, and design information all in one, a pure utility if you will, which I thought can be investigated further by the contemporary practitioners.


Dawn Carlton, MONTANA STATE UNIVERSITY, STUDENT, HAND

Another jury selected a beautifully executed watercolor painting of a church and with that we were reminded that no matter how the processes change there is always the human eye, which triggers the desire of beauty we fall back to...

Richie Gelles, RICE UNIVERSITY, STUDENT, DIGITAL/MIXED

There was yet another jurist selection which was depicted on an x-ray film of a hand. I thought ultimately suggesting biological surface of our imagination, a forensic depth of things at play in the process.

KRob website