La acuarela en los procesos de ideación arquitectónica

Abstract

Watercolor technique has always been a faithful allied of the architect’s graphic production, basically in these two main phases: as a sketching technique to perceive the environment, and as a rendering technique for representing the finished architecture. In addition, the watercolor also appears in some contemporary authors as one of the initial phases within the process of the project’s ideation. Those are the cases of Steven Holl or RCR Arquitectes. The aim of this paper is to analyze the use of the watercolor techniques at the first stages of the project. We’ll study, through several particular samples of recent authors, the expressive and descriptive possibilities of watercolor at this first level, the advantages that it offers and the technical features of its performance. Watercolor holds the values of immediacy and spontaneity as defenders of initial idea’s adequacy. Besides, its expressive character allows us to walk through ambiguity and suggestion, both basic components of the graphic thinking processes that are involved in the graphic ideation.