A Visual Framework, or How to Arrange Graphic Targets that Answer Architectural Concerns

In this study, I address how graphic objectives, in an architectural drawing course, can be visualised from the moment students start to acquire certain digital representation skills and a minimum level of fluency in speculating on what they wish to communicate. Thus, the main contribution of this work is a method for comparing the results based on interpreting pairs of opposing concepts, for example, in procedural questions such as “colour used real/colour used not real”. This method adopts Osgood’s semantic differential technique to collect the evaluator’s opinion. Subsequently, three categories are selected and converted into axes in a Cartesian topological space. I show how the Osgood’s technique is applied in three cases: an architectural work by Rogelio Salmona; another by the Oopeaa studio; and another by Patiño and Peña. The procedure ends up with a final graphic for a group of ten works (the 3D map, a visual framework), and reveals whether the drawing course objectives follow any trend or whether the proposed meta-image system can extrapolated to other graphic production domains.