A drawing of the Yale Art & Architecture Building, Rudolph Hall, by Winston Yuen and Christopher Tritt of Yale University—a distinguished entry in Architizer’s One Drawing Challenge.
Architizer claims it’s about helping architects connect with the right building products—but it’s grown to offer so much more, like this design competition: the 2019 One Drawing Challenge. It opened with the following description of the current architectural media environment:
Thanks to social media, more people than ever now consume architecture every day through their feeds. However, their attention is fleeting — with millions of architectural ideas flowing across the web, each designer has just a brief moment to make an impact. This means one image or drawing needs to possess the power to tell a whole story on its own, in seconds. For any designer, producing a viral drawing might just kickstart their career.
To which they then posed this goal:
So, the One Drawing Challenge is laid down: Can you create a single drawing that tells the story behind a complex piece of architecture?
To which they’ve just announced the results:
Reviewing a stellar shortlist of 100 architectural drawings and their stories, our esteemed jury have selected 2 top winners — one student and one non-student entry — along with 10 fantastic runners-up.
The standard of the entries was incredibly high, with an array of techniques and formats used to bring architectural stories to life. Many of the judges praised the participants for breaking from convention to explore new ideas, encouraging us to rethink the way we communicate our ideas through both images and words.
Architect and One Drawing Challenge juror Chris Precht remarked: “In times where the International style is uniforming cities world-wide, architecture needs competitions like this to think, dream, criticize and inspire. Whether through collages, computers, pencils or stencils, everyone presented their stories in their own way, far off from the usually glossy and perfect CGI of our industry. That offered a very personal look into the mind of creatives.”
We can report that the ones they’ve chosen are quite amazing—and we’re delighted that a “Commended Entry” (one of the runners-up) focuses on Paul Rudolph’s most famous commission: the Yale Art & Architecture Building (renamed, in his honor, “Rudolph Hall”.)
The drawing—a colorful isometric, partial cut-away view of the building, is by Winston Yuen and Christopher Tritt (of Yale University), and they title it:
“Health Hazards of the Yale School of Architecture”
In explanation, here’s what they have to say:
The brutal and stoic piers of Rudolph Hall belie the mayhem contained within. Even a single year within Rudolph’s grasp is a hazard, and three years can be nearly fatal. This drawing endeavors to map out the most common pitfalls: from review anxiety to carpet burn, from resin fumes to broken dreams.
Through the convention of a cut-away axon, this drawing shows all of the activities of Rudolph Hall simultaneously. This format emphasizes the many overlapping stimulations, passions, and ambitions of the occupants. The parallel projection emphasizes each narrative evenly, allowing the viewer’s attention to slide from one hazard to the next, inviting the viewer to piece together a feeling of the holistic chaos of a year at the Yale School of Architecture.
Maybe the “health hazard” part or their title overstates things a bit?—or maybe it’s just that the way they define a “hazard” is rather broad—and even includes some things for which Rudolph (and his building) could not possibly have been responsible.
Perhaps any place could be hazardous—even an architecture school—if you get in the way of someone playing darts with dagger-sharp pointed scissors.
Or maybe “broken dreams” refers to the emotional hazard of being in front of a jury (as shown above)— a potentially harrowing experience, with which any design student can identify!
With all the [alleged] hazards, Rudolph Hall still seems like a wonderful place to be—vital and colorful, as Paul Rudolph intended—as depicted above in a detail from the drawing, taken at the central heart of the building.
Of course, we’re happy to see that a Paul Rudolph himself shows up—at least in the form of what is perhaps his most famous drawing: his section-perspective through the Yale A&A Building. Here it is shown in the background of a vigorous badminton game. Badminton in Rudolph Hall? That’s not just the renderer’s imagination—it’s actually happening!
We commend these two designer-visualizers—Winston Yuen and Christopher Tritt—for this delightful work—and look forward to their future creations.