Transcribing Texture/ Lardeur, Zhang & Takeno

Rebecca Lardeur, Hua Zhang & Eriko Takeno

Texture in WC ground floor

What

We created a map of the textures found on the ground floor of the White City RCA building. We have captured those textures using paper and pencils. Since the process includes three dimension qualities, it allows us to feel the atmosphere of the building through visual, sound and tactility perceptions.

Through this process we hoped that by creating a map that only visualised texture and ripped out other assets (modes) may make accessible a new way of grasping the personality and emotions of a space and thus spring new opportunities for understanding it.

Why

The brief was to create a map of the ground floor in WC regarding one mode – as a group we picked texture. We chose to represent the texture with paper and pencils as tools to communicate our findings. The question for us was ‘Which texture is particular to each room within the ground floor?’

However, during our process, we also found new questions: ‘What is the difference between texture and shape?’ For instance, typefaces on window, metal at the entrance, the back of a chair.

Another was ‘What is the role of haptic feedback within the architecture environment?’ As textures in architecture are traditionally oriented towards the function rather than the haptic feeling, and of course, to create the atmosphere, rethinking about White City (WC) campus in terms of texture as a subjective matter related to touch brought new perspectives.

How

To visualise texture with the class without ripping apart furniture or floor, we placed white paper on the top of the texture and rubbed the pencil onto the surface. We noticed a specific noise to each texture. We attempted to look for the ones which seemed particular with an obvious three-dimensionality in them, and didn’t replicate the textures present in each rooms.

We found that WC uses similar textures in the building, having properties which are flat and smooth. If we had rubbed the similar textures as well during the process, it would have achieved a more precise data collection on WC’s ground floor.