Episode VI: Return of the Architects

Stirling-Falls-Milford-Sound

For this project I chose buildings by two of my favorite architects Frank Gehry and Thom Mayne and put them into a natural environment in the style of Frank Lloyd Wright.Ā I hate modern architecture with it’s tall boring rectangles for buildings and these two fulfill what I imagined to be the future of architecture as a child.

One of Wright’s most famous buildingsĀ FallingwaterĀ incorporates a building into a waterfall, Ā  which explains my choice of a waterfall background.

Now for the inner workings!

When I put this together it reminded me of a futuristic lost city (something like the Atlantis of the year 3000).Ā I was thinking of adding a ship coming in from the cartoon movie Atlantis the Lost Empire but it didn’t fit the pictures futuristic look. Thinking of futuristic vehicles it didn’t take long for my to choose to incorporate the Millennium Falcon into the collage. Luckily for me, while searching for a photo of it I came across an already made transparent saving me some time.

I used Photoshop CS5 to make the image. Most of the time was spent taking the backgrounds out of the building photos and it was pretty much smooth sailing from there. I arranged the layers flattened the image and voila! Ā I’d originally planned to have the Millennium Falcon flying in from the top but the bottom right corner was way too empty. That choice was made purely for aesthetics. I know it’s not a submarine.

 

Sources of the pictures used:

Sterling Falls in Milford Sound, New Zealand

Thom Mayne’s Cooper Union building at 41 Cooper Square

Frank Gehry’s Fisher Center at Bard College

And

Han Solo’sĀ TheĀ MillenniumĀ Falcon

Imaginary Places

Hogsmeade, Gondor, Cair Paravel, The Emerald City, Never-Never Land… all fantastical places that started as text and have now been interpreted into visual landscapes. Now it’s your turn!

Take a place–a city, a significant geographical formation, ship, maybe even a dimension–and render it visually. You can compile stock images using GIMP or Photoshop (make sure to give credit where it’s due!), draw, paint, or even create a collage. This assignment isn’t limited to places that don’t have a well-known visual representation yet, either; if you want to show us YOUR version of Bag End, go for it!

For your writeup, explain why you chose your imaginary place, the technique you used to create your image, and what effect the transition into a visual medium has on the original description.