MJ | Architecture
Methods of Documentation and Measured Drawings
In this new practicum, the subject develops an understanding of the principles of building preservation/conservation and the methods of recording. The ideas of application and management of architectural historic documentation will be presented as part of the overall knowledge of building preservation/conservation. As such, in large group of 27 people, my group was to document the Balairung Seri of The Royal Museum of Malaysia which was once the national palace. Briefly, the Balairung Seri is an annexe building of the museum which was once used as a hall for royal ceremonies, similar to a coronation room of an English palace.
The documentation started off from the very scratch: measuring the building. At the start, we were given a week to measure the entire building and even spot every detail and damage on the building. This was the basis to our future steps in documenting the building. Throughout the week, we were even tasked to produce a sketchbook journal about building. A sketchbook that tells a story about the spirit of the place, the specialty of it and even the culture of the building itself.
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The project continued on with a video documentation of the site visit, explaining the experience within the building and describing about the building's architectural styles, specialties and much more. The video produced by our group explains about the identity of the building, mainly targeting the architectural style of the building and the function of it. It even includes footages of the intricate details that are found throughout the ornate building.
The main and final part of documenting the building is to prepare a detail report, computer-aided drawings and a scaled model of the building which shows more than sufficient clarity on the building and details of it. Our group were split into different delegated tasks and as for me, I was mainly in-charged of the computer aided drawings. Although we are split up into different sub groups, we still carry out our work as an all rounder, being involved in parts from the drawings to the model making. Our team went all out in every part we could. We even added on a photobook to document the vivid details of the building and the surrounding views as well. For over the span of 8 weeks, our group has managed to produce an interesting work on all parts. (Do click on the following images to link to their proper files)
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Every part has its own difficulty. The models were very intricate and fragile, putting us in extreme care of each piece as we planned to have an exploded view of the model, highlighting every part of the building. The drawings were facing problems with measurements that are not tallied and odd line weights while the report had a lot of info to put into order for the clarity of the reader. All in all, problems kept arising but we beat them as a team.
It was a great experience, as the difficulty was raised to another level but with a great team and lecturers that guided us very well, we managed to produce the best that we could. Enjoy the process of the model assembly, cheers.