The Layout Process of Buildings on the Land – Visualization at Full Scale on Site

Each act of building needs to have a positive effect on its surroundings; to complete them, preserve their structure, make them better, by creating strong centers in them and next to them. Each new building is more alive when it fits into its context, makes the larger area more profound, enlarges it in spirit. Each building, especially in its siting, its location, its volumes, and in the outdoor spaces they create, will be shaped to protect its neighbor buildings, to extend pedestrian canopies, to improve the space in adjacent streets in conjunction with other nearby buildings. The effect is that each building enlivens and intensifies the land. The way to start is to be on the land, on the actual ground of the building site, study it and understand its latent centers. The actual process of locating and sizing the volumes of a building and its outdoor spaces, might differ from case to case depending on the particularities of each case, but the only way to do it properly and extend the real benefits beyond the limits of the project site to its surroundings, is to visualize the building while being on the actual site and to stake out on the land all building edges and all important exterior centers, step by step, always with reference to the surroundings. Going back and forth between the the land and a work model at 1:200 scale, which shows the contours of the land, roads, surrounding buildings and trees, is a way to view and assess the results by replicating the stake out on the model with small paper models of the building volumes. It provides additonal insights, since it enables an easier perception of the whole. .