The Capital of Brazil-Brasilia lies in a Plateau. The central city is linkened to a flying bird.

The corner stone of the cathedral was laid on 12 Sep, 1958, This is an expression of geniality by the architect Oscar Neymeyer.

The Cathedral is viewd with the composition of other buildings around such as the twin adminstration towers, the white dome and the concrete bowl.

This neighborhood is in the centre of the business district with collection of office/business building, residential block, other public structures. Easily connected by the metro and ease of use of private transportation.

The city of Caracas is nestled in a valley. 23 De Enero is mostly a mixed use neighborhood. The church in this neighborhood is unlike other churches with its heightened structure making an analogy to people rising to heaven on steps.

The neighborhood is very accessible by public transporttion with the metro. There are educational institution as well as publich service buildings which render the neighborhood with its uniqueness.

The Mosque is being developed as a commitment to vreate intergated communities. It was donated to KAEC as a foundation for modernization. Other aspects in the Bay La Sun vaillage include retail stores, hospitals, offices and so on.

The Mosque being a place of gathering, also serves as a community center similar to the church in Caracas and the Cathedral in Brasilia

A zero carbon, zero waste city. An initiative toward alternate energy ues and sustainability.

The 1.25M square foot, 7 story commercial building is based on zero carbon emmission. The world's first large scale mixed use energy building will produce more energy than it consumes.

In addition to being Masdar's headquarters. it will offer commercial spaces and other business also.

This is another civic space for peop of Masdar.

This is the study that students used the graphic diagrams to present their daily commute. The graphic should be easy to be read, understandable, fun and pretty. The aesthetic performance should be address and the color composition should be well- considered. The following is the comments.

Huttel:• It shows basic comminuting information but

the geographical relationship is not clear.• The overall graphic composition is balanced.

The idea of presenting “walking across the street” by text is interesting, and it also becomes a frame of this graphic.

Hun Shen:• The frame is not meaningful in this graphic,

especially the vertical line. Is the color implying the green belt between blocks? That dividing text line may imply the street block, but does not connect to real situation.

• The geographical relationship of student a c c o m m o d a t i o n a n d C r o w n H a l l i s misleading.

• c . T h e co m p a s s i s n o t i n a co m m o n proportion and difficult to be read.

Black & White:• Using”fast-medium-slow” to display the

traffic is nice. If it can be emphasized by text size or density, the graphic would be more powerful.

• The music bar becomes one of prominent sign, is there any special reason? How does this bar relate to other spot on map?

• The relationship between home-park, Dearborn-1885 is not clear.

• Some upper words in black back ground cannot be read clearly.

• The purposes of “pr inter row ” and “change…history” between 26th and Cermak street are not easy to understand.

• The comminuting tool doesn’t show.

Direction Mapping

Walking and cycling• Those irregular vertical texts trying to express

the speed between walking and cycling does not work well.

• Different text height makes the whole graphic too busy and cannot read logical relationship among them.

• M o n o c h r o m e p r e s e n t i n g s h o u l d b e considered. Too many pointless color usually distract readers’ attention. Minimum color usage may work better.

There is a common flaw among every picture- pointless lines/colors/change. In every graphic design, form, size, repetition, colors imply the information abstractly, so that every object should be considered carefully. Arbitrary variation draws attention from people easily, however, it also disturbs or loses the main purpose- delivering the information. Unnecessary design should be cut out.

The importance of Diagramming

Why do we need good diagrams? A good diagram can help people receive the information easily, especially for those who do not understand the local language. In the airport, famous travel spots, tourists can get the essential information even though they are not able to read words on the board. Besides, by good diagramming, multiple ideas can be delivered at once. It takes less time for people to understand the essential concept in a minute rather than reading word by word. Good graphics not only assists people to communicate easily but also gradually become a common ideology.

What is a good diagram? Since the diagrams should be designed for every kind of people to understand. The simpler is better. So that everybody can have image in the first quick shot. Straight forward geometry would be great. The principle from Mies’ saying, “less is more” tells us the good idea does not rely on the complexity. A good diagram should cut off any unnecessary detail or disturbing color, then its main function- delivering the information, can work efficiently.

Besides, diagramming should follow the common sense. The metaphor approaches should

adhere to the conventional rules. For example, green color never implies water relative subjects. And the northern side is usually toward up except in special situations. Red usually presents as an important objects, and so on.

Furthermore, the consistency is very important in series diagrams. In order not to make reader confused, repetitive information should be address by small icons. One color should not be used twice; similar colors also need to be avoided. If an object would be present repeatedly, its sign supposed to be always the same.

The last but also the hardest is aesthetics. There are various standard to judge what the beauty is. But some common basic principle still works everywhere. One of them is complementary colors. Usually only in avant-garde or post-modern color composition would be discarded; however, it works well for special condition such as protest. Conventional color presentation is always easily accepted. Another essential principle is keeping enough space on the margins or among pictures so that the graphics can “breathe”. Busy arrangement is not only confusing but makes the whole graphic very messy.

For architecture students Modern architecture projects become more and more complex than ever. Mixed-use, high-rise building, large scale projects are common practice. Designers should realize the historical background, research local climate and environment, study the site context, and amount of information about the program and codes. Sometimes they are related to serious social and environment-concerned issues. How does knowledge combine together? In order to work efficiently, collecting information and representing it to the clients and city are very essential skills. From mapping/representing process, it also helps designers find a possible clue to figure out an interesting concept. In competition, it can display a logical understanding of project to persuade juries. Even in academic research, like history or technology, to re-present data graphically can explain the idea very easily and effectively. Architecture is not just a profession that builds plain volume for people to use. It requires the aesthetic performance. By mapping good diagram, architectural students can sharp their eyes and tastes to apply their aesthetic training to the real building one day.