Essay

How do you design the peak of your building? That moment when your building meets the sky? When it reaches the sky, what perspective do passer-bys experience? Are they awed? Do they look again? Or are they just upset because they strained their neck for nothing?

Looking Up at Your Design, From the Drawing Board

It might be interesting as an architect to consciously design so approaching occupants look up at a certain moment. Perhaps what you do with the sky becomes equally as important as what you do with the ground.

To help illustrate this point is Lisa Rienemann. She actually created a font (see it here) by taking photographs of buildings as they pierce the sky. Looking up, she found that exact moment where buildings cluster to form shapes which she photographed as letters — creating her own unique type-face.

Rienemann’s work spread virally last week. I think this is because she is doing something that most people take for granted. Looking up seems so obvious, yet so few really do it and actually “see”.

There is a lot of beauty that can be created with architecture — in the sky. So, what do you write in the sky with your buildings?

Image Credit: © Wolfgang Staudt | Flickr