Fall 2026
University of Virginia | Foundation Studio I
Foundation Studio I is an exploration of systems as they take shape within in a pre-existing work of art. Students were given individual paintings to draw, materialize, and understand through different translations, and eventually land on a spatial system that can be utilized at multiple scales: the Wall, the Room, and lastly the Building.
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After receiving the mixed media piece, A Crack Between the Floorboards (2014) by Mark Bradford, a series of diagrammatic studies (below) were created to understand its spatial organization, material selection, and compositional qualities.
Please use the link below to visit Mark Bradford's piece, on display now at the MET!
The hand-drawn studies (above) translate into physical models (below) that aim to display the original artwork's system in a three-dimensional expression. Cardboard was selected as the material for translation because of its layered quality and ability to 'break down', similar to Bradford's process of sanding down the layers within his own piece.
A study of Intersections
A study of Folding
A study of Material and Void Alignments
A study of Bounding, Spatial Distinction
A second sequence of translations occur between the cardboard modeling and another round of graphite drawings. The studies to the left illustrate section cuts through the cardboard models above to understand themes of material intersections, relationships, and spatial enclosure.
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The drawings that followed (pictured below) utilize a set of grid lines derived from the studies to the left. The aim of the final collection of sections and a plan is to visualize Bradford's translated system at different scales and densities within one composition.
Long Section
Plan
Short Section
One final translation between drawing to modeling occurs here where the model emphasizes a build-up and break down of cardboard walls and planes as they attempt to enclose space in three dimensions. The resulting model portrays a material manipulation and a range of spatial densities, inspired by Mark Bradford's piece.
The above drawing-to-model translations display a sequence of design interventions, focused on refining the spatial systems of Crack Between the Floorboards by Mark Bradford, which are utilized in the following exercise of reimagining the Wall - an element of architecture, used to mediate interior versus exterior through a range of ways.
