Bi-tonal Architectural Narratives: Design Expressions in Manga

Bi-tonal, or black and white architectural renderings are a common medium to present an architectural design that goes beyond factual representations of dimensions of length, width and height, materials, structure or technical details. They aim to engage their audience with visual aspects as well as emotional reactions. An architectural presentation that is based on a story-telling approach, akin to comic or manga style, adds intangible expressions, which allows communicating key elements as well as concepts, development and overall aspects of a design easily to laypersons and professional alike. This paper presents how designers develop a narrative of their architectural proposals using a bi-tonal visualization and story-telling methodology that communicates design to a wider audience.