Khalid Tawil

Khalid Tawil

My sketch was done as if I was a cartography making a map of the city. My focus was not on how individual buildings appeared but rather how locations related to each other spatially. After finishing my sketch, I took a look at an actual map to find a glaring error in my sketch staring at me: the size of Harvard Yard. I had completely underestimated the size of the yard, making it about a fourth of its actual size. Another error, although unexpected, was my map’s orientation. I had always thought of Harvard Yard’s square shape to be representative of the cardinal directions, but apparently the Yard’s top right corner points at an angle of 25o from North.

It"looks"I"included"all"the"buildings"I"know"about"correctly."On"some"lots"with"tall"
structures"I"actually"drew"3d"towers"because"they"were"so"vital"in"my"perception"of"the"place."
There"is"also"the"weird"phenomenon"of"lots"getting"larger"and"larger"the"farther"away"from"the"
Yard"they"got."This"really"highlights"how"I"make"the"places"I"care"about"larger"than"they"actually."
Although"the"Yard"is"important,"to"me,"to"much"more"goes"on"in"Harvard’s"houses,"which"is"why"
I"imagined"them"to"be"bigger."Then"again,"when"I"think"of"campus,"I"picture"the"Yard"as"its"
center"so"I"started"with"that"and"drew"outwards,"so"its"possible"that"everything"else"grew"larger"
because"I"started"out"with"a"Yard"that"was"too"small."