Collecting Urban Memory: Discussions on design

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Contents

00 Introduction - p01

01 Pre-Programming : The Psychology of Drawing - p02-03Learning on the other side of drawing

02 These Things Around Me : Observations, Drawings and Concepts - p08-11 Looking at how our acts preceed and our drawimgs proceed us

03 Notions of Place : Understanding Context and Scale - p12-13Analysing image in relation to place

04 Inheritance : Inherited Memory - p14-15Exploring self percepyion and the past

05 Mapping : My Urban Memories - p16-17 + addendumDrawing memory maps in relation to dwelling and my perception of home

06 Evolution of the Imagination : Creative Leaps - p18-19Looking to intuitive progression

07 Digital and Analogue : The Value of Process - p20-21The development of digital and analogue process - understanding their worth

08 Materiality : The Weight of Things - p22-23Understanding the importance of materials to inform a haptic response through architecture

09 Personal : Design Ethos - p24-25Formulation of a personal design ethos-using lessons learnt from education and this essay

Implementation Through Practice - p26-27Developing a submersive studio

10 Image Index - p28

The Finnish sculptor Kain Tapper chiselling a wood sculpture, 1998 Image 01

" In following his instinct towards a successful survival man seeks harmony.

He seeks an adjustment between his life and the conditions that surround him,

which finding he celebrates with art, never losing at any point

the vital connnection between hand and mind."

Maxwell Fry : Art in a Machine Age p26

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00 Introduction

This Discourse represents a collection of views, interpretations and discussions on the process of design; in relation to

architecture as a retrospective and self referential experience of our surroundings and of 'being' in the world.

They commit to formulte a personal design ethos, learning from a mixture of; taught education, practiced skill and the

embodied experience of that which we see and feel. We look into the duality of the physical and cognitive sides of

drawing and making, as well as understanding the purity that can be derived; in relation to our initial concepts as

architects. This derivation occuring from the simplistic tool of observation.

The things around us play an extraordinary part in our lives, even those to which we disregard in their abundance. It is

from such things that our understanding of character and individuality become shared through the act of living, and

from which our relation to culture becomes adhesive.

We discuss our perception of `places` and the ways in which we can extract and distill the 'useful' when understanding

the differing variables of context and scale. These `places 'are contrived through our physical act of experiencing; aswell as that to which i coign the term (inherited memories).

In discussion five, we look at the possibility of learning through the synergy of drawing from memory (through a

cognitive mapping exercise) and the added values that dominant thoughts can have upon memory and the design

process. When understanding these occurances in connection to the imagination, and to that of which we term the

'creative leap' or 'eureka moment'. Within the design process one can begin to assure with the architecture of the self,

and In turn enable the sensitivity of a response shared between; architect, process and a constructed reality.

In current times we look to understanding the tools in which we use to create these 'constructed realities ' Image 01

and to what ends the tools themselves inform the design process; as well as the representative outcome of a project.

Should we look to the collaboration of the digital and the analogue for an understanding of the moments and intensities

of how, where and when to implement them as tools of making. Or let them evolve in parallel?

In understanding Process and Factitious beauty we understand aesthetic and the virtual, yet a greater broadening of

understanding 'the real', perhaps lies in the haptic and the responsive world of materials. We look to the weight ofthings to rekindle a knowledge of craft and art. But to superceed such understanding through the amalgamation of the

scientific epoch and architecure, begins to question the future direction of architectural academia and its resultantcy.

If our attachment to the design process occurs through these many different methodologies, then which ones become

dominant? And to what avail? How can the seeds of a lecture, learnt skill, and imagination, further the world of

architectural design? Perhaps through the implementation of testing new regimes throughout practice and theory,

work and education.

In discussion nine, with the creation of a design ethos it becomes evident that understanding ones direction and

erudition, proclaims aspirations for the construction of new concepts and drivers; of our urban environments and

architectural landscape.

The text concludes with a statement of design intent, and attempts to predict a strategy of implementation through an

Architecture & design Practice, a practice that i continually direct myself toward the creation of.

Clothing pegs hold sheet music, a new use for the everyday Image 02

" A creative person is one who can process in new ways the information direct at hand – the

ordinary sensory data available to all of us. A writer needs words, a musician needs notes,

an artist needs visual perceptions, and all need some knowledge of their crafts.

But a creative individual intuitively sees possibilities for transforming ordinary data

into a new creation, transcendent over the mere raw materials."

Betty Edwards : Drawing on the right side of the brain p26

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01 Pre-Programming : The Psychology of Drawing

For as long as i can remember, and perhaps a bit before, I have always been fascinated by drawing. My

Bedroom walls have been stuccoed with paintings and drawings since i was an infant, sketchbooks stacked

in our attic in school boxes of my youth and portfolios filled to breaking. I believe it to have been this

continued fascination with drawing that has led me to this point in my architectural education. For drawing

is essentially the most palpable method of communication and interpretation Image 02 that an architect or

designer has at their disposal. Through interpreting the psychological aspects of drawing, one determines

an analysis of understanding our own physicality in relation to an inherited symbolic and mimetic

language, a learnt language of 'seeing'. Experiencing the world both visually and haptically and relating to

the spatiality of the environments to which we engage. Through this notion of seeing, we can perhaps

influence our methodolgy of design to assume a greater level of insight and control; in relating to a

humanistic responsivity. It is this that i find exciting when applicable to the development of an intuitive

response to the idiom of Architectural, Urban, and Detail design.

In her 1979 book; Drawing on the right hand side of the brain, Betty Edwards discusses methods of which

to unlock ones way of seeing the world, through a series of drawing tasks and educational psychology.

Using an understanding of the duality between the left and right sides of the brain. Image 03 denotes her

theorem in the comparison of the left to right side of the brain, and the qualities inherent within each.

Edwards designates an L mode and an R mode using the font, or symbol, to denote the character of each

side of the brain. The L is essentially the rational side that controls the right side of the body, whereas the R

is the empiricist side that controls the left hand side of the body.

"By these two images I mean to designate the two different modes of consciousness in which one type or

the other of information processing styles seems to predominate. In all kinds of activities, the brain uses

both hemispheres, perhaps at times with the halves alternating in "leading," perhaps at times each carrying

an equal share of a task." Betty Edwards : Drawing on the right side of the brain, p38

The idea of a mode of rationalism and empiricism acting as an alternating current through the mind,

helping share the complexities of a task. A task that could be dominated in certain respects by a direct

current of one mode, becomes quite evident in the design process ,as we will later see. Edwards states that

to enable the mind to 'see' and essentially draw, realistically we need to switch from the left to the right

mode. From rationalised thought to notions of the empirical, only then can occur -

"a slightly altered subjective state in which the right hemisphere 'leads.. artists speak of a close connection

with the work, a sense of timelessness, difficulty in using words..a feeling of confidence and a lack of

anxiety, a sense of close attention to shapes and spaces and forms that remain nameless." Betty Edwards : Drawing on the right side of the brain, p46

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The connection fuses with the drawing ; and a purer understanding of the reality that is being observed

becomes apparent.

Image 04 pictures the directness of the shift , within only a couple of months the ability of refined

perception is evident.

This tool allows the student (who has been practicing this cognitive shifting) to 'see' the subject with a

geater coherence and depth. As well as to represent an outcome, far greater than someone practicing a

repetitive learning process, within the same time scale.

A comparison of cognitive sides Image 03

Development of 2 students after using the R mode shifting technique Image 04

Attuning the mind to the artistic part of the brain allows essentially, the refinement of direct observational

study. Is it possible therefore to use this exponential re-learning through observation, to develop our own

observational abilities as architects and students; to apply to our understanding of (context and spatiality)

when planting the seeds of a concept for the proposed project or intervention?

The concept becomes revealed through a mixture of registering our surroundings, of programmed symbolic

memory and of intellectualised thought. Drawing becomes a way of expressing this.

A woman uses her finger as a bookmark whilst waiting for a train Image 05

" Some actions.. such as warming hands on a hot mug or stroking velvet,

draw on experiences so deeply embodied that they are almost unconscious..

Observing such everyday interactions reveals subtle details

about how we relate to the designed and natural world.

This is key information and inspiration for design,

and a good starting point for any creative initiative.."

Jane Fulton Suri : Thoughtless Acts preface

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02 These Things Around Me : Observations, Drawings and Concepts

As we have understood from the previous discussion, the conscious process of shifting ones mind to an

empiricist form of thinking can help to unveil a greater understanding of direct observation. Direct

observation succumbs to an endearing quality in the inception of creating something necessary. Through

the observance of people, places and things, we begin to correlate to their tacit, applauding their peculiar

environments and their specificities.

As a personal view, the power and embodiment of actual space, of being in the world, is the primary

generator of response and understanding to any concept . Far better to walk the streets and alleyways of a

town or city and the valleys and stiles of landscape, than to persistantly analyse the topography, terrain,

networks, infrastructure & the movement paths of ants. Although these latter do in turn have their

placement in respect to design.

I am trying to suggest; that beyond the extensive mapping and analytical tools that we consistently use as

designers, (to understand and justify certain facts or assumptions) the knowledge of perceptive mapping

learned from experiencing the physicality of our environments becomes far more valuable when designing

for a humanistic response to architecture - An architecture that is empassioned and is thus a part of our

inherited memory.

"When we dream of cities we dream of teeming and amorphous emotions, of powerful currents force fields

and dark eddies, not of plans grids or clear sightlines." Ken Worpole : Here comes the sun p22 r

However, mapping and tools of analysis are essentially the rationalised form of observation, and thus have

their position, but to clarify this, as secondary or subordinate to the former. For understanding that they

are valid at certain points during a process. As well as providing a constant rational base with which to

return, mapping provides a testing ground for a project; essentially differentiating the tangible, rational

facts from the interpretive, underlying forces. The amorphous emotions, from the plans and grids.

In her 2005 book thoughtless acts? Jane Fulton Suri- head of human factors design at IDEO, one of the

most famous design and innovation consultancies in the world. Discusses The way in which IDEO as a

company uses observation as such a generating tool.

"Observation can sharpen our awareness of how people respond to particular arrangements and elements;

we notice what people already do intuitively. And that helps us make better predictions about how people

will perceive and interpret the things we design so we can better elicit the kind of response we intend." Jane Fulton Suri : Thoughtless Acts p171

IDEO's design approach, interprets an understanding of the user, and roots in human activity. Image 05

I believe this to be intrinsic when conceptualising an architectural situation. She discusses that it-

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"demands a high degree of sensitivity about what people are actually trying to do and what they enjoy.

Redefining the design problem this way can lead to new and better ideas." Jane Fulton Suri : Thoughtless Acts p169

Observation creates the primary driver in a project, this then progresses to a discussion of a second pool ofdesign approach – drawing.

As we have seen already in discussion 01, the psychology of drawing can help to inform our observational

skill, so perhaps this skill can be used to inform a design pathway? - A pathway of drawing as process.

Drawing for me in its purest sense, takes on a modal transfer of our earlier concept of rational andempirical mental states. The pace of the slow and the quick drawing, the laboured and the impulsive, the

loved and the disposable. We see directly in architecture and design, the schism between the two, as the

mind dominates between modes. The hand becomes an extension of the mind and its bodily function, and

we see shades, scribbles and ghosts, or edited, clean and registered lines; as an expression of the visual

concept within our thoughts. Through drawing as a process we calculate and converge our initial intuition

into a validated and tangible reality. We see the drawing from the architect, and the architect through the

drawing.

The key to utilising these tools and abilities perhaps lie in the timing of their use, allowing a harmony from

contradiction.

In Juhani Pallasmaa's 2009 text The thinking hand: Existential and embodied wisdom in architecture

Pallasmaa discusses the role of the hand in relation to the mind. When talking of Alto, he converses of

"..indicating the seminal role of the absent-minded hand and its seemingly unconcious and aimless play in

sketching." Juhani Pallasmaa :The thinking hand, Existential and embodied wisdom in architecture p73

We denote sketching as the (fast drawing) the impulse, the empirical part of the mind.

Pallasmaa quotes Alto in relation to the creative process - " This is what I do - sometimes quite instinctively.

I forget the whole maze of problems for a while, as soon as the feel of the assignment and the innumerable

demands it involves have sunk into my subcosciousness. I then move on to a method of working that is very

much like abstract art. I simply draw by instinct, not architectural synthesis, but what are sometimes quite

childlike compositions, and in this way, on an abstract basis, the main idea gradually takes shape, a kind of

universal substance that helps me to bring the numerous contradictory components into harmony." Alvar Aalto In his own words p108

Alto talks of 'childlike compositions' and of a 'universal substance' it is these i believe to be signs of what

we later discuss as an Inherited memory.

In Image 06 we see this suggestion of composition in the loose style of artist Oliver Zwink, in his 2000

mixed media drawing Blocks. He creates a vision of aloft and imaginary architecture, through the bold

statements of colour and massing, reverting to a subconscious past and memory of expression.

Oliver Zwink Blocks, 2000 mixed media on tracing paper 29x42cm Image 06

Although the image doesnt necessaarily hold true to perspective or other rationalized assumptions, we

understand the concept through its layering and form, creating the density and weight of something that

borders on the tangible. One can imagine the inhabitation of the form whether possible in reality or not.

Reminiscent somewhat of the street scapes of Tokyo - emitting the density of the Urban environmint.

The sketch conveys what it needs to as a type of instantaneous conversation of the mind. The freedom of

sketching, allows a confidence in its own disposability and thus is essential in the exchange of an

architectural dialect. Although it would be to go out on a limb to suggest that the designer who can sketch

is more conversable than one that cant. Think of it through the simplicity of a design discussion in the

office, or a tutorial in academia, the pen and the paper are essntially omni-present, and are almost certain

to enter the debate.

The understanding of the disposability of drawing, of the failed attempts, enables the sketch to become a

constant adjustment of the process. No need for concern with the quality of the sketch, only that the point

and 'seeing' is clearer. I believe that in understanding this one understands the humility of the designer.

Beauty can be born from the ugly, and this is what i understand to be: the emancipation of the concept.

Emma Stibbon, FuBgangertunnel Siegessaule, 2005, black prepared paper 56.5x41cm Image 07

"Sooner or later in the modern landscape every country road leads to the highway, and all highways

whether we follow them or not, lead to the city."John Brinckerrhoff Jackson, A sense of Place,a Sense of Time: The Drawing Book, p155

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03 Notions of Place : Context and Scale

As we have seen, Drawing as process allows us to bring our designs into a new state of physicality, ensuing

us to creations that gravitate towards a tangible existence; within the actuality of our constructed world.

It is the definition of formulating our concepts and interpretations of that which we have observed, that

which accrues to the birth and identity of an architectural element, within its contextual surrounding.

In Image 07 we see the essence of place. We read the three dominant factors within the composition of the

drawing. 1 - The figure to the bottom left allows us the clue of scale through our understanding of the

human form. In seeing people everyday and studying them; subconciously we estimate their size, and thus

we relate the remaining composition accordingly. 2 - Our judgement of light and shadow allows our

perception of depth, and thus of measuring volume and space. This we see depicted by the light cast across

the hole, where the jagged edge denotes repetition we assosciate it to the symbol of shadow cast by stairs.

3 - The whole is given its position within its surroundings, within its place by the symbolic marking of the

road lines of the highay to the top right. This confirms our assumption that this is indeed the dark pit of a

highway underpass. Thus leads down into the ground. Our inherited emotion responds to this complete

understanding and automatically conjures what we know of the life dangerous occurances of such a place.

This example of understanding place, denotes the core responses of this discourse. All of these things are in

a sense an inherited memory. An evocation of something we have seen or experienced at some point

previously, throughout our life.

Through understanding the few simplistic parts to the drawing, we understand everything needed to relate

to its locality, emotion and idiom of place. These kinds of atmospheric drawings convey the feelings of a

place at a considered moment in time. It is these tools that are used to maximum effect in the

representation of; what an architecture can be. The greater the depth of understanding; the emotion of

place, and the memory this creates within the user. Then the greater and more fulfilling the connection

between the architect and a public.

When being propositional the architect must look to consider, these inherent urban qualities of place. -

Finding something that relates more to the sublime, and beyond the analytical - An Understanding of life

within the built environment.

Brinkerrhoff Jackson's analogy, (page opposite) establishes the projection of dwelling and our socio-cultural

futures, in our relationship and progression toward urbanity, the city and the metropolis. As theseconditions manifest themselves, we must use our acquired knowledge of place, to ensure that the publicrealm continues to exist in our future generations; and that this belong's to the world of the real.

If our notion of place becomes submerged to the virtual, we lose in essence - the heart of humanity and

subordinate our senses beyond repair – only to lavish ourselves in insular factitious entertainment.

Early Christmas : Family Photo,1988 Image 08

" A photo taken at one of my first christmas's...It is a common notion that children in

their stages of infancy are like sponges, absorbing the moisture knowledge of the world,

through any means possible. Children want to touch, taste and question everything.

As architects we must endeavour to do the same. As we mature, the sponge never saturates

but becomes heavier with time, weighted with our Inherited memory of existence."

As designers we continually learn;

we learn through skill,

we learn through thought,

and most importantly

We learn through living.

Peter Dagger

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04 Inheritance : Inherited Memory

We have seen already that the mind attempts to dominate the empirical and qualitative inputs that we

observe around us. We know that it attempts to rule and quantify these absorbtions, to store and reproduce

when necessary; enabling the body and mind survival, through the tasks and challenges of everyday life.Through Intellectual mimesis we understand the rules of morality and culture, of copying ones parents as a

child thus creating an inheritance akin to that of language. Whereas Inherited memory opposes this in

direction of existentialiam.and proposes an act of "bodily mimesis". (next referrence)

We as children Image 08 begin to understand the world around us. The child may for example interact with

the christmas tree. However only through the senses. It is interested in the unusual reflection of the

ornaments, a new visual memory, or the texture of the tree; a new haptic memory, or the scent of the pine

needles an ofactory memory. The child however has of yet, no intellectual memory of the tree. It does not

know what the tree symbolises or the assosciations that are connected to it, it is in essence just a newobservation or moment of curiosity. - An inherited memory.

Over time the child will learn these assosciations and symbolise the fact. This is very much the same way as

we develop a learnt symbol base through drawing. And musicians develop finger memory through practice.

The symbol is the rationalization of our response and formatting of the experience.

Pallasmaa discusses that it is almost the reversal of the aforementioned that in turn becomes the essence of

architectural skill.

"knowledge and skill continues to be the core of artistic learning. The foremost skill of the architect is,

likewise, to turn the multi-dimensionl essence of the design task into embodied and lived sensations and

images; eventually the entire personality and body of the designer becomes the site of the design task, and

the task is lived rather than understood, Architectural ideas arise biologically from unconceptualised and

lived existential knowledge rather than from mere analysis and intellect."Juhani Pallasmaa :The thinking hand, Existential and embodied wisdom in architecture p15

This perceived memory, is that of a behaviour before conceptualisation. It is inherited memory, inherited in

the respect that it is absorbed from our existential knowledge of the world in which we live.

"The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from

a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spiders web."Pablo Picasso: The Drawing Book, p202

Picasso talks here poetically of what we should understand as the core considerations of architecture.

We must collect (emotion and memory), things that come to us from the influence of our world. From the

environment, from materials, from drawing, from observation and from nature. We must understand these

in their basic elements, build them up and portray them through Architecture, with the truth and beauty

that we saw in them. From the moment they first touched us.

The Coal Bunker : Family Photo, 1991 Image 09

" A photo taken from my youth age 5? ........I have no recollection of the day, or the activitiy depicted,

but for my entire life, i have always remembered the coal bunker... A somewhat domestic oddity that i have

yet since seen. We would play games of hide and seek for hours, this was always the best spot!"

Peter Dagger

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05 Mapping : My Urban Memories

The convergence of discussions 01- 04 signify the different interpretations that the design process

ultimately involves. We have looked at our psychology of perception, and its relationship to observation

drawing and memory. It is now that one turns to a way of amalgamation with regards to a specific subject.

We look to ways of intellectualising and relating our memories and understanding of the world through

architecture and built form. Therefore where better to direct ones focus than to our earliest understanding

of an urban architectural environment, The domestic dwelling 'house' or family 'home'.

The series of drawings, notation and symbols attached to the Addendum to this discussion, represent

possible explorative techniques to help assist with the reformation and representation of ones inherited

memory, through; drawing and a suggested type of tuning in to ones experiences in relation to place.

We lay the scene, in tmy childhood home - No.49

I use blind continuous drawing in order to visualize the symbols and analogies of the place that were

dominant to me as a child and still continue to be as an adult. As Antony Gormley relates to substances, i

relate to my Inherited Memories.

" For me drawing is a form of thinking. B ut it is also about medium: using the intrinsic qualities of

substances and liquids: a kind of oracular process that requires tuning in to the behaviour of substances as

much as to the behaviour of the unconcious, like reading images in tea leaves, trying to make a map of a

path of feeling, a trajectory of thought." Antony Gormley : The Drawing Book p61

It is as the described 'trajectory of thought' that the mapping is made.

The respected contemporary artist, Rachel Whiteread, discusses her understanding of the relationship of

drawing and memory.

"I retain the drawings as memories. With each drawing I have an ability to recall where i did that drawing

and the circumstances of its making." Rachel Whiteread, in conversation with Tania Kovats, April 2007 : The Drawing Book p193

Whiteread uses her recollection of the making of a drawing and uses this as her memory to understand an

orientation of place. I however use the drawing in its immediacy as a direct translation of my inherited

memory, a memory that is as we see: adherred to the reoccuring symbols of an architectural environment.

EVENT, OBJECT, DOOR, COLOUR, SYMBOL, MATERIAL, ORIENTATION, LIGHT, WINDOW and COMFORT.

The first Drawings conform to a taken empiricist route or pathway whilst the latter drawings convert to my

rationalised analysis of the plan, however, created only by the attachment to the former.

The Evolution of the Qwerty Hand: Digital montage, Peter Dagger 2010 Image 10

"..The extraordinary evolution of the human brain

may well have been a consequence of the evolution of the hand."

Juhani Pallasmaa :The thinking hand, Existential and embodied wisdom in architecture p33

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06 Evolution of the Imagination : Creative Leaps

Through understanding the conversation between memory and representation perhaps we should look to

the evolution of new ways of revealing our urban inherited memory. I look to something that people term

as the Einstein or eureka moment. Something that we in Unit 2 term as the creative leap.

A creative leap, or at least my subjective understanding of it, acts as a suggestion of the intuitive. It cannot

be sourced as a tool throughout the design process but reveals itself at a point in the evolution of a design

task, to what i term; the convergence of information. This is something that occurs at a type of momentary

saturation of the body and mind, and for me; generally at a point of exhaustion of possible outcome. Not in

the sense that an impulsive decision is made due to a lack of understanding or reduction in work rate which

is then post rationalised, but in the sense that the physicality of absorbed knowledge and process in

relation to a design task has become tightly contorted. The creative leap occurs as a type of elastic release

and progressively after allows the elasticity of design impetus to return to a constant normative state of

flux. It is this flux that Kovats relates to Da Vinci.

"Leonardo Da Vinci understood drawing to be 'part of a process which is constantly going on in the artists

mind: instead of fixing the flow of imagination it keeps it in flux.'" Tania Kovats discussing Erika Naginski on Da Vinci :The Drawing Book, p 15

I find this to be inherently true, and my opinion is that the honest progression of a considered full scale

architectural project, although worked through process cannot function without these intrinsic moments.

The release of thought can occur through many mediums. Sometimes when modelling, a piece seems to

create its notion of place with relation to other proposed elements. However I as a student of architecture

find its occurance most commonly through the process of digital and analogue drawing. Image 10

In revealing ones self through the medium, the outcome becomes a symbolic, representational and emotive

exchange; between architect, medium, user and environment.

At this point, a whole project has the ability to be inspired and progressed from a sudden connection, of a

series of; now tangible, elemental thoughts and inherited concrete realities. The project can be found in; the

microcosm of the detail, or material understanding. In the tectonic of structure, the macrocosm of the

topographic pattern or in the inherent relationship of activity and user.

The creative leap can be the assosciation of many of these variables. It is however what I percieve as the

converging synergy between; inherited memory, creative knowldege, learnt skill and intellectualised

thought. It thus justifies the purest moment of design. It is an empirical balance of confidence, humility and

sensitivity within the responsive architect; that determines to take the leap or not. In moving to the

empirical we further our capacity to proceed directly and intuitively. When the creative leap appears we

feel for the next tool. To stimulate the design beyond the normative flux of process, to the next creativeleap.

The dirt of work on a draughtsmans hand: Philip Tidwell Image 11

It is possible to envision a time when there wasn't oil painting (before the fifteenth century), or video art

(before 1964), but drawing seems to have been with us always."

Laura Hoptman:Drawing Now : The Drawing Book p178

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07 Digital and Analogue : The Value of Process

In our current moves of architectural progess, we see a disparagy between academia and practice. As our

working methods and mentalities become ever the more real; through the acualisation of built form when

exchanging academia, with the office and the world of work. We must take our generative skills forward

into the foreground of a consistent architectural debate. Not that of form follows function, but of render

following sketch.

We acknowledge that the digital is both; the now and the future of design vocations and that its

implementation and spread throughout the architectural world has become fully submersive. With almost

all practices fully imbeded in the automation of cad drawings and beyond. The question lies not in whether

this is the correct route to be taking? as already mentioned, but in the way in which we develop the digital

to become as intuitive as the analogue. Image 11 depicts the ephemeral nature of the pen, the

draughtsmans hand's covered in ink but the attention is solely directed to the contact of his nib with the

paper, his representation through process, and his inherited memory; that becomes fed back to him

through the weight of his hand on his pen on the paper. Pallasmaa quotes the philosopher Michel Serres on

the notion of the working hand.

"The hand is no longer a hand when it has taken hold of the hammer, it is the hammer itself."Juhani Pallasmaa :The thinking hand, Existential and embodied wisdom in architecture p48

The deliciousness and grain of the more holistic and sensual ways of; drawing, making and representing

architecture. Is in being concerned with the individuality of mistake. As in discussion 02 and in relation to

Da Vinci earlier. The process resonates with the essence of the individual craftsman.

As previously discussed in relation to drawing and observation, the move to parallel the intuitive, is that

which will reveal a better understanding of design. Perhaps we should look to making the creative leap

within the tools that we use, only this time digitally. Pallasmaa states that "The finest of tools are a result of

a timeless anonymous evolution."(see previous reference ) The digital tools at our current disposal are still

extremely new to the history of the architectural profession, yet in order to compete within todays

architectural job market need to be learnt and need to be accessible, in order to allow fair competition

between large and small practice alike. It is the opportunity for the intuitive step between that which we

already know; the analogue and that which its is vital to ones survival to know; the digital.

Whilst there are a fantastical amount of programs and software today, rarely do they look to the intuitive of

a specific profession. As anyone who has used a graphics tab will tell you of the marked similarity to the

pen over the mouse, yet something is still not quite there. It will be the company and software who

unerstands the intuitive responsivity (with an analogue origin )correctly that corners the market through

software and user interface and thus allows the parrallel amalgamation of the analogue and the digital.

E.g - a freely available developmental 3d design java applet called 'Teddy" is the only software i have seen

that holds the seeds for such an intuitve responsivity. Its possible applications are indeed fascinating.

Koshino House:Tadao Ando/Richard Pare Image 12

" [The sculptor] must strive continually to think of, and use form in its full spatial completeness. He gets the

solid shape, as it were, inside his head – he thinks of it , whatever size, as if he were holding it completely

enclosed in the hollow of his hand. He mentally visualises a complex form from all round itself; he knows

while he looks at one side what the other side is like; he identifies himself with his centre of gravity, its

mass, its weight; he realises its volume, and the space that the shape displaces in the air, "

Henry Moore::Henry Moore on Sculpture p62-64

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08 Materiality : The Weight of Things

Through looking at the inevitable possibilities of digital design, (discussion 07) we understand their role of

importance in creating virtual representations of our design tasks and solutions. But to the contrary, they

still feel somewhat intangible, they still in essence, long to be real. In the discussion of designing with

computers Bryan Lawson suggests the qualities of an artificial reality.

In virtual space, none of the rules of gravity, geometry and time need to apply."Bryan Lawson, How Designers Think, p300

Some would find this liberating, perhaps in the discipline of art, however architecture is entwined with the

laws of physics and thus this would become essentially more problematic - than liberating. In the

realisation of construction; physics assures gravity, and gravity assures the weight of objects within our

world. Why dicscuss physics you may ask ? - In order to understand the intrinsic relationships of our

material reality. Materials are our palette and they come in a variety of colour and hue. In understanding

their density and individual qualities, that to which i term: their idensity. One can begin to 'conduct' and to'paint' with them.

In painting with materials we begin to compose our intuitive and and visual imaginations. Those that we

have perhaps released through drawing? In using materials in such a way, we use them less as a tool, and

more as a means of our, and their own self expression. We can perhaps aspire to moments such as the

sublime elegance of compostion created by Tadao Ando, photographed by Richard Pare in his 2000 edition

The colours of light. Image 12

"Skylight bands and light slots allow sunlight to penetrate into all three volumes, creating delicate light

sculptures on the interior walls." Richard Pare :The Colours of light, p233

We see here a similarity in the compositional arrangements of Emma stibbons earlier drawing of a foot

tunnel Image 07 however through reading the surface texture of the material, we percieve its beauty of

actuality and depth. We read it not through its planar surface, as with a computer render, but through its

indescrepencies of construction. The scarred polished concrete, the fissure between each concrete element,

the mottled ripple of the floor, the bend of photons and the colour of light.

Each material should be used simplistically and its weight understood, in the physical and metaphorical

sense - opposing a montaged pastiche of ornamentation and decoration that undermines its idensity.

It is important to understand materiality in both the haptic and visual sensibility. As "profound architecture

does not merely beutify the settings of dwelling: great buildings articulate the experiences of our very

existence." Juhani Pallasmaa :The thinking hand, Existential and embodied wisdom in architecture p19

Models and prototypes in the Renzo Piano Building Workshop:Fregoso & Basalto Image 13

"Piano has appropriately named his studio 'Renzo Piano Building Workshop' to reflect the idea of

teamwork, and to suggest the long traditions of craftsmen's and artist's workshops since the middle ages

with their intimate relationship between master, apprentice and work."

Juhani Pallasmaa :The thinking hand, Existential and embodied wisdom in architecture p68

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09 Personal : Design Ethos

"The profound creative individual and craftsman approaches each task anew, and this attitude is the

opposite of that of the expert."Juhani Pallasmaa :The thinking hand, Existential and embodied wisdom in architecture p80

As we have seen in the discussions raised in this discourse, The path of design and specifically Architectural

design, Is never directly clear, It acts as a part of a the continuing process of flux. Its Inspiration and

response can reveal itself through; the small and the large, the weight and the medium.

The Ethos below attempts to denote the understanding generated, from this collection of discussions ondesign.

We should as designers endevour topromote the psychologcal development of the theory and tools of

design, in order to allow ourselves, creative evolutions, from understanding our pasts and anticipating our

progressive future. In the development and application of tools of the profession, we must look to honesty

in response to the notions of intuition. Understanding that the rationalisation of such emotions, can be

beneficial and detremental, at certain times of the design process. We must learn which to use and when to

implement them. In undrstanding the things around us, through observation and inheritance, we undrstand

the similarities and disparagies of our individual and collective, intellectual and physical worlds.

We must look towards the collection of these observations to use as the rational rules and parameters for

the peculiarities that make us human, the descrepencies accidents and thoughtless acts of everyday life. We

must use the creative undrstanding of art and its compositions in order to further understand our own

representations of drawing and extended medias.

Our notions of place are those that link and respond to our memories and imagination, and should be

explored through clear and blurred analytical and emotional outlines. The world of the public realm and

connectivity borders; on these intangible states; the moments between emotion and physicality. One must

address this connection through both an individual and collective architectural response.

We must understand memory and its evocation as a tool of mapping; the mind, the body and the self. Uisng

it as the intuitive tool to help release 'acceptions' to the normativity of process, the creative leaps that

bound us forward through our worlds and through architectural meaning. With this in mind we must be

confident and dominant in our opinions yet denote these through a sensitivity akin to materials.

We must embrace the global culture of the digital in order to destroy the junctions apparent and to

parrallel it with the analogue and the crafted. Through understanding the crafted and its inherent idensity

as material we must be truthful in its intentions and reveal - as in thepainting of a new regime in

architectural practice. The collaborative co-operative of design.

Peter Dagger : Visual Practice Structure Image 14

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Implementation Through Practice

The Large majority of English architectural practice, centres around Architecture as a profession in its

solitude. Many practices, collaborate only when needing to with the network of professions shown in

Image 14. For example the practice will 'get onboard' a structural engineer or a planning advisor or a

conservation expert, and Construction contractors create a tender bid etc. However this generally either

occurs, too late in the design process for any serious architectural value to be added, or it is implemented

early but the relationship is weak in its liason between disciplines. This being something i have directly

experienced through my previous 2 years as a part 1 employee.

It leads me to the thinking that the Inhouse or collaborative practice therefore; holds the greater possibility

for design expansion, whilst relationships with external companies are still explored. Construction could

also begin to be laid claim to once more, with a firmer relationship between architect and contractor. The

practice structure opposite depicts this, as well as showing links to other assosciated pratices of design. For

a company to have primary control over each of the disciplines here, could enable the true integration of

the multi-disciplinary co-operative.

Each of the branches would benefit and exchange jobs and contracts throughout their independant

programs.

The creation would essentially be a school of work, If we imagined a design school in such a way, that the

collaborative process became exchangeable between disciplines, you would no doubt realise a greater

connectivity and passion for the individual subjects. This could be implemented in professional practice

through the in house co-operative, enabling photography to interact with architecture and product design,

sculpture to informm construction and vice versa, The creativ e possibility for an experimental playground

becomes viable and accessible. Image 13

Perhaps the construction armature explores material structures through a collaboration with the art

department. The project begins to benefit both parts of the whole, one understand s their tchnology better

and one understands their form better. Yet both recieve financial gain.

We must look to this as a new collaborative and efficient regime of practice, as in our close futures we will

see the demise of the small scale and individual practice beyond anything greater than domestic dwelling

design. As the conglomeration of large scale practice begins to dominate, perhaps the collaborative co-

operative will enable the continuation of the crafted and applied arts.

It is my personal Long term career goal to help develop a network of design such as is mentioned here.

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10 Image Index :

Image 01 - Juhani Pallasmaa : The Thinking Hand, p46

Image 02 - Jane Fulton Suri : Thoughtless Acts, p110-111

Image 03 - Betty Edwards : Drawing on the right side of the brain, p40

Image 04 - Betty Edwards : Drawing on the right side of the brain, p11-12

Image 05 - Jane Fulton Suri : Thoughtless Acts, p38

Image 06 - Tania Kovats : The Drawing Book, p170

Image 07 - Tania Kovats : The Drawing Book, p156

Image 08 - Stephanie Dagger

Image 09 - Roydon Dagger

ADDENDUM – Peter Dagger

Image 10 - Peter Dagger

Image 11 - Juhani Pallasmaa : The Thinking Hand, p110

Image 12 - TadaoAndo & Richard Pare :The Colours of light, p56

Image 13 - Juhani Pallasmaa : The Thinking Hand ,p68

Image 14 - Peter Dagger using ,TadaoAndo & Richard Pare :The Colours of light, p66