I n q u i r y

P r o c e s s

Contents

About Inquiry 5Editorial 6

Contributions 7Dwelling and Creative Practice 8Architectural Design and Architectural Research Thought Process 12The Architecture of Analogy: Simultaneous Order within an Analogical Thinking Process 17

Speechless 22Call for Submissions 23

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About Inquiry

Inquiry has been founded by three graduates of Dundee School of Architecture who now follow Doctoral research. The aim of Inquiry is to provide a distribution conduit for critical inquiry and creative output; research and design.

A theme and limit are selected by the editor, after which a call for submissions is made. The editor, who alternates for each edition, formats the received submissions. The object of this process will be an interim discussion about the chosen theme open to all contributors, before its “grey publication” on the Inquiry blog.

Inquiry is interested in receiving submissions, inquiries and expressions of interest for editorship from other students, in particular from: art, design and philosophy.

Contact:inquirypublication@gmail.com inquirypublication.wordpress.com/

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The theme of this first issue is “process.” The limit of which is a 1000 word written article, referenced and illustrated as necessary.

In art practice, “process” is perhaps something immediate. In Splashing by Richard Serra (1968), the process of creation is embodied in the work: hardened lead thrown against the base of a wall when molten (see frontispiece). Once solidified, the viewer is invited to reconstruct the action in their mind. The process of urban dynamics is much slower: habits, functions and social groups change the form of the city over time. The two significant connotations of “process” are then: “action” and “time.” Action is the procedure resulting from a plan. The suggestion here is for a plan that imagines a procedure before it is conducted. This “thinking out” is evident in the three articles presented in this first edition of Inquiry.

Aidan Williams’ practice-based PhD explores, through qualitative research and creative practice, the concept of “dwelling.” His article outlines a theory that involves the process of creative exploration into “dwelling,” illuminating the process by its application in the author’s design work. Alex Pearson’s Doctoral Research investigates “Scottish Rural Housing” and aims to suggest an appropriate, contemporary alternative to existing practice. In that article the relationship between “architectural design” and the “research process” is debated and illustrated with examples from his analytical work, suggesting a hybrid “architectural research process.” Cameron McEwan is a PhD Researcher utilising architect Aldo Rossi’s Analogical City as a foundation for research, developing “analogical thinking” as a critical and creative design method. In his article, “analogical thinking” is used to analyse a series of examples, visualising the process by constructing a relationship between word pairs and image pairs.

Although in this first edition submissions are through the written article, one hopes that in future editions the scope of Inquiry will expand into disciplines other than architecture. The intention is a continued desire for critical inquiry and creative output; the manner in which this is achieved should remain flexible.

Cameron McEwan January 2011

Editorial

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C o n t r i b u t i o n s

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As a practice that directly intervenes in the environment, it is important to consider architecture as a critical reflection upon the social and material world. This is a role we have no trouble attributing to different forms of art practice, but it is sometimes forgotten that architecture too has always played this role.

The concept of dwelling implies more than having a place to live: it is more than having a bed and a lockable front door. In this essay I use the term in its Heideggerian sense of being-in-the-world. In this sense dwelling is the way in which we inhabit the earth and to dwell is our fundamental nature. Norberg-Schulz asserts that we perceive dwelling as our meaningful identification with aspects of our environment and our orientation amongst these things.

In order to fully explore the highly personal and complex nature of one’s sense of dwelling a method must be undertaken that allows for introspection and self critique. The thought process that ordains my work is, as a result, phenomenological and iterative. In the world of this PhD, paranoid self critique reigns. Ideas are be explored and explored again. This does not occur in a world of obvious linearity but in a nebulous soup of interrelated ideas through which a path must necessarily be traced. This essay aims to illuminate this process with reference to a design study of an area in Dundee.

Qualities, in this world, are more important than quantities. If we consider the meaningful aspects that we identify with of a place where we once lived, and the way we relate them spatially, it is clear that our response to place is not purely a quantifiable aspect of our lives. To assert that the entirety of the emotional aspects of our lives can be reduced to numerical values is to cheapen them. Place is, and we are, too complex for a discussion of our perception of place to be spoken of in terms concerned only with form. For the purpose of this essay it is assumed that just because something cannot be quantified does not imply that it does not exist.

Arguably our perception of a given place is driven by the memories and associations we hold as much as its sensorial qualities. Built up over the course of our lives these associations provide us with an encyclopaedia of individual spatial triggers, to the extent that we each perceive subtly different realities. As a result of this my research is based in a phenomenological study of perception. The fact that the object of study is my emotional and personal reaction to place is not seen as a barrier to universality. The truth inherent in subjectivity is assumed.

In my design study of an area in Dundee I studied a route with which I was familiar but

Dwelling and Creative Practice Aidan Williams

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only on a superficial, passerby, level. In the language of Norberg-Schulz, this route can be expressed as a domain constructed of a series of centres connected by path. It was with this in mind that I began to study my identification with the area’s qualities and my orientation within the domain.

I carried out an exploration through a three dimensional model where different centres and qualities were portrayed using different materials. This model perverted scale and form in order to give greater importance to the meaningful centres, paths, and figures of identification throughout the domain instead of being representative purely of form. Figures that became particularly identifiable were spaces with a distinct character and locations of personal memories; homes and habitual movements. By thinking about model making as sketching, without a predetermined plan, one is forced to repeatedly think and reconsider the decisions. The relatively slow speed of model making forces one to look, look again, and rethink (fig. 1 & 2).

Since the concept of dwelling is concerned with perception of identification and orientation more than facts and figures the outputs must take the form of exploratory and expressive projects rather than numbers and statistics. In order to carry this out to provide new knowledge rather than purely a representation of existing conditions, creative practice must be involved. It is of high importance as a design-led researcher to be forced out of one’s comfort zone thereby avoiding simply rephrasing the same thoughts over and over again. One method of creative practice with this aim is the paranoiac-critical method originated by Salvador Dali and the Surrealists. This can employ a method of overlaid images, double exposures or rubbings to advance us from the hold our subconscious has over us to create something new. In my research this is being attempted through mixed media collage in both two dimensional and three

Figure 1 & 2 Williams, A. (2011) Abstracted Model [mixed media scale model with card, timber and metal] Two views

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dimensional works. This follows a long tradition of collage work that explores the potential of forming new realities that are greater than the sum of their parts. For instance, in the representation of history and architecture by David Wilde in Fragments of Utopia (1998) or the temporal and social image built up by David Hockney in The Scrabble Game (1983) (fig. 3 & 4).

Through these methods the philosophical discussion of dwelling is brought to focus in the created/creative objects. One is able to view these objects through the lens of the theory and similarly the theory can be seen through the lens of the object. These objects are also the point at which the work becomes accessible to others. The experience of the objects can convey the viewers’ latent images of dwelling and conjures questions of how their own personal experience differs. Bachelard states that all we can ever communicate about a relationship to place is a hint of that relationship. This is then necessarily extrapolated by the viewer into their own nebulous soup of meaningful memories and associations.

In many ways the process of tracing a line through the nebulous soup is akin to solving an anagram. By expressing elements of identification and orientation a new object is created. This is in turn reconsidered and through a process of looking and looking again, evolves into something new. With luck, the resulting object can be seen as a more meaningful emotive representation than the original subject, it thereby shows a true sense of what it means to dwell.

Figure 3 & 4 Wilde, D. (1998) Fragments of Utopia [collage]; Hockney, D. (1983) The Scrabble Game

Figure 5 (right) Williams, A. (2011) Paton’s Lane [Photomontage]

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This paper discusses the alternative methods and thought processes developed from an architectural design background for architectural research investigation. This paper firstly defines methods and processes used in architectural design then documents the development of a response to the architectural research process. The remainder of the paper will define some of the hybrid methods utilised in the author’s architectural research and discuss their implementation with in the doctorate illustrated by examples of the research.

Architectural Design Thought Process and Architectural Research Thought Process Architectural design shares methods and similar approaches to other design disciplines. According to Schon (1983), design is a reflective conversation with materials, wherein the designer works with different media or materials, and experiments with various aspects of the design. This dialogue between the designer and the materials is a process of apprehending unanticipated problems and realising potentials in terms of a system of implications for further moves (Schon, 1983). This relationship between the designer; materials and design experimentation creates its own process and framework which are defined by and individual to the designer.

Research can be defined as the systematic investigation to produce new knowledge. Thus the research process requires a clear structure and defined framework for the generation of new knowledge. This allows other researchers to trace back thought processes to determine the basis of the new knowledge. There are recognised research processes and frameworks which most forms of research generally adhere to. When combining design and research the standard academic processes and methods require alteration and development. Some processes in research and design are similar, such as the consideration of many variables and their complex interactions (Schon, 1983). However the methods and frameworks in which they are utilised differ due to the differences in disciplines. Figure 1 shows the perceived differences between architectural design and the authors interpretation of architectural research.

The research process Architectural research unlike some sciences does not have a definitive framework in which it is based. Case Study research is very common in architectural research, however elements of this method are still under debate (Johnasson, 2003) and other methods are utilised. The integration of qualitative and quantitative research methods is another factor which is still under discussion (Bryman, 2006;2007, Johnasson, 2003, Groat, 2002).

Architectural Design and Architectural Research Thought Process Alex Pearson

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The latter half of this paper documents the development of methods and processes specific to the individual architectural research project. The following illustrative examples aim to document design and research processes throughout the author’s current research.

Literature Review ExplorationThe purpose of the literature review diagram is to visualise the complex nature of the research area (fig. 2). The vast number of issues and areas that are contained within the subject required an organisational framework to be developed. Key areas define the overall structure of the literature review. Issues within these research areas, are hierarchically ordered from broad to more specific issues, left to right (fig. 3). This exhaustive process enabled the classification of many issues into a hierarchical framework, which order the research and define initial boundaries. This initial development of method has influenced the framework and processes throughout the current research.

Scope and BoundaryThis diagram aims to illustrate the researches problem within multiple scales of context (fig. 4). From the widest context down to the smallest specifics of each stage. This method develops ideas from Trochim’s (2001) hourglass structure of research. Citing the research within a broad spectrum, then focusing in on the specific research field through the methodology of the project, then expands the research to the overall context with results and dissemination. The diagram does this by outlining the scope of each stage of the researching, focusing on the projects findings.

Figure 1 Pearson, A. (2010) Discipline Processes [diagram]

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PhD Process InfographicThe diagram illustrates the overview of the study with key contextual information from the literature review (fig. 5). It shows a simplified version of the proposed research framework. The division within the diagram represent the definition of the research key sections which relates to issues from the literature review process. The remainder of the diagram illustrates the proposed stages of the study. This visualisation of the research process mixes detailed contextual information with illustrations, diagrams and broad outline information.

Design Analysis Matrices (In Progress)The matrices illustrate options within the design process utilising a research framework to quantitatively analyse the alternative strategies (fig. 6). The design options run from top to bottom and the quantitative data runs from left to right. The data is organised into sections relating to the dwelling, plot and technology. These matrices are to be used as a design analysis tool as well as a precedent analysis tool in conjunction with computer simulation software to quantify qualitative design decisions against precedent and other design options. From this quantitative matrix method, qualitative versions are to be

Figure 2, 3 & 4 Pearson, A. (2009-10) Literature Review, Hierarchy (detail) and Scope [diagrams]

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developed to generate a balanced design analysis tool. This method of data analyisis and processing utilises other methods and research from the preceding work to combine the architectural design process with architectural research.

ConclusionThe discipline of architectural research requires an alteration of thought process from the design process of architecture to a systematic research framework. The particular illustrated examples of research are intended to show a development of new model of design and performance analysis. There is a need for further research within architectural research processes generated by the designer as a researcher. The alternative methods created by architectural researchers should be disseminated throughout the research community with the aim of clarifying the position or multiple positions of architectural research.

Figure 5 Pearson, A. (2010) PhD Process Infographic [diagram]

Figure 6 Pearson, A. (2010) Design Analysis Matrices (detail) [diagram]

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ReferencesBryman, A., 2007. Barriers to integrating quantitative and qualitative research. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 1(1), 8.Bryman, A., 2006a. Integrating quantitative and qualitative research: how is it done? Qualitative Research, 6(1), 97.Johnasson, 2003 at www.infra.kth. se/~rolfj/Foufaces2003.pdf accessed 20 Sept 2010Groat, L., 2002. Architectural Research Methods, New York: John Wiley.Trochim, W.M.K., 2001. The Research Methods Knowledge Base 2nd ed., Cincinnati, Ohio: Atomic Dog

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Double Take is both fact and fantasy (Grimonprez, 2009). Directed by Johan Grimonprez, the film documents inherent dualities of the Cold War, underlined with the repeated narrative from Jorge Luis Borges’ confrontation between an elderly and dying Borges and his younger self: “they say that if you meet your double... .” The film concentrates on the period between 1957 when the Sputnik satellite was launched, until John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963; and sets out three significant relationships. Firstly, Double Take connects the life and films of director Alfred Hitchcock with the suspense and fear of the Cold War. Secondly, it threads Hitchcock’s films throughout, placing them in relation to the events of the Cold War. One example of this operation is imagery from The Birds (1963) juxtaposed with iconography of the Cuban Missile Crisis (fig. 1 & 2). A third and increasingly sinister duality surfaces at the end when the viewer learns that Hitchcock was invited to the White House by Kennedy, just prior to the Kennedy assassination. The viewer is left to consider Borges’ full narrative, which is: “they say that if you meet your double, you should kill him.”

The analogical thinking process is concrete and abstract; critical and creative. It is the close and distant relationship to both fact and fantasy (fig. 3). This article examines the inherent simultaneous order within an analogical thinking process by analysing a series of examples from a variety of disciplines and concludes by suggesting the architectural result of this process is analogical form.

Simultaneous Order within an Analogical Thinking Process Cameron McEwan

Figure 1 and 2 Grimonprez, J. (2009) Double Take [film stills]

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For the literary critic and poet T. S. Eliot (1920), the terms “technical” and “poetic” provide a complimentary relationship in The Perfect Critic. In that essay, Eliot analyses the statement “poetry is the most highly organised form of intellectual activity” made in an article by Edmund Gosse. Eliot suggests that the words “organised” and “activity” are the vocabulary of science and proceeds to formulate a relationship between scientific and creative vocabulary; the “technical” and the “poetic,” of which the following is a summary:

Eliot concludes his analysis by asserting that the perfect critic is both “technical” and “poetic.”

Similar relationships are evident in the writings of philosopher Gilbert Ryle (1979), who in Thought and Imagination posits that those two terms are not opposites. He compares two biographers, each of whom have written a life of Napoleon. From the efficient but unimaginative biographer, one learns the facts, for example how much ammunition has been expended. From the efficient and imaginative biographer, one learns the facts and smells the gunpowder. Ryle provides both lists of words and words in duality in order to reinforce his argument. A list on “thought” includes: “consistent, methodical and unfanciful;” while a list on “imagination” contains: “invention, improvisation, discovery” and also “innovation, exploration, experimentation.” His dualities include:

simultaneous order

Figure 3 McEwan, C. (2010) Analogical Framework [diagram] Montage showing the simultaneous relationship of analogical thinking and analogical form; the city as a tacit and physical presence;

theory and design. The Analogical City of architect Aldo Rossi is conceptually situated within this.

ThoughtConstruction

IntellectualConcrete

FeelingImpressionEmotionalAbstract

::::

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When placed in simultaneous relationship, the terminology of Eliot and Ryle reads:

This placing in simultaneous relationship is central to the analogical thinking process. Constructing a relationship between two (or more) similar (but not identical) things, the result of which is a continuation by distortion.

In the March 1947 issue of the Architectural Review Colin Rowe (1947) published The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa which compares two pairs of villas by Andrea Palladio and Le Corbusier:

In that essay Rowe formulates a relationship with the “mental” and “visual;” the “conceptual” and “perceptual.” Describing the similarity of site and formal strategy between Palladio’s Villa Capra and Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye, Rowe makes a conceptual comparison with the harmony of domestic life in such villas to be like paradise in the poems of Virgil. The central theme however is the visual comparison between Palladio’s Villa Malcontenta (1550-60) and the 1927 Villa Stein-de Monzie by Le Corbusier in a diagrammatic analysis of proportional relationships inherent in the volume, structure, plan and elevation of each villa (fig. 4 & 5).

ReasonThinkingIntellect

ConcreteSchematic

Villa CapraVilla Malcontenta

Technical : PoeticThought : Feeling

Construction : ImpressionIntellectual : Emotional

Concrete : Abstract

FantasyComposingImaginationAbstractDramatic

Villa SavoyeVilla Stein-de Monzie

Reason : FantasyThinking : ComposingIntellect : ImaginationConcrete : AbstractSchematic : Dramatic

:::::

::

::::::::::

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Writing in An Analogical Architecture architect Aldo Rossi (1976) stated that “analogy” is a logical-formal operation that could be translated as a design method. In that article he cites Carl Jung’s definition of analogical thinking to be “sensed, yet unreal, imagined yet silent; it is not a discourse but rather a meditation on themes of the past, an interior monologue. Logical thought is ‘thinking in words.’ Analogical thought is archaic, unexpressed, and practically inexpressible in words.” The actual correspondence reads: “...‘logical’ thinking is thinking in words, which like discourse is directed outwards. ‘Analogical’ or fantasy thinking is emotionally toned, pictorial and wordless, not discourse but an inner-directed rumination on materials belonging to the past. Logical thinking is ‘verbal thinking.’ Analogical thinking is archaic, unconscious, not put into words and hardly formulable in words” (Jung, 1910). Placing the definitions in simultaneous relationship one gets:

Interpreting the irregularities like Freud’s analyses in The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (Freud, 1901), one might consider such distortions as parapraxis: a modification by error. This analysis is illuminated when transcribed to a drawing by Rossi (fig. 6 and 7).

Figure 4 and 5 Palladio, A. (c1560) Villa Malcontenta; Le Corbusier (1927) Villa Stein-de Monzie [floor plans and analytical diagrams] From: Rowe, C. (1947) The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa

Logical : AnalogicalSensed : Unreal

Imagined : SilentDiscourse : Meditation

Verbal : Pictorial Emotional : UnconsciousWords : Wordless Archaic : Rumination

::::::::

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Cesariano’s Vitruvian Man is montaged into a photograph by Rossi of an agricultural building in the Po Valley, Lombardy and juxtaposed with his drawing. Thinking analogically, one can read the distortion, displacement and modification of the existing building. The original form approximates a square in elevation, inside of which the roof is aligned. Two squares to either side of a central incision overlap in order to locate the new opening. When re-drawn, the building is extruded vertically, the horizon altered, and the trees become like sticks. The relationship to its “double” is schematic and dramatic; technical and poetic.

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy believed in a methodology based on a conscious search for relationships. He emphased connecting elements not obviously belonging together in order to produce a new result. In film, Grimonprez uses fact and fantasy to construct something new; Eliot pursues a technical and poetic literary criticism; Ryle maps reason and fantasy. This article posits that analogical form is the final constructed result of an analogical thinking process underlined by simultaneous order: the relationship between the critical and creative; concrete and abstract; real and imagined.

“Simultaneous grasp is creative performance – seeing, feeling and thinking in relationship and not as a series of isolated phenomena. It instantaneously integrates and transmutes single elements into a coherent whole. This is valid for physical vision as well as for the abstract.” (Moholy-Nagy, 1947)

ReferencesELIOT, T. S. (1920) The Perfect Critic, Faber & Faber.FREUD, S. (1901) The Psychopathology of Everyday Life, translated by TYSON, A.,

Penguin.

Figure 6 and 7 Rossi, A. (c1972) Untitled [photograph]; Rossi, A. (c1972) Untitled [Drawing] Montage diagrams by the author.

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GRIMONPREZ, J. (2009) Double Take.JUNG, C. G. (1910) The Freud/Jung Letters: the Correspondence between Sigmund

Freud and C.G. Jung, translated by MANHEIM, R. London, Penguin.MOHOLY-NAGY, L. (1947) Vision in Motion, Chicago, Ill., Paul Theobald.ROSSI, A. (1976) An Analogical Architecture. Architecture + Urbanism, May, pp. 65-

120.ROWE, C. (1947) The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa.RYLE, G. (1972) Thought and Imagination. IN KOLENDA, K. (Ed.) On Thinking.

1979 ed. Oxford Blackwell.

S p e e c h l e s s

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Call for Submissions

The theme of the second issue of Inquiry will be, for each author, the challenge to convey their research solely through the use of the visual image. The title of this publication will be “speechless.” Due to the autobiographical nature of this task, where overlaps occur it can be seen as a compliment to the issue entitled “process.” Contributors are encouraged to produce their work in any medium, to any length and to any scale. The freedom given us through this online record enables Inquiry to be published without regard for the restrictions of physical publishing.

Deadline for submissions to be posted on the blog at inquirypublication.wordpress.com/ Questions, content and expressions of interest to be sent to inquirypublication@gmail.com.

Aidan Williams

i n q u i r y p u b l i c a t i o n . w o r d p r e s s . c o m / i n q u i r y p u b l i c a t i o n @ g m a i l . c o m