Learning to Draw through Digital Modelling

PSIAX, 2017

This paper concerns some practical drawing work that has been done with a group of students from the point of view of its suitability as a generative and speculative means of suggesting how space may be articulated, with a view to architecture. In respect of the remit of the conference, the reference is to perception and cognition in drawing in the context of teaching and learning in creative programs at university. The paper is written against a background of a first year, second semester drawing class. The class meetings were once a week of three hours, with twenty South Korean students studying in design degree programs through the medium of English language. Students were made aware of the spatial contextualizing of the drawing exercises through the attendant question of movement, while this paper considers the efficacy of the approach to the work, and its results, from the point of view of architecture. The paper’s theoretical contention in the context of architecture follows an opinion of the architect and educator Peter Eisenman, concerning what may be paraphrased as the lack of relationship between planimetric articulation of space, through architectural drawing, and one’s “affective” understanding and presence of oneself in space. The exercises of the paper’s referenced drawing class concerned the students’ citing and positioning of their own bodies in space, as a means of articulating space through using oneself as the object, and the paper has introduced the experiential and phenomenological implications of this. One of the two referenced exercises was carried through to the beginnings of three-dimensional structuring, and has therefore been illustrated. The implication of the exercises in the architectural context discussed in the paper is that the drawings are useful for generating ideas of how to structure space from the initial sense of presence of oneself in space.

2018

The article underlines the problem of introducing computer techniques into the education process in master degree studies in architecture. Following the consumer society, developing technologies, changing social values architecture education changed its continuous principle into two-level system. The system well known from other fields of education results in diversified level of knowledge between admitted students on master studies. This fact in together with large exercise groups and a relatively short time allocated with the project requires methodical approach in relationship between a student and a teacher. The article focuses on complexity of a design process within different stages. Special attention is placed to an early design phase of shaping an architecture form because it demands different ways of presentation including freehand sketching, physical modelling and digital modelling. These tools correspond to the subsequent three phases of the design process, starting with ...

When we draw, our hand does for the eye " something that the eye, the specific organ of vision, cannot do by itself " , says the 19th century German theorist Konrad Fiedler. In The Reflective Practitioner Donald Schön calls " virtual worlds " the drawings that allow instructors and students to test possible solutions in the architectural design studio without too much risk. Drawing is also how architecture relates to its precedents with appropriateness, in John Hancock's opinion. Curiosity is a common driver to all these activities as none of them are able to know their ends until their final configurations are accomplished. Since drawing is involved in all the described processes this paper aims to study the specific reflexiveness of drawing in artistic production, design, learning, and research. With this purpose in mind, we review in this investigation the philosophical foundations of artistic visuality, the cognitive aspects of design, and the use of drawing as a historical research tool. The pivotal notions that will guide this inquiry are the aesthetic autonomy, involved in the judgment of beauty in Immanuel Kant; visuality associated to drawing in Konrad Fiedler's philosophy of art; the designer's reflection-inaction proposed by Donald Schön as the essential characteristic of the artistry of professional practice; and, finally, the notion of historical precedents of John Hancock and Roger Clark and Michael Pause that assign to drawing the possibility of being inclusive and specific at the same time. Contemporary exaggerations of reflexiveness, important and extended distortions of its Kantian original anti-dogmatic vocation, are also enumerated at the end of the paper as a testimony, in the ambits of political economy and politically motivated architecture, that reflexiveness and drawing are in fact in our times a curse and a cure. 1 Introduction This paper vindicates the role of drawing as educational and research tool within architectural design process. If education is understood as learning (not teaching), a process in which the learner mobilizes all his/her intellectual, spiritual and physical resources in other to overcome the perplexity of an unresolved question, then, both education and research have an identical vocation for dealing with the unknown. From this point of view the differences between education and research just appear at their respective ends: education is meant to transform the student into an autonomous human being, and research to produce communicable knowledge for the advancement of the respective discipline. Research-based education, the context in which this paper should be understood, imposes that students learn from experiences that produce knowledge, and these experiences transform them into the type of citizen democratic societies aspire. An education that involves the production of knowledge should be called reflective, as reflective education implies creativity and not the faithful transmission of pre-elaborated content. In this type of education, common curiosity and discovery are part of the inspiring atmosphere of the learning environment. Research is a constituent part of reflective education, which must be supported by verifiable methods that attend to its precise ends. This paper proposes that drawing could be one of these methods of inquiry. Even more, in the same line as German theorist Konrad Fiedler stated in the 19 th century, drawing explores realms of reality and consciousness in autonomous ways that cannot be reached in any other way: " even by drawing one line or by doing a gesture that represents something as perceived by the eye one would realize that is creating for his visual representation something that the eye, the specific organ of vision, cannot do by itself " (Fiedler, 1887, p. 229). Fiedler sustains that drawing, the basic artistic activity, accomplishes the kind of " stability and verifiability " (1887, p. 231) for images that are only achievable by concepts through intellectual activity. This paper investigates the role of drawing within architectural design processes. Quality of design is normally associated with drawing. Drawing is the base of experimentation that creates " virtual worlds " (Schön, 1987, p.75) in which different hypothesis can be tested at the design studio. Drawing is also essential in the " reflection-inaction " category with which American philosopher and educator Donald Schön distinguishes practice. The notion of reflectiveness associated with drawing is the umbrella under which practice, learning, and research are studied here. Reflective means a type of intelligence that keeps an eye in its own action all the time. It is exactly the contrary of dogmatism, which was defined by 18 th century German philosopher Immanuel Kant as the " procedure of pure reason without a previous criticism of its own power " (Kant, 1781, p. 703). Ultimately, the objective of this paper is to discuss the connections between drawing and the essential notions of " visuality " (Fiedler, 1887), " Reflection-inaction " (Shön, 1983), and " Precedents " (Hancock, 1986) for the benefit of learning, designing and researching.

2018

In the architectural design, designers are focused on the early stages of the design process or conceptual design. The ultimate goal of this stage is to find a solution for an existing problem, investigate design space, or explore an idea. This stage conventionally begins with sketches and diagrams to explore ideas and solutions; the ambiguity and vagueness of conventional freehand sketching can be a source of creativity. Nowadays, with the advances in digital technology, there are attempts to integrate digital tools into the conceptual design in order to construct a digital design medium in the architectural education. Recent developments in CAAD software shows a shift in focus toward conceptual design interface; but these tools have not developed and still fail to offer an appropriate design environment for sketching; So application of digital tools in the early stages of design, has created problems and challenges especially regarding to creativity. Therefore, this research focus...

Journal of Architectural Education (1984-), 1985