expressing some thoughts and discussions on paper about 'process' and 'relevance'
what i've learnt over the journey so far
i have always considered myself to be incredibly lucky and blessed to have met some of the most prolific people in the industry and to be supervised by an array of exceptional tutors. the gist is similar for every semester. you have a brief and a site. the difference, well is the scale of the project. with more considerations to deal with in the same amount of time. recently i had the honour to be critiqued by a prolific architect and every time listening to him speak, my perception will change and see architecture in a different perspective.
here let me share with you some thoughts and some comments that were made that day. he has always stressed the importance of content over form, no surprise there to the endless debacle over the idea of 'form over function' or 'function over form'. however some might argue that form is derived from everything. not just merely function but it should be informed by the site, the circulation and so many more. he also talks about how there is always a lack in relationship when we talk about our design. how site specific is our design responding to the given site? to illustrate an example, right adjacent the given site of a particular project there is a bank. "what would people go to the bank to do?" , he said. he explained by saying that people associate the bank with payments and to carry our monetary businesses. "and with the city council located at a 500m walk, you could have proposed a mini counter for the payments to be made right at your design, and that way you could be made specific to the site alone".
often times general solutions are being proposed and when general solutions are used, it arises the argument that the building can be placed anywhere in the world in any part and it would still work because of its general nature where it would work anywhere. he then associated architecture to an analogy. "it is like a group of 4 or 5 friends that are already discussing on a topic and you interrupt them with your topic and that they should listen to your conversation implying that their conversation is not important." here i somehow resonate with what he has just said and it changed my thoughts and perception towards design which i will be carrying with me for the rest of my journey.
what i have observed
many of the peers that i have observed has that similar issue where there is a lack of relationship to which the idea is proposed. often times the general issues are solved with again even general solutions. the whats and the whys is always stated but never the how.
i felt that the idea and the stigma of small and unassuming designs will get you good grades and that it is the right thing to do. i try to break away from all these ideologies and try to challenge the idea. again back to the story of the friends having a conversation. to listen and to learn from each other, then assert oneself into the conversation. i too have not yet able to create a successful conversation with my design, learning how to be able to think critically, outside of the false ideologies forced fed into the systems and to see things from an objective point of view. again relevance is the item to be questioned. how relevant is the proposed to the site.
another observation i have seen is how students tend to not know and go through the whole design process. my tutor once said that "the design process is not a linear one", which i have learnt to be very true over the semesters. you can be at step 5 or step 10, but learning how to get back to step 0 and try a different method is a different story. often times many do not see that. many do not want or may not know to develop the design, to move from step 10 back to step 5. it is a skill that one needs to train and develop. to find which methodology suits in aiding the design process. be it model making, sketch studies and even drawings. finding your way helps in creating.
another thought in which is still unanswered, often times the concepts and ideas are forced upon and designs are pressured to have one and to often be the selling point of the design. yet the question remains, how can it be related with what has been discussed on relevance and site specificity? is there a balance that can be achieved between form and content?
outtake
to explore as much as possible, to make as much mistakes as possible, enjoy the process and above all, stay true to one's design instinct.