Making and reflecting

The architect needs to find ways to simulate or represent their ideas and proposals; such as drawing or modelling, for example. Making and reflecting will enable you to acknowledge the possibilities and limitations of your own design process — and therefore become a better designer — and also to test out the effectiveness of your proposed design solutions. Nothing is genuinely fixed or real until the building is constructed. It is important to have a broad range of craft skills and to understand the limitations and possibilities of each design tool. For example, clay is mouldable and can be used to create fluid external forms, but it is also heavy and unsuitable for creating internal spaces or slender shells. Ganshirt suggests that design is a complex activity that is difficult to define but it ‘can also be approached and described by means of the tools and cultural techniques deployed in the design process. Looking at it from this point of view helps achieve an appropriate degree of detachment from personal working methods, and makes it possible to see the fundamental relations between individual activities.’ Designers benefit from the creative possibilities of craft and the act of making; ideas can be sparked by ‘happy accidents’. These decisions are influenced by the tool or media being used. The designer will reflect upon the result and be influenced by this to further develop their ideas. Design decisions are being made in a constant feedback loop while the drawing or model is being crafted.