On Design Process...

I believe that we are pursuing our education in design in order to learn essential Design Principles and to develop our own, personal, unique Design Process.

Principles can taught effectively in the classroom and in design studio situations. Design Principles need to be learned and incorporated into designs for them to be successful. The basic Principles of Architectural Space, Human Scale, Natural Light and Functional Order must be sensitively applied to every design problem.

The Design Process is a very individual thing which cannot be taught effectively. Every student of Design must explore the various processes and fill their own "tool-bags" with the tools that work for them. The design Process for Conceptual Design may include Design in Plan and Section, in Perspective Sketching, in 3-D massing models, in 3-D spacial models, in virtual 3-D models or in visual 3-D imagining. While it is vital that students explore and investigate the full range of processes, it is just as important that they find what works effectively for them and to incorporate those processes into their own, individual Design Process.

I have developed my own design process through years of exploration in design studios. My process involves research to fully understand the problem and its unique needs and conditions. I fill my mind with that information and then develop the design using 3-D visualization and thinking. I may sketch important details which I do not want to forget, but for the most part, I do not do any drawing or model building until I can inhabit the design in my mind. The unfortunate product of this process employed in a studio situation, is that in the early stages of the conceptual
design phase, I have "nothing to show" for my efforts. This has been a cause for concern for some professors in design studio. I sometimes will do simple sketches of a design in process, like the one attached to this thread, in order to have something to discuss with the professor during studio. However, I believe that what is important is the final result - the design - not the process I used to get there.

Mandating process in advanced studio situations can be either useful or limiting. If it leads to the discovery of a valuable design tool or element, then it is certainly beneficial. If it is time consuming and does not lead to any useful discovery then it merely a distraction.

I was asked, "would Le Corbusier (Corbu) design in plan?" I have focused some research effort on that question perusing several books on Corbu including Album La Roche*. I have found that Corbu was an accomplished artist as well as an ground breaking architect. It appears that he expressed his design concepts mostly in perspective sketches. I would be a fool to think that I were to fully understand his design process and if I were to emulate that process, that I would be able to design like he did. I must follow my own process through and in the end, succeed or fail, produce a design that in uniquely my own.

The sketch above shows a possible envelope for my store based on the circulation study of "if the building were not there". This design would allow pedestrian flow through "the building" without entering the actual building and would provide multiple opportunities to be drawn into that building proper. I am currently working out massing and structural details in order to create free flowing space demanded by my concept statement.

* Album La Roche / Ch.-E. Jeanneret, Le Corbusier ; edited and with an essay by Stanislaus von Moos, New York, N.Y. : Monacelli Press, in collaboration with the Fondation Le Corbusier, Paris, 1997