A Beginners Mind

PROCEEDINGS
21st National Conference
on the Beginning Design Student

Stephen Temple, editor

Conference held at the

College of Architecture
The University of Texas at San Antonio
24-26 February 2005

A Beginners Mind
PROCEEDINGS
21st National Conference
on the Beginning Design Student
Stephen Temple, editor
College of Architecture
The University of Texas at San Antonio
24-26 February 2005

Situating Beginnings
Questioning Representation
Alternative Educations
Abstractions and Conceptions
Developing Beginnings
Pedagogical Constructions
Primary Contexts
Informing Beginnings
Educational Pedagogies
Analog / Digital Beginnings
Curriculum and Continuity
Interdisciplinary Curricula
Beginnings
Design / Build
Cultural Pluralities
Contentions
Revisions
Projections

Offered through the Research Office for Novice Design

Education, LSU, College of Art and Design, School of
Architecture.
Copyright 2006 University of Texas San Antonio
/ individual articles produced and edited by the authors

Printed proceedings produced by Stephen Temple, Associate Professor, University of Texas San Antonio.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without
written permission of the publisher.
Published by:
University of Texas San Antonio
College of Architecture
501 West Durango Blvd.
San Antonio TX 78207
210 458-3010
fax 210 458-3016

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Temple, Stephen, editor
A Beginners Mind: Proceedings of the 21st National Conference on the Beginning Design Student /
edited and compiled by Stephen Temple
1. Architecture - Teaching 2. Architecture - Design 3. Design - Teaching

ISBN 0-615-13123-9

Exploring the Gap or What Lies Between

Interior Architecture Work and Its Artifacts
ROBERT MICHEL CHAREST
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Identifying the Gap

The crux of this investigation focuses on the intricacies of a gap sometimes perceived
as a mysterious ravine most often associated with a linear, unidirectional projection between
the represented and fleshed artifacts of design work. Though the attempt was made to focus on
the artifacts of interior design, it rapidly became evident that all making disciplines share a similar
modus operandi. When relevant, significant overlaps or parallel moments between potential and
practicable architecture (understood as academic apprenticeship and professional practice) are
underscored, since it appears that this gap stems solely from a prescriptive translation of the
former towards the latter. This papers sometime discursive claim is that this presumption is far
from accurate.
In addition, the exploration follows a slant carved from my passion for the art of making,
born of a life-long apprenticeship as a craftsman alongside a master-builder my father, and a
deeply rooted interest in what can be referred to as philosophical inquiry1. Many of my questions
pertain to the awkward, but paramount, [miss]alignment between drawings and their constructed
incarnation. The essence of this condition can be traced to the broader idea of Greek techne if
techne never signifies making per se2, only the knowledge of making, how then does one gain it
without touching, feeling or manipulating fleshed materials? The first part of this paper maps
traditional tenets associated with design/making: narrative, ritual, metaphor and the sensual flesh
of our world. The second is an account of design/built work by students in the studio/shop at
Universit de Montral, The University of Texas at Austin and The University of North Carolina at
Greensboro.
A Summit of Druids Narrative and Design Work
Sketches are usually associated with a designers conceptual work and most often
discounted as a relevant means of representing work to be built in live space and materials. The
tendency to associate artistic or intentional sketches with creative work seen in the studio as
significant to peers but never precise enough to communicate design concepts across disciplines
and conventionalized drawings with tools of prescription necessary to construct a fleshed
artifact. This condition has produced a widespread polarized view between representational
devices, especially when one juxtaposes potential alongside practicable design work. This
paper argues not the legitimacy of one form of representation over the other, but rather questions
the presumption that conventionalized drawings embody immutable clarity and finiteness.
Let us imagine that students and professors, where design is the primary subject learned,
are apprentices and master Druids. And, let us accept that learning design to a large extent
means to gradually grasp the techniques and skills necessary to clearly depict imagined
concepts. Such a scenario underscores the unwritten rules of engagement in design education
that is, the prevalence of a hermetic discourse accompanying design work rooted in intention. As
Druids or archimists we accept the intangibles of design work and discuss their merits during our
summits also known as reviews or critiques. Here an apprentices opus is tested against a
masters grasp of the representational devices before him and their alignment with the authors
intent, which is usually narrated in one way or another. We evaluate, from our professional
horizons as made Druids, the apprentices intent and its correspondence to a set of questions

PROCEEDINGS: 21st National Conference on the Beginning Design Student

San Antonio 2005

65

posed by the works program. The constant here is that our evaluation of the opus takes place
within the interpretation of a represented artifact one accepted to remain as such but also
expected to comply with certain projected physical realities. Though some maintain that potential
design should always represent itself clearly, the belief here is that the narrative accompanying
any design is a key part of the work. Rightfully so, since during the summit of Druids much of the
opus is engaged through the paradigm of language spoken, negotiated back and forth between
the participants.
Admittedly, the idea of narrative in our field is easier to reconcile with potential design
than it is with practicable design. One may argue that intentional narratives can be helpful
agents in the design process, but that in professional practice their lack of prescriptive clarity
makes them awkward at best. On the other hand, rarely are design projects ever executed in
complete silence or without back and forth negotiation between participants. The issue here is not
the inadequacy of narrative in design work but the nature of the discourse spoken. During the
unfolding of a project various types of narratives emerge and become a crucial part of the
process. Much of the instructing that takes place between the participants craftsmen, site
supervisors, sub-contractors, designers, work-givers, contractors and clients occurs within the
paradigm of spoken language rather than a silent exchange of conventionalized documents.
Nonetheless, at the time a project is released towards its fleshed incarnation, often a blind trust
in conventionalized modes of representation is adopted. It is often believed that what is projected
beyond conceptual design work implicitly relies on the prescriptive nature of these
representations to align drawing with constructed object. Drawing on Wittgensteins
philosophy, it can be inferred that language and architecture, taken in its broadest sense, are
events par excellence 3. If so, is it wise to assume that what lies beyond conventional
representation escapes an eventful condition?
The Hegemony of Modern Clarity
In the western world, our faith in a coinciding alignment between representational artifacts
and their fleshed alter ego stems from trading a system of Truth based in metaphysical metaphor
for another rooted in an epistemology of modern science4. In architecture, a reduction of this
ontological shift is often typologically interpreted as architectural language from the
Renaissance to neo-classical styles. However, it is not architectural language a strange
utterance still widely broadcasted as having significance grounded in semiology which is
spoken of here. It is rather the drastic shift from an architecture parlante of Etienne-Louis
Boulle and Claude-Nicholas Ledoux towards an architecture of reason proposed by JacquesNicholas-Louis Durand. A shift inscribed within a much broader frame, a trade of systems,
unfolding very slowly between the early Renaissance and the Enlightenment. Durand, nearly 100
years before LeCorbusier, is telling us that architecture is a burden, that it must be functional,
economical and not painful in order to offset this plight. The Prcis des leons darchitecture is
arguably the first treatise proposing prescriptive tools to compose efficiently, economically and
without pain buildings. Though the Ten Books by Vitruvius, as well as its many editions during
and after the Renaissance are often interpreted as a prescriptive manuals, they on the contrary,
are far more metaphoric and in tune with a pre-Enlightened world5. It is significant to note the
prcis resonance with Diderots Encyclopedie, especially the manner in which they are illustrated.
A correlation best seen in Diderots book on the natural sciences, where the phases during which
a tadpole becomes a frog are painstakingly illustrated, against Durands exhaustive depiction of
typological elements both treatises are modernly taxonomic. Durand is a modern, he is not a
proponent of alchemical narratives or formal metaphors from the old school they are far too
superfluous and lack clarity.
For a craftsman, the perceived surgical precision of projection drawings, originating from
descriptive geometry, underscore far more what is not revealed than what is. In contradistinction,

66

PROCEEDINGS: 21st National Conference on the Beginning Design Student

San Antonio 2005

when plans, elevations and sections are understood as schema, instead of prescription, they
open the possibility for design explorations beyond representational borders. A critical recovery of
the act of making and its productive contribution to design work is at stake here.
This side of the revolution, faith in the hegemonic clarity of science is prevalent in design
especially in terms of structural and formal edification. Although this is clearly obvious in the
work of Eco, Jencks, Colquhoun, Lefebvre and others who have critiqued architectural
structuralism and semiology, one of the greatest impacts of modern clarity on design
apprenticeship is the virtual bracketing of fleshed work. The drastic shift from past-modernism to
present modernism6 has brought upon us the gradual acceptance of hyper-reality as a mode of
being where epistemologically, representation and fleshed objects gradually collapse into one
entity7. Conversely, for the designer/craftsman what takes place on the site of implementation is
very much design work. What lies in lieu of the gap is a mediation between intent, program and
site. It is simply work that takes place in a different mode of representation in fleshed space and
with fleshed materials. For the craftsman, it is understood that the conventionalized
representation of artifacts is not meant to correspond 1:1 with a fleshed artifact.
Between Painting and Architecture
When addressing theory and making in interior design, theatre (as a place of theatrical
representation as well as the unfolding of everyday life [thetrum mundi]) is the thread that situates
it within the arts as well as the adjacent disciplines. Making, meaning and representation within
interior design find their roots firmly grounded between the art of painting and of architecture
namely, in theatre set design. Positioning interior design in this manner outlines its legitimacy and
significance within and without neighboring fields. Where Interior design celebrates its condition
associated with surfaces, event and the ephemeral the flesh of our world.
Since the work expounded in this paper deals with interior design, it is important, even if
parenthetically, to underline particulars related to this field. Henceforth, the essence of interior
design is defined as setting places for human ritual. This, in turn sets-up a fascinating dynamic
between artifacts of representation and those that are fleshed and dwelled in. Within interior
design the relationship is skewed, partly because of the confounding similarities between
represented and fleshed artifacts. It is different from the perceived relationship between scaled
representation and urban object in architecture or the thing itself in painting. Interior designs
fleshed and represented worlds seem often to cohabitate, where the difference between artifacts
is sited-ness and the ephemeral events taking place. Usually in interior design, the artifacts of
representation (drawings, photography and memory) are the vessels of permanence and sitedness is analogous to a theatrical set. In contradistinction, the artifacts of architectural sites or
painting convey a sense of permanence through tectonic robustness for the former and
preservation in the case of the latter. The mode of representation de choix perspective also
suggests a strong corollary between interior and set design. As testament to this, Albertis
costruzione legittima in De Pictura8 emphasizes the relevance of accurately drawing how we
see. For Alberti, in the early fifteenth-century, emulating what we see suggests a level of
illusionary representation, reserved for painters and set designers, that is obviously not rigorous
enough for architects. To underscore the paradigmatic significance of Albertis claim it is
necessary to restate that modern truth has migrated towards a collapsed surface of perspectival
simulation.
The culprit here is surface, though it is celebrated in graphic work especially in
perspectival representation its legitimacy remains dubious in incarnated places and objects.
Because of this, interior design is often blamed for being on the surface. On the contrary, interior
design is invested in both surface and poch, not a passive poch, but one akin to Marcel
Duchamps inframince, loaded with heat, smells, colors and textures. Our proximity with surfaces
allows us to dwell intimately in the places set for our everyday rituals. This is the chief reason for

PROCEEDINGS: 21st National Conference on the Beginning Design Student

San Antonio 2005

67

pursuing design exploration beyond the borders of representation, into the gap, where the
inframince of fleshed materials and the narratives of making co-exist.
Beyond Potential Design for Students
Initially, studios that emphasize the study of construction methods, such as tech-com or
sound building, rather than spatial or formal oriented venues were investigated as possible
models to pursue this work. These studios are popular in many architecture schools and offer an
opportunity to address structural, material and systemic related issues in lieu of treating these as
passive poch or reducing them to ancillary concerns. Nonetheless, these valiant efforts remain
within the realm of represented potential design. Case in point are student designs resembling
Andos proposal for the Tate Museum Gallery of Modern Art or Mies New National Gallery in
Berlin. Both represent diametrically opposed means by which poch can convey the intent of a
structural expression. On the one hand, Andos model brackets the structural prowess required to
make his project viable, while on the other, Mies expresses a structural simplicity that actually
conceals the incredible complexities necessary to make his building stand up. The exploration of
structures and systems in design schools is productive not because it renders a potential project
practicable, but because it promotes an in-depth pursuit of another important aspect of this
project. These are analogous to formal and spatial explorations of potential architecture, because
they remain in the realm of representation.
Clearly, the primary objective is not to create a design-build environment right from firstyear studio. Like all aspects of design education, from historical surveys to the visual
communication sequence, the art of making should be addressed progressively in a holistic
manner. What lies beyond our gap is also a very important part of the design process, and
moreover, making should never be proposed as a literal transcription of conventionally
represented work into a fleshed artifact.
In the course of design-build projects, the central concern is always to promote the art of
making as design explorations undertaken within the fleshed world. Achieving this usually
requires the devise of new curriculum while taking full advantage of resources available in design
schools. Though it may seem natural to undertake these explorations within a design studio, it
should be pointed out that some of the investigations were originally conjured in theory seminars,
as well as materials and methods courses. The participation of dedicated shop masters and cofaculty at Universit de Montral, The University of Texas at Austin and The University of North
Carolina at Greensboro was imperative to the success of all the projects. Implementing a critical
design-build culture within school walls implies the effort of many dedicated souls.
In order to avoid flattening the critical nature of this endeavor, we refrained from simply
incarnating in material form conventionally represented potential designs. All the projects include
a critical questioning of the intended object or space and a creative programming phase. Group
interaction and a site of reception for the work where also paramount in every exploration.
Working in groups promotes a dialogue between apprentices, while challenging them to negotiate
and mediate their design decisions. Because of these necessary negotiations, apprentices rapidly
realize the [miss]alignment between representation documents and the artifact they are
producing. Project sited-ness is intended to challenge apprentices to think contextually rather
than focus solely on an abstracted object. This is especially productive within interior design,
where context is often overlooked and replaced by a footprint representation of the site. The
experiments of these apprentices revealed fascinating facets of sited-ness, especially in their
work on exhibits and ephemeral events.

68

PROCEEDINGS: 21st National Conference on the Beginning Design Student

San Antonio 2005

Design/Build Explorations
Time, Light and Color as Instruments for Revealing Site
An exhibit of Jim Hodges work at the Weatherspoon Art Museum in Greensboro, North
Carolina sparked this charette in the Fall of 2004. The selected site was a sunken courtyard of
the Petty Science Building, which houses the Department of Interior Architecture at the University
of North Carolina at Greensboro. The final incarnation was the in-situ installation of a simple
program to reveal something from this site through the use of time, light and color. The project
parameters were, a maximum defined space of 300 square-feet, work to be accomplished in
teams of 5, material choice was open and, since the installation was intended as ephemeral, a
recording of all or part of the event was expected.
This group proposed a wall designed to frame an existing condition on the site (see
Figures 1 and 2). A wall that did not explicitly reveal time, light or color, but rather encouraged the
many passers-by to take notice of the wonderful spectacle taking place under the womb-like
space of a mature magnolia. The installation was built of metal studs, masonite panels and twine.
The ritual of tracing and spiking the artifact into the site was very much part of the design
process. The geometry also was negotiated in situ to create an appropriate aperture and afford
secure bracing.

Fig. 1. Wall as Instrument for Revealing.

Fig. 2. Wall as Instrument for Revealing.

A Door For Battle

The premise here was to conceive and build a temporary, yet permanent, door for Battle
Hall at The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture. More than a simple door, the
artifact proposed was intended as a tool for craftsmen or occupants during the
renovation/restoration of this National Registry building (the only one on campus). The project
was divided into three inter-weaved parts, a mapping of the thing called door (as the all-purpose
device and as its in situ raison dtre), a creative programming exercise, and a CAD/woodshopintensive design-build effort. It should be noted that this project was conjured in the AutoCAD
course of the visual communication sequence during the spring 2004 semester.
After a design charette, where students proposed ideas for the thing called door, a CAD
sketch integrating the essence of all submitted proposals was devised. Students in the shop
worked in teams of four; horizontal, vertical, panel and special components (see Figure 3).

PROCEEDINGS: 21st National Conference on the Beginning Design Student

San Antonio 2005

69

Fig. 3. Door for Battle.

Investigating the Thing Called x
These investigations took place in the Materials, Methods and Technology Course at The
University of North Carolina at Greensboro during the Fall of 2004. What is the thing called public
bench initially generated a handful of intricate designs that however circumvented the idea of
sitting in public. Armed only with preliminary sketches, these students entered the woodshop with
the intent of creating a bench for five people that could be manipulated like a series of contiguous
drawers. The idea of replicating the conventional thing called bench was left aside and the
students went to work devising a beam-like base with a series of extrusions that allowed each
seat to cantilever off of each other and create impromptu groupings (see Figure 4). Truth be
told, the last iteration was not very convincing in terms of creating intimate seating arrangements
in a public condition. However, the overwhelming desire for the public to play and participate with
the sliding seat/drawers became its unexpected success.

Fig. 4. Bench for Public Seating.

Exhibit and Vernissage of Student Work
In the Spring of 2003 a crew of twelve students under my direction designed, built and set an
exhibit for the graduating class in Interior Design and Landscape Architecture at Universit de
Montral. A reverse camera-obscura condition was devised for the space and backlight floating
boxes constructed to display the work. Students across the curriculum actively participated in all
aspects of the design-build installation, including carpentry, cabinetmaking, finishing, electrical
work, lighting and plumbing (see Figures 5 and 6).

70

PROCEEDINGS: 21st National Conference on the Beginning Design Student

San Antonio 2005

Fig. 5. Reverse Camera-Obscura Exhibit.

Fig. 6. Reverse Camera-Obscura Exhibit.

Beyond the End of the Day

Not merely celebrating the tactile virtues of making in this paper was deliberate, since
little needs to be said for the wonderful experiences associated with touching, smelling,
manipulating and discovering fleshed materials. The revelations that occur from experiencing the
sensual particularities of wood, steel, concrete, plastics, etc., speak for themselves. As do their
dynamic response to our milling, shaping, cutting, pouring, heating or molding them. It is also
obvious that such tactile phenomena are never revealed in conventionalized or mediated
representations on paper or LCDs even during hyper-real simulations. The objective is never to
simply dwell on a alignment between represented and incarnated work during early
apprenticeship. The agenda is to challenge the current idea of design process, by juxtaposing its
components representation and making in a way seldom seen. To promote the act of design
by making fleshed artifacts from potential work and ultimately helping apprentices appreciate the
holistic nature of their mtier .

PROCEEDINGS: 21st National Conference on the Beginning Design Student

San Antonio 2005

71

Notes
1 Philosophical inquiry here is intended in the following manner: Philosophy makes little
progress. It deals with simple things. It deals with being, with knowledge, with man. The questions
it asks, moreover, are simple questions simple and therefore permanently alive. Alexandre
Koyr, Three Hundred Years After Descartes (Boston: Serendipity Press, 1987).
2 Greek Techne as intended by Martin Heidegger in The Origin of the Work of Art.
3 Kojin Karatani, Architecture as Metaphor (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1995)
4 Alexandre Koyr, From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe (Baltimore: The John Hopkins
University Press, 1957)
5 See the work of Alberto Perez-Gomez.
6 Gianni Vattimo, The End of Modernity (Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1985)
7 Jean Baudrillard, Simulacres et Simulation (Paris: Galile, 1981)
8 Leon Battista Alberti, On Painting (London: Penguin Books, 1972)

72

PROCEEDINGS: 21st National Conference on the Beginning Design Student

San Antonio 2005