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

Changing Paradigms: Design Methodology for Beginning Design Students

SMILJA MILOVANOVIC-BERTRAM & JOYCE ROSNER
The University of Texas at Austin
When a student begins the first year of Architecture School, he/she arrives with many
preconceptions about what an architect is and how an architect designs. It is these initial
preconceptions that must be overcome during the first year, opening the student to other,
unimagined possibilities. This is one of the most difficult tasks for an instructor of beginning
design. One must find a process that allows the student to transition from the initial conception of
an architectural idea to final three-dimensional form. The questions are many:
Where does one begin?
How does one begin?
How does one generate ideas?
How does one enable students to transform a two-dimensional idea into habitable space?
This article proposes a methodology for using drawing, collage, and other media as both
complement and supplement to the design process. Developed through a collaboration between
Smilja Milovanovic, teaching design, and Joyce Rosner, teaching visual communications, the
methodology was tested in the spring, 2004 first year design studio at the University of Texas at
Austin School of Architecture.
The structure of a studios pedagogy is critical for success, especially in the beginning
year when students are first introduced to architectural education. In facing the difficult task of
translating abstract thoughts into three-dimensional ideas, young students are confronted with
assignments and a way of working quite different from any of their previous experiences.
We propose that students learn to look at information in a variety of ways. And the
organization of those multiple readings of information can aid in the task of generation and
translation of ideas.
At the University of Texas, visual communications and design studios are taught as
complements, in tandem. We sought to structure the visual communications component of the
first year design studio in such a way that the assigned exercises could both reinforce the design
process and teach new methods of communications and drawing skills. The exercises we
developed provided students with a two-dimensional method for making decisions about threedimensional relationships.
Each drawing was approached as a means to explore ideas rather than as a final
product. We believe that as the hand draws, it pushes the mind, which provides new ideas
through interpretation of the process of drawing. In this way, coordination between hand, eye,
and mind becomes the driving force in the design process.
Our methodology requires students to proceed through a guided framework, abstracting
analytical and intuitive observations of changing views, points of observation and graphic
technique. In this manner, they are freed from pre-conceived and conventional ideas and
representations. Through these assignments, our students were able to successfully progress in
their initial concepts of site, program, and representation.

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Paradigms: The Assignments and the Process

The example project was a video gallery in an urban setting. For the first time, the
students were dealing with a specific building type, with programmed spaces, on an actual site
that could be visited, observed and measured. As a building type, the gallery provided spaces
with simple relationships. Throughout the study, we placed importance on the relationship
between the objects to be viewed (paintings) and the viewer. The urban site was long and
narrow, backing up to a creek. This provided a site with distinct edges.
Exercise One: Observation DrawingsInformation and Representation
For the early exercises, we drew from Barbara Solomons Green Architecture. Solomon
describes a drawing as going beyond physical representation, something that represents what is,
and analyzes what might have been and could be. She continues, a drawing can try to show a
building from the inside out, what is known about it and what cannot be seen. 1 She also
discusses the notion of view and the problem of drawing the invisible on a piece of paper. 2
By instructing students to change the point of view by changing the drawings scale and location,
new insight into the project emerges. The initial point of entry into design process varies widely
among architects. William Alsop notes, I often start with painting. The painting has life of its own,
beyond your control. It is possible to see what you cannot think... I often describe this process as
designing a conversation, not a building. 3 Alsop notes that the process is uncertain and that
uncertainty should be built into the design process. Steven Holl uses drawings in the form of a
diagram, I depend entirely on conceptual diagrams; I consider them my secret weapons...
Finding the initial concept for each project that captures the essence of the architectural
opportunities unique to that project, for me, is the only way into it, the door in which new ideas
enter architecture. 4
Consequently, we developed a series of drawings based on observation. Through these
drawings, the students were able to describe, analyze, and comment on the site. Their choice of
documentation ranged from photographic to collage to drawing. Through these studies, students
were able not only to represent what is, but also what is known about it and what cannot be
seen, 5 as described by Solomon.
In this manner, drawing becomes an instrument of vision. A students vision will become
reality after many transformations.
Assignment for Exercise One
Now that you have spent time at the site, photographing, drawing, and simply observing,
this assignment focuses on inventing a way to convey this information.
Using the reading and images from Barbara Solomons Green Architecture as a point of
departure, create a drawing that communicates a variety of site issues. While this assignment
depends greatly on your own observations, it also depends on your analyses and interpretations
of those existing conditions.
Your completed assignment will be on one sheet of Strathmore or Stonehenge, but it
should consist of multiple images. They may be drawn or created using collage, words, and
anything else that you choose. Invent as you draw.

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Fig. 1. Exercise One.

Exercise Two: Moment Collage: InhabitationInside/Outside

Moving from site to program, we next asked the students to complete a series of
moment collages. These explored the relationships between the view and the objects in the
space, the view and the site (and conditions of light). The students initial collages exposed the
relationship between place and event at specific moments within the proposed space. In this
way, we introduced site and inhabitation and examined these concepts simultaneously.
The collage as a thinking tool became important in various ways. Collages are used to
connect inside to outside--to investigate how interior space relates to landscape. By requiring the
students to do at least six collages, we eliminated the fear of doing just one as the right one.
Having the students create multiple collages also allowed them to deal with just one or two issues
per collage, thereby eliminating the difficult task of putting all the information together at an early
stage.
Typically, when students are asked to design a space they will use conventions like plan
and section and not much else. But by asking them to create a collage at an early stage, we
wanted them to seek out materials and other images that can depict the meaning of the space.
Thus, they made the collages, not of design components, but rather of existing materials
representing color, texture, light condition, and materiality, which they brought into the design
from their own experience. They truly inhabited the designed space. The collages became
investigations that led to new discoveries. In the end, they become idea generators for the next
step, which is the creation of their own space or spaces. These exercises enabled the students
to focus quickly on qualities of the space and its occupation.
Assignment for Exercise Two
This exercise deals with the relationship between the viewer, the site, and the space.
Complete a series of six moment collages approximately 8 x 8. These should be constructed
as sections that show the relationship between viewer, site and space. Make sure that the viewer
is shown in the collages so there is a sense of scale.
Although you do not yet know what your project will look like, this assignment
encourages you to visual relationships between inside/outside (threshold), horizontal/vertical
planes (ground), and the inhabitants of the space.
Do not try to include too much information in each collage. Focus on addressing one or
two issues in each one. Because you must do at least six, explore your ideas in a variety of ways.
What is the view if you step up versus stepping down? What happens if a wall is transparent
versus opaque? From where will the light be coming into the space? How can you control that
light? These may seem like simple questions, but different solutions can totally change your
perception of a space. These collages will provide you with a way of looking at the quality of a
space and help you to further develop your design project.

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Fig. 2. Exercise Two.

Exercise Three: Sequential Drawings: Imagined Spaces
After the collage exercise, we further developed the projects building and site sections by
asking students to imagine moving through the space. This allowed views to emerge with both
surprise and ambiguity. Through a series of drawings exploring accurately constructed
shadows, using three-dimensional study models, and daylight, we examined the importance of
natural light within the space.
Assignment for Exercise Three
Working from your initial collages and diagrams of your project, develop a series of 12
small perspectives.
Imagine that you are moving through the site/building and try to describe in perspective
what you would see (or what you would like to see). You should be moving along the east/west
axis, cutting transverse section perspectives as you proceed. Use these drawings to help you
make decisions about your design and the relationships of spaces, edges, openings, etc.
Ask yourself many questions as you work. Think about physical movement as well as
visual movement. The drawings should be approximately 4" square (exact dimensions may be
determined individually) and may be line or tone, freehand or hard line. They should convey ideas
of space, movement, and view. However, always keep in mind that these are process drawings
and their main purpose is to help you develop your project, making decisions as you draw.

Fig. 3. Exercise Three.

Exercise Four: Conditions of Light

The last assignment brings together the previous exercises into a coherent whole: a
longitudinal section through the site and building.
Assignment for Exercise Four
Now that your project is nearing completion, cut a longitudinal section through the entire
building in order to examine how light moves into the space.

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After looking at Beaux-Arts sections in which various lighting conditions were carefully
and thoughtfully rendered, draw a 1/2" scale section of your project and render the conditions of
light. You may use pencil or charcoal on Strathmore or Stonehenge, or you may use watercolor
on Arches. Allow the white of the paper to suggest light and illumination. Think about direct light,
shadows, and reflected light. Look carefully at what light does in other spaces around you and in
other drawings to help you understand how to communicate graphically your own ideas.
These drawings will allow you to develop your drawing skills at the same time that you
develop your design project, making decisions as you work. In this way the drawing becomes
simply another tool in the design process.

Fig. 4. Exercise Four.

Conclusion
By examining the issues of site, program, view, path, threshold, and space through
various media, students learned they could use the method of representationwhether a
drawing, model, or collageas a way of both describing and developing their ideas. Through this
methodology, the drawings and models did not become the final documentation of the project, but
necessary elements of the design process, incorporating intuitive and analytical elements.
Drawing became an investigation, not merely a recording.
The sequence of our exercises moved from the intuitive to the rational and back to the
intuitive. This progression allowed students to explore two very different ways of thinking. Using
both left and right brain exercises, all students were able to find the best means to provoke their
creativity in order to design.
Instead of going from general to specific while designing, we directed students to
investigate specifics (as exemplified by the moment collages) without knowing the whole. This
task carried only one condition or parameter at a time. And by abstracting the exercise
assignments, students were not bound by conventional representation. Ideas flowed and
emerged in the act of making, not just drawing, and the meaning of the whole emerged in the act
of making the parts.
Unlike traditional final presentation work (plans, sections, and elevations) the students
sequence of drawings has an importance that delves beneath their surface. The strength in this
process derives from the interlocking steps that illustrate how the original medium is transformed
into architecture, as both experience and form.

Fig. 5. Final Models.

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Notes:
1

Barbara Solomon, Green Architecture and the Agrarian Garden (New York: Rizzoli, 1988), p. 53.

Ibid.

William Alsop, Towards and Architecture of Practical Delight, Architectural Monographs 33. (London:
Academy Editions, 1993), p. 15.
4

Jeffrey Kipnis, A Conversation with Steven Holl, El Croquis 93. (Madrid: El Croquis, S.I., 1999), p. 10.

Solomon, p. 53.

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