LeCorbusier itemized, in his Five Points Towards a New Architecture, his basic planning principals on how to approach design. The first four points address the structure, roof gardens, open plans, and horizontal windows, all of which are the basic building blocks of his architectural palette. His fifth point, is titled “Free design of the facade.” […]
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25Jun
2015
FAMOUS CREATIVE MINDS
2015
Noguchi tells us, “Primarily, what we carry around with us is a memory of our childhood, back when each day held the magic of discovering the world.” It seems to me that there are a lot of books on architecture, drawing technique, architectural analysis, etc. that only deal with architecture as a formula. They might […]
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23Jun
2015
GUGGENHEIM HELSINKI TRANSPARENCY
2015
It seems that my most recent posts have to do with the search for transparency in the architectural drawings of others. I just happened to be looking at the entries for the Guggenheim Helsinki Design Competition. The Guggenheim has posted all of the finalists as well as the winning design here. And what do you […]
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22Jun
2015
LATIN AMERICAN MODERNISM 2
2015
Robert, one of our far flung correspondents, reports that while he also thinks that the current Latin American Modernism show at MOMA is excellent, he also had trouble finding transparency in all of the beautiful architectural drawings. He writes that he also snapped a few photos of drawings that he thought had some transparency, but […]
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18Jun
2015
ANCHORING
2015
We need to be aware of what psychologists call anchoring. Anchoring is what might be called a suggestion. Or a first thought. And this first thought significantly shapes the outcome of our creative solutions. So for example, consider two similar questions: 1. What is the height of that tree? 2. If the average height of […]
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15Jun
2015
KNEE JERK DESIGN
2015
As should be clear by now, representational drawing is by definition based on the exclusion of information. Opaque objects hide what’s behind them. And what you can’t see, you can’t process. Kahneman, in Thinking Fast and Slow, page 87, gives us a fun abbreviation to this concept of hidden information. He calls it WYSIATI, which […]
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11Jun
2015
LIPPITY LANGUAGE
2015
One of the core beliefs of Transparent Drawing is the primacy of the visual. Another core belief is that the scientific and artistic methods are identical. Here is a link to a past post on this subject. Basically, the concept is that language follows the visual. Scientists visualize before doing. The visual is superordinate. So […]
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8Jun
2015
LATIN AMERICAN MODERNISM
2015
There is a great show at MOMA in NYC right now. Titled Latin America in Construction: Architecture 1955 – 1980, it is an eye opening look at the unheralded modernism that was built mid century. It is a fantastic assembly of drawings, models and photographs of work by architects that I of course had not […]
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4Jun
2015
FAMILIAR HURT
2015
Humans are very comfortable with the familiar. There is the old adage that we are creatures of habit. And I would surmise that this is entirely true. We are comfortable with the tried and true. Designers need to be cognizant of where this familiarity comes from, and what effect it has upon our interaction with […]
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1Jun
2015
INFINITY IS SILLY
2015
The linear perspective represents infinity. In a one point perspective drawing, the vanishing point is infinity. When you think about the fact that infinity is represented on your paper with a pencil dot, it seems rather silly. The infinite compression of space/time is shown as a dot on a piece of paper is completely incomprehensible. […]
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