Traversing and sculpting scape through pattern development: Blending the natural and the built to promote ambiance in early architectural education

Ball State University, College of Architecture and Planning, Department of Architecture, 2000 W University Ave, Muncie, Indiana, USA

^* Corresponding author: kmbarry@bsu.edu

Abstract

In the formative years of their education, beginning design students are often equipped with several predetermined biases and stereotypical notions about architecture, with specific design intentions centered around how architecture should look, rather than how it should perform. The intent of this paper is to dispel these preconceptions by addressing the iterative design process through conceptual parameters of pattern and module creation, population, and manipulation in an effort to provide students with an alternative perspective for how architecture can create a dialogue with its environment and facilitate the transition from “thing seeing” to “pattern seeing.” In two projects examined in this paper, students were asked to initiate the design process by exploring and testing the inherent strengths and constraints of pattern formations through the lens of a scape and constructed assembly, each of which would focus on principles of ambiance and spatial qualities, rather than relying on traditional architectural typologies. By developing these conceptual projects, students were able to break away from their preconceptions of what architecture is, and instead focus on what architecture could be with a reinvention of the design process.