A Missing Link: Thinking | making | presenting

Kennesaw State University, GA USA

^* zkarimi@kennesaw.edu : muddin3@kennesaw.edu

Abstract

Let whoever may have attained to so much as to have the power of drawing know that he holds a great treasure ... Michelangelo

The tradition of architectural drawings and making as a means of design thinking in a constant feedback loop results in discoveries that facilitate creative thinking in an iterative process. In the digital age, notion of drawing and making by hand as a cognitive process of thinking is fading. This trend is increasingly evident in upper-level architecture students who depend strictly on digital tools for design thinking, missing many critical decisionmaking steps. Concepts of scale, diagramming, composition, materiality are missing − part of the challenge is the computer screen and the lack of tactical autonomy with physical materials − pen, pencil, brush, architectural scale, materiality, construction, assemblage. How can we as educators assert that drawings are not just architectural representations, but a means to architectural inquiry? Why is it critical for our students to use hand drawings, sketching and diagramming when exploring ideas? Can small gestural models provide notions of scale, materiality, and construction? Teaching pedagogy has always engaged new modes of design thinking and communications as a way of design inquiry − a trait essential to architects. Historically, since the Renaissance, drawings have been the catalyst to advance architectural discourse. In the 20^th century, different movements such as De Stijl, Constructivism and Bauhaus used a multi-disciplinary approach combining art and technology through the lens of drawing and making that led to a new wave of design pedagogy to push their imaginations into new territories which the digital augmented as technology advanced. We believe that today’s students need to continue to develop both hand and digital skills in tandem to optimize design thinking, making and presentation techniques. In doing so, they can advance architectural pedagogy to new heights as those before did; critically in a material and physical sense: as an embodied spatial experience.