Design: The Mark as Beginning

By Tom Gregory

There is even a name for this: ‘blank-page syndrome’, which affects many architects. Like other creative arts, we are subject to a pressure to create the right marks on the page, an instant masterpiece. Although of course this could happen, it is certainly a rare starting point. Very often the most sophisticated designs and ideas are developed through a series of reconciliation and evolution of an initial thought.

The theme of this inaugural magazine issue, itself a set of blank pages until written and designed, relates strongly to this theme of the beginning of an architect’s design process, both theoretical and practical. Whatever method is used, each must focus upon the manifestation of a central idea.

Over the last couple of decades the digitisation of the world is reflected in the conceptualisation and construct of much of its architecture. This use of computer tools to aid in the design process has brought many benefits and forms that perhaps could not have been imagined beforehand, but has perhaps drastically altered the relationship between our hand and the ‘paper’ on which we draw.

Perhaps the most obvious difference is the separation of hand and image. When we use a mouse in drawing line and shape on screen, we are not physically connected. Although there have been significant advances in the use of tablet technology, the hand still feels separate to that created on-screen.

When we use paper to create our designs, each new line and correction brings a different layer and advancement to the original construct. The very nature of this ink on paper, adapting and swirling into new forms, brings an air of evolution and creation to the drawing, with new, imprecise, ‘thoughts’ becoming clear on the page. This sense of imprecision aids the design process, as it is purely gestural in the same sense as an oil-painter making a gesture on canvas or a sculptor kneading his clay. The same air of reinvention simply does not exist on a computer screen, as the vector line can simply be deleted.

Although the blank page can be a scary starting place, the beauty of it is that it holds no precondition or preconception – anything is possible. One must simply start with a theoretical statement, whether right or wrong, and try to make that evident through line and shape. With the arrival of this, the form can be crafted and adapted to relate to external constraints and opportunities, allowing the design to become more and more sophisticated as more layers of meaning and depth are added.

The word for design can be traced from the old Italian word disegno, meaning drawing. Through this act of drawing and making the mark manifest on paper, the theoretical construct of the idea is drawn forth. This has the implication that the method of putting pen to paper really is the act of designing. Whichever thoughts can be mentally constructed, are only ‘designed’ in the process of forming them on paper. This notion leads then to the mystique and power of the pen, as a symbol of creation.

During the Renaissance period of the 15th century, the cultural relation between man, expression, pen and paper was formalised. This history is important to bear in mind as we stand on the edge of the Renaissance of our age: the rise of Digitisation.

As we move forth into this new age, we must keep this history in mind whilst forging our links with new technology. The act of committing a mark in a medium is the starting point for this interface of thought and gesture. With every new beginning and blank page, we can then use this to explore and examine a statement, both philosophically and architecturally.