Verve | The story of the sketch | Design Thesis 2021

VERVE

INTERIOR DESIGN THESIS, 2021

THE STORY OF THE SKETCH

PREM JADHAV

VERVE A thesis submitted in a partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of the course in Interior Design, ISDI - School of Design and Innovation.

To the Department of Interior Design, April, 2021.

It is certified that the work contained in the thesis titled VERVE - The story of the sketch

by Prem Jadhav has been carried out under our supervision and that this work has not been submitted elsewhere for or as a thesis project.

DISCLAIMER The thesis/ capstone project is the final year graduate study undertaken at the ISDI - School of Design & Innovation. No part of this document may be reproduced or disseminated in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written consent of the ISDI - School of Design and Innovation and the author.

Meenal Sutaria

Divya Vijaychandran

Program Director: Interior Design ISDI - School of Design and Innovation

Thesis Mentor ISDI - School of Design and Innovation

ACKNOWLEDGMENT First and foremost I am extremely grateful to my thesis mentor, Prof. Divya Vijaychandran, research and writing mentor, Prof. Amrita Ravimohan and my program director Prof. Meenal Sutaria for their invaluable advice, continuous support, and patience during my capstone. Their immense knowledge and plentiful experience have encouraged me in all the time of my academic research and daily life. I would also like to thank Victor Muruguia, Dhara Jain, Saloni Saraf, Proteesh Ravi for their valuable insights for my study.

I would like to thank all the class members in the Interior Design batch of 2021. It is their kind help and support that have made my study at the Indian school of Design and Innovation a wonderful time. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to my parents, and all my family members. Without their tremendous understanding and encouragement in the past couple of years, it would be impossible for me to complete my capstone.

ABSTRACT In the world of designed surroundings, climate, food and clothing, a designer’s contribution is considered of paramount importance.

What is central to the designer’s act of creation? In this ecosystem of creative professions, how does a creative build an intimate relationship with his creation? How does one know how to begin this narrative of designing? Through a retrospective lens, ‘Verve’ aims to unfold the nuances of a design process through varied lateral and paralled studies included. The incentive to understand a creative process began from a personal obsession to understand one’s relationship with the creative process.

The capstone studies writings, drawings and the creative process of distinguished individuals from the field of design to form a cohesive understanding about the sanctity of an informed yet fluid process.

In this journey the role of a sketch serves as an anchor point to start, pause or reflect thus making it a crucial element in the process of designing. ’Verve’ aims to decipher layers in the process of any creative inividuals work and arrive at an attempt to build an understanding.

The unscripted conversations with the creatives allowed for thoughtful takes and personal discussionswhich has been given a crisp understanding of this topic.

The Capstone also through the medium of documentation, looks at varied perspectives right from casual explorations of everyday life in any creative individual’s life to indepth research on designers and their design. Often with a prescriptive approach to design that is used it over and over again, the a tendency to only think and problem-solve for the step you are in, but to make it a story that can be woven and experienced in its full glory one needs to often have tangible and intangibles around,understood in a non baised manner.

This capstone is also an humble attempt to navigate through the known and unknown territories in the design process. In these navigations of the territories of design. The premise is central to design drawings focusing the drawing as a medium to communicate the ideas.

A large province of the thesis constitutes the use of freehand drawing which is the most direct and intuitive means to visually represent as mediums of thinking, expressing, and storytelling.

The understandings of using a drawing free from the vocabulary of known and using uniquely for seeing and translating thoughts into spaces.

TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION

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THE BEGINNING

18

IMAGINING THE PROCESS

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UNDER CREATIVE LENSES

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DESIGN AS STORYTELLING

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SPATIAL NARRATIVES

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WHY DO WE SKETCH

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DRAWING AS THINKING

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DRAWING AS OCCUPYING

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WHAT THE WORLD SEES

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INTERPRET, REINTERPRET

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

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What you see, isn’t design.

If it was just to be seen, It wasn’t design.

It only remains questionable, From your version to mine.

Prem Jadhav

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INTRODUCTION

B

eginning with the lazy morning stretch to walking straight for a hot steaming cup of tea and a splash of water across your face. We cherish our mornings like one of our sacred times of the day. Ever skipped any of these rituals of the mornings or had a tweak in the routine? How does it change your state of mind for the rest of the day?

Some people may even go on to follow a planned order of sequence before beginning their day.

We do want to create these smaller details personal to us. In the simplest jobs of the day from choosing only a certain pan for preparing breakfast, to arrange your study desk in a very specific arrangement. I can see individuals performing routines as a boost to gain control over the tasks of the day. We go through creating sequences, patterns intuitively as we go on from developing ourselves routines, these are in a way a reflection of how you would do things. An individual is naturally a complex mixture of influences. Sounds very casual to believe these are shaping our practices and processes, isn’t it?

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Hold on, there’s a lot more to these habits and process explorations of how we as individuals, creators, designers are bringing our narratives to design.

For understanding our conversations and enjoying the reinterpretations, let’s look at an exotic meal cooked and curated by a chef. It’s the ingredients that are available to him/her and these ingredients don’t have a sense of direction or a recipe. The story of the recipe is also not just putting all the ingredients together, that would be a terrible way to describe a process. It goes back to the chef understanding and experimenting with flavors, carefully handpicking the best of ingredients dicing, mincing, sauteing, and preparing with the right size and textures, bringing the character of the dish. The chef knows the core value of the dish comes from the details of the process he/she believes in.

It’s not debatable that each chef comes from a different narrative about their work which brings so many different personalities within the profession and a different flavor to each creation.

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Just a simple street food example of a chaat has so many iterations in the country from Kolkata, Gujarat, Delhi, Maharashtra, down to the south. Each iteration is not only affected by regional culture but individualistically altered by the creator.

Imagine a brief being put ahead of the chef with a manual of instructions and an order of process, would we be able to experience the exquisite characteristics of the chef and the uniqueness one brings to the food.

It’s not to take away from saying, there isn’t a larger sequence of things that governs the recipe. It’s more to say that there is a flexible space between the template of the recipe and the prepared dish by the chef.

Every designer has a different take on design and over the years some influential designers have developed their unique language. The approach and design process is one of the most primary and important stages of design which distinguishes the profession from not being just output-driven but all the adjoint values that bring the design together.

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Types of Chaats from different parts of India.

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Every line begins with a dot, Every dot can be put down from a different narrative.

Prem Jadhav

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THE BEGINNING The beginning of an idea is almost always unintentional or non-linear, it has traveled to you from a source unplanned. The beginnings can be from a bookmarked thought or a comment that has your imaginative senses tingled. These inspirations are something we all hold on to in our lives like a favorite poem noted in our diary of thoughts. The designer is always letting these influences, inspirations take oneself to an imaginative state, and in the journey of returning to this reality, beginning points can always be changed.

They have the capacity to change into a completely new thought because of the nature of its being. For example, a clay, freshly put on the studio platform with the creator trying to visualize a form can be molded easily without guilt to a form that isn’t initially planned of.

The same is the nature of a ”beginning” in a project that can form different realities, possibilities gradually keep reducing as a more refined shape starts to develop.

More importantly, the intangibility factor at this stage plays a crucial role. The idea is in the imaginative plane, the tangible form is unexplored by the eye and this makes the beginning of a project imminent exploring multiple starting points. This helps represent the exact idea or helps to get closer to the visualization.

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The ecstasy to begin something always is on the edge and the beginnings have this added emotional rocket that drives an individual. In support of the emotions, we are often trying to establish a state of mind before we begin. An attempt to arrange the plates and light the candles before dinner.

Psychologically the inception of a project beginning also represents the many directions, interrogating each thought with relation to the demands of the project.

The trigger to begin is often a response to inspirations, project needs, etc but more importantly an effort by an individual to recalibrate themselves occupying varied thoughts on a project. The thoughts begin to reflect in a project thus allowing the individual to perceive them in reality.

The triggers need to be carefully addressed because it’s not always, demand to fulfill or brief to solve. One may begin to work on a project because it fulfills some personal beliefs. Some triggers to begin might be just the need to nibble on something and ruminate about.

Kavie. “ArtbyKavie.” Etsy, November 14, 2019. https://www.etsy.com/shop/ArtbyKavie.

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I traveled the peaks, the oceans, The cold severe Russian winters.

To write a novel of the footsteps passed by.

Prem Jadhav

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IMAGINING THE PROCESS To imagine something like a creative process is a meta understanding. The word “process” is like being in a state of motion, making it difficult to encapsulate into something absolute. One can imagine it like a relationship of a story with its main character. The magic of any story is the point of view in relation to the protagonist of the story. In the cinematic world, there have been some dark realistic movies of crime and conspiracies and even movies like a little girl who lost her balloon. The audience feels the intensity of emotions to characters that are closer to the point of view in the story.

The story of the creator and his creation is also similar to the above-mentioned example. The creative process creates a strong relationship between the designer with its design. A process can be imagined as a very intimate journey for the creator, and this interpretation encompasses different levels of interactions, explorations, and interconnections it brings for the designer as well.

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As mentioned, it’s tough to present an absolute picture of a creative process, we can understand its existence in different verticals of creative professions. By doing a wide-angled view of what a creative process brings to different creative fields, we can bring a comprehensive and varied perspective to introspect and form more meaningful insights. In today’s fluid time and age, stark boundaries aren’t defined in the creative sphere. It is more relevant to understand a creative process as a whole unlike in isolation, specific to a profession.

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UNDER CREATIVE LENSES

To delve deep into the understanding of creative processes, there felt a need to talk to creative individuals from different walks of life, from all kinds of disciplines and varied interests. The conversations captured the different meanings attached to a creative process and their individualistic navigation to create one for themselves.

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WES ANDERSON Film Director

BISWA KALYAN RATH Stand Up Comedian

VICTOR MURGUIA Chef

PROTEESH RAVI Music Composer

SALONI SARAF Choreographer

DHARA JAIN

Production Designer

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WES ANDERSON FILM DIRECTOR

Film director, writer Wes Anderson has some interesting comments on how he brings himself on board and pictures himself in the product of his making.

“There is some degree to which, whatever is coming from my imagination is inspired by my background and my own psychology, without me controlling or choosing to, I’m in the movie.”

He goes on to speak about his creative process of writing a script. Highlighting all the characters of his movies are a creation of reimagining real people from his life.

“Pull out from your past. All my characters are about real people reimagined.”

One may notice that his movies have characters with fantasy-like costumes. The focus on detailing each character with a costume is his unique way of creating his character and its background. Often, the whole narrative is an amalgamation of imagination and reality with lines blurring between the two... In his writing style, he brings in a childlike perspective to present unusual characters which he resonates with himself. The creative process is hugely influenced by his playful, quirky nature of imagination on subjects that are far more serious to the audience.

He expresses that if any character from his movies is interchanged and brought on a different set of his movies, they would feel at home. It is due to the fact that his characters are all created from a very personalized version and they all resemble some common values and traits of Anderson.

1DP/30: The Fantastic Mr Fox, Director Wes Anderson. DP/30: The Oral History Of Hollywood, 2012.

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Film Director, Writer Wes Anderson.

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Film Director, Writer Wes Anderson with his characters designed for "Isle of Dogs" 2018.

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BISWA KALYAN RATH STAND UP COMEDIAN

On a different performance-based creative profession called stand-up comedy, the iteration of the creative process changes where a written and rehearsed piece is stitched in real-time, with no retakes and the setup being more intimate with the audience. The laugh, the applaud, the anticipation of the next joke is seen right in the eye of the audience.

Indian Stand Up comedian Biswa Kalyan Rath recollects his writing and performing process, the jokes that impact harder are always where the audience has been put in the premise and is relatable to them. The jokes have to be a personal story he has experienced for the storytelling experience to not feel rehearsed. Structuring jokes in a manner where the rhythm of the laugh keeps pushing upwards and have a punchline to climax. These decisions are taken while continually writing-performing-writing loop until there is satisfaction. Here the creative process of writing a script is ongoing unlike for a movie.

“The journey of the joke is evolving constantly and thus the importance of keeping the process intact is very important for a stand-up comedian” These comparative understandings of a creative process show some evident similarities and differences in processes.

This has led to also understand how one brings a personal context or background while working on a process and sometimes even feels the need to document it.

This has intrigued me to explore more diverse creative lenses through industry professionals where their understanding of the creative process is explored with relation to their profession.

Journey Of A Joke Feat. Biswa Kalyan Rath. Son of Abish, 2016. https://www.youtube.co watch?v=898cV3653Qc.

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Stand up comedian Biswa Kalyan Rath performing live, 2016.

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VICTOR MURGUIA CHEF

Chef. Victor Murguia, a Mexican chef with twenty-plus years of experience is one of the best in his profession. Victor, when asked about what narrative he comes with for his work, how does he explore his creations or imagine a new culinary experiment.

Victor praises all his grandmother’s and mother’s Mexican recipes passed on from generations that are sacred to him. He keeps a very humble perspective about his work saying he’s just a cook who has the privilege of knowledge from his native land.

In search of what drives him to work, the perspective is simple and yet very close to him. He shares a delight to feed people and make them happy. After twenty years as a professional chef and cuisine designer, he believes the appreciation one receives from clients who come to dine is rewarding and satisfying.

A kitchen is a place of high intensity and all kinds of shouting, screaming, cussing, volatile flames, and rush. An active volcano behind closed doors often becomes very important to orient the kitchen and go about work with discipline, says Victor. The narrative of reiterating and contemporizing traditional Mexican food is to keep up with the changing tastes. He refers to change as something that makes him explore the coming together of cultures.

His stance on the creative process is that the imagining of different flavors is much more vigorous than the actual process of creation. Some intuitive nature of blending flavors is not to be perceived as random, as it has developed over experience and knowledge sharing. He refers to kitchen drills as intense as those in the army training camp, “sometimes bloodshed and burns” he adds hysterically.

Therefore preparations in a kitchen are a stage of unity and “prep” as he refers to the kitchen as something that can make or break the further sequence of cooking.

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Chef. Victor Murguia at his restaurant in Mumbai

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PROTEESH RAVI MUSIC COMPOSER

“There’s no one way of getting inspired, the workflow might be linear in its sequence but it’s important to listen to the idea.”

Proteesh Ravi is a music composer and producer who grew with his passion and interest in music ever since he was a child.

He gave some insights on the way he begins his project and how he encapsulates it into a creative process.

Even a very crude beginning to an idea has to be heard and acknowledged in the head and try to document the sound. The idea is used as a baseline thought and explored using different instruments in his music.

He thrives on unexpected explorations.

He calls himself a musician who keeps pushing his own explorations and is happy with spontaneity, and most importantly, doesn’t approach the idea unprepared.

The process of documenting the idea doesn’t take him tiring efforts as much as it does to master, mix and post-process the sound idea. Here it looks a bit different from what chef Victor’s idea of the process was, where imagining the idea and flavors were a vigorous effort..

Interestingly Proteesh refers to a guitar as an extension of his body and uses a Sony Walkman to record himself.

He encapsulates the emotion through an instrument which is like a notepad for him.

Proteesh believes when being in an emotional spike, the emotional train has to ride thoroughly till the end without thinking about how to document the emotion. This makes the experience of the emotion complete and the data of the emotion is more accurate. Then ruminate and reflect over the piece from a third-person perspective or a wider distance.

We followed the conversation by elaborating on how he alters his process if he reaches saturation or a roadblock using the same.

The important understanding he describes is the ability to foresee a dead-end. This reflection of a creative process was insightful this definitely is a creative drive for unpublished, self-driven projects.

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Proteesh Ravi performing live in Pune.

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SALONI SARAF CHOREOGRAPHER

"One not only needs to prepare for the performance but also prepare for the response to the performance."

Saloni is a trained classical dancer in the style of Kathak, who choreographs and performs contemporary kathak pieces across the world. She expresses the performance of kathak as a combination of (Nritya) dance and (Abhinay) expression.

The creative artform of Kathak is part technical dance and a storytelling experience. This abstraction of the art form was elaborated to explain how are the processes created to build a performance in kathak. Saloni’s take on the dance style is about trying to deliver a complete story. Traditionally mythological pieces were performed which she appreciates but she is exploring the new horizon of contemporary stories in kathak.

Reimagining the old mythological stories into a contextual piece of today’s culture.

In her performances, she uses a combination of her emotions and abstract topics that aren’t traditionally practiced.

These subjects are developed using a two-fold process, what is her body’s response to the thought, and what are the traditional dance steps (Mudras) the language used to deliver the thought.

It’s a playful combination and you have to constantly see yourself move to the rhythm of the emotion. How can you use a pre-existing language (Mudras) and try to make it your own, allow yourself to play with it says, Saloni.

The creative process is trying to bridge the gap of telling the story with your body. The preparations of the performance can’t be just to answer yourself because it is seen by the audience so it also needs to be prepared to answer the questions in response.

To be able to prepare, it requires extensive research on the story but also self-awareness of your body’s movements.

Saloni’s interpretation of her process reflects values for intuition-based thinking and self-awareness, engineered with music and body movements.

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Saloni Saraf rehersing kathak.

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DHARA JAIN

PRODUCTION DESIGNER

“Visualisation on cocaine and Interiors on speed” Dhara is a Production designer also known as an Art director in the industry, one of the faces behind the beautiful visuals of Bollywood on-screen. Dhara’s portfolio has some amazing projects from MTV back in the days of the early 2000s to recent notable movies like Gully Boy, Bombay Velvet, Tumhari Sulu and, A Suitable Boy on Netflix.

Dhara reminiscences the profession’s collaborative process, with each contributor has a key role for the movie set to be visualized. Dhara describes her role to be the narrator of the director’s vision into real spaces from the camera’s eye.

The movie scene is only an emotional attachment to her until the shot is done.

The creative process in finding the right mood for the story, to creating the right character of the space is iterative and nonlinear.

Each movie requires a different process and therefore it’s elaborate to express any process as “The process” of designing spaces for the camera. Dhara believes the research has a high value in understanding the movie’s requirement from the space, if the space needs to exaggerate a scene or subtle down the tone. The research is extensive and site-based. Understanding the people from culture to create a film set about them. Live conversations, observations, documentation, and reasoning create a good base study before beginning to create. It’s important to see the space from the character’s shoes in a non-biased manner.

Dhara’s description of the understanding of her process is a take on the multi-fold collaboration in design, which is important for the high level of quality and precision required, non-negotiable as the camera captures each detail in the scene. Redefining the creative process in an adaptive manner is the way to produce more robust design theories, says Dhara.

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Production Designer Dhara Jain.

40 Example of creating an existing space (left) into a movie set according to the theme (Bottom left and right) .

Jain, Dhara. “PRODUCTION DESIGN – TALES, TROUBLES, TASTES ;).” Web log. Many Many Things (blog), June 2, 2020.

41 “What is really important is understanding the psychology of the screenplay and then creating physical environments, adding your expertise in this creation, and running the show as imagined. To be able to convince viewers that the world of film is undeniably real – constructed, adapted, or found. " Dhara Jain

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DESIGN AS STORYTELLING When we understand different narratives of creative individuals on their outcome, there is a story. The fundamental story talks about an experience. These ingenious individuals from different verticals of music, dance, design all have a backstory to why they see themselves as creatives.

What can be defined as a story?

A sketch is a story, a photograph is a story, a musical piece is a story and the process of arriving at a design can be imagined as a story.

Good design has a story. A story that is contextual to the user. We have seen the incentives and values addressed as the parent of design. It would be considered a failure to talk of a design without a story.

It would exist in a void without letting the people know where it comes from and what it brings to the people. A well-narrated story to design brings all the necessary details about the design. Stories we all grew up listening, of fiction and mythology. These have some fundamental values embedded in them as morals.

Similarly in design, it has values attached and built upon, to narrate a story thus becomes essential. Narratives in design give a context to design that gives it more value.

A design outcome has its bases in the narrative, taking the narrative out of the storytelling experience of design will question its proposed value. From a commercial stand of design, the audience will resonate with why one story of design is better than another.

Why do good designs always have a storytelling experience with them?

The deep roots of the narrative have to be understood by the designer. Reflecting the morals, ethics, aptitude, sentimental values, and understanding of the part and the whole to empathize with the user and design. Product designs by Apple Inc. are an example of the base values of the design the company talks about like future technologies, speed, data privacy that are important to Apple Inc. making it more meaningful for the customer to invest in them.

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Design sketch by Architect Steven Holl, 1989.

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SPATIAL NARRATIVES Architecture is a representation of all morals, designed into a reality. Most architects would like to describe their built space as a sequence to a story, which does not exist in a void, the story is an early intimation of the design A designed space is read and interpreted differently by the people. The reader is seeing a space based on their different cultural lenses, therefore it’s our responsibility to create the right spatial narrative but also give these moments of reflection.

Building a spatial narrative is a culmination of historical investigations, new perspectives, and translating experiences.

The language of a spatial narrative is inspired by the people it represents. An interesting role of a spatial narrative in design is... A designed space can be about a story of the history of the very people which they do not know about.

By uncovering a spatial narrative that delivers them back their history, it signifies a value more than imagined. It forces the sensitive lens towards architecture and design.

It can be explained through a journey of walking through a museum of historical artifacts where the curator informs about the backstories of each monument-like object, which creates a feeling of sensitivity and responsibility to preserve and understand its value. Without the narrative and information about the artifacts, it becomes insignificant and hard to connect and create the feeling of sensitivity.

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In a spatial design conversation, the narrative holds key information about the site, sentiments, and other details unavailable without a story. The design will require an imaginary plinth to form a structure on, that is provided by the spatial narrative. It is different from site information which is the data of surroundings and technicalities.

The spatial narratives come from an imaginative plane that allows people to imagine the space through the lens of the designer.

A language through which the design is built, the spatial rhythm of the built form is a reflection of how well the spatial narrative is created. It begins at the first twitchy scribbles that represent a spatial form because the spatial narrative goes hand in hand from the very beginning of the idea.

It will become an abstract of the idea while you draw the idea to see for yourself.

Representational sketches depicting built space ideated from topographic wave forms.

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The idea of the narrative is empowering the spectator yet very fundamental to not give away too much information.

Prem Jadhav

48 Architect Steven Holl uses his sketches as a narrative and proposal to his client’s briefs and visualizes the spaces for them through the act of presenting his designs with strong reasoning.

In his project of a museum for a monastery in Cassino, Italy in 1996, he expresses the building should be about a ray of light dancing to a musical score. The program was designed to encapsulate this idea of light jumping off the walls of the museum as a Rudolf Laban notation.

Sketch by Architect Steven Holl of the Museum of Cassino

Drawing as Thought, 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnp3g-6VoaU.

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Images of Museum of the city Cassino, Italy bulit by Steven Holl's concept of light and dance.

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Photgraph of Museum of the city Cassino, Italy bulit by Steven Holl's concept of light and dance.

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In another project, Daeyang Gallery + House from Seoul, Korea, a space built around the analogy of symphony of modules, written by a Hungarian composer Istvan Anhalt was produced as space and merge symphony with light.

Symphony of modules used as a concept as seen in the plan view.

Representational drawings of Daeyang Gallery by Steven Holl.

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Holl, Steven. “Daeyang Gallery and House / Steven Holl Architects.” ArchDaily, May 15, 2012.

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Architects make sketches - or so, we are told. Our discourse endlessly circles around a few twitchy lines. Seemingly fragile drawings turn out to be extraordinarily resilient and infinitely strange.

Mark Wigley

Mark Wigley - The Strange Time of the Sketch. AA School of Architecture, 2015.

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WHY DO WE SKETCH? As the title of the chapter suggests an introspective nature, the aim is to look at the psychological relationship between a designer and a sketch. To introspect the qualities of a drawing that help visualize a thought, and look at examples of work of diverse architects who create a unique visual quality from their sketches and represent their ideas precisely.

In a modern and digitalized era of design, sketching a form of physical language on a 2D surface in order to create space, stands of profound importance with its quality of helping to see through the act of making the sketch. The relation of a sketch and an idea is such that it needs to be reinforced and looked at to imagine a relentless progressive momentum.

The act of seeing is dynamic and creative, almost considered as seeking recognizable patterns by the brain, yet it has to be reinforced by documenting to stabilize the visualization. The eye is blind if the mind’s perception cant visualize a pattern. To cultivate the visual, drawing is evolved through thousands of years of evolution to navigate all the visual energy into a sketch and see. We normally do not see all that we are capable of. Preconceived notions lead us to miss the ordinary details to the eye, while we draw the details we become more aware and see the smallest of the details skipped by the eye. Imagining the drawing enables us to recall our past perceptions and take it a step further.

All the energy and embodiment is transferred on a surface while resolving a mystery of design and architecture that appears to the mind. While we draw we are absorbing the mysterious force of the idea figuring the role of the sketch to structural importance. One can be nervous or less confident about the sketch compared to that of a completed site yet it’s the sketch reassuring the existence of the site in an imaginative plane.

Traditionally in architecture and spatial design, the sketch is considered an image not entirely from this world and imagination but which hovers between the two. So the lines emerging on the paper are a registration of truth of the architect’s imagination which does not have a direct meaning in reality. The conversion into reality is sequential and iterative.

Drawing As Thinking | Michael Graves: Past as Prologue. Past as Prologue, 2015.

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Representation of the human brain's capacity to identify patterns to create a visual.

Ching, Francis D. K.., Juroszek, Steven P.. Design Drawing. United States: Wiley, 2019.

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Jewish Museum sketch by Daniel Libeskind, Courtesy Studio Libeskind.

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Some perceive it as an energy that runs through them, which helps them see the sketch while the twitchy lines start to capture the faithfulness of the idea on paper. Interestingly the sketch is therefore used to see a thought because the creator or architect also has not seen the space in its entirety. Then emerges a good architect who is able to present the honest idea and decode it into a physical structure. It can be imagined as good architecture can create the same stimulus of energy as the sketch while standing in front of the complete building.

In the middle of completion of a site, the picture of the site is different from that of the sketch as if it was to show the temporary nature of the building’s form. In theory, the role of the sketch is to take the form of the architect’s voice and negotiate a desirable reality from the building which is in process of completion. The sketch essentially is an entity that is formed due to a synchronized hand-eye- mind coordination...

EYE

HAND

MIND

In a lecture at the AA School of Architecture in London, the faculties even go on to trace the actions of the hand of a definite grip position of the pencil. A loosely held pencil has a free-flowing nature of lines that psychologically allow more fluid sketching.

It changes the brain’s culture of exploring.

We believe the brain commands the hand, it’s also the opposite, and the movement of the hand guides the brain to ideate in a fluid manner.

This led to understanding a new perspective about drawing as thinking and being inspired by the various celebrated architects and designers who used drawing to imagine a unique visual style for their architecture.

Drawing As Thinking | Michael Graves: Past as Prologue. Past as Prologue, 2015.

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DRAWING AS THINKING

"Sketches are a path into the inner thoughts of the person at the time, far more revealing than any final presentation drawing."

This quote by Norman Foster is a very precise imagination, and it can be explored in the works of a lot of great architects and designers. It summarises one of the reasons a sketch is crucial to present an idea. The Sketches that present blurry lines are more interesting than a typical render which reduces the scope of imagination as if to suggest the end of the product. Some designers refrain from presenting too many renders if the built form is different from the render even in the slightest manner.

The purpose of deciphering drawings of architects and not the final project is to gravitate and absorb the creative thinking and processing of the idea.

One of the very inspiring architects for many generations, Le Corbusier has communicated his silence, the travels, the mesmerizing mystery throughout his body of sketches. The physical quantum of sketches suggests his mastery in ideating a thought.

Many of Le Corbusier’s sketches are generally monochromatic, but no less whimsical in their nature. Non-architectural forms feature, including the bulls of Chandigarh, boats, shells, and other objects of inspiration. Others, such as the pencil and pastel study of the iconic Villa Savoye, appear subtle and precise. A hand-drawn manifestation of the architect’s ideas.

He later drafts a five-point manifesto that he bases his designs on. We would focus on the character of his spatial sketches and travel notes that brought a unique style of representing the mind.

Smith, Kendra. Architect Drawings a Selection of Sketches by World Famous Architects through History . Oxford, UK: Elsevier Ltd, 2005.

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Le Corbusier's sketch depicting the use of words to supplement his drawing from a travel journey.

Corbusier, Le. “Drawing and Collage.” Foundation Le Corbusier. Accessed April 24, 2021.

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Sketch by Le Corbusier as a practise to document his travels.

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"I would like architects, not just students to pick up a pencil and draw a plant, the leaf, the spirit of the tree, the harmony of the seashells, forming of the clouds, so as to discover the expression of inner force.

I would like their hands and minds to passionately become involved in this kind of intimate investigation."

In many of his published sketchbooks provide rich information, the travel books are notations of visual information but some also use colors for coding, train reservations, representations of different trees on the travel. Some of the sketches show a firm pencil technique while some suggest a wavering, slow deliberation.

His information had a sense of political sensitivity and in his work unfinished had a strong personality that showed his forgetfulness as he often reinforced his sketches with words to suggest he little trusted his memory. The forms suggested a response to his travels and storyboarding.

His informal learning of architecture and observational travel journaling has navigated his path into architecture.

In his quote, he mentions ”inner force”, “harmony” and, “intimate investigation” to his perspective concerned about The capturing of a deeper feeling. The question of what is the drawing trying to tell me? This approach by Corbusier made him find the narrative in the drawing which was beyond a surface understanding. The process of drawing was an act of internal conversation and the drawings become a journal of intimate thoughts. The drawings become a referential point in his working memory.

It is evident that thinking through drawings is a crucial part of Le Corbusier’s process of designing. Going back to his journal of experiences for inspiration that became concepts to a built form. This created a clear guide to understand more celebrated freehand drawing works with a different timeline in architecture to understand the underlying similarities and differences of thinking through drawing. I would like to end the introspection into his work with a quote that highlight the value in drawing.

“I prefer drawing to talking. Drawing is faster, and leaves less room for lies.”

Pauly, Daniele. Le Corbusier: Drawing As Process. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2018.

“Architects’ Sketchbooks: Le Corbusier.” Web log. Architizer (blog), 2020.

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Lunuganga property of Geoffrey Bawa Trust.

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In another world’s architectural style, from a time different from Le Corbusier, an upbringing and narrative about architecture different, the study of drawings of Geoffrey Bawa, a tropical modernist architect from Sri Lanka. He is known as the principal driving force of the style of tropical modernism in south Asia and known for his spatial understandings and relentlessly informational sketches. This study creates more sense of congruency in how drawing as thinking is approached with changing time and personalities with the given context…

In a contextual understanding of Geoffrey Bawa’s personal history, he came from a privileged class of Sri Lanka at the time in 1919. His early career life has very little influence on his decision to practice architecture in his later years. Spending his early life in the capital of Colombo, Bawa’s attraction to architecture was imminent in the love for embracing peace and solitude.

His work is widely appreciated to have left a unique drawing style and architecture in the Indian subcontinent and South Asia.

Bawa, Geoffrey. “Lunuganga.” Sri Lanka, 2020.

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We particularly analyze his drawings on Lunuganga, a private property of his family in Sri Lanka. This is one of the lake-side properties he owned with a tropical dense forest around that made him fall in love with spaces and the relationship with nature. The project is one of his very first and extraordinary of his decision to elaborate the design and kept working on his project across his lifespan (1948-1998) like his self-portrait in time. Bawa treated his architecture like an ongoing painting frozen in different timelines, exploring the space in a time and living through it. The gardens at the Lunuganga estate remained his first muse and experimental laboratory for new ideas. He continued to change and experiment with its spaces and structures throughout his life until his final illness in 1998.

Bawa’s architecture can be imagined as the coming together of the outside and inside where the boundaries blur to the eye and the words like interior and exterior all lose their meaning. His drawings present a reassuring picture of his values to make each and every aspect on the site inclusive and detailed. The plans of Lunuganga are detailed with each tree branch and shrub on his property to not forget the existence of something that was valuable to the site.

Plan of Lunuganga, Sri Lanka by Geoffrey Bawa.

Discussing Geoffrey Bawa's Influence with Bhaveeka | Conversation Series: Episode 0 | CRIT SPACE. New Zealand: Crit Space, 2020.

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Lunuganga property of Geoffrey Bawa Trust.

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Bawa’s sketches heavily reflect his values in design, the inclusive and comprehensive details, and more prominent his ideology of merging nature with a living space in a modest way. The way Bawa oriented his drawings they are different from the nature of a Le Corbusier sketch or a Frank Gehry.

The drawings are not in a finite finished form yet the complexity of the drawing shows the analytical nature and fear of missing out on details valuable.

The perspective of drawing as thinking of the design is different for both architects yet they meet the representational, analytical, and diagrammatical values of the medium. This led to concluding an understanding of the value of drawing as a medium of thinking which requires both the body and mind to function actively.

More specifically the “dual process” of engaging with the body and mind for an architectural designer refers to thinking in a primary and secondary manner. The cognitive stimulus to the hand-eye is easily processed and therefore understood more accurately which is crucial for a creative process.

Discussing Geoffrey Bawa's Influence with Bhaveeka | Conversation Series: Episode 0 | CRIT SPACE. New Zealand: Crit Space, 2020.

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DRAWING AS OCCUPYING Occupying a drawing is a phenomenon that involves creative visualization and awareness to build spaces through imagination. It can be described as using the sketch to create an imaginative world inside the sketch. The viewer is placed inside the sketched world and is free to explore the sketch with imagination.

This method of utilizing the drawing for visualization creates numerous possibilities and interpretations. Occupying the drawing makes it simpler for the creator to leave room for the context to be flexible according to the viewer.

The viewer is the protagonist and makes the occupied space his own.

This phenomenon can’t be used as a presentation strategy as the intentions have to be precise and can’t be left to interpretation to the viewer. While this can be used to actively collaborate with the client or user to bring empathized inputs.

Drawing is a 2-dimensional representation form, in the drawing the 3-dimensional planes can be created to be perceived as close to reality to the eye. To enhance this experience of viewing, occupying the drawing is considered as a strategy to influence more accurate decisions in the context of the space inside the drawing.

Spanish Architect Enric Miralles explores this notion of occupying the drawing by using a Representational plan as a Map. He expresses...

Miralles, Enric. “Drawings by Enric Miralles.” Barcelona Architecture Walks, February 14, 2018.

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“As architects, we unconsciously tend not to associate necessarily the plans we draw with the notion of the map. However, both of those two objects register in the same process of cartographic creation and, in this regard, use a two-dimensional language in order to create space.”

Sketch illustrating the viewer's notions of reading spaces as dioramas.

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An experimental Architect and Thinker, Lebbeus Woods who’s theoretical work and drawings are considered from a futuristic world imagined by Lebbeus back in 1980’s.

The sketches by Woods are metaphoric and challenging the time of architecture that prevailed at the time. He created dystopic and futuristic drawings to enable a vision for not the present architecture but to imagine a future for architecture. A sense of direction and creating imaginative structures that can become a part of the architectural mass. One can look at his drawings to imagine the context of the architecture and bring reasoning by occupying his drawings.

In his project “A space of Light” a light pavilion, inspired from the lines as vectors and forces, the notion of occupying the carved out space is seen through his set of drawings. These drawings led to as understanding of how to engineer the suspending light pillars. It would be unimaginative to endure his vision without occupying them.

Drawing by Lebbeus Woods for the Light Pavillion, China

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Light Pavillion, China by Architect Lebbeus Woods

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Centricity: Aero-Livinglab, 1986-1987

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Centricity: Geomechanical Towers, 1987-1988

Lebbeus Woods conceptualised Centricity as a direction of thought for the future, he said "I think that these things could be built. Of course some of them are probably technologically not possible at the present moment, maybe never. But by and large, I would like them to be built, and to see what we can do with them, to see what they would mean to us."

Frearson, Amy. “Lebbeus Woods: Early Drawings.” Dezeen, 2012.

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What makes the human-human is design. The history of our species is a history of continually redesigning ourselves in every possible way. It’s not like the human who designs but somehow in design, the human emerges as a designer and the victim.

The world that has emerged is designed from all sorts, the climate is designed, the communication systems, the spaces we occupy are all a product of calculation.

Mark Wigley

Are We Human? Interview with Mark Wigley, 2017.

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WHAT THE WORLD SEES The perception of the creative field is expressed by many, the belief of being a “Representator”.

“Dear xyz, I’m looking for hiring an architect to draw for me for a residential project, but I already know what I want...” shares Architect Andy Bernheimer on his social media, a screenshot of an email from a client, which summarises a notion attached to the profession. The creative fraternity has always jugled and faced to answer the profession’s role in the society to the uninformed.

An important role of a creative individual, shown from the existence of mankind has been the ability to reimagine. In context to our capacity to reimagine, Given a twig to a bird to pull out a worm from below a snag.

If the bird succeeds using a method by poking the twig from one end, it will continue to use the same technique for a thousand years to come. Humans have the curiosity to try a different method everytime. He has the drive to reiterate. It reflects in our ability to reimagine lifestyles, food, clothing, transport etc.

The role of design is very interstingly explained by Mark Wigley. To those outside the field, the complexity of a job is measured by means of tangibility, which might be sometimes difficult to portray in literal forms.

To elaborate on these beliefs, a creative process is also put in literal boxes like research, concept, design development, prototypes, etc. While these stages are valuable in the process, they can’t be perceived as as boxes to check.

The creator shouldn’t think of being at a particular stage in isolation. For example some believe the research has to be a point of extensive paragraphs of data collection and synthesis. The research can’t be carried in isolation. It has to be more interactive and fluid. Research may not necessarily be heavy documentation and some boring statistics, it can be imagined creatively with observations, infographics, quotes, poems. It brings more visual quality to the research that can be easily absorbed as it becomes more empathised.

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Wendy MacNaughton, Illustrator & Graphic Journalist at NYT shared the idea and psychology of drawing.

Macnaughton, Wendy. “Why Kids Need to Draw.” Wendy Macnaughton (blog), 2021.

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INTERPRET, REINTERPRET To conclude my understandings from a retrospective lens of analyzing a creative process. I can establish my interpretations that summarise a version personal and reflective.

Looking at design as a projection, it’s always projected in the direction of the future where the process validates the future to an extent.

The design process is a reflection of morals, ethics, aptitude, sentimental values, and understanding of the part and the whole.

In Architecture and Design, developing a creative process is important and we are taught to discover ideas using drawing, sketching, exploring triggers to begin a project and, expressing in newer mediums personal to oneself. The creative process is an amalgamation of these tools that are traditionally practiced and are evolving with the digitized era of design., It can thus be said that the creative process is an iterative sequence of actions/tools to discover a narrative to design.

This analogy is a take on the position of a designer in this world and trying to understand what we aim to create or design in turn is designing or shaping us.

The spatial narratives we create to guide the design becomes a part of the history of the space that can’t be erased and designs the coming generations indirectly.

Therefore in design, the narratives are more important personally.

A designer has the liberty to explore a lateral or linear approach to design. A data-based linear design approach can make the narrative dehumanized and may feel the need to blow a fresh narrative, inspiration. The other side of too much inspiration and self-conscious decisions can make the design irrelevant to reality.

The awareness of a designer will psychologically act as brakes from going overboard.

Gozhenko, Yevgen. “Thinking Through Drawing .” Thinking Through Drawing, 2017.

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For example, in one of the collaborative project in 2018 “Entwine” inspired by a weaver bird’s nest. The explorations of notions of a mother-child bond were used to design an experiential space based on a robust understanding of reimagining concepts into spaces that have the capacity to be built. It would have been impossible to share the metaphors of bio-mimicry without our sketches that reinforced the core ideas. It enabled the sketched form to be taken to a spatial configuration.

Concept sketches of "ENTWINE" converted to a spatial understanding using ideation sketches.

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Close Up photograph of the spatial model created to visualise "ENTWINE". 2018.

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Close Up photograph of the spatial model created to visualise "ENTWINE". 2018.

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The collaborative yet personalised creative process to decode a bio-mimcry into a spatial configuration helped navigate and culminate results in a structured manner as aspired by the designers.

The spatial model thus enables the sketches to be visualied in reality, validating the sketches as a spatial form.

Top: Hand Rendered Sketch of a detail of the cove in "ENTWINE" Bottom: Spatial Model to visualise the experiential space created through concept sketches.

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The creative processes can also be imagined in the research and site analysis stages of a project. For example, the research in design does not just state facts but can be approached as a creative process, using parallel studies that do not directly form links to the design but can be explored as a metaphoric connection and open up new possibilities of interpreting a subject.

There are instances where the lateral/linear process takes the lead to highlight the identity or various other elements of the design. At times it may also sit back and allow intuition-based thinking to take control of the design and the tools in the process are merely functional to engineer the outcome. In relation to this thought, tools are also driving the process and are noticed in the dependency if one utilizes a singular tool to derive for all types of design. To elaborate, designing in only a digital format can make your design look a particular type, and because it is only governed by a set of commands that can only perform twist, warp, bulge, etc to name simply.

Are We Human? Interview with Mark Wigley, 2017.

As much as the narrative of today’s design suggests the digitalized version of ideating will be prominent in the future. Each added technology to the human becomes more a part of the human brain. Mark Wigley argues “We are in a living in a moment of history where it’s debatable if we are adding technology to ourselves or ourselves to technology”.

It is thus important we take a step back and recognize the value of freehand drawing which has shaped the brain’s culture to imagine for thousands of years still governs a major stake in designing.

Our designs may be governed by a larger set of tools like research, prototyping, design strategies yet it is fundamental to narrate the core idea and value of the design. Whether we continue to study at university or practice design as a professional there is immeasurable value in thinking through drawing. Either used to present a concept or share an active experience or bookmark an idea it is crucial for our creative process. Perhaps until technology substitutes the benefits of drawing we should continue to keep a pencil and a sketchpad handy and dream.

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A Design process is an iterative sequence of actions. There is no ideal state of the design process and, it is subjective interpretation to the designer and the project.

It can’t be thought of as a desk job and nor does it begin or end at office hours, its always free-flowing inside the designer’s life and thus it remains an open conversation of what brings you to design.

Prem Jadhav

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BIBLIOGRAPHY Corbusier, Le. “Drawing and Collage.” Foundation Le Corbusier. Accessed April 24, 2021. http://www.fondationlecorbusier. fr/corbuweb/morpheus.aspx?sysName=list&sysLanguage=en-en&sysParentName=&sysParentId=71&itemPos=1&itemCount=&itemSort=en-en_sort_string1%20&sysPreciseSearch=.

“Architects’ Sketchbooks: Le Corbusier.” Web log. Architizer (blog), 2020. https://architizer. com/blog/practice/tools/architects-sketchbooks-le-corbusier/.

Enric Miralles, Enric. “Drawings by Enric Miralles.” The Barcelona Architecture Walks, February 14, 2018. https://barcelonarchitecturewalks.com/drawings-by-enric-miralles/.

Derek Ham, "Forming Spatial Narratives". MIT Architecture, 2020. https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=WrKyd8mY5mU. Journey Of A Joke Feat. Biswa Kalyan Rath. Son of Abish, 2016. https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=898cV3653Qc. Gozhenko, Yevgen. “Thinking Through Drawing .” Thinking Through Drawing, 2017. https:// issuu.com/yevgengozhenko/docs/dissertation_amc007_-_thinking_thro.

Bawa, Geoffrey. “Lunuganga.” Sri Lanka, 2020.

Pauly, Daniele. Le Corbusier: Drawing As Process. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2018.

Discussing Geoffrey Bawa's Influence with Bhaveeka | Conversation Series: Episode 0 | CRIT SPACE. New Zealand: Crit Space, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDwMOSNjXy0.

Rory Stott. "These Architects' Drawings of Human Figures Offer an Insight Into Their Minds" 20 Mar 2016. ArchDaily. Accessed 25 Apr 2021. <https://www.archdaily. com/784121/these-architects-drawings-of-human-figures-offer-an-insight-into-theirminds> ISSN 0719-8884 Holl, Steven. “Daeyang Gallery and House / Steven Holl Architects.” ArchDaily, May 15, 2012. https://www.archdaily.com/234478/daeyang-gallery-and-house-steven-holl-architects.

Jain, Dhara. “PRODUCTION DESIGN – TALES, TROUBLES, TASTES ;).” Web log. Many Many Things (blog), June 2, 2020. https://manymanythings.co/2020/06/02/production-design-tales-troubles-tastes/.

Miralles, Enric. “Drawings by Enric Miralles.” Barcelona Architecture Walks, February 14, 2018. https://barcelonarchitecturewalks.com/drawings-by-enric-miralles/.

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DP/30: The Fantastic Mr Fox, Director Wes Anderson. DP/30: The Oral History Of Hollywood, 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OuK--xC4M0&list=PLQGlQwr8GXjHcga9d4caTz9dbQ3GL26ag&index=62.

Kreindler, Sarv. “Inside the Mind and Process of Wes Anderson.” Web log. Creative Planet Network (blog), March 5, 2014. https://www.creativeplanetnetwork.com/news/insidemind-and-process-wes-anderson-389840.

Wes Anderson Explains How to Write & Direct Movies | The Director's Chair. StudioBinder, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sdt0oam6O1o.

Mark Wigley - The Strange Time of the Sketch. AA School of Architecture, 2015. https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbFfcLYEnSc&t=2274s.

Drawing As Thinking | Michael Graves: Past as Prologue. Past as Prologue, 2015. https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CdkeG_95nE. Frearson , Amy. “Lebbeus Woods: Early Drawings.” Web log. Dezeen (blog), November 8, 2012. https://www.dezeen.com/2012/11/08/lebbeus-woods-early-drawings/.

Smith, Kendra. Architect Drawings a Selection of Sketches by World Famous Architects through History . Oxford, UK: Elsevier Ltd, 2005. https://issuu.com/bluthize/docs/architect_drawings_-_a_selection_of.

Are We Human? Interview with Mark Wigley, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=43lDV6_jJd8.

Discussing Geoffrey Bawa's Influence with Bhaveeka | Conversation Series: Episode 0 | CRIT SPACE. New Zealand: Crit Space, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDwMOSNjXy0.

Kavie. “ArtbyKavie.” Etsy, November 14, 2019. https://www.etsy.com/shop/ArtbyKavie.

MIRALLES, ENRIC. “THE ARCHITECTURAL PLAN AS A MAP. DRAWINGS BY ENRIC MIRALLES.” The Funamubulist, August 7, 2011. https://thefunambulist.net/editorials/mapsthe-architectural-plan-as-a-map-drawings-by-enric-miralles.

Ching, Francis D. K.., Juroszek, Steven P.. Design Drawing. United States: Wiley, 2019.

Drawing as Thought, 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnp3g-6VoaU. Frearson, Amy. “Lebbeus Woods: Early Drawings.” Dezeen, 2012. https://www.dezeen. com/2012/11/08/lebbeus-woods-early-drawings/.

Macnaughton, Wendy. “Why Kids Need to Draw.” Wendy Macnaughton (blog), 2021. https://www.instagram.com/p/CNu7LBSFBJa/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link.

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In the broader comprehension of the design process and design narratives, the book is a sailor ship trying to imagine the poetic relation of a designer with its design.

The capstone aims to delve into and analyze the beginnings of any project and establishing anchors, Creating your own narratives and exploring them in design. It makes the archival of conversations that are sensitive to the designer, the way one navigates through the journey of building a design process understanding. The interpretations of reading and communicating an idea and making a better understanding of the creative processes through the medium of drawings.

INTERIOR DESIGN THESIS, 2021