"REPRESENTING AN IDEA": the design process and methodology

“REPRESENTING AN IDEA”: 150050939 SEYOUNG HAN ARC3015 THEORY INTO PRACTICE

the design process and methodology

NOTE

With a growing interest in the process of design and evolution of a concept, I have used this essay to identify key phases of my own process and comparing them with architect Peter Zumthor. The text of this essay (which is still to be read vertically from top to bottom) is divided into 3: that on the left hand side shows Zumthor’s attitudes/theories of practice/personal views, the central text acts as general information, and lastly the right hand side connotates to my own personal writings, beliefs and interpretations.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

“PERSONAL”

5

PHASE 1

11

PHASE 2: “THE URGENCY OF THE SKETCH”

15

PHASE 3: “THE MOMENT OF TRUTH” // REALISATION “TRANSFORMATION”

19 23

PHASE 4: “FEELING vs REASON” // REFINEMENT “THE WHOLE AND THE DETAIL”

27 29

“REFLECTION”

33

ENDNOTES LIST OF FIGURES BIBLIOGRAPHY

38 40 41

“WE GENERALLY CREATE A LARGE MODEL, OR A DRAWING… AND SOMETIMES YOU CAN SEE AT THAT STAGE THAT IT FEELS RIGHT – THINGS COHERING. AND THEN I MIGHT LOOK AT IT AND SAY: SURE, IT COHERES, ONLY IT ISN’T BEAUTIFUL… I FINALLY STAND BACK FROM THE WORK AND WHICH MAKES ME THINK: YOU COULD NEVER HAVE IMAGINED WHEN YOU STARTED OUT THAT THIS WOULD BE THE OUTCOME. AND THAT IS SOMETHING THAT ONLY HAPPENS SOMETIMES, EVEN AFTER ALL THESE YEARS – SLOW ARCHITECTURE. IT REALLY GIVES ME PLEASURE, MAKES ME PROUD TOO…”

- (PETER ZUMTHOR, ATMOSPHERES, 2006, P. 71)

“PERSONAL”

Figure 1: Oculus of Bruder Klaus Chapel

Figure 2: Clay sculpt and concrete cast atmosphere studies

Despite the changing appearances of religious architecture throughout the ages, there is one constant priority of design; the visitor, and how they are affected. Following my initial interest in monolithic, rock-cut structures and underground cities at the Primer stage, I was drawn to an image of Peter Zumthor’s Bruder Klaus Chapel (Figure 1) – looking upwards through the oculus, daylight highlights the rough materiality. The ridged, unfinished textural quality of the charred interior walls emphasises the cave-like space against the linear, smooth exterior stone.

Zumthor’s approach to create buildings which do not ‘wish to stir up emotions […] but to allow emotions to emerge, to be’1 is taken from his personal experiences and memories. He reminisces within personal writings, about his aunt’s garden,2 where these memories,‘contain the deepest architectural experience’ like ‘reservoirs of… architectural atmospheres and images.3

Starting the Primer with a protagonist manifesto, this created a narrative of character from the earliest stages of the project.

Individually chosen to represent the essence of religion, ritual and daily life, the protagonist is an embodiment of our final design. It is following Zumthor’s highly nostalgic internal monologues that I have come to explore and dissect his design methodology. His commentary becomes a narrative when seen in unison with his sketches. The narrative runs through the project, of visual, conceptual and spatial perspectives. From the Primer stage, my use of concrete casting and clay sculpting (Figure 2) initiated the creative decision to continue and promote the technique of drawing “by hand”. I wished to depict the tactility and tangibility of the modelling process by exploring rendering techniques such as cross-hatching and pointillism (Figure 3) 7

Figure 3: Tangible ink techniques; cross-hatching and pointillism

within my section drawings. To the present stage of the project, this “manual” approach to drawing has been incredibly effective especially within my design process and working drawings; as my reliability on software declined, my stages and changes were documented on paper. This “trail of process” shows the ‘secret inner tension’4 of the design, an aspect of design that is rarely presented with the finished product. As Zumthor praises frequently within his writings, I aim to also reinforce the importance of the “process”, using sketches, photographs and a personal narrative from the architect’s works and my graduation project.

9

PHASE 1

Figure 4: Architect and mentee

Figure 5: A friendly, co-operative environment

“FROM CONCEPT...”

The conception of an idea cannot be precisely temporally placed. It delves into the realm of unconscious thought and first impressions towards the project brief, or perhaps may be a memory of a previously experienced atmospheric quality. It is but can nevertheless be defined as ‘the creation of a mental picture or idea’,5 the first stage and ‘most fundamental element in triad of interrelated operations – thinking, seeing and drawing’.6

“... TO DESIGN”

Zumthor’s characteristic and recognisable style of combining sensual materiality and extraordinary atmospheric quality is born from the decisions and choices made at different stages of the design process. His elusive office, located ‘right next door to the architect’s house’7 within the mountain-scape of Haldenstein, Switzerland, has an ‘informal workplace atmosphere’,8 as Paul Clemence notes during his visit. The method in how he works inside his office shows him to cooperate first hand with projects (Figure 4) and sitting in discussion with younger employees (Figure 5). I believe this comfortable nature of the workplace may be a representation of the architect’s approach to his architecture and design: personal and intimate.

13

PHASE 2

“THE URGENCY OF THE SKETCH”

15

Figure 6: Bruder Klaus Chapel working drawings

Figure 7: Bruder Klaus Chapel clay models

Figure 8: Excavation concepts for cell design

Unlike architects such as Le Corbusier who boasted to have envisioned the majority of the design before sketching on any paper,9 Zumthor’s working drawings indicate, to me, his preference to think on paper and through physical models. His early sketches are rarely refined, shaded with soft-lead pencil or charcoal in broad shapes.

His sketch of the Bruder Klaus Chapel (Figure 6) depicts the internal form, using a prolonged process of trial and error to ‘find the right interior’.10 After time, the design become ‘clear and elemental: light and shade, water and fire, material and transcendence, the earth below and the sky above’.11

The hatching within the linework is spontaneous and purposeful, with the tonal variation emphasising his motif of light and shade. His sketches of the plan and section, with his modelling iterations (Figure 7), visually narrate the chronology of phases.

Like Zumthor, I find representation techniques of this early stage of design fascinating. The working drawings are ‘detailed and objective’,12 ‘free of associative manipulation’13 of any ‘requirement of polished representation like project drawings’.14 Instead, the linework is driven by passion of the idea where multiple outlines overlap in a transformation process, each stroke becoming a ‘new element that expands and redefines the design task’.15 As our site locations were not revealed until after the Primer stage, the focus remained on the purity of atmospheric quality for the design task of the monastic cell.

Based on the daily life and rituals of the chosen protagonist, my cell employed the concept of excavated spaces using thick walls, a narrow staircase, solid, simplistic masses for a bed and table to create the illusion of being carved from a solid block (Figure 8).

17

PHASE 3

“THE MOMENT OF TRUTH” // REALISATION

Figure 9: Comparison of updated cell design with old iteration

Figure 10: Timetable of surrounding site, plotting busiest hours of day

As the building design transforms, the idea evolves; ‘the sketch assumes different colours on different types of paper, the model takes on different forms in different scales with the help of different materials’.16

Once placing the monastic cell design into my Ouseburn site, it became clear that its design was limiting and restraining – it was too large and required 2 full storey levels with little opportunity for natural daylight.

‘The moment of truth is the moment where the project becomes real’, where ‘you pull out the first sketches again, question all your ideas up until that point, go back to the drawing board…’17 quotes Hauser from Zumthor .

Rather than a failed design, my Primer cell becomes an iteration (Figure 9); I reduced the size to the necessary spaces for my protagonist: prayer, study and sleep. This was a distinguishable design phase within my design process, as the new design referenced the surrounding site (Figure 10) and updated programme requirements. The smaller, single storey cell enabled the use of a rooflight above the central prayer spaces, maximising the daylight opportunity as well as upholding our studio specific focus on spiritual atmospheric quality.

21

Figure 11: Design intentions for specific spaces

Figure 12: Zumthor’s Steinbruchbilder drawings

Figure 13: Introducing colour

“TRANSFORMATION”

Throughout the early stages of my design methodology, I aimed to capture all new ideas, thoughts and development areas within my layers of drawings. This way, I could relate a previous concept if relevant or applicable in a later phase. Upon redrawing iterations of the plans, I hoped to give reasoning and evidence behind my design choices posing questions of why and how it may affect the visitor (Figure 11).

This can be seen within Zumthor’s Steinbruchbilder studies progress in detail and clarity, noticeably using colour to indicate concepts such as the function of the annotated space and the joining of water/light along the floor/ceiling in yellow and orange (Figure 12).18 Using charcoal and pastels, the ‘blocks are drawn and rearranged a thousand times’,19 where each iteration focuses on a key component like a ‘cycle of graphic experiments’.20

Introducing colour to my working drawings animates the design, placing importance to the spaces or ideas it represents, as these zones are labelled and set apart from the black lines (Figure 13). The coloured areas started to represent key components of design and visitor interest, such as courtyard voids (green), water features (blue) and also seating spaces integrated within the materiality (purple), to highlight the relationship and proximity the visitor would have to the key nature “points of interest”. This was taken from a memory of our studio trip to Athens, where I remembered the incorporation of sitting points (Figure 14) upon the Pikionis Path to the Acropolis. Placed on a slope with emphasis on the regeneration of the passage and 23

Figure 14: Seating incorporated using materiality

Figure 15: Admiration for the revived natural surrounding

Figure 16: Harmony of material, fauna and culture

its surrounding landscape (Figure 15), the architect transformed the materiality of the past and present as he invites the visitor to sit and absorb their surroundings (Figure 16).

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PHASE 4

“FEELING VS REASON” // REFINEMENT

Figure 17: Sequence from sketch, to model, to building as design intention remains

Within the Refinement phase of design comes placing it within reality – how the building will stand therefore creating the functional enclosure.

Creating the structure for the refined design should not be separate, opposing forces. The optimum ‘richness’21 of the building outcome will ‘merge and blend […] the constructional and formal structure’22 with design aesthetics. ‘Form and construction, appearance, and function are no longer separate.

They belong together and form a whole’.23 This harmonious marriage of design with construction, the feeling and the reason, is exemplified within Therme Vals.

Natural, local gneiss stone creates the appearance of the baths emerging from the natural greenery, using the construction to ‘express and reinforce the underlying theme of hollowing out and cutting up a great monolithic mass’.24 As discussed previously, the architect’s initial atmospheric desire remains – ‘mighty pillar blocks, large stone floors […] heavy masses cheek by jowel but not touching’ (Figure 17).25 The development from sketch, to model to photograph of the built design shows Zumthor’s attention and care as not to sanitise his atmospheric design intention when introducing technical detail.

“THE WHOLE AND THE DETAIL”

As to reimagine this partnership between form, design, structure and materiality I have chosen to conceal the joints within the construction as much as possible, to emphasise a monolithic appearance in both buildings and landscaping passageways 29

Figure 18: Technical details integrated into design

Figure 19: Using Eduardo Chillida’s public sculpture

Figure 20: Echo and repetition of shape and line creates irregularity, but not chaos

(Figure 18). I wish, for these meandering spaces, to make it appear simultaneously an element of the past and the present, as it will remain and age within the future as with the Pikionis Path.26 After the Realisation phase, the clusters and building forms within my design become irregular (Figure 19), with each shape given reason as to relate to the shapes around it (Figure 20).

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“REFLECTION”

Figure 21: Translucent medium helps transfer ideas through iterations

Figure 22: “2D layering�

Zumthor’s approach to practice is a personal one, striving for ‘The Beautiful Form’27 without sacrificing the visitor experience.

Architecture can be viewed as an enclosure of atmospheres, capable of accessing emotions and memories for its inhabitant(s).

This has been an attitude to design I have employed in my graduation project, with particular interest in “memory over imagination” for key spaces within my design, inspired by Zumthor . It is from a memory that one can remember the sensory effects – smell, sounds, the surrounding temperature; this is the ‘body of architecture’.28

As a design should refer simultaneously to past and present, the design process may also allude to this. The next iteration “layers” (Figure 21) over the previous, redrawing and extracting the most successful elements to carry on the idea. The ideas carried through are darker, as a result of multiple replications of past ideas. The architect is often seen drawing onto translucent paper, suggesting his technique of also “layering” his ideas as his ideas progress.

During these choices and phases ‘the human designer does not disappear’29 but embedded within the process, as it ‘reflects a human choice among artifacts’.30 The “2D layering” (Figure 22) constructs a relief image where levels are carved within the planes (Figure 23), which is a representation technique I aim to execute for the final stage of my project, with intention to exhibit visual and narrative depth.

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Figure 23: Layering to create relief drawings 37

ENDNOTES

1

Peter Zumthor, Thinking Architecture, (Basel, Birkhäuser, 1988-2004) p.7.

2

on the ‘sound of gravel under [his] feet’ where he is taken to a ‘world of different moods and smells’. (Zumthor, Thinking Architecture, 1988-2004, p. 8).

3

Ibid.

4

The architect fascinatingly compares this to anatomical studies of the body. Ibid.

5

Mark Hewitt, ‘Representational Forms and Modes of Conception: An Approach to the History of Architectural Drawing’, Journal of Architectural Education (1984-), 39.2 (1985), 2-9 (p. 3).

6

Ibid.

7

Paul Clemence, Q&A: Swiss Master Peter Zumthor on the Importance of Beauty and Relying on Intuition, (Metropolis Magazine, 2015) < http://www.metropolismag.com/architecture/swiss-master-peter-zumthor-importance-of-beauty-relying-intuition/> [accessed 2 March 2018].

8

Ibid.

9

Daniel M. Herbert, ‘Graphic Processes in Architectural Study Drawings’, Journal of Architectural Education (1984-), 46.1 (1992), 28-39 (p. 28).

10

Peter Zumthor, ‘Bruder Klaus Field Chapel, Wachendorf, Germany’, in Peter Zumthor 1998-2001: Building and Projects Volume 3, ed. by Thomas Durisch (Zurich, Scheidegger & Spiess, 2014) pp. 109-136 (p. 121).

11

Ibid.

12

(Zumthor, Thinking Architecture, 1988-2004, p. 18).

13

Ibid.

14

Ibid.

15

(Herbert, ‘Graphic Processes in Architectural Study Drawings’, 1992, p. 33).

16

Sigrid Hauser, ‘Entwurf/Design’, in Peter Zumthor: Therme Vals, ed. by Sigrid Hauser & Peter Zumthor (Zurich, Scheidegger & Spiess, 2007) pp. 56-60 (pp. 56-57).

17

(Hauser, ‘Entwurf/Design’, 2007, p. 56).

18

(Hauser, ‘Entwurf/Design’, 2007, p. 58).

19

(Hauser, ‘Entwurf/Design’, 2007), p. 59).

20

(Herbert, ‘Graphic Processes in Architectural Study Drawings, 1992, p. 31).

21

(Zumthor, Thinking Architecture, 1988-2004, p. 26).

22

Ibid.

23

Ibid.

24

Peter Zumthor, ‘Stone Tables and Caverns’, in Peter Zumthor: Therme Vals, ed. by Sigrid Hauser & Peter Zumthor (Zurich, Scheidegger & Spiess, 2007) pp. 42-47 (p. 46).

25

Ibid.

26

Michael Asgaard Anderson, ‘In Conversation: Peter Zumthor and Juhani Pallasmaa’, Architectural Design, 82.6 (2012), 22-25 (p. 22).

27

Peter Zumthor, Atmospheres: Architectural Environments, Surrounding Objects, (Basel, Birkhäuser, 2006) p. 71.

28

(Zumthor, Atmospheres, 2006, p. 69).

29

(Herbert, ‘Graphic Processes in Architectural Study Drawings, 1992, p. 35).

30

Ibid.

39

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1

Oculus of Bruder Klaus Chapel. (Peter Zumthor 1998-2001, 2014, p. 135). Scanned image.

Figure 2

Clay sculpt and concrete cast atmosphere studies. Author’s own work, ARC3001.

Figure 3

Tangible ink techniques; cross-hatching and pointillism. Author’s own work, ARC3001.

Figure 4

Architect and mentee. (Peter Zumthor and Gloria Cabral, A Year of Mentoring, (Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, 2015). Digital frame.

Figure 5

A friendly, co-operative environment. (Ibid.) Digital frame.

Figure 6

Bruder Klaus Chapel working drawings. (Peter Zumthor 1998-2001, 2014, p. 114). Scanned image.

Figure 7

Bruder Klaus Chapel clay models. (Peter Zumthor 1998-2001, 2014, pp. 116-17). Scanned image.

Figure 8

Excavation concepts for cell design. Author’s own work, ARC3001.

Figure 9

Comparison of updated cell design with old iteration. Author’s own work, ARC3001.

Figure 10

Timetable of surrounding site, plotting busiest hours of day. Author’s own work, ARC3001.

Figure 11

Design intentions for specific spaces. Author’s own work, ARC3001.

Figure 12

Zumthor’s Steinbruchbilder drawings. (Peter Zumthor: Therme Vals, 2007, p. 81). Scanned image.

Figure 13

Introducing colour. Author’s own work, ARC3001.

Figure 14

Seating incorporated using materiality. Author’s own photograph.

Figure 15

Admiration for the revived natural surrounding. Author’s own photograph.

Figure 16

Harmony of material, fauna and culture. Author’s own photograph.

Figure 17

Sequence from sketch, to model, to building as design intention remains. (Peter Zumthor: Therme Vals, 2007, pp. 70-71).

Scanned image.

Figure 18

Technical details integrated into design. Author’s own work, ARC3001.

Figure 19

Using Eduardo Chillida’s public sculpture. Author’s own work, ARC3001.

Figure 20

Echo and repetition of shape and line creates irregularity, but not chaos. Author’s own work, ARC3001.

Figure 21

Translucent medium helps transfer ideas through iterations. Author’s own work, ARC3001.

Figure 22

“2D layering”. Author’s own work, ARC3001.

Figure 23

Layering to create relief drawings. Author’s own work, ARC3001.

Front cover

Zumthor sketching. (A Year of Mentoring, 2015). Digital frame.

Tracing layers. Author’s own work, ARC3001.

Working desk surface. Author’s own work, ARC3001.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Anderson, Michael Asgaard. “In Conversation: Peter Zumthor and Juhani Pallasmaa.” Architectural Design 82, no. 6 (2012): 22-25 Clemence, Paul, “Q&A: Swiss Master Peter Zumthor On The Importance Of Beauty And Relying On Intuition”, Metropolis, 2015 <http://www.metropolismag.com/architecture/swiss-master-peter-zumthor-importance-ofbeauty-relying-intuition/> [Accessed 1 April 2018] Hauser, Sigrid. “Entwurf/Design.” In Peter Zumthor Therme Vals, by Sigrid Hauser, & Peter Zumthor, 56-60.

(Zürich: Scheidegger & Spiess, 2007) Herbert, Daniel M. “Graphic Processes in Architectural Study Drawings.” Journal of Architectural Education (1984-) (Taylor & Francis, Ltd. for the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, Inc. ) 46, no. 1 (September 1992): 28-39 Hewitt, Mark. “Representational Forms and Modes of Conception: An Approach to the History of Architectural Drawing.” Journal of Architectural Education (1984-) (Taylor & Francis. Ltd. for the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, Inc.) 39, no. 2 (1985): 2-9 Perez-Gomez, Alberto. “Architecture as Drawing.” JAE (Taylor & Francis, Ltd. for the Assocation of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, Inc.) 36, no. 2 (1982): 2-7 Psarra, Sophia. Architecture and Narrative: The Formation of Space and Cultural Meaning. (Oxford: Routledge, 2009).

Peter Zumthor And Gloria Cabral, Rolex Mentor And Protégée In Architecture, 2014–2015 (Switzerland: Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, 2015) < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRcvduhnpxI> [Accessed 20 March 2018] Self, Pamela. “Material presence and the mystery of the object.” arq, 2002: 190-92 Zumthor, Peter. “A Way of Looking at Things.” In Thinking Architecture, by Peter Zumthor, 7-28. (Basel: Birkhäuser, 1988-2004) —. Atmospheres: Architectural Environments, Surrounding Objects. Edited by Brigitte Labs-Ehlert.

(Basel: Birkhäuser, 2006).

—. Peter Zumthor 1998-2001: Buildings and Projects Volume 3. Edited by Thomas Durisch.

Translated by John Hargraves. (Zurich: Scheidegger & Spiess, 2014).

Zumthor, Peter. “Stone Tables and Caverns.” In Therme Vals. 2007.

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