Some notes at mid point.

Sketch Problem: A Synaesthetic Construction
Some notes at mid point.

Dear All:

Based on my observations in class last Thursday, I sense a bit of confusion and anxiety in several of you about the following issues:

1. What is the meaning of “you are to imagine a ‘small part’ in your project that can be build (with construction details and represented in the sketch model” due next Thursday.

When we issued the sketch project I said that “it may appear ‘counter intuitive’ that we are asking for you to design in great detail a “small part’ of your future project-like putting the cart before the horse. That was a cautionary note!

It seems evident that several of you are struggling to design the whole before the part. While I understand that tendency (it is not wrong in general) it is not possible in this short sketch exercise we have given. It is possible to focus on a small part without knowing the whole. It is a matter of mind discipline and a clear understanding of the pedagogical goal of the exercise. Many of you are doing it well.

In several cases the scale of the model has changed –therefore changing the nature of representing the materials and construction details possible at a smaller scale model (1 ½” scale). That also depends on your program for the construction……will explain that a bit later.

2. What is the meaning of being asked to make construction drawings? Are they the samde as Construction Documents? No. They should be Design Development Drawings that help you to build a Design Development model at a relatively large scale (3”=1’-0” or 1 1/2 “ =1’-0”)

3. We owe you a clarification on this request. Yes, we want you to understand what you are making and how to build it- that means materials and details. But we are in a Design Development mode not Construction Documents. That means you have to understand the design iplications of your material choices
particularly as they impact the synaesthetic experience of your design (i.e. touch. sound, etc)

I had one more suggestion that might be helpful in your work right now. That is what prompted me to write this now. You are about two thirds into the project. Take a moment to consider and restate clearly in words and a small sketch of what you will have by Thursday. That is always helpful, particularly in a case like this where the scope and size of the small project changes. In words state as briefly as you can the local specific program of your model (I will give examples below. Your sketch should also only show what you are building (not the whole complex around it which you may or mey not have in mind now)

Dionysous:
Program: a room for a elderly person above grade with a vault storage space below grade. Details of furniture in the room and storage below ground.

Several of you are designing (almost as an industrial design
project) a common wall between to different program spaces.
(Alanna, KJ, Derick and others)

Alanna:
A wall between two rooms ( quiet typing by a journalist and a loud room in the printing press room or something like that). That wall has a dual program of attenuating sound and transmitting some specific sound) The wall becomes an instrument made out of metal studs…etc..I hope I am stating it clearly.

Derick:
Similarly you are dealing with a wall between the manufacturing of cameras and the retail shelving of those cameras. The theme of lenses and magnifying became a possible way of designing that wall inbetween. Your interest in seeing very small movement in the wires of a bridge can be made possible by a magnifying lense that blows up the small vibration of a hanging wire of a shelf when a customer picks up a product fro a shelf. Just a thought for you !! I hope I am stating it as we discussed it.

This general tendency to design for multiple conditions of use or program is built into the required mode of operation across many senses of experience.

I would suggest that all of you post on the blog a brief description of what you are doing. That would help clarify all of the issues above and help Mark and I guide you more productively on Monday.

Dan