What is a designer?

We are in the business of training designers at the studio. Designers must have a complete set of skills: conceptualising, analysing, technical and interpersonal.

A designer must be able to conceptualise. There is no ifs and buts here. This is a fact. At the end of the day the school will fail if we do not produce designers who are not able to conceptualise. This skill relies heavily on the ability to visualise, and represent what it is that they visualise in their sketches. Their sketches are an extension to themselves. Their sketches should illustrate their design intention clearly.

Analysing is a skill that is important for a designer as it is a basic skill of a researcher. Researching a case study for example, would require the designer to explain the object of study into parts systematically and take it further into synthesising what that has been learned into their design.

Technical requirements to be taken into consideration into the design must be met as that is what a problem-solver does, and a designer is a problem solver. There are enough knowledge and skills that the potential designer have to engage in understanding technical requirements of a given project.

Interpersonal skills is now becoming a compulsory skill to have rather than value added. Being able to participate in a studio environment with the tutors and others students, and contribute to the discussion is necessary to the success of the studio, contributing to each individual's success.

Little Penang for Site 2 group

It was a tiring day today with panel and group crits but I did see some ideas being developed well by some students.

Just to let Site 2 group know that there is a website for them to visit:
Little Penang Market

Which could give some more input to their programme.

Concept and Idea

What's the difference between "concept" and "idea"?

I was explaining to the studio the other day that there is a discernible difference between the two, but concept and idea are closely intertwined with each other.

I said that a door is a concept, or a boy or a girl is a concept, but what type of door? It could be a sliding door or one with different parts that could fold. Hence two doors may have different set of ideas and therefore have two different concepts. I mean the Martial Arts Centre and the Community Centre that the students will be designing this semester, are two basic concepts waiting to be "realized" by the imagination and visualisation of the students.

We are getting excited. All of us in the studio. The more you think the more real and convincing your project will be and the more the tutors will also fall in love with your concept of the project.

I was thinking about the Garden City Concept by Ebenezer Howard. How did it come about to be a concept? He thought about all the components of what makes a city. The streets, the houses, the farms, the railway lines and the population necessary to make it work. He arranged the parts in a radial manner, and he wrote about many issues of urbanity faced at the turn of the 19th century.

It is true that the Martial Arts Centre and the Community Centre are concepts on their own, without the students designing any yet. We saw the case studies and precedent studies of other martial arts and community centres that existed before, presented by the students last Thursday. They had different ideas shoring up their approach to a martial arts or a community centre. There were precedents from the U.S.A., U.K., Japan, Singapore and even in Malaysia.

The case studies were very interesting as the students had to interview and visit the premises of these places. It made us think about the project more and more. We shall see tomorrow.

Process or Product

I have not been posting for awhile. I was very busy last week and I had to work during the weekend. Managed to catch Mior singing during Archi Night though. Met our former students, Mastura, Shima, Syakir and Syihan, to name some, and Dhirma is now in the 4th year.

It was a long introduction session on Monday at 3 pm, with Mastura and Aniza, giving our input. I noticed that the students were concern with the "product" rather than the "process". Mentioned that to Saari just now.

Also mentioned about the Testimony of Competence and design as the core skills. Well, Malaysian architectural educationists had been harping on that since I was a student back then in UTM in the 80s. It is nothing new. But the world is evolving and many educationists world wide would rather debate on it, insisting that we should always evolve to look beyond the expected. That architectural education should not get too fixated with design as being the core skills. It is not easy to do that in the Malaysian context. If you are interested;

Here's the opinion of a professor from Edinburgh.

Well, I am more interested in the students focusing on the process rather than the product. Sure, the product is important, but I do not think that we should neglect the process. There seems to be a fixation of the product, as I am hearing "sound-bites" from the students and lecturers around me on how important the final product is. I mean, that goes without saying. I am worried about the content and the learning.

It's not easy to listen to every single word all 47 students presenting in a day. It is scientifically proven that we could only concentrate up to 20 minutes and then our minds are somewhere else. It is not easy to get excited at the same rate throughout the day. But we have to keep on assessing the process. How much time are we, the educationists want to listen during the process. Our reaction and instinctual input during the process does more to the learning than the assessment at the end of the project.

It's a cyclical form of inductive learning. It is not linear and nor is it a one way street of hearing soundbites and repeating soundbites. You cannot be a robot and survive. Unless you were made by humans. And so the story goes.

Process is more important than product.

Concept is a concretised idea.

Assignment 1

Every course programme should have a few learning objectives. Something new that the students would pick up on. So what is the learning objectives of assignment one.

The interest at the end of the day is the content of the brief proposals that the students will decide upon. I had a chat with Sad Tin just now, and I was reminding her about making decisions. The architect (student) now will have to make a decision on behalf of the stakeholders (client/s) on what design proposal should be considered to be developed on the site. I am sure not all the students are debating equally on it. Some would probably be designated model-maker, or doing other presentations. That is the nature of a big group. I would not mind students in the group debating about what should be done on the site. I think it is healthy if those not involved got involved later on, but for the moment, there are a few people in the groups that were designated as the decision-makers on what is to be on site. If conceptually everyone agreed, that would be fine for the group.

I told Sad Tin that the details of what is being proposed is secondary for this exercise. I mean, adding or subtracting the activities and functions of the proposal is an exercise that the lecturers will help to guide the students later on.

The most important thing are the decisions which would give the best potential development to the site. Giving a physical and contextual presence while contributing benefits tangible and intangible to the neighbourhood and the town. This should be illustrated by the urban context and responsive design principles learned along with the analysis done earlier.