Concept & Ideas - part 1

Is a "concept" the most important thing in a student's studio project? The argument is "no". I mean, it is not the most important thing. Maybe second most important, but not first. Presentation is "king". It all boils down to presenting a concept well in order to be successful.

There is no such thing as a "bad concept". It is subjective. But there are bad and good ideas…
Since a concept is defined as "a broad abstract idea" or is understood by many as many ideas being worked together, thus making a concept, "idea" has to be in there somewhere, in a concept.

The ideas of making a girl or a boy or a flower were from the Creator. And the concepts of a girl, a boy, or a flower are different. There were similar ideas for example in making a boy and a girl, you need them to “think” for one. In other words, they both have brains. And there are many differences as well. Hence they are two different concepts.

A door was created by a human being as an important part of a house. There are certain characteristics prevalent to make a door, such as having a door leaf, a lock or handle etc. The concept of a door has a purpose that is to provide access and be able to be closed to leave out the cold wind and so on. However, different types of doors have different concepts. The sliding door is based on the idea of ease of use and not taking up much space.

Similarly in designing an affordable housing complex, where there are similar characteristics usually found in the technical aspects, such as the road, parking spaces, kindergarten, playground, housing units etc., hence a housing complex is a concept on its own but there could be different concepts from different designers, based on using different ideas.

The argument that I have is that there is no such thing as a "bad concept", but there is such a thing as bad idea/s or good idea/s, and that when we evaluate an affordable housing design's merit, we are evaluating on the ideas. Additionally, we cannot really evaluate a concept because a concept has to be realised (conceived in reality) and you must experience it before you can really evaluate it.

Does this mean that we cannot crit a student's work then, if we cannot experience it for real?

That's a thought! In fact we can merely speculate and give criticism of the student's work based on the speculation that the concept has enough or lack of ideas. If the concept reflected the best possible ways and formation (synthesis) of ideas to make an affordable housing work, then the concept is acceptable.

In the case of the student's evaluation, it is more on how the student presented the ideas and the design, both orally and graphically. The student has to have the ability "to conceive" in his/her mind the realised design. The evaluation is on whether the student can convince the critic that his/her design is poor/average/good/excellent.

The mental manipulation made by the student to come out with the design based on his/her ideas comes from the thinking process, and then drawn, written and coded onto some documentation process (drawings/models).

That is why the critic is important. The evaluation can only be completed with the student presenting his/her work to a critic or a panel of critics. The evaluation is always on the student as a designer.

The designer's competence in designing and presenting is where the grade or mark is based upon. So at the end of the day, the concept of a studio project can only be evaluated with the author/designer's presentation. As oppose to the concept of a building that was built and occupied and where you can experience it yourself. You do not need the creator (designer) to be there to tell you the concept.

That is why a student has to be such a good illustrator or a good draughtsman as well as a designer. The critics love delicious drawings and models. So a good studio designed project has to be beautifully drawn and it is of no use, if the concept is a brilliant one, but it's poorly drawn.

Therefore, my conclusion is that students will always have a problem to present their concepts unless they are really good at presenting both orally and graphically. That is why studio masters have a problem of explaining to students about concepts, especially in the lower years, 1st & 2nd year, and even 3rd year. It is not easy to explain what concepts are. So I hope this essay will help.

Below are definitions of some terms:

"Philosophy" is a set of basic principles or concepts underlying a particular sphere of knowledge (guiding or underlying principles).
"Theory" is a set of circumstances or principles that is hypothetical (hypothetical circumstances).
"Model" is something that is copied or used as the basis for a related idea, process, or system.
"Hypothesis" is a statement that is assumed to be true for the sake of argument; or a tentative explanation for a phenomenon, used as a basis for further investigation.
"Concept" is a broad abstract idea or a guiding general principle, such as one that determines how a person or culture behaves, or how nature, reality, or events are perceived.
"Idea" is a personal opinion or belief (opinion) ; or a thought to be presented as a suggestion (suggestion); or a realization of a possible way of doing something or of something to be done (plan); or a thought about or mental picture of something such as a future or possible event (thought); or a concept that exists in the mind only (concept).
"Intuition" is the state of being aware of or knowing something without having to discover or perceive it, or the ability to do this or immediate knowledge.

Concentrate and Raise Your Game

Believe it or not, in order to succeed, you have to know what game you are playing, how to play it, strategise, concentrate on the finer points and how to control the game and aim for your goals. You cannot afford to be bothered by all the other distractions, your housemate's bad habits and constant complaining, politics, your family problems and their insistence to bother you with it (unless it's serious illness) and other distractions that other people impose on you or you make yourself.

If your competitors are winning, you must not be disheartened and start finding out the winning formula, either by observing your competitors behaviour or how they had won. You need to find out your strengths and work on improving them. At the same time, recognising your weaknesses and deal with them, step by step.

Map out your long-term goals, at least in the next 5 years. Find out how much work it takes to get there and break into manageable pieces and translate into short-term goals or even better, everyday actions that will work towards achieving your long-term goals. So, if you want to be in the Champion's League of Designers, say winning an award with PAM or working with Norman Foster in the UK, you start preparing now. You have nothing to lose.

The only thing is to concentrate and raise your game to another level. Do not be satisfied with mediocrity.