Basic Design is generally the first interface of students of architecture with the word ‘design’. I came across a nice quote on Twitter by a Venture Capitalist and an Entrepreneur, Kris Nair, which goes as follows:
Creativity is not the finding of a thing, but the making something out of it after it is found.
— Kris Nair (@krisnair) April 13, 2012
For sure, when it comes to creativity, single approach, linear approach and normal approach will not suffice and in most cases these will fail. Basic Design, is highly subjective but has a very well defined (but unwritten) objective in architecture curriculum, and that is:
“Open up students’ minds.”
As a teacher of Basic Design, I have always felt that it is more important for teachers to make students think and ask questions than finding specific answers. I know I have repeated this in past, many times. Basic Design is more about explorations than finding answers or reaching conclusions.
Interestingly, designing Basic Design exercise is a wonderful process and most of the times, I am myself confused as what to expect at the “end”. A good looking composition? A well done model? or understanding the student’s thinking process? Designing an exercise in itself is a challenge, as one needs to be sure what is to be expected as outcome. And, for subjects like Basic Design, outcome should not be associated with the good looking sheets or models, I think.
The fear of holding a pencil, leave alone drawing. I once asked students, when was the last time they drew something with pencil, before they joined architecture institute (ignore entrance exams)? Most of them said, it was around six years back. Now that itself is another challenge. Pencil, in that case, is a new tool and we take it for granted that students are familiar with it.
Vocabulary, one thing that we teachers and students both need to regularly update ourselves with. It can only be improved or polished if while discussing with students we choose our words carefully and introduce new words at right places and with right emphasis. Even, words like ‘balance’, which may sound simple have enough complexity.
Often, I may be generalizing here, I have experienced that even the exercises repeat over the years and are carried from one batch to another, with same format, specifications and even tone, unfortunately which becomes a ‘system’. We need to innovate new exercises, there is a very big room for this. There is no dearth of information available on Basic Design teaching and learning, on Internet and in libraries.
Concluding, these are only few of many challenges that are discussed here. During my last few interactions with students, I have also realised, all of a sudden, that the biggest challenge is to accept that every batch is a new set and psyche of students.
This is the first and spontaneous draft of the post, this will be updated eventually. I look forward to your comments and feedback, specially Basic Design Teachers.
I have been teaching the basic design course at Rizvi College of Architecture Mumbai, for the last 15 years. Over the years, as a teacher, I have realized that the major thrust in the first is to change their stereotypical attitude towards looking at the world. Therefore, the main goals and objectives of these notes are to tackle the transition of teenagers from varied backgrounds in to students of architecture through a highly focused training in analytical thinking and communication, visualization and representational skills. These notes explore ways by which students acquire and assimilate knowledge and hence help us understand how modes of instruction may be shaped. The first year is a period of transition, and there is a need to expose to them to systematic methods of lateral and critical thinking processes, to trigger off their creative energies.
How do we foster this transformation? We believe that greater exposure to diverse traditions; expressions, art forms, lifestyles and issues along with the traditional syllabus will enhance the learning process. I believe that in the first year the emphasis has to be given to developing skills such as drawing and sketching, reading and writing, and the most importantly to develop creative and critical thinking. Mind Mapping, Random word Input, Deliberate Matching, Six Thinking Hats, Debating an issue, or Ask six questions, Ask why 5 times, are some of the lateral thinking and brainstorming sessions we have conducted at RCA as part of activating thought processes. These exercises are conducted very seriously, debates are timed, and charts made for Mind Mapping. The topics for discussions cover a very wide range. I have mentioned some of the subjects that we have covered in our college.
There are some of the ideas for brain storming and Mind Mapping exercises. Students are told right at the beginning of the session that common ideas will be cancelled out and only the stand alone ideas will be counted. Make a list of job opportunities for the blind persons, and what will be your contribution towards this cause? Create mind maps for water considering all the aspects of water; as most sublime in the form of a stream or calm river or as stormy as tsunami waves.
Another brain storming session was about asking questions such as why, what, when, where, how and for whom, for various issues such as the issue of public transportation in Mumbai, or migration in Mumbai, or child labour in Metros. Other exercise involved asking “Why 5 times”. This kind of thought-provoking exercise was conducted with reference to buying and selling activities in Mumbai for the entire society, including, formal, informal, hawking zones, Hi-end shopping malls, and vegetable markets, fish markets, etc. The design exercise was based on this session and the initial mind Mapping session created the right kind of platform to start questioning and exploring. While talking about design principles, we talked about Hindi cinema as well as parallel cinema. While discussing about modern art and abstraction, we pointed the scenario at the time of World War II, the political situation and upheaval in the Western world.
When we discussed Indian art forms and hand woven textiles in particular, attention was drawn to the fact that our artisans were exploited at the hands of the British, as our goods were taxed very heavily. Such discussions bring enormous amount of awareness amongst the students and it sets the stage for a broader perspective. Hence, the discussion took a turn and we introduced methodology of art movements and emergence of modern art movement of Bauhaus school of thought. We believed that this was a part of their awakening. As teachers, we believe that it was our duty to open up many vistas for their personal growth and maturity.
The process of learning basic design starts with introduction to elements and principles of design. The major diversion is the concept of space. Space is the fluid entity, flowing through the rooms, it is three-dimensional and the students need to explore this fluidity of space. While introducing them to space, we also talk about human proportions, golden ratio in nature and in manmade objects, space formations etc. in great detail. The aim is to make the students sensitive to quality of space and all its characteristics. They need to understand the function and space requirements.
The next stage in the process is to look at nature very closely and to learn from its richness. The next experience comes from arts and crafts. As a nation, people of India are extremely rich in our traditional arts and crafts, sculptures and architecture. The students then go on to learning from other 7 art forms such as paintings, sculpture, dance or cinema. Next we move to the introduction of geometry as organizing tool and we introduce abstraction as a technique for expression. We as teachers believe that to sensitize them to the idea of abstraction, ambiguity and multiplicity is quite critical for students’ understanding of visual arts and for their mature expression. After abstraction comes the stage of introduction to mathematics and order in grids.
Throughout the working life, the students are going to breathe space, live in it and work with it. Therefore, we as teachers have always woven all our basic design projects to explore these concepts of space. After the introduction to grids we discuss and deliberate on the existing built forms from vernacular architecture, from traditional architecture and also from modern architecture. In these manual, I have shown some of the projects that our students have done in first year.
What is basic design? Basic Design is the grammar of visual language. As children, we hear sounds. This process of understanding and associating is very slow and takes at least two years before we can actually decipher and learn to speak the language, then to read and to write. In the beginning, we might make small sentences, and then we might write an essay, and then comes the stage of writing poetry. The process is quite similar to that of learning classical music. The child starts singing first and then as she grows up, if she is interested in learning, she is trained to sing the notes such as Sa, Re, Ga, and Ma. In the process of training, she not only learns how to sing but she also develops appreciation for classical music. Later she learns to recognize the underlying structure and grammar of music.
Basic design is a tool for analysis and dissecting various visual forms and spaces. We could use this tool to dissect natural surroundings such as roots, leaves, shells, or also to understand other art forms. The process is quite similar to dissecting a frog in laboratory. Maybe we could call this the structure of bones, this is the skin, and these are the tissues. The process involves a scientific way of questioning, and developing an artistic point of view. In the first year of architectural education, we learn to analyze drawings and compositions. This grammar has rules and regulations and it has a very significant structure. Basic design has a certain framework and it develops within its context.
At end of the introduction, I would like to talk about the brief history of the Basic Design structure and its role in the Modern architectural movement. 1920 was the magical era in the ascent of human kind. It was an era of industrial revolution and scientific enquiry. It was the era of questioning the religious dogma; it was the era of huge unrest and wars. Modern movement in architecture, in literature and in other art fields started in early 1920s in Europe, and this was a reformation movement against the establishment.
At this stage in history we, in India were still waking up to our Nationality movement, and this was followed by the entire episode of our freedom movement, Independence and it was only in early 1960s that we were introduced to Modern architecture. This was a new visual language for us, the rules were foreign, the grammar was fresh and we were absolutely zapped. We should look at Basic Design as history of Modern movement and these are our first lessons in this new vocabulary. The products that we see are quite abstract and they appeal to us for the use simplicity and complexity of design.
As teachers of Basic Design, we set up design brief within the frame work of modern architecture vocabulary. Here is the list and introduction to the chapters. This is the order we follow in Rizvi College of Architecture for Basic Design course. A Basic Design course is not like walking down a straight path, many-a-times, the inspiration comes from various sources and hence I have taken examples from fields such as arts, crafts, cinema, paintings and literature.
Like cooking a healthy, tasty and attractive lunch, one has to start with the concept of healthy food. Only after that comes the stage of cooking and laying the food on table. There are no cookbooks for creative arts such as painting or sculpture and architecture. Are there any set formulas, (which could be identified in popular Hindi Cinema known as Masala, or the “navrasa” as described in Hindu scriptures; nine moods) to create a piece of art? Well, if not the recipes, there are at least certain guidelines for structuring and analyzing which will help the students in the process of creation and appreciation of visual arts.
Pradnya Chauhan