Beyond Visual

Brian Dougan

Associate Professor of Architecture at
The American University of Sharjah College of Architecture, Art, and Design

 

Once upon a time I was a prolific drawer. I drew for many reasons, but I drew mostly because time invested in drawing revealed something about the world that I did not know. Drawing is a dependable tool to decipher enigma. I have not misplaced the curiosity that persuaded me to be prolific. I am still a drawer. Drawing is my way to investigate, to scrutinize, and to simply think about those things of the world and those things not yet born to the world. I rely on drawing instruction when I am in need of information.

Despite conventional wisdom and excessive antidotal discourse, drawing is not a visual phenomenon. Drawing beyond the visual cliché is best understood in its relations to other activities. I will take this opportunity to draw a comparison between making pottery and making drawings. I will unwrap the following three ideas to illustrate the rapport.

centering

"Centering: that act which precedes all others on the potter's wheel. The bringing of the clay into a spinning, un-wobbling pivot, which will then be free to take innumerable shapes as potter and clay press against each other. The firm, tender, sensitive pressure which yields as much as it asserts. It is like a handclasp between two living hands, receiving the greeting at the very moment that they give it..."

from "Centering - In Pottery, Poetry, and the Person" by M.C. Richards

adventure

"I do not accept any absolute formulas for living. No preconceived code can see ahead to everything that can happen in a man's life. As we live, we grow and our beliefs change. They must change. So I think we should live with this constant discovery. We should be open to this adventure in heightened

awareness of living. We should stake our whole existence on our willingness to explore and experience."

from "I and Thou" by Martin Buber

focus/seeing

I have learned that what I have not drawn, I have never really seen... from "Zen Seeing Zen Drawing" by Frederick Franck 

This world in which we reside is among other things, distracting. Its pace is not conducive to the sort of focus or temporal surrender that is necessary to see. Such an investment, especially among the youth is an exception to the way we usually manage our time. 

Franck loved to quote Zen master Hui Neng, "The meaning of life is to see."

 

artworks by Brian Dougan

link: Brian Dougan

“The Wave-Breaker” - a novel approach to computer aided design (CAD) representation.

Aurel von Richthofen

Assistant Professor for Architecture and Computer Aided Design

German University of Technology in Oman (GUtech)

 

wave-breaker, plan 1D, etching 25x17 cm

Abstract

Architectural drawings, such as design sketches, plans, sections, axonometrics and perspectives, underwent a dramatic shift since the advent of computer aided design (CAD) tools. While most CAD tools reproduce conventional drafting methods, they tend to be reductive in their programmatic rigidity. Users are forced into a linear and predefined design process and often frustrated by the lack of haptic feedback. The structural complexity of CAD programs often obscures the underlying generative methods.

In search for novel methods of CAD application - presented in the sketches, drawings and plans for the “Wave-breaker” project (Land Art / Installation Proposal, Muscat 2011) - I developed a series of methods and tools to overcome the aforementioned shortcomings of standard CAD. Boundaries of drafting software are expanded by introducing scripting and coding. The expression of data (text and numbers) inside the drawing aims to re-introduce the haptic quality of conventional drawing. A procedural approach of layering graphic elements and data with a constant visual update empowers the designer/programmer to harness the computational power of CAD applications.

wave-breaker, plotted data 2D, etching 25x17 cm

The “Wave-breaker” project challenges conventional architectural drafting methods as it is a landart and landscape installation. The project narrates the story of seemingly abandoned industrial artifacts (the concrete precast wave-breakers) in a desert landscape. It combines the technical precision of construction documents with the poetry and fragility of landscape drawings. Plan nor section suffice, rather a map of layers of information – landscape, artifacts, data – form the new digital environment. The underlying code regulates distribution, arrangement and rotation of the objects. 

wave-breaker, virtual model, software Rhinoceros 3D

Aurel von Richthofen is an architect, researcher and teacher invested in parametric design and cybernetic urbanism. Aurel grew up in Berlin and Geneva. He studied architecture at ETH Zurich and at Princeton University. He is the principle of aurelVR registered architects in Berlin. Aurel von Richthofen was Visiting Assistant Professor at the Ohio State University in Columbus Ohio and lecturer at the FTH Berlin and TU Berlin. Since fall 2010 Aurel is Assistant Professor for Computer Aided Design and Architecture at the Department of Urban Planning and Architectural Design at the German University of Technology in Oman (GUtech).

link: Aurel VR architecture