Architectural Study Media

As imagined virtually (left) and the reality (right) - The VA Roseburg Healthcare System Protective Care Unit by Robertson/Sherwood/Architects pc

Bill Kleinsasser was an advocate for the informed, skillful use of various types of architectural media to facilitate the study of places, activities and spatial components, the organization of those components into unified compositions, and evaluative analyses. He believed these included not only the customary diagrams, drawings, and scale models but also written essays about and illustrated case studies of place-response and activity-support.

The following excerpt from the fifth edition of Bill’s self-published textbook Synthesis serves as a useful reminder that the purposes of study media extend well beyond merely depicting design intent. It’s important for us to understand the capabilities and limitations of the media we employ to avoid being victimized by them on the one hand, or unable to read them on the other. As our designs progress, the focus shifts across an increasing field of ideas, all in need of externalization for study. The “badly needed” kinds of study media Bill advocated for are as much about achieving a deeper understanding of the problem being solved as they are means for producing tangible surrogates for building. He wanted us to not allow the media we use to set their own agenda for our concerns—a topical consideration today as we increasingly abdicate our design processes to virtual reality software. Read on:
   

Architectural Study Media: Some badly needed kinds:

Media that depict and remind us of the multitude of actions and events that will happen (or that we hope will happen) in the places we propose.

All built places need to support many events and actions. Every built place should present many opportunities rather than few. This can only happen when places are made in sufficient response to the dimensional, proportional, and locational requirements of a broad range of anticipated actions and events (but this doesn’t mean that we try to make every place accommodate all actions and events; that is impossible). We could begin by considering the most obvious and demanding actions and events and then add consideration of as many more as we can (activity overlays are media for this).

Media to remind us of considerations that tend to be overlooked or avoided because they are difficult.

We need categories that we can focus on or tend to in each design problem. The several experiential categories from my course are of this kind. Bob Harris’ “modes of inquiry” are of this kind. Alexander’s patterns, while being much more explicit in regard to what they suggest, are of this kind. And the suggestions of Vitruvius, Palladio, Ruskin, Le Corbusier, and Kahn are all of this kind.

Media that help us respond to a great quantity of considerations.

A typical house embodies responses to several hundred separate considerations.

Media that invite or simplify consideration of recurring objectives such as spatial diversity, essential three-dimensionality, sensorial richness, suggestiveness of spaces, spatial layering, etc.

Of course, if these objectives are absent in the first place the problem is not limited to study media types, but conventional media (plans, sections, small scale models, and the several kinds of projection) do not focus on these objectives very well, especially when used separately. We need media that deliberately focus on the objectives above.

Media that present a direct and detailed description of the experience of places by the people who live there—their description and explanation of the most important conditions, characteristics, and aspects of those places.

My media class is attempting to provide itself with such information by visiting several houses and recording long interviews with their occupants about their experiences there. We will also transcribe and categorize the occupants’ comments so that we can cross-reference them.

Media that help us generate design ideas.

Media that recall and retain for us the gestalt of existing places, that recall and retain the overall impact of those places.

There is no reason to assume that such places will not have similar and significant (while certainly not the same) meaning if recreated within new situations. People have always built upon previously existing models and images, and with meaning.

Media that recall and retain for us the purposefulness and meaning of the parts and various characteristics of places—parts and characteristics that have had obvious success or significance.

While the particular circumstances surrounding those parts and characteristics will not be the same as in new situations, the situational variation may be taken into account and the examples still used as a source of valuable insight.

Media that help us identify significant qualities, opportunities, and problems in existing places (sub-places, undeveloped relationships, dependencies, fragility, dominant characteristics, existing patterns of use, etc.).

Media that help us check the appropriateness or precision of what we have proposed, and this under circumstances that simulate reality.

Media that permit the observation of proposed places under real lighting conditions, and this during different times of day and during different seasons.

Media that permit the observation of proposed places within their actual physical context, and this in scale (a gross simulation is only misleading).

Media that allow ordinary people to understand and evaluate (rehearse) proposed places, especially how places would be for individuals with differing needs and how they would be over time. This is important because those people must be able to make wise decisions about proposed ideas. If they are confused or fooled then they will be greatly disappointed with the built places they have decided upon.

WK / 1975