ADPM 4 - Abstraction Applied to Architecture (For

1. CONCEPTUALIZATION
TECHNIQUES OF
ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN
Theory of Architecture 2
Ar. Fernando C. Pamintuan

2. MANIPULATION
Conceptualization Techniques Of Architectural Design

3.  Manipulation is
defined as “skillful
handling or
operation; artful
management or
control.”
 The purpose of
manipulation in
graphic thinking is
the altering of
graphic images so as
to get a new look at
them and thereby
expand our thinking.

4.  While the
architectural design
process involves
decision-making
aimed at the
reduction of
alternatives in
search of a final
solution, it also
involves elaboration
aimed at expanding
the range of
possibilities.
 Most architects are
not content with
solving problems
with existing
knowledge; they
want to expand the
knowledge base at
the same time.
ELABORATIO
N
Opportunity-
seeking
REDUCTIO
N
Decision-
making
Design Process

5.  Architects are
opportunity-
seekers as well as
problem-solvers.
 The drawings that
we are going to
see throughout
the topic of
Manipulation are
devoted to
elaboration in the
design process,
deviation from
the norm,
expansion of
thinking, and
development of
imagination.
ELABORATIO
N
Opportunity-
seeking
REDUCTIO
N
Decision-
making
Design Process

6.  We are just
beginning to
understand the
untapped
potential of our
imaginations.
 Intuition,
creativity, and
imagination have
traditionally been
considered the
skills attributable
to a limited
group of people:
inventors, artists,
geniuses.

7.  Many researchers
of creativity feel
that most people
have the basic
capacity for
imagination but
that it remains
underdeveloped
or unused.
 “It is simple
enough to list
those ‘attributes
of creativity’
which are needed
by the designer
and to point out
the reasons for
their inclusion.”

8.  “But actual
development and
refinement of such
behavioral
characteristics is
difficult since
society makes it a
relentless battle, an
often thankless and
rarely positively
reinforced chore, to
maintain such
behavior.
 The same society
which readily
accepts the creative
‘product’ will
chastise or deny the
creative ‘activity’
required for such
production because
of its non-typical
nature.”

9.  Making creative behavior
acceptable is the first
step in promoting
creativity in architectural
design, and this lesson
in manipulation tries to
provide more
information about
creative thinking.
 If we can get through
some of the mystery
surrounding the personal
approaches taken by
architects, specific
techniques can be
identified that make up a
body of trainable skills.

10.  We will be looking at three approaches to manipulation:
1. Open-ended images that suggest a number of different
perceptions or interpretations.
2. Transformation of images.
3. Structuring or ordering images.
 These approaches are aimed at re-centering visual thinking.

11.  “Re-centering vision
is fundamentally an
experience in
unlearning.
 For most people,
breaking lazy,
category-hardened,
fear-inducing habits
of seeing is an
educational task of
considerable
magnitude.”
 To make full use of
these drawings for
graphic thinking, we
must be comfortable
with exploration that
is not tightly focused,
let the mind wander,
and be open to
unexpected results.

12. Manipulation

13.  These works are often said to
have several meanings.
 Design sketches often have
similar qualities of ambiguity,
allowing the designer to think
flexibly and in general terms.
 We refer to this as open-ended.
Drawing by Alvar
Aalto
 Terms like ambiguous,
collage, and multivalent have
been used to describe works
of art and architecture that
can be “read,” interpreted, or
appreciated simultaneously
on several levels.

14.  Open-endedness can
be achieved with
transparency.
 This approach is based
on the tradition of
showing depth
location by
overlapping.
 Modern art introduced
mutual overlapping,
producing a
transparent effect that
allows two or more
figures to occupy the
same place.
Overlap
ping
Transpar
ency
Sugge
stion
Single
Interpreta
tion
Double
Interpreta
tion

15.  In concept, developing
a transparency allows
the designer to
suspend decisions
about the exact
location of spaces or
the boundaries
between the spaces.
Drawing by
Lazar Markovich
Lissitzky

16.  Another approach to open-
endedness is the incomplete,
obscure sketch.
 By providing minimum information,
the sketches focus on the most
general issues while establishing the
essential character of the
architecture.
 The tentative feeling of the lines
helps give some sketches an added
sense of being temporary.
Drawing by
Hermann
Finsterlin

17.  Open-ended sketches often convey a
sense immediacy and the confidence of
the designer.
 Notice how few lines provide an impact.
 The white spaces help to pull the eye
back to the key parts of the drawing.
 To produce effective sketches, the
designer is required to work quickly and
in a relaxed manner; the sketches should
not become an end in themselves but an
enjoyable process.
Drawing by
Hermann
Finsterlin

18. Manipulation

19.  The purpose of open-
ended images is to
invite changes in the
images.
 Transformations,
however, are specific
changes made in the
graphic images.
 The possibilities for
change in graphic
images are practically
unlimited, but we will
look at just a few basic
types of transformation.
 They are topological
continuity, ornamental
grammar, reversals, and
distortion.
TRANSFORMATION
S
Topologica
l
Ornamenta
l
Reversal Distortio
n

20.  Graphic transformations
can be very helpful to
creativity in design.
 The stages of creativity
have been described as
“Preparation, Incubation,
Illumination, and
Verification… the period
of incubation frees the
individual from previous
fixations,… he is then
able to see the problem
with new eyes when he
returns to it.”
 Transformations are
aimed at changing
perspective or
perception, making the
familiar seems strange.

21.  It is important to remember
that a period of preparation
must precede incubation.
 The designer prepares by
becoming immersed in the
problem, trying to understand
all the variables of need,
context, and form.
 Once the problem becomes
imbedded in his mind, he
attempts to overcome
preconceptions about the
possible solutions by changing
the existing graphic images.

22. Transformations

23.  In mathematics, the term
topology is defined as
“the study of those
properties of geometric
figures that remain
unchanged even when
under distortion, so long
as no surfaces are torn.”
 A practical example of
two objects topologically
similar but different in
appearance is the
doughnut and the cup.
 The transformation from
doughnut to cup shows
how the same basic
surface relationships are
retained while the form
is pushed and pulled.
Topological
similarity
between a
doughnut and
a cup

24.  A similar topological
continuity is important
to the manipulation of
design images.
 Many architectural
students mistake a
specific arrangement
of parts for a
topological or essential
relationship of parts.
 If the true topological
characteristics of a
diagram are identified,
many other
arrangements of the
parts can be explored.
TOPOLOG
Y
Typical process of “gluing” spaces
together

25.  March and Steadman
pointed out the
potential of topological
continuity in
comparing three
houses by Frank Lloyd
Wright.
 “In them he uses a
range of ‘grammars,’
by which he meant,
above all, the
controlling geometric
unit which ordered the
plan and pervaded the
details…. Whilst they
may look different,
they are in fact
topologically
equivalent.

26.  If each functional
space is mapped on
to a point and if,
when to spaces
interconnect, a line
is drawn between
their representative
points… equivalent
in plan,…”
 Therefore, one
topological
structure was open
to three very
different
expressions.