On Making (Design as Exploration)

Recently, Thomas Heatherwick’s book Making caught my eye sitting on my office shelf.  (Ok, actually I was procrastinating, avoiding grading student projects, and I may have been looking for something to distract me.  I had already cleaned out a few desk drawers, so naturally I turned my attention to my bookshelf!)

 

Anyway, I picked up Heatherwick’s book and began to read the introduction.  In it he describes his studio’s design process, and the following caught my attention. 

“We iteratively pare a project back in successive rounds of discussions, through analysis, questioning, testing, experimentation, and interrogation, looking for the logic that will lead to an idea.”

Tomorrow, my students will begin experimenting with their first design studies for a building project in the studio.  By now, the students are well aware that I am obsessed with their design process.  They are already likely getting tired of hearing me talk about “process”.  This quote, though, really resonated with me.  It is exactly the mentality I am trying to instill in the studio.  

An attitude that design is process.

An iterative process...

of testing,

experimenting,

questioning,

interrogating (the project, the site, themselves),

and ultimately working toward a design concept that is rich and meaningful.

I want my students to be slow to solve the design problem, to think deeply, explore alternatives and ask questions.  And I want them to take this skill with them on to their next studio.