Design Thesis Process Diagram – 2nd Edition

UPDATE on the Design Thesis Process Diagram:

I posted this earlier on June 9th 2009. Please note that with regards to the Question in the beginning, it is the same as the Hypothesis. And very closely after that the Objectives. Which people often quote as the Design Problem.

The bottom line is: If you are stuck and cannot actually say what is your Thesis, then you just need to identify the Design Problem / Statement. Its the same as the question/hypothesis/objectives… Don’t get confused.

I write these things in my blog to explore what Design Thesis is. It is meant to be helpful and not to confuse.

So if you are stuck now – State your Design Problem / Statement.

If your Design Problem / Statement lack issues or just one thing only at a superficial level, you are in trouble. You really have got to sit down and really think hard. Go back to all the comments and criticism and really find out what is it that is lacking. There is still time left to create a viable thesis for the 5th year level. If only you just take time to think properly…

I was having a discussion with some of the students yesterday, when I realised the “question” needed to be stressed again and again, as the students were mumbling more about the “what” and the “how to”.

The “what” and the “how to” is more to do with the “hypothesis” and is further down the design thesis road. You need to know where the starting point is if not you go down the “merry path of no where” and that would be wasting your time, so back to the “question” which has to be the right question as you will need to answer it further down the road when you finally summarise all that you had gathered and start with the concept.

If you look at this diagram and the co-relation with semester’s duration of time, this is the optimum or predicted time to be taken along the road.

So there have been cases where the time taken was really long to get to the concept.

We want to avoid that, but if it happens and you are pulling your hair being static and motionless suddenly in the course of the journey, take a look at the diagram and see where you are. Perhaps you may need to retrace your steps even right back to the “question”.

So when we say “process”, we really mean a step-by-step journey rather than a jump or a leap to the unknown. Well, sometimes the process do feel like a leaping off a cliff but its more a feeling of dread doing something you have never done before rather than the process itself.

Fighting for Art

If I may choose a phrase to describe why the Design Thesis exists, it is to “Fight for Art”.

We have heard before : Architecture is both Science and Art.

Well, what does that mean? Apparently, you have to use or work or live in architecture. There are users involved. The Science of Building -  making it buildable, livable, usable, safe etc is part of Science. So, science have a big say in it.

But then who’s big idea is it to say its also Art. Why does Architecture need to be beautiful?

If we want to approach the argument via Vitruvius’s often quoted phrase of: Utilitas, Firmitas, Venustas (Commodity, Strength, Beauty), we can, of course. But not today.

Today, I am approaching it with Jeannette Winterson in mind, referring to her book – Art Objects: Essays on Ecstasy and Effrontery (1995) where she says:

Art does not imitate life. Art anticipates life.

Surely as a designer, we need to appreciate and understand Art. We can learn from other disciplines – writers, artist, designers of fashion and products, etc.

Another quote from Winterson (1995):

We seemed to have returned to a place where play, pose and experiment are unwelcome and where the idea of art is debased. At the same time, there are a growing number of people (possibly even a representative number of people), who want to find something genuine in the literature of their own time and who are unconvinced by the glories of reproduction furniture.

In Winterson’s quotes, I want to find the grounds of argument for Art in Architecture. At first, when I talked about Aesthetics, it is more to do with the skin or surface, ornamentation or proportions in form and so on. In traditional arts, my post-graduate students had reviewed that Aesthetics and Function go together. Ancient people do not view beauty as separate from utility, and strength is expected. To build to last. That is why we just could not ignore historical buildings of the old.

What is Art?

Why must Art imitate Life? (Reproduction furniture…)

Why must Art anticipate Life? (Originality…)

In Architecture, we have got to anticipate Life. Aesthetics and Function are one and not separated. Through the design process, we explore Life, anticipate all the numerous possibilities that can emerge from our study on Life, and all the ideas that comes with it, flowing freely and then the form will emerge. Rather than being form-driven, to find originality, we need to be driven by the process.