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Center – Oakley Boulevard. At a later stage, on a larger scale, two options of the design solution can already be seen, concerning the same neighbourhood, with a much clearer and more detailed form – vertical transformations are activated (Fig. 98).
176 PHASE I – first concepts
After the above-described first sketches by SD1 appeared, other designers’ proposals followed (Fig. 101A–F). Despite the use of various freehand tools by each of the designers, the drawings of the plans remained clear and legible for each member of the project team. An important fact to note is therefore that within the architectural drawing convention, there was a certain degree of flexibility when it comes to graphical represent-tation, which did not affect the understanding of the message by other designers. It could have had, however, a negative impact on the reception by people who unrelated to architecture or urban planning. Initial sketches were usually intended for the first review of ideas by the author and the team, and less for the presentation to a wider public; hence, at this stage, a certain graphic freedom was allowed. However, the more advanced a pro-ject became, i.e. already at the stage of discussing the conceptual sketches with the interested parties, the more attention was paid to the selection of graphics and colours, so as to obtain consistency and
clarity of drawings.
The variety of drawing techniques and methods of their use, which carried the danger of communication dif-ficulties, gave the designers the opportunity to manifest their individuality and perso-nality.
The surveys addressed to designers point to the significant, positive role of freehand drawing at the first design stage in the process of transferring thoughts to a sheet of paper and transforming them into a form (Tab. 7, PM–B67, PD–B, D1–B, D2–B). The Senior Designer (Tab. 7, SD2–B) emphasised also the intuitiveness and naturalness of the use of drawing and the freedom from restrictions which, in turn, may be imposed by digital input devices, such as a mouse.
67 The designation of persons (PM, PD, D1 etc.) can be found in Tab. 7 in the first column from the left; letters A, B, C, D and E indicate the questions asked to them in the questionnaire, located in the top row of the table. The explanations of acronyms (e.g. PM – Project Manager) can be found on p. 160.
Fig. 99 Morning presentation within the team – pin-up
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At this first stage, the sketch also served as a record helping to remember the fleeting associations and solutions, not only as a sketchnote. The initial sketch in Fig. 100 made by Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk shows the internal dialogue that the designer conducted with herself, asking herself questions, casting doubts, proposing solutions and verifying them.
It is a graphical representation of the interwoven processes of ‘seeing that’ and ‘seeing as’, described by Gabriela Goldschmidt, and reflection-in-action phenomena (see pp.
113–114). This drawing as well as drawings in Fig. 101A–F document a certain stage of the thinking process that has evolved further, but to which one could always return – because it was written on paper. This materiality of traditional techniques allowed to auto-matically preserve the successive stages of the thinking process (of course, provided that the designer – dissatisfied with earlier drawings – did not rip them up or throw them away, which would not be well regarded during the charrette). In digital techniques, the above is also possible, of course, although there is a risk of overwriting previous files, thus losing them; there is also a limited number of steps backwards available. Apart from that, the next stages, if not printed, are still immaterial – they do not lie on the desk and there is no visual, tangible access to them, reminding of old ideas.
Fig. 100 Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, initial sketch
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Fig. 101 A – Xavier Iglesias, B – Daniel Morales, C – David Carrico, D – Paul Genovesi, E, F – Matt Lambert;
Initial sketches. The variety of freehand recording techniques at the first stage of the design project reflects the multiplicity of ideas and personalities. Drawing techniques used: A – black fineliner and coloured markers, B – pencil and black felt-tip pen, C – black fineliner,
crayons, D – black felt-tip pen, E, F – black fineliner and crayons.
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Fig. 102 presents the use of a drawing in the form of a sketchnote for both the analysis of the height of buildings in the complex of the Saint Mary Hospital (left drawing), as well as for design (right drawing), where the parts to be transformed are marked in yellow. The analysis was made in the first place, and later on, on its basis, a drawing pro-posing a design concept was created. In this case, the author, who already knew differen-ces in height from experience and from many photos, summarised his knowledge in the form of a simple schema. The thinking process that took place while drawing a note was active; the author of the sketch was already able to make preliminary design decisions.
Thus it was an active, creative process of learning the context of the project by analysing information.
The first perspective sketches of illustrator I1 (Fig. 103–106) were primarily aimed at searching for frames for future perspectives as well as the project’s key themes. As was the case earlier with orthogonal projections, perspectives can be called initial sketches, because the illustrator did not limit himself only to frames, but also proposed his own design solutions presenting them in three dimensions.
Fig. 102 Matt Lambert, sketchnote which records the number of storeys in graphical form (left), combined with an initial sketch (right)
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Taking into account the limited time of the workshop, the challenge was to find such
‘takes’ that best and most fully present the design ideas – only those which were made as final perspectives. Therefore, quick, preliminary initial sketches, which could be corrected and modified, were extremely important.
This speed of creating a drawing is another controversial feature that should be noted.
A few-day workshop abounding in daily concept changes would not be possible without a technique thanks to which one can efficiently modify the project. Especially that some changes could mean starting to design from scratch. Undoubtedly, the speed of drawing at the workshop was relative – it all depended on the efficiency of the tool usage which – in the designers’ self-assessment made for the needs of the questionnaire – turned out to be diversified (Tab. 7, column E). This connection, of course, applies to every medium. Per-haps, along with technological progress, a tool to speed up the design process will appear, as it has happened in the history of the charrette workshop several times so far. But the observations indicate that the digital tool for drawing line (an input device – a mouse in this case) did not match the comfort of a pencil, crayon or fineliner at the workshop and did not allow an immediate representation in material form.
During the internal presentation, a short dialogue was established in which the technical detail of the work on the project was shown:
PM: So I think that is a question, Senen, about how much time we spend on the long term plan versus the short term plan and… so maybe what we ask you to do is to hurry up (…) so pull that long term plan (…) so it exists and then move back to the short term (…).
SD1: In terms of production, can I just draw the new pieces and can that be scanned and completed on the computer? I don’t want to have to draw every block, I just draw the pieces that change.
The graphic presentation of the concept was therefore the effect of a combination of the use of traditional and digital techniques resulting from the time pressure and limitations associated with the single nature of the products of freehand tools. This was particularly the case when the maps or basic drawing needed to be duplicated, to make changes on it later or when it was necessary to quickly and uniformly colour the plans (Fig. 83 and 137). During the charrette in Chicago, computer programs were limited to graphic pro-cessing software and to drafting software to a small extent, not to the creative process itself.
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Fig. 104 David Carrico, initial sketch Fig. 103 David Carrico, initial sketch
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Fig. 106 David Carrico, initial sketch Fig. 105 David Carrico, initial sketch
Two formal meetings with
holders and communication experts were held during the day.
In the afternoon, there was an opening presentation at the workshops. T
assumptions and goals –
sers hoped to achieve by the end of the week – were presented to the public at an open meeting. At each of the round tables where residents and other stakeholders
team who collected the residents’ remarks and comments