Abstract
Given the existing diverse range of modeling techniques, this essay examines the epistemic role of images in design development. I argue that design images – used broadly to refer to all those image-related artifacts that act directly as proxies in the course of devising and adjusting a design: sketches, drawings, plans, diagrams, photorealistic images – make it possible to develop future artifacts and to guarantee the rightness of the emerging design knowledge. Their generative operativity facilitates a media-based reflexivity and in turn makes the images epistemically highly effective. By way of an empirical example, the essay draws on the development of a building façade by architectural firm J. Mayer H. Architects, examining the different image-based techniques used. A brief study of the forms of sketching, rendering, projecting, notating, and scaling reveals a range of image-based epistemic strategies. These strategies enable conclusions to be drawn and insights to be sought in the course of the design process. Analyzing these strategies in greater detail from an image theory perspective offers an important foundation for those sciences in which knowledge has to be generated on the basis of image-based proxies alone.
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Notes
- 1.
For a more precise delineation of the concept of the model and its relation to the concept of image, see my epilogue in this volume. An overview of different kinds of modeling in architecture is provided by Rivka Oxman (this volume) and by Philipp Geyer (2013).
- 2.
Nancy Nersessian (2005) introduced this terminology in the context of the so-called discovery programs.
- 3.
Eugene S. Ferguson (1992) has given an impressive account of this from a historical perspective.
- 4.
- 5.
My intention in the following is not to clarify the concept of image. Rather, by starting instead with a domain of phenomena – namely, physical artifacts which display the characteristic of flatness and are addressed in architecture and engineering by labels such as sketch, drawing, plan, diagram, or rendering. The intention here is to study certain aspects of this domain.
Excluded from this study are images which may play an important role as templates, exemplars, or sources of inspiration in generating ideas. In his study, for example, Jürgen Potthast (1998) draws attention to the many illustrated books stored in the library of an architectural firm. Photocopies taken from these books were used specifically to create collages in order to generate ideas. Such examples, however, describe a specific design culture used by individuals or by a firm and cannot be generalized. What designers experience as helpful in generating ideas is a highly subjective matter. A whole host of other things besides images – an inspiring collection of objects, a stroll, an art gallery, or a concert – can have just the same effect, and the list could be extended indefinitely.
- 6.
- 7.
This is the case, for example, with the majority of competition entries, as well as when a project is ended prematurely due to financial problems or problems relating to building permission. Visionary design drawings as a form of art might similarly be mentioned in this context.
- 8.
There are good reasons why, in addition to supervising construction, a final documentation of the design that has been implemented is one of the basic services to be provided according, for example, to the German list of fees for architects and engineers.
- 9.
Although Goodman is rigorous in his use of terminology to differentiate between notational systems and notational schemes, he is ambiguous in his classification of architectural plans (Capdevila-Werning 2014: 85ff).
- 10.
In this way, something normally associated with scripts is transferred to design images. This phenomenon has been characterized in general terms as notational iconicity (Schriftbildlichkeit) in order to illustrate the fact that notations can also be described as an interweaving of discursive and iconographic dimensions (Krämer 2009: 97). Discursiveness and iconography thus become the two poles of an imaginary scale onto which the different drafting techniques – from the sketch to the detailed plan – can be gradually mapped.
- 11.
Krämer discusses operativity as one of six formative features of scripts, diagrams and maps the distinguishing characteristic of which she addresses as “operative pictorality” (Krämer 2009). Not all features of operative pictoriality are specific to design images: whereas the first two characteristics, flatness and directedness, presumably apply to pictures in general and whereas graphism and syntacticity are characteristics of notations, the referentiality of design images, as shown above by reference to Goodman and Scholz, cannot be explained by the ‘classic’ depictive character identified by Krämer in relation to “operative pictoriality.”
- 12.
This also reveals a close similarity between the design process and concepts of experimental action (Probehandlung) and indeed virtual reality. In her book, Silvia Seja explores the extent to which “image-based action” can be understood in terms of “experimental action” (Bildhandeln als Probehandeln) (2009: 156ff.). However, drawing on the original concept coined by Freud, who understands experimental action as a purely mental activity, not only would the material-haptic aspect of designing be lost but also the reflexivity of notation. Similarly, the notion of virtual reality as described by Lambert Wiesing (2005) does not seem helpful in this context either, as he ignores the generative operativity and medium-based reflexivity involved in drawing practices.
- 13.
According to Schön, “reflection-in-action” is characteristic not only of the design process but also of a variety of professional practices.
- 14.
Located in Berlin, J. Mayer H. Architects ranks among the up-and-coming architectural firms in Germany and has been awarded several prizes over the last few years. Founded in 1996 by Jürgen Mayer, the firm became well-known on the basis of its translation of graphic patterns into spatial structures. According to architectural theorist Ursula Müller, the design of the façade of JOH3 can be understood as a programmatic example of the firm’s conceptual approach to design (Müller 2011: 26 f., Mayer 2002, Urbach and Steingräber 2009).
- 15.
The redesign of the façade was initially motivated by aesthetic reasons. While developing the competition version further, the design team decided that it was ‘too ordinary’ – they wanted something new. The investor, Euroboden Berlin GmbH, played an important role in this context: given their intention to rent the apartments in the high-price market segment, they were prepared to support the costly and time-consuming development of the façade.
Unless otherwise indicated, information provided here about the design process as well as about the techniques used derives from an interview conducted by the author with two team members on 22.04.2013. It is important to note here that J. Mayer H. architects generally archives very few artifacts; usually, only those items are preserved which turn out to be significant (from a retrospective point of view) during the course of the design process.
- 16.
Whereas, for example, the firm’s previous project Dupli.Casa – also highly sophisticated in geometrical terms – was developed using numerous working models made of paper, cardboard, and foam, haptic models play only a minor role in the project on Johannis Street.
- 17.
Styrodur is the trade name of a firm type of foam (polystyrol) popular among architects due to the fact that that it is easy to manipulate (e.g. with cutting procedures that use a heated wire) when fashioning objects, especially rectangular ones.
- 18.
http://www.graphisoft.de/archicad/, http://www.rhino3d.com/de, http://www.autodesk.de/products/maya/overview [Accessed 23 Jan 2015]. Mac-OS computers were used. Maya is used primarily in the film and television industry for 3D–modeling, animation, and rendering but is also used for architectural visualization. In contrast to Maya, Rhino is used primarily to produce a technically precise version of the 3D model. Rhino owes its prominence to “Grasshopper” which runs alongside Rhino http://www.grasshopper3d.com [Accessed 17 Sep 2014] and allows visual parametrical programming to enable shapes to be generated in an automated parameter-based way (“parametric modeling”). Grashopper was not used for the JOH3 project.
- 19.
DWG is a proprietary file format produced by the company Autodesk. It was originally developed for AutoCAD and has become, among others, a standard means of file exchange. The DWG format is used predominantly to store geometric data.
- 20.
In his study, Yanni A. Loukissas points out that staff are often resistant to learning how to use new software tools, as they fear being demoted to the position of drawing assistant and no longer being allowed to work conceptually as part of the project management (2009). With the introduction of digital drawing tools an imbalance emerges between those who are able to handle the new drawing tools and those who try to avoid using the new techniques. Often, interns and beginners seize this chance, frequently establishing a close working relationship with managers who themselves are no longer able to work with the tools. This in turn indicates the importance of the hand drawing as a low-threshold means of communication.
- 21.
Program codes are rarely used to work on the design; a program code can be activated via keyboard entry and shorthand symbols and is often used to complement other means of display. Whereas the early drafting software made much greater use of interfaces in program codes, programming has come to acquire greater significance again in the last few years in the form of ‘parametric modeling.’ The most commonly used software still provides a graphical user interface for this, however.
- 22.
Although so-called tracking programs can also capture changes in the planning model, they do not contain any direct visual traces of the drafting process. This does not mean that such practices should necessarily be done using pencil and paper, merely that they reflect the current status of technology. Further software and hardware developments make other types of use conceivable as well.
- 23.
See the essay by Gabriela Goldschmidt, Chap. 4, in this volume.
- 24.
Another drafting technique, in which the existing (stage of a) draft is creatively reworked to prompt reflection and new ideas, can be found in a study by Boris Ewenstein and Jennifer Whyte (2007: 699). The lead architect in a project joins a meeting of the design team and tries to gain a hands-on understanding of the current state of planning by sketching over what is already there. The architect lays tracing paper over the existing plan, partly reinforcing the existing sketch and partly inserting variations and changes. In a subsequent interview he describes the process as an inquiry, asking: Have you considered this or that? What happens if you do it this way or that way?
- 25.
Ignacio Farías (2013) describes the purposeful application of dissonance as a design technique.
An important point to note in this connection is that variation and comparison are not limited to the sketching process and that sketching itself is not necessarily an image-based procedure. Whether variants are created and explored in the design process using pencil and paper or model building techniques depends to a large extent not least on the geometric demands of the project and the design culture of the firm. One particularity of the sketch, though, is that the traces of what has been done before are preserved.
- 26.
To be more precise, the reference here should be to one-to-one depictions. One-to-one correspondence is given when there is a reversible uniqueness, that is, when an image point Pi can be allocated to every spatial point Pi and vice versa. In the context of the parallel projection this enables projection on one plane, axonometry and projection on two planes (Reutter 1988: 11).
- 27.
Computer-based processes of construction increasingly enable partially automated testing and trouble-shooting by means of so-called clash detection.
- 28.
Convention dictates that a horizontal section is applied at 1 m height above the floor for the projection.
- 29.
This movement was described in relation to modeling practices by Albena Yaneva (2005).
- 30.
This research received support from the European Union (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship, Grant Agreement No. 600209, Project IPODI).
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Ammon, S. (2017). Image-Based Epistemic Strategies in Modeling: Designing Architecture After the Digital Turn. In: Ammon, S., Capdevila-Werning, R. (eds) The Active Image. Philosophy of Engineering and Technology, vol 28. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56466-1_8
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