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Cognitive Catalysis: Sketches for a Time-lagged Brain

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Design Representation

Abstract

Although sketches are often used to communicate ideas to others or to record the progress of a design, their primary and privileged function is to support the user’s brain as he or she imagines possible objects. Repeatedly, designers emphasize the extent to which drawing mediates and facilitates their thought. When Bryan Lawson interviewed 11 well-known architects about their working methods, he found that they nearly all used rough freehand sketches to help them get ideas (Lawson 1994). Designers commonly speak of “holding a conversation with a drawing.” My colleagues and I had similar responses when as part of a UK government-funded team research project, we interviewed 35 fashion designers about their use of sketches (Makirinne-Crofts et al. 1992).

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Authors
  1. Jonathan Fish
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, 32000, Israel

    Gabriela Goldschmidt M.Arch

  2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA

    William L. Porter PhD, FAIA

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Fish, J. (2004). Cognitive Catalysis: Sketches for a Time-lagged Brain. In: Goldschmidt, G., Porter, W.L. (eds) Design Representation. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-85233-863-3_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-85233-863-3_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-85233-753-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-85233-863-3

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