Posted by  Paul Malo on December 08, 2001 at 16:30:56:

In Reply to:  Re: material intuition in architecture posted by Kevin Matthews on December 08, 2001 at 14:59:43:

To go back a couple of decades earlier, in the olden days when I was a student we began by grinding Chinese stick ink in a mortar and pestle, to make a solution with water, strained through a chamois, to make our own ink. Commercial bottled inks were available, of course, but the intent was to retain the sense of craft involved in producing drawings. Now we see mostly "wire drawings" done mechanically by a computer. Surely the computer is a useful tool, which I use constantly, but (as mentioned in response to Barry's comments about his trusty drafting table) most of my architectural thinking is still done with a messy soft pencil. There is something about the hand-eye (mind's eye) coordination that seems to be lost in digital processing.

Also, as suggested in an earlier to post to a student who wanted an introduction to structural thinking, the books by Mario Salvadori are helpful to give an "intuitive" appreciation of what works and what doesn't. In too many schools, strucural design is taught largely as methods of calculation, using esoteric formulas, which may leave the student with little real understanding of structural design.

• Mario Salvadori

Responses:

Post a Response -