Design Methods

They crave for a method. And there are very few who can teach methodologies for design.  What methods do is that they allow form-al, spatial, structural, etc. progress of design logically. Design methods can be debated (unlike designs, where personal opinions come into picture). But that's the catch - methods are a very "modern" way of working. But it might be interesting to get different structures of thought from the modern thought itself.

Design methods doesnot figure anywhere in the curriculum of architecture.  "Criticism" has been a popular way of learning design at Academy of Architecture. Somehow, the reality of practice and the ability to handle it gives the alumni of the college a lot of confidence. But we need only some one to tell them how badly most of them do it!

Academic practice can be far more rigorous if we discuss academic issues instead of the practical. The practice is all for materializing the ideas. But the academic space needs to inculcate into students how to handle ideas and let them be produced. Meanwhile, we only have black squares towering up the sky. Design methods can help breaking the monotony.







(above: placing planes that indicate movement in the site owing to interests of view, climate, function and regulating their spacing and height through logic of circulation and context. The design ended up quite differently, but at the end, there was a reasoning for everything that was placed on the site)