Drawing for Awareness

Habraken states:

“Only by a return into everyday environment can our profession establish a research agenda of its own.”

He is concerned about how the profession of architecture needs to evolve into one that is based on research and knowledge of the built environment. He compares it to a physician who does not know how the body functions indicating that the teaching of architecture should be grounded on how everyday environments work.

Too often, I find that we don’t delve enough into this within the studio culture. We are concerned with creating products and not enough with trying to understand what we are solving as designers. This is why it is necessary for architecture students not to be tied down to our studio desks. We should experience the built environment by visiting and analyzing what we see.

That is why I believe that all students should take a similar drawing course to the one Lynn Craig taught last semester. Much is to be learned by simply being out in the world and recording it with a pencil, a pen or any other medium. It links us with what we are seeing and it does give us an awareness that we wouldn’t otherwise have. This awareness is critical in having a deeper understanding of space. We should all leave the studio from time to time and enjoy being in the greater context of our designs.