Premise Statements
"Working on 'how' without rigorous control of 'why' inevitably excludes reality from the planning process. Proposals for the solution of problems necessarily stand between the definition of goals and the evaluation of efforts"
It's amazing how sometimes you can have a winding, trailing, start of a thought in your head and then it is suddenly brought into focus; echoing throughout all aspects of your life. Goals versus effects, why versus how. In the past year it has become more and more important to me to understand my values, both in my design work and in life. This is why I was so excited about being asked to develop a premise in studio. But, I have been struggling with moving past the 'how' and moving into 'why'. This idea of determining goals instead of effects or solutions is nothing new but for some reason I kept running into a wall with my premise - it seemed like everything I was trying to express kept coming out as an effect. This text has somewhat re-inspired my efforts to really explore my premise, not just for this semester but for my design career moving forward.
One of the hardest things to do sometimes while designing is to make sure you aren't just designing to fix the problem. Often times a problem is being caused by an underlying factor that is creating multiple problems. I think that's the beauty of designing with a premise in mind. It gives us the ability to jump behind the problem and lay that foundation of "why" that prevents problems by giving the project a unifying message.
ReplyDeleteCourtney, this is such a great post for this week, especially after I was able to talk to you outside of class about how the act of having a premise to refocus the initial goals laid out by a project. The premise serves as a validation or a warning of taking next steps in a project and if successful, should be evident without explanation in the finished project.
ReplyDeleteCourtney, It is so interesting to relate this week's reading to our comprehensive premise! I agree, having a premise statement helps us focus on the project at hand, as well as forces us to evaluate our perspective on society and the built environment - and how they interact . As we move forward into our careers, this will be invaluable information to carry with us!
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