Tools for Ideas

This book is based on the practice, theory, and history of architectural design. It examines the means used for design, explaining how they facilitate but also influence the thinking, expression, and perception of architectural ideas. The book marks a shift from studying design methods to exploring the use of the media, tools, and programs available for design.

The book explores the idea of design research in architecture. What seems to be a real issue, is that "design is so centrally significant in today’s society that research into it can no longer be neglected and thus the issue we are facing is: "How do research and design relate to each other?  Both activities produce knowledge but of different kinds. So, on the one hand, design is not a science in its own right, but draws on technical and scientific insights as well as artistic skill and ability. On the other hand, design, although not a science, can be the object of systematic research" Gänshirt also defines architectural design as "devising a form for an object without having that actual object in front of you. He considers this a fundamental activity that is shared by all professions derived from the ancient Greek (arkhitekton), like architects, engineers, urban designers, landscape architects, and industrial and graphic designers. The fundamental component of the design, observes Philippe Marin, is based on the intellectual qualities and abilities of the designer to perceive, imagine, invent and make sense. The designer leads his work through a dialogue with himself, through the multiple representations and figurations he makes. A continual interaction between the idea and its manifestation operates by the use of design tools. Marin goes on: "Gänshirt marks the close relationship between tools and design: the compass and the rule create their own geometry based on lines and circles; the perspective induces a certain conception of space. All design tools are used in order to figurate and they facilitate the perception. They are used to reduce the complexity of the object under study, to make it intelligible to the designer. Through various experiments, tests, and studies, cycles of investigation and evaluation, the best solutions are gradually worked out: “Designing is a process of approaching concrete reality laboriously and gradually: working from the large to the small scale, starting with the abstract and becoming more and more concrete. By interlinking different disciplines, gradually approaching the desired outcome, redefining it, and experimenting with methods and media, design is a constant negotiation of reality, for example, the reality of research questions and experimental settings.

Referring to Donald A. Schön's theory of reflective practice, Gänshirt proposes the concept of the design cycle as a recurrent time pattern to describe the reflective and repetitive structure of design processes. He explains design cycles as circular time structures that may start with the thinking of an idea, then expressing it by the use of visual and/or verbal means of communication (design tools), the sharing and perceiving of the expressed idea, and starting a new cycle with the critical rethinking of the perceived idea.  Jane Anderson points out that this concept emphasizes the importance of the means of expression, which at the same time

are means of perception of any design ideas, allowing and structuring visual and verbal design thinking. Sven Schneider observes that within this iterative process, the tools used to create prototypes play a central role: "They are required to externalize the ideas and thoughts that are in the mind of the designer As such, manageable artifacts are produced which can, in turn, be evaluated by the designer. For the design process to be effective, it is critical that the cycle of ideas, design tools, and artifacts is not interrupted unnecessarily. Citing Jörg Petruschat, Schneider continues by saying that this is one reason for the success of traditional design tools such as pencil and paper because these tools can be used without any special knowledge and their usage facilitates a continuous flow of thoughts. Design researcher has noted that: "in a certain way, this scheme is an enlargement of the idea of the dialogue between mental image and the external scheme proposed by Alfonso Martinez, but it abdicates the pretension of defining a proposed way of designing - since this would be very susceptible to specific methodologies - in order to focus his analysis on the relationship between instrument and architect. The design cycle diagram takes apart activities which during the time of a project occur many times in intertwined or parallel ways, this being favorable for a more precise analysis of the relations involved. Besides that, the idea of the cycle suggests that these phenomena occur countless times along a design process, in ways he only is able to develop through his instruments. Gänshirt examines the means used for design, explaining how they facilitate but also influence the thinking, expression, and perception of architectural ideas. According to Tero Heikkinen, he "limits his observation mostly on the designer, describing a variety of concrete, historical tools. Gänshirt then proceeds to transpose the idea of a design tool to a metaphorical level. Anything from gestures, sketches, models, and videos to computer simulation programs and design criticism can all be seen as tools forwarding the design in some way or another. This McLuhanian view would mean that design cannot do without the mediation of tools. “Ideas, visions, and thoughts cannot be conveyed directly, they can be expressed only with the aid of ‘tools’, ‘instruments’, or ‘media’.

To make it possible to analyze the different media used for design, Gänshirt divides them into two categories: visual and verbal tools. Conventionally, in areas like architecture, industrial design, or graphic design, visual tools are considered more important than verbal ones. In other areas like engineering or urban planning, the use of verbal design media may be prevalent. Visual design tools analyzed in the book are, for example, gesture, sketch, drawing, scale model, perspective drawing, photograph, film, and video. In her essay on "Language as a design medium in urban practice": "Gänshirt notices that in practice there exists a form of competition between the two ways of thinking: "Architects likely condemn verbal thinking as ‘grey theory’, while some cultures reject the use of the associative/emotional visual-spatial thinking." Gänshirt pleads to avoid this confrontation, but to make use of the possibilities of mutual suggestion and stimulation on the one hand and reflection and observation on the other hand":

"Visual tools that produce images make it possible to express inner ideas in a visual form so that these can be looked at critically and conveyed to others, while the verbal design tools that produce texts are there to describe, analyze and criticize design ideas. Or put briefly: the visual tools are used primarily for devising form, and the verbal tools for developing the meaning of a design." Verbal design tools described in the book are, for example, metaphor, description, discussion, critique, theory, algorithm, calculation, and program. Defending the use of writing as a design tool, landscape architect Udo Weilacher argues that as a matter of fact the design of a project and the writing of a complex text have much more common characteristics in various regards than one may suppose at first sight: „The spoken word as the first concretion of first ideas and conceptions is absolutely the most ephemeral of all design tools“, says Gänshirt. He points out that the German word "reißen" in a sense "drawing" comes from the same root as the English term "to write". Weilacher goes on: "However, the analogies between writing and designing reach a lot further, even without pointing at the complicated connections between structuralism in linguistics and structuralism in landscape architecture – a subject of high significance for current planning issues. Writing is designing, or at least writing is an excellent design training, because it forces the author to give a clear structure to a story told or an image of a new garden or a landscape created in a creative design process.