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1st ProofTitle: BA: Architectural Design
Job No: PD0710-67/3184Chapter 3 final (3.2)_.qxd:layouts to chapter one 7/24/10 7:42 AM Page 95
Clients, users and brief ›Site, context and place› Initial ideasTo help understand the complexity of site data, you tend
to frame portions of the site and make dynamic models.
The frame is an observational tool but it’s also a
choreographic tool. It selects and isolates in such a way that
you can then say, ‘Let’s observe the dynamics in this field’.
A site is not delineated by a legal boundary but by the frame
you set. You decide what’s in and out or what comes through
the boundary and then you can say, ‘I would like to see
what’s inside as a dynamic whole and I’d like then, in a
model, to create a dynamic condition of what’s inside.’
Are your scenarios an alternative to the approach of the
conventional master plan?
Scenarios are whittled-down narratives, they are ‘what if’
situations. Scenarios are not about absolute outcomes,
they are about pathways towards outcomes and possible
connections. They are also ways of playing with reality.
Scenarios don’t offer solutions but ways of playing with the
observations, the issues, the people involved. I would prefer
master planning to be more like the work of a choreographer:
a choreography of events and decisions over time and in
space. There is a freedom about questioning reality and
trying out different ways.
Architects are particularly familiar with the possibilities
inherent in the existence of multiple solutions and the
absence of one right answer.
A lot of people have to play with reality to test out different
possibilities, to keep options open and even to learn
about the flexibilities that we inevitably have to build in our
environment. Society is changing very fast, so we have to
learn that whatever we design has to be adaptive, has to be
able to change. We should not be afraid of designing on a big
scale. We should talk about it like an art form. That’s why
I talk about it as curatorial work. We can learn a lot from art
disciplines. You can talk about beauty on a large scale.Text
1st ProofTitle: BA: Architectural Design
Job No: PD0710-67/3184Chapter 3 final (3.2)_.qxd:layouts to chapter one 7/24/10 7:42 AM Page 95