Joanna Crotch, Robert Mantho Mackintosh School of Architecture, Glaskow. UK 185
viewed locally. As with any area of choice given to students, deliberation is lengthy,
and we encouraged selection with the timetabling of a tutorial when the activity
would be presented, discussed and approved. The student's selection was diverse,
ranging from Chinese Dragon Dancing to Salsa to Tug of War and Skipping. We hoped
that a broad range of activities would enrich the discussions and the outcomes of the
exercises that we had planned. In retrospect we should have been more rigorous in
our sanctioning of activities. Activities such as deep sea diving were not encouraged
as we foresaw issues when the design of buildings came on stream. Other activities
such as basketball and nursery play were allowed, but did present issues of scale and
building typology that were not anticipated when we were writing the briefs.
The students were then required to observe, draw, diagram, photograph, and film
the activity ...... to become very familiar, intimate, with it. This involved firstly vis-
iting the venues and observing. We encouraged to students to make multiple visits
and record their observations in many modes. Revisits were also required during all
three phases of the research programme. Meeting with the participants and discuss-
ing other aspects of the activity in terms of sensory response, rituals, traditions and
other aspects embedded in the activity that were perhaps not initially evident to
the observer. Students were also briefed to research the historical, physical, visual
and sensual components, and at all times being aware of mood and movement over
time.
The next task was to produce a ‘narrative cubist’ drawing of the activity paying
particular attention to how the activity unfolds over time, and how the passage of
time, movement and mood is depicted in the drawing. Initially through briefing and
subsequent research, the students became more familiar with the principles and theory
behind the Cubist movement, and hence used its principals to generate a ‘narrative
cubist piece’ of their own, to represent their activity. The results were broad ranging
in both the application of the cubist principles but also in the medium used. Curiosity
regarding each other's work spurred discussion and debate, this was further fuelled
by students out with the year group whose curiosity and interest in the programme
was informed through an exhibition of the work that the students organised in the
Schools own public gallery.
As with each task, the students were also asked to construct a series of plans
and sections, in the first instance using their cubist drawing as the source - these
drawings were not definitive – but speculative – design proposals. The making of
these drawings caused much consternation amongst the group, as they grappled to
demonstrate, what they perceived as conventional orthographic techniques being
used to communicate information of a multiple image, where the space that they
were being asked to reveal in part only appeared in their imaginations. Many of
these constructs revealed fascinating spatial relationships between the moving
bodies, which would not perhaps have been seen, let alone perceived without this
exercise.
The first example illustrates the activity of Fencing through a Cubist construct. The
student carefully observed and recorded the activity using sketches, photography
and note taking. Using the sketches made during that process, the cubist image was
created. The final cubist image (fig.1) represents several pairs of fencers in combat,