material & process

Just a few thoughts:

Right now there seems to be a real interest in Architectural design coming directly from material investigation and the inherent properties of the particular material. In a recent talk that I gave to a group of graphic designers I stressed the importance of process along with material in the creation of innovative design. One of my current colleagues in Architecture stresses work at the detail level and how that informs the whole. He holds fast to the belief that the designer (architect), engineer, and contractor (builder/fabricator) need to be involved in the creative process from the very beginning, rather than handing off their finished compartmentalized task to the "next person" in line. He sees the process as being non-linear as do I. Design and design thinking is constantly transforming itself as it travels through different states of being, from drawing, to model, to material study but not in a linear fashion, but rather flowing forward and backward from one to the other. Each one is constantly reevaluating and transforming the mind, design, material and process. In order to do be an effective designer/ architect you must be able to seamlessly transverse the states of being that an object takes on from beginning thought to realized material object. Our schools have turned out too many people who simply do one thing well and this has lead to an educational inflation so to speak. The graduates of tomorrow will need to be well versed in creative thinking and have a real understanding of collaboration and such the faculty at such educational institutions will need to collaborate in new and inventive ways in order to break down the institutional boundaries that bind and compartmentalize the education of the generations to come. The future thinkers of the world need to be makers. It is through making that problems can be solved and ingenuity fostered. Society will come to depend more on those who equally use their hands and their mind to solve complex problems. 

This relates to the model of the craftsman and reinstates the craftsman as pivotal player in society. The craftsman embraces material, process, and design to arrive at the creation of something that shows an understanding and accomplishment of each of the aforementioned areas. The craftsman is able to understand and render things in a manner that transcends the abilities of a  person with a singular study of one of these specific areas.

Process plays a large role in this understanding and I would argue that knowing a specific material or medium's characteristics in depth gives the designer/maker the ability to make informed decisions about how to transfer this knowledge of material and process to other seemingly unlike materials. Without a strong foundation in process though, the designer exploring material is simply playing and experimenting; with very little direction in what legitimate utility could come out of this experience. All material is related in it's characteristics in some form or another. Knowing what one material can do and more importantly "how" it can be manipulated in real world ways is important to maximizing the potential of design and material.