The architectural critic Reyner Banham (1922-1988) famously equated architectural education to
a mysterious ‘black box’, a notion compounded by most beginner students being novices to the
architectural disciplines and the studio. Initiating meaningful design processes in the studio is
therefore one of the challenges facing staff. This article reflects on one approach where the student’s
own body is appropriated as ‘site’. Students are invited to challenge a textual brief by designing
and making an item of temporary adornment for themselves using recycled materials. They are
encouraged to generate conceptual scenarios, to clarify intent and to investigate materials, production
and presentation. Upon completion the maker parades the product and presents a verbal statement.
Students eagerly engage with the project, despite the apparent frivolity that belies a pedagogic agenda:
while facilitating the emergence of creative intentions, the project introduces the notions of concepts
and generative processes, making as activated thinking, references to materiality and tentative
normative positions. Before the curriculum escalates to unfamiliar and complex environments, the
designer’s inner and outer self is explored and expressed in terms of the familiar context of the
designer’s own body. As such it serves as a calculated primer from which to demystify Banham’s
‘black box’.
Die argitektuurkritikus, Reyner Banham (1922-1988), het argitektuuropleiding kennelik met ʼn
geheimsinnige ‘swart kas’ vergelyk. Sy siening word verreikend as mens in gedagte hou dat die meeste
eerstejaarstudente groentjies in die argitektuurdissiplines en die ateljee is en dit dus ʼn uitdaging vir
dosente is om hulle sinryk by ontwerpprosesse in te wy. Hierdie artikel besin oor een benadering
waar die ‘terrein’ tot die studente se eie liggame beperk is. Hulle word met ʼn leitmotiv uitgedaag om
ʼn tydelike sieraad vir hulself te ontwerp en dan van herwonne materiale te maak. Die voortbrenging
van konseptuele moontlikhede, ter uitklaring van ontwerpbedoelings, word aangemoedig en die
ondersoek na materiale, produksie en voorlegging word aangepor. By voltooiing paradeer die maker
sy of haar produk en lê ook ʼn mondelinge verklaring voor. Ondanks die ooglopende ligsinnigheid,
wat ʼn pedagogiese agenda verskuil, pak studente die skema geesdriftig aan: saam met die ontluiking
van kreatiewe intensie word die denkbeeld van generatiewe prosesse, konsepte, die maak van
dinge as aktiveerde denke asook materialiteit en voorlopige normatiewe standpunte deur die projek
voorgestel. Die ontwerpers se innerlike en uiterlike word gevolglik ondersoek en verbeeld in die
bekende konteks van hulle fisiese wese, alvorens die kurrikulum na meer komplekse en onbekende
omgewings uitgebrei word. In hierdie opsig dien dit as ʼn berekende wegspringplek waarvandaan die
geheimenisse van Banham se ‘swart kas’ verder blootgelê kan word.
