Towards demystifying the “black box” : body as site

Abstract

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.