Abstract:
In the early 21st century environmental, social and cultural changes are confronting the traditional relationship
one has with technology, space and subsequently architecture. More specifically the tools of design are
becoming integrated, whereby the clarity of tradition is becoming overlapped, becoming blurred. With this in
mind the research investigates the opportunities of an iterative hand drawing process to develop architectural
responses to movement, time and transformation. Highlighting a future which is inevitably changing, it
is important to assess the inherent qualities of our design tools, as they too influence the connection and
formation of architectural space.
The research explores hand drawing through a design process which firstly, challenges drawn representation
techniques and secondly, emphasises movement and transformation as key architectural drivers within
the 21st century. Due to the continual developments within technology, construction practices and design
materials, there is an opportunity to question and reflect our changing built environment and hence, the
role of movement in architecture. With reference to the theorists Catherine Ingraham and Robin Evans,
the research develops the position that the practice of architecture has become restricted by linear ordering
systems. This is reflective in the orthographic representation of architecture alongside the built edges and
boundaries of architectural spaces. Therefore, today's transforming conditions are used to validate and further
articulate Ingraham's and Evans's theories, outlining a design response, using Wellington as a case study, built
upon overlaying environmental, social and cultural relationships. The architectural outcome connects rather
than dissociates itself to transforming conditions, creating multiple rather than singular boundary conditions
through architectural blurring.
Traditional relationships to spatial boundaries and edges are critiqued through the ambiguities and layers of
working within an iterative hand drawing process. The influence of hand drawn qualities has provided a way
to insert motion into a construct which is perceptually static, hence introducing a means to negotiate and
work within a period of transition.
