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Arts & Communication Nebula rasa: The diaphanous in architectural design

we encounter a simple line figure of four vertical lines on a We can see this by turning our attention toward the
homogeneous background, we inadvertently read them as common design practice of making multiple tracings on
lanes or columns. Our perception engages in sense-making semi-transparent sketching paper. By overlaying multiple
by applying structural metaphors or visual schemata to sketches, the former foreground becomes background and
the represented content, a skill known as “seeing-as.” visually fades in relation to a new overlay. As the former
39
“Seeing-as” has long been recognized as a design skill that foreground starts to play the role of a non-homogeneous
helps in creating various interpretations of a single figure background, it becomes part of the new sketch, both as
or visual constellation. For example, here is a response by background and as tentatively established point of departure:
a designer who participated in a protocol study, describing “The [sketch] paper is not transparent in the same way
his interactions with sketches: glass is, but makes the underlying image somewhat foggy
“I can’t get very far with just thinking about it without and unfocused. By tracing the map, its information is
drawing something…I tend to overlay when I use pencil… reduced to a play of lines, a graphic pattern that reveals
they [overlays] are usually pretty similar…these drawings compositional proportions (…). It opens the map to
are usually worthless as products so I am not very attached new interpretations. As more transparent sheets are
to them. I also do a lot of erasing. I like to erase because I superimposed, the image of the background (the initial
like to have a lot of lines on the page. I like fuzzy stuff. I can drawing) becomes more blurred. The previous drawing
see things in it more than I can in harder-lined things. So, or design still shines through, but becomes less and less
sometimes I just get a lot of lines out and start to see things compelling. This strengthens and stimulates the process
in it. A lot of times I pick up things I think are important. of choosing, omitting and highlighting. As the
I put down potentials and erase down to them.” 40 uncertainty of what lies beneath grows, so does the
freedom of interpretation.” 41
However, no matter how useful adding layers and erasing
are, this is but a single part of the entire creative process. The old design shines through – it is present in a
As Pallasmaa noted, the idea is “plastic” and layered and translucent manner, suggesting itself at the edge of
shapes thinking through visual suggestion and allusion. perception, but nevertheless, it exerts a certain influence.
The diaphanous constitutes a visual, generative stimulus But as it is not forcefully present anymore, it invokes a play,
that introduces a new creative dynamic in designing. This a re-interpretation, or a reconstruction of its compositional
dynamic goes well beyond reading various interpretations elements (Figure 2).
into a sketch or visual representation. It is important to The previous sketches submerge within the visual and
remember that “putting down potentials” is an accurate cognitive background without disappearing completely.
way of describing the explorative phase of designing. The From the point of view of architectural creation, this is
goal is not to work out ideas, but to experience which essential. Especially when working on a complex, layered
potentials emerge, and where novelty appears. topic, the parameters that structure the architectural

A B C D

Figure 2. Overlaying on semi-transparent sketch paper during architectural sketching. (A) Visual exploration of patterns; (B) blurring the background and
exaggerating remarkable features; (C) formalizing the initial idea into a spatial configuration; (D) abstracted configuration without background. Panels
(A–C) show how the original drawing becomes increasingly indistinct.

Volume 2 Issue 1 (2024) 6 https://doi.org/10.36922/ac.1922