ARCHITECTURAL ACTION

Mogwai, a post rock band, put out an album in 2001 titled Rock Action.  I’ve always liked that title (the music is fun also), and as I was drawing recently, it occurred to me, what about Architectural Action? 

What has intrigued me about the album is it’s glancing reference to rock tropes, which occur in a shifting sonic landscape.  Riffs that are identified with rock, are more or less floating around, without being tethered to an absolute rhythmic structure.  So there is an action, much like a wave action after you drop something large into a pond.   

Architectural Action (AA), you might say, is very similar to Drawing At The Boundary Of Form (DABF).  Both are tools to get at the possibilities of form, without holistic resolution.  In a similar manner, AA can be defined as architectural riffs, or elements, that are not quite tied down within a geometrical matrix.  Although they easily could be.  While AA and DABF are similar, I would say that AA is closer to resolved form than is DABF.  

For me, I am more comfortable in a world of AA, rather than one that has Resolved Forms.  For me, what is possible is more intriguing than the resolved.  Does this mean that buildings are boring?  Maybe, and maybe not.  However, I do enjoy operating on a wavelength that is not quite architecture.  For the drawing above, I can easily imagine both an exterior form and an interior circulation experience.  

The two drawings below are Drawing From Drawing: they are based on the drawing above.  I also love to do these small resonant sketches after I have worked on a larger drawing.  Both of these also are on an AA wavelength.  And both could easily serve as the gestating yeast for a building.

We can all get better at what we do.  Architectural Action, as well as DABF, are pathways which allow for this conceptual freedom.