WHY. NOT HOW

Paul Lauseau, author of Graphic Thinking for Architects and Designers, muses the following in the second edition of his excellent resource, “…it occurs to me that most of what I have written deals with how or what could be done and not so much with why.” Full disclosure; Mr. Lauseau was my architectural professor back in Indiana.

With any luck, a basic premise of Transparent Drawing is why, not how. Throughout our education, there is a focus on how. Certainly in the powerful dynamics of the digital age, schools are increasingly focusing on turning out competent producers. With the understandable focus on getting a job, current graduates are expected to have core competencies in computer simulations, databases, and production related tasks.

Let’s think about the Beaux Arts school for argument’s sake; certainly you were expected to master the how. How do you develop pleasing classical proportions? How do you handle the classical detailing so that it adheres to the overriding aesthetic principals? How do you fit the purpose of the building into a classically derived floor plan? Questions like these were principally focused on how you do this, not why. If you asked why, the answer certainly would have been just because.

Certainly our current educational milieu, with its eclecticism, is less formulaic than the Beaux Arts. Yet I still see an overriding focus on how. Students are expected to produce competent buildings. As well as preparing students for the marketplace, there is the licensing exam lurking. That gateway is nothing but how; design a steel beam and produce a very practical building design that works and presto, you’re an architect. Over the course of this 4 day exam, the question of why is not even on the radar.

There is of course no question regarding the need to teach architects with a how mentality. After all, we are responsible that the building does not fall down and that it does not leak. We need to be sure that doors are wide enough and that there is sufficient light. The need for architects to operate in the nexus of practicality and art is a dynamic that continues to interest and amaze me.

Hopefully without overstating the case, is it too much to say that Transparent Drawing gives us more focus on the why? The simple act of seeing thru the building that you are analyzing or designing mitigates how. It helps you focus more on why. Why is the complete form of this shape? Why does what I am working on remind me of another object and how can that direct my efforts? Why is what I am working on providing fulfillment, or not?

To a large degree, much of what we do is automatic. And it should not be. We have been conditioned to sublimate why. Much of what we do has very little intellectual purpose and is timid. We need methods and techniques which helps us pull back to see the larger concept.

This can be (and certainly is for me) a fulfilling and satisfying profession. This satisfaction resides, for the most part, in the why. Transparent Drawing, or any technique that gets you beyond the how and into the why is where the rubber meets the road. Don’t simply be a base producer. Our attraction to what we do provides fulfillment and expression. This is why.