ARC 4301A
Issues in architectural theory and design
Fall 2004–05

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Student papers

week 1, 9 Sept.
Defining languages of designs

week 2, 16 Sept.
Generativity in the Yingzao fashi

week 3, 23 Sept.
Defining style formally: shape grammar

week 4, 30 Sept.
The plan diagram in the Yingzao fashi

week 5, 7 Oct.
The plan diagram in extant buildings

week 6, 14 Oct.
The section diagram in extant buildings

week 7, 21 Oct.
Field trip to Chi Lin temple and Wong Tai Sin

week 8, 28 Oct.
Paper topic due

week 9, 4 Nov.
Consultations

week 10, 11 Nov.
Consultations

week 11, 18 Nov.
Consultations

week 12, 25 Nov.
Consultations

week 13, 2 Dec.
Review week

TBA
Paper due

11 September 2004

Question. I have some questions about the hypothesis [of] construction. As there [are] no authoritative [criteria], we have to [make an] assumption by ourselves. [B]ut different people have different amount of assumptions, will it make make some of my designs so ad hoc that … no further implication can be generated? For example if [I] made an “illegal” design [initially], later [I] add more assumptions without refining the design, then the design eventually becomes “legal”.

Answer. Good questions, because this exercise is not so much about the meaning of “criteria," but of “authoritative.”

Here’s an example. How do you decide whether your little sister is ready to go to school in the morning? You may have a gut feeling about it, especially if you have a lot of experience. Or you may have a checklist: does she have on the right clothes? does she have her schoolbag, her lunch, her notebook? Clearly, the gut feeling and the checklist (criteria) are related, and in fact thinking about one can help you with the other. The gut feeling can help you develop a checklist, and the checklist can help you cultivate your gut feeling. In the end, you hope that the two tell you the same thing.

Let’s start with your example. You have a design that is illegal, but then you keep modifying your criteria so that the design ends up legal. Is this something to worry about? In itself, no. But it suggests that you should think about what in your thinking has changed.

This brings us to your bigger question, about different people having different assumptions and different criteria. Certainly, this means that a design that is acceptable to you could be unacceptable to someone else. The real question, as I see it, is this: where do the criteria come from?

This assignment is not about finding the perfect criteria. It is about confronting the dilemma that you have uncovered. So I hope you will try to defend your criteria, for instance, against those of the classmate you trade designs with.