Sketching to learn, learning to sketch: students' ways of sketching in architectural designing

Architects when sketching take time to pause, to look, to sketch, to look and sketch again. Described by some as the passing of an idea, a place or an experience from eye to mind to hand, the act of sketching is a means by which architects come to see and to understand the unfolding outcomes of their designing and make sense of aspects of the world. For many practitioners, scholars and eminent architects, sketching is fundamental to their architectural disposition and an integral part of thinking in an architectural way. To become architects, students need to learn this kind of sketching and few students in the early years of their studies are able to sketch in this way. Experience in teaching reveals architecture students are able to produce sketches, yet many struggle to grasp how to use their sketching as an integral part of their thinking and of progressing their designing. Far too rarely is using sketching an explicit focus of teaching and learning in the design studio. This research is directed towards understanding the different ways students are sketching when designing, on the basis that understanding these ways provides a useful and appropriate basis upon which to found improvements in teaching and learning about sketching in the design studio. Synergies between architectural sketching, visual thinking and how students learn, give rise to an investigation into the ways students are sketching, its approach, the form and collection of the data, the tools of analysis and means of interpretation founded on what is shared. The phenomenographic perspective on teaching and learning (Marton and Booth 1997) provides a means to analyse students' sketching, its iterative and interwoven cycles of considering, discovering and reinterpreting, suited to making sense of and seeing below the surface of the loose, searching and at times unclear design sketching. The analysis findings identify and describe differences in what and how students are sketching and are synthesized into a visual framework of 'palettes', describing three different and increasingly complex ways students are sketching. Using the descriptive framework in the studio offers students and teachers, through the understanding it depicts and the language it provides, opportunity to see, to make sense of, to compare, to complement, to improve and to discuss their own sketching and the sketching of others, and in so doing provides a means by which to help bring sketching into being an explicit focus of the day to day exchanges which lie at the core of learning in the design studio. Consideration is given to how teaching and learning in the studio might change were sketching to take this focus

Graphic Design Students’ Perceptions Of Using Apple iPads To Create Sketches And Promote Idea Generation

Artists and designers typically utilize sketching during the early stages of the design process because it provides them with an opportunity to transfer ideas from their head onto paper, computer, or mobile device. Sketching is regarded by researchers in the field of design to be an essential part of the design process. The existing research in this field is focused on comparing paper and pencil sketches with sketches completed on computers. There is a void in the literature examining sketching completed on mobile devices like the Apple iPad. Therefore, this study aimed to fill that void. The purpose of this study was to explore the effectiveness of graphic design students’ use of iPads for sketching activities. The experiences and perceptions of 10 graphic design students who completed a sketching activity using iPads, were examined during the spring and fall semesters of 2016 at a university in the Upper-Midwest. Qualitative phenomenological research methods were used in the study. Data was gathered from interviews and from analysis of the participants’ iPad sketches. The general categories for the participants’ perspectives included background information, design workflow, attitudes on sketching, experience using the iPads, and quality of the iPad sketches. Three themes emerged from an analysis of the data. The first theme addressed the reasons why students preferred sketching with paper and pencil. The second theme explained the benefits students found when sketching on iPads. Finally, theme three expounded on alternative idea generation techniques that could be accomplished on iPads

Sketching to learn, learning to sketch: students' ways of sketching in architectural designing

Architects when sketching take time to pause, to look, to sketch, to look and sketch again. Described by some as the passing of an idea, a place or an experience from eye to mind to hand, the act of sketching is a means by which architects come to see and to understand the unfolding outcomes of their designing and make sense of aspects of the world. For many practitioners, scholars and eminent architects, sketching is fundamental to their architectural disposition and an integral part of thinking in an architectural way. To become architects, students need to learn this kind of sketching and few students in the early years of their studies are able to sketch in this way. Experience in teaching reveals architecture students are able to produce sketches, yet many struggle to grasp how to use their sketching as an integral part of their thinking and of progressing their designing. Far too rarely is using sketching an explicit focus of teaching and learning in the design studio. This research is directed towards understanding the different ways students are sketching when designing, on the basis that understanding these ways provides a useful and appropriate basis upon which to found improvements in teaching and learning about sketching in the design studio. Synergies between architectural sketching, visual thinking and how students learn, give rise to an investigation into the ways students are sketching, its approach, the form and collection of the data, the tools of analysis and means of interpretation founded on what is shared. The phenomenographic perspective on teaching and learning (Marton and Booth 1997) provides a means to analyse students' sketching, its iterative and interwoven cycles of considering, discovering and reinterpreting, suited to making sense of and seeing below the surface of the loose, searching and at times unclear design sketching. The analysis findings identify and describe differences in what and how students are sketching and are synthesized into a visual framework of 'palettes', describing three different and increasingly complex ways students are sketching. Using the descriptive framework in the studio offers students and teachers, through the understanding it depicts and the language it provides, opportunity to see, to make sense of, to compare, to complement, to improve and to discuss their own sketching and the sketching of others, and in so doing provides a means by which to help bring sketching into being an explicit focus of the day to day exchanges which lie at the core of learning in the design studio. Consideration is given to how teaching and learning in the studio might change were sketching to take this focus

Exploiting hand sketching in educating 'mechanically oriented' engineering students

The financial support provided by the University of Malta through the research grant ‘Innovative 'Early Stage' Design Product Prototyping’ (IMERP02-01).It is well known that even though Computer-Aided Design (CAD) systems are available, sketching is still widely used in design synthesis. Mechanical engineering students must therefore be cultured and trained to exploit sketching during this crucial activity in the basic design cycle. However, in our years of experience in training such students we found a strong tendency that due to the overall knowledge transfer they receive, these future engineers tend to be oriented in mainly thinking and presenting details of their design solution. Whilst clearly design solutions need to be eventually described in detail for their successful realization, good detailed design solutions do not make up for poor solution concepts generated. In this paper, we therefore present the overall pedagogic approach adopted at the University of Malta in exploiting sketching both for expressing working principle solutions and also for early form design. In addition, this paper outlines how a prescribed sketching language was developed to enable co-located students to quickly express and exchange 3D CAD models of their sketches, all this helping in making 'global design' truly feasible even at the early design stages.peer-reviewe

Marking and making : a characterisation of sketching for typographic design

This research rests on the premise that sketching in paper and pencil is crucial for typographic designers when designing documents. The aim has been to derive a characterisation of the salient aspects of sketching, through an ethnographically-oriented study of designers' use of paper and pencil. The people studied were professional typographic designers, but both the motivations for the research and the characterisation deriving from it relate to other design disciplines, notably industrial and engineering design and architecture. The goal was to identify the underlying functionality supported by sketching, in order to inform the design of future tools for document creation. The characterisation is presented as a framework, with seven main categories: visual characteristics of marks; basic semantic units of design; visual features of sketches; visual and tactile features of sheets of sketches; affordances of sketching; functionality required to support sketching; capacities of the traditional medium. The first four categories deal with the visual qualities of sketches, such as image quality within the line and recurring features in sketches such as different scale, closure, and degree of detail. The functions supported by sketching are suggested to be: interpretability, focus, comparison, simulation of experience, ideas capture and record making. The functionality identified as necessary to support sketching includes the appropriate speed of image generation, image emergence, image manipulation, and image capture and record making. Also necessary are high speed and ease of switching between all the strands mentioned above, and singularity of focus. The supportive capacities of the traditional medium include a rich vocabulary of marks, high image definition, and the continuum-of-activity through the continuity-at-medium, i.e. the natural progression from sketching on paper to making simulations out of paper. In recognition of the respective strengths of the traditional and electronic media, integration between the two is recommended for the design of optimal document creation systems

Freshmen\u27s Drawing Abilities with Multi-media: an Analysis of Portfolios with Grading Rubrics

This paper presents the results of freehand sketching portfolio analysis. The author has taught the freehand sketching course for the past seven years. Pencil, ink and markers are three major media that are introduced in freehand sketching class. It is a freshmen course offered during the first semester for incoming interior design major students. Most of the freshmen do not have any drawing experience before they take freehand sketching class. It is required to turn in three portfolios including pencil portfolio, ink portfolio and color portfolio during the semester. All the portfolios are evaluated by the rubrics. The rubrics include value, line qualities, perspective and media combinations. The author has kept all the grading rubrics over the years. In order to get insight of freshmen’s ability with multi-media and assess the learning outcomes, the author conducted an analysis based on the grading rubrics. The results of analysis provide valuable suggestions to curriculum design regarding freehand sketching

CAD vs. Sketching: An Exploratory Case Study

This paper presents a preliminary comparison between the role of computer-aided design (CAD) and sketching in engineering through a case study of a senior design project and interviews with industry and academia. The design team consisted of four senior level mechanical engineering students each with less than 1 year of professional experience are observed while completing an industry sponsored mechanical engineering capstone design project across a 17 week semester. Factors investigated include what CAD tools are used, when in the design process they are implemented, the justification for their use from the students\u27 perspectives, the actual knowledge gained from their use, the impact on the final designed artifact, and the contributions of any sketches generated. At each design step, comparisons are made between CAD and sketching. The students implemented CAD tools at the onset of the project, generally failing to realize gains in design efficiency or effectiveness in the early conceptual phases of the design process. As the design became more concrete, the team was able to recognize clear gains in both efficiency and effectiveness through the use of computer assisted design programs. This study is augmented by interviews with novice and experienced industry users and academic instructors to align the trends observed in the case study with industry practice and educational emphasis. A disconnect in the perceived capability of CAD tools was found between novice and experienced user groups. Opinions on the importance of sketching skills differed between novice educators and novice industry professionals, suggesting that there is a change of opinion as to the importance of sketching formed when recent graduates transition from academia to industry. The results suggest that there is a need to emphasize the importance of sketching and a deeper understanding as to the true utility of CAD tools at each stage of the design process

Field sketching and the interpretation of landscape : exploring the benefits of fieldwork and drawing in contemporary landscape practice

This thesis explores potential roles for field sketching in, landscape observation and assessment, landscape planning and design, landscape representation, and in addressing the experiential dimension of the landscape.The research seeks to define and legitimise the old technique of field sketching, and the use and development of field sketches by students and practitioners of landscape architecture, and other landscape disciplines. The wider values of, fieldwork, hand -generated field notations, drawing as an interactive dialogue with others, and the sketch as a type of landscape representation, are also recognised.Whilst accurate representation and precise geometrical definition of the landscape can now be achieved quickly with photographs and by semi - automated digital means, interpretation requires careful observation. Sketching involves an observer stopping and looking and interpreting slowly and carefully. Field sketching and the uses of the field sketch are proposed as bringing an effectiveness to landscape work, valuable because of the interpretation it involves, and the time it does take: timeless because of its simplicity.A personal way of working is investigated, based on a Grounded Theory approach. Systematic analysis of case studies is made through reflection-on-practice. Practice observations (data) are collated and interpreted by practical sorting tasks, to propose a series of how to do and why important principles regarding field sketching. External support for the research findings is sought from literature, considering the broad themes of: fieldwork and the experience of landscapes, field sketching and drawing as craft and expression, and developing and using field sketches.Applications for field sketching to meet contemporary needs in landscape architecture are proposed: the sketch as a designer's tool, sketch-based visualisations as interpretive images, and field sketching as a participative technique that can be used to engage the inquirer, collaborators, and the public with landscape experience -grounded decisions

Bombs Away: visual thinking and students' engagement in design studios contexts

In design studio, sketching or visual thinking is part of processes that assist students to achieve final design solutions. At QUT’s First and Third Year industrial design studio classes we engage in a variety of teaching pedagogies from which we identify ‘Concept Bombs’ as an instrumental in the development of students’ visual thinking and reflective design process, and also as a vehicle to foster positive student engagement. Our ‘formula’: Concept Bombs are 20 minute design tasks focusing on rapid development of initial concept designs and free-hand sketching. Our experience and surveys tell us that students value intensive studio activities especially when combined with timely assessment and feedback. While conventional longer-duration design projects are essential for allowing students to engage with the full depth and complexity of the design process, short and intensive design activities introduce variety to the learning experience and enhance student engagement. This paper presents a comparative analysis of First and Third Year students’ Concept Bomb sketches to describe the types of design knowledge embedded in them, a discussion of limitations and opportunities of this pedagogical technique, as well as considerations for future development of studio based tasks of this kind as design pedagogies in the midst of current university education trends

Characterizing High School Students\u27 Systems Thinking in Engineering Design Through the Function-Behavior-Structure (FBS) Framework

The aim of this research study was to examine high school students\u27 systems thinking when engaged in an engineering design challenge. This study included 12 high school students that were paired into teams of two to work through an engineering design challenge. These dyads were given one hour in their classrooms with access to a computer and engineering sketching paper to complete the design. Immediately following the design challenge, the students participated in a post hoc reflective group interview. The methodology of this study was informed by and derived from cognitive science\u27s verbal protocol analysis. Multiple forms of data were gathered and triangulated for analysis. These forms included audio and video recordings of the design challenge and the interview, computer tracking, and student-generated sketches. The data were coded using Gero\u27s FBS framework. These coded data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The transitions were further analyzed using measures of centrality. Additionally, qualitative analysis techniques were used to understand and interpret systems and engineering design themes and findings. Through the qualitative and quantitative analyses, it was shown that the students demonstrated thinking in terms of systems. The results imply that systems thinking can be part of a high school engineering curriculum. The students considered and explored multiple interconnected variables, both technical as well as nontechnical in nature. The students showed further systems thinking by optimizing their design through balancing trade-offs of nonlinear interconnected variables. Sketching played an integral part in the students\u27 design process, as it was used to generate, develop, and communicate their designs. Although many of the students recognized their own lack of drawing abilities, they understood the role sketching played in engineering design. Therefore, graphical visualization through sketching is a skill that educators may want to include in their curricula. The qualitative analysis also shed light on analogical reasoning. The students drew from their personal experience in lieu of professional expertise to better understand and expand their designs. Hence, the implication for educators is to aid the students in using their knowledge, experience, and preexisting schemata to work through an engineering design