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Halie believes her 'obsession' with modular origami is a
personal interest because it was seeded by her father and is
self-directed. It represents a meta-interest associated with a
her fascination with mechanisms, mathematics, geometry,
modular systems and making things. Halle has cultivated this
interest through personal goals which she describes as 'trying
to find new paths'and applied it {despite protests by teachers)
to many art and design projects. The depth and duration of
this personal knowledge corresponds with Schon's concept of
'constancy of appreciation'.
Halle describes the most significant event In her design
education as the validation of her use of modular origami.
Prior to this event, Halle was finding it difficult to 'connect' to
her briefs. In a brief transaction Halle showed her tutor some
sketch models based on modular origami analysing the design
of a coffee pot. Halle suggested It'would have looked like it had
nothing to do with it, but I found some sort of little way that
it related', and that the tutor 'understood', and explained that
she believed it was Halle's'way of visually communicating'. This
affi rmationfinally legitimised her use ofthis personal knowledge
and enabled her to personally connect with her briefs.
In an inverse situation Halle's use of this personal knowledge
is misunderstood by both herself and her tutor. When
conducting a random search for stimulus for a shelter design
Halle discovers the 'next level up' to modular origami in
Santiago Calatrava's book on 'flexible geometry'. While aware
of his work from lectures Halle associates this discovery with
her 'obsession' because 'it just summed up everything that I
was interested in'and interprets it as a'random'Idea that'just
sort of appeared in front of me'. Halle identified a 'foldable
cube'from his models as a potential form for her shelter and
made a replica which she presented. Her tutor's reaction also
marks a significant event for Halle:
I was still really buzzing and I said 'I have something I
have to show you' and 1 showed her this little model
that I had made of what I wanted to make and she said
'Yeah that's really cool but you have gone a step too far
and 1 don't want you to do that
Both Halie and her tutor interpret the model as a prototyped
final design rather than an extension of the experimental
medium of modular origami. Halle responded to the 'foldable
cube' because of her personal interests and because the
initial frame she had establish for her project of a portable
shelter based on philosophical ideas of private space she had
previously researched. The model could have functioned as a
'move experiment' used to test her'initial frame' of a "portable"
shelter leading to a stable final frame. Because Halle's tutor
failed to demonstrate any kind of'move'for Halle to imitate, she
was unable to connect her personal and domain knowledge
and generate a strong solution from her initial frame. Halle
was unable to manage a complex web without support.
Interestingly, she remained motivated by the discovery of
flexible geometry despite failing to fully resolve her project
and for the first time associated her personal interest with
legitimate design knowledge:
I mean now It's good because I've actually still found it
and I still have that knowledge in my mind
Hallehasusedthis/cnow/edgeeffectively In subsequent projects
suggesting personal interests seeds domain knowledge.
Discussion and Conclusion
A contemporary re-reading of Schon's theory of design as a
'reflective conversation with the situation' offers an insightful
model of design activity which accommodates ambiguity
and the objective use of subjective knowledge. It highlights
the agency of the designer as evidenced in the use of their
appreciative system. This model corresponds with 'organising
principles, 'design paradoxes' and the motivational aspects
of 'creative problem construction' which help enrich our
understanding of Schon's theory, and novice design activity.
What often appears to be 'opportunistic' undisciplined design
behaviour is the use informal and unorthodox knowledge to
structure, motivate and evaluate design activity in the absence
of sufficient domain knowledge. The emergent categories of
'random ideas'and'branching', within thecase-study, illuminate
the central role of the appreciative system within Halle's
design activity. In the absence of domain knowledge,'random
ideas' enable Halle form and understand interpretations as
information and experience the altered perspective necessary
to generate innovative frames. Subjective random ideas