Vals Sketches

Quotes from Zumthor that lead to a way of thinking about sketching.

"I don't see how anyone could think that a building could be conceived abstractly, with lines on paper, and only much later 'materialized'.

"The process was not deciding shadow but letting the light in and letting the view come in..."

"Materials are a passion of mine. When you use two or three together in the right way - say, smooth black steel with an oily shine, varnished oak, light grey canvas - they can become more than just raw materials: they can start to charge each other, creating a tremendous power which for me goes far beyond architectural form - and I mean form, not space. Space, this 'mysterious void', is another question - and another passion of mine."

"A building is never just the superficial manifestation of a design concept. Nor can I conceive of the space within a building in abstract terms: it is something physically contained within the concrete structural mass of the object. A space that lies within heavy stone feels very different to one enclosed by a thin membrane of plywood."

"Film directors and cameramen often seem to have a better feel for the typical spaces of architecture and atmospheric qualities of materials than architects themselves."

Challenge
"To feel what the room does to you, that is something that you could describe almost better in words than in a two-dimensional film. It is really about a sense of place"

Instruction: Capture the sense of place in sketches.

BTW - I don't know of any rules against sketching or painting...
just try not to make too much mess. Also, try not to make any other guests uncomfortable.

Zumthor
"My principal concern - again, another passion - is the materialized presence of the architectural object. A critic once called me a 'phenomenologist', and it's true. I always react to what I see. At
first it may be just a simple reaction - an immediate like or dislike for something I see on the site, on vacation, at the movies. Then, when I get excited about something, I'll to use my head, to find out what it is that I'm really seeing, what it is that excites me. There's a nice word for this process: 'research', or rather 're-search', searching again in my memory, trying to rediscover the reasons for my excitement."