Rationality for Design
“IN URBANISM I FELT I COULD BUILD A FRAMEWORK TO BASE MY DESIGNS ON, BUT STILL I MISSED A SENSE OF RATIONAL THINKING AND MATHEMATICAL APPLICATIONS.” —FANNY
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program and keeping up with the studio at the same time, but couldn’t achieve much. Now before I do my thesis, I just want to get my tools and skills ready. What motivates you in your geomatics study? JV: The knowledge I gain about the data we use in urbanism. Now I will hopefully be able to handle the raw data, analyse it, create useful maps and base my design on it... It doesn’t matter I don’t get any credits from the courses because I just want the knowledge.
Arguments for designs are often narratives, personal interpretations or a patchwork of information obtained from various sources. Eventually, those who miss the rational thinking end up elsewhere than design—such as Fanny Bot, who changed from urbanism to geomatics, and Jet ten Voorde, who’s taking geomatics courses without earning any credits towards her urbanism degree.
FB: I’ve always felt an affinity towards maps, and I love visualising data on a map. At first I was afraid I lack the necessary background, now I finished the first year and passed all of my courses, constantly motivated by a sense of accomplishment after figuring out yet another assignment that seemed difficult when I started.
What’s so attractive in geomatics to take you away from the graduation thesis? JV: Since my q1 urbanism studio, I’ve always find GIS important and more useful (compared with other random methods). Back then, you could find maps with the information, but you can’t change their structures or extract the data; or you may have the data but you don’t know how to map out their spatial patterns. I tried to do something, learning the
Stefan, who also used to follow the urbanist path, observes that designers never measure the performance of their design, and they only notice when there’s a real trouble. ‘The (sensor and IoT) technology could change our design strategy, from only modelling it before construction, to also using it for evaluation afterwards and then apply the results in new design.’—Imagine how much easier life will be when we can argue about design quality rationally.
Design could be stressful guesswork; but Jet (in red) seems to have found her escape with rationality. Image provided by Jet.