But where are the Sketches !?
A note on sketching as a design tool

'But where are the sketches ?'... have heard this so many times in juries and reviews... on both side of the desk. Seems, we'll forever have this persona of a designer, this larger than life figure with nothing but a sketchbook and a pencil ... and the world just waiting to turn the corner.
Sketching has always been glorified ... and everything else a poor second, when it comes to crystallizing an idea or representing the essence of it... and somebody did tell me that, 
' you can't remove the touch of human hand from design '... the comment has stayed with me... and rightly so.
But it is equally true that a design is more in the head than in the hand ... and there are any number of tools to articulate an idea. A sketch could be one of them (hand drawn that is). What is the point in laboriously working through a sketch when the flair is missing, and could be found in another medium ?
Also, in this fanatic demand for sketches, one often forgets to emphasize the importance of scale and proportion. We get caught in the artistic merit of the representation. However, a design, is a real thing, or at least meant to be so. An idea not hinged to scales and proportions of this world is often a statement in distortion... and final shape of things that emerge out of it, often has no resemblance to the original idea.

In this context, it is fascinating to  explore Leonardo da Vinci's study of human proportions, the 'Vitruvian man'. It is important to remember that the most familiar scaling element for all of us is our own body. We can gauge the size and extent of anything by comparing it with our body proportions, if only we are sensitized to it a little more.

The drawing and text of the Vitruvian Man are sometimes called the Canon of Proportions or, Proportions of Man. This drawing exemplifies the blend of art and science during the Renaissance and provides the perfect example of Leonardo's keen interest in proportion. In addition, this picture represents a cornerstone of Leonardo's attempts to relate man to nature. Encyclopaedia Britannica online states, "Leonardo envisaged the great picture chart of the human body he had produced through his anatomical drawings and Vitruvian Man as a cosmografia del minor mondo (cosmography of the microcosm). He believed the workings of the human body to be an analogy for the workings of the universe."

the vitruvian man, a study of proportions


a palm is the width of four fingers
a foot is the width of four palms
a cubit is the width of six palms
a man's height is four cubits (and thus 24 palms)
a pace is four cubits
the length of a man's outspread arms is equal to his height
the distance from the hairline to the bottom of the chin is one-tenth of a man's height
the distance from the top of the head to the bottom of the chin is one-eighth of a man's height
the maximum width of the shoulders is a quarter of a man's height
the distance from the elbow to the tip of the hand is one-fifth of a man's height
the distance from the elbow to the armpit is one-eighth of a man's height
the length of the hand is one-tenth of a man's height
the distance from the bottom of the chin to the nose is one-third of the length of the head
the distance from the hairline to the eyebrows is one-third of the length of the face
the length of the ear is one-third of the length of the face

1969

Design Timeline - Design With Nature
use 'design timeline' as search on top, to get all Timeline posts.

This post is certainly a tribute to Ian L. McHarg's seminal work ' Design With Nature', with the hope that a few more people will spend a few more minutes leafing through it. Also prompted by the fact that a few Product Design courses have started offering smallish modules on Landscape Architecture and such like. I thought, we were firmly astride onto the path of specialized learning. Now, does this provide a more 'well rounded' design education, or just promotes the notion that designer's are often 'only bits-n-pieces people' ?

'Design With Nature' has many vantage points... it provides tools for regional planning, it provides a template for resource optimization, it is a manual on sustainable development, it also raises some very pertinent questions on the nature of development... 
Is Man subservient to Nature or is Nature subservient to Man ? It seriously questioned the tendency to enforce man's will on nature. An example of the French Baroque style of Landscape is often cited, in the Palace of Versailles landscape, were nature had been tamed to follow patterns willed by Man. As opposed to an example of English countryside Landscape tradition were picturesque views followed natures undulations.

Palace of Versailles landscape

Based on McHarg's approach values can be assigned to patches of land along parameters like Susceptibility to Erosion, Bedrock Foundation, Hydro-logical Data, Natural Drainage Patterns, Geological Information, Mineral assets, Heritage values, Cultural Values, Natural assets, Wildlife Habitats, Ecologically Fragile zones etc. This overlay-ed information can highlight the nature of impact and cost of development. It provides a tool for planning development with calibrated and informed trade-offs. 

Recently, the pilgrim/ tourist routes of Badrinath and Kedarnath were battered by un-usually high rainfall. Not only did we loose entire settlements, it also washed away historical, cultural, natural and ecological assets... should we not value our assets enough to adopt sound engineering tools and sensible design approach ?