Chapter 3

3.1 Conceptualization Using Digital Technology by Architect Frank Gehry

            Conceptualization is often regarded as the most crucial stage in the design process of a designer as it involves inventing or contriving an idea or explanation and formulating it mentally. Great works often arise from great concepts which shine and stand out from the rest. Among the great architects in around the world, Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid are the perfect examples of architects which incorporated digital technology and design software in the conceptualization stage of few of their iconic works. In this digital era, due to the availability of various digital computations and methods, designers tend to be more adventurous and adaptive towards the usage of digital technology in terms of coming out with a good concept to ensure their whole design process goes smoothly.

In the 1980’s, Frank Gehry (Refer to Figure 3.1), the gifted architect had begun to utilized digital technology in his work. His design works were bold, valiant and revolutionary which can be seen in his representational ‘art piece’, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. His design first began as a series of free hand sketches that he made by standing on the riverbanks overlooking the side (Refer to Figure 3.2).

 Figure 3.1: Frank Gehry 

Figure 3.2: Hand sketches by Frank Gehry

        Figure 3.3: The CATIA software used to generate the Guggenheim Museum

3.2 Analysis of Survey Conducted On the Effects of Digital Technology among Respondents in Conceptualization Stage

In order to analyse the statement which shows that digital technology does play a role in the conceptualization stage, a survey was carried out among 38 respondents who are involved in the architecture and interior design industry. Based on the results of the survey, 68.4% of the respondents think that design software aids in their conceptualization and idea generating, which supports the statement whereby digital technology or in other words, design software do aid in the conceptualization stage and realize their ideas and designs.

The methods used by the respondents to come out with their design ideas were investigated and 87% of them usually draft their ideas using CAD software after coming out with concepts using hand sketches and mind mapping, while the remaining 13% of the respondents preferred using design software to generate a conceptual approach. This phenomenon shows that although design software really aids in the conceptualization stage of the fellow architects and designers, it may be only helpful to most of the respondents in terms of the later stages of conceptualizing in order to make their design come real, as seen in the mentioned work of Frank Gehry which is the Guggenheim Museum where he utilize digital technology to enable his sketches to be brought to fruition.

With digital technology, the conceptualization stage has undergone a transition of handmade concept models to virtual concept models. Although handmade concept models (Refer to Figure 3.4) are still widely used by architecture and design students, virtual concept models (Refer to Figure 3.5) are gaining popularity among the designers as the process of generating models has become more convenient and neat, besides allowing designers to actually look at the concept models in different views and perspectives, just as same as the outcome that conventional types of concept model does. 

     Figure 3.4: Handmade concept model

Figure 3.5: Virtual concept model

 On the other hand, sketches can be also done using tablets or in design software rather than in hand sketched form. This shows that digital technology and design software has directly affecting the designers’ conceptualization process, which causes a digital breakthrough which could also possibly replace the conventional methods in 20 years’ time.

The outcome of this analysis also showed that 50% of the respondents explore with various innovative and dynamic forms during the conceptualization and design process using design software and on the other hand, 89.5% of them think that digital technology and design software helps in the handling of increasingly complex geometries within their design. In view of that, digital technology has indeed enabled designers to explore more forms during the conceptualization stage and correspondingly helping them to work on forms which have numerous complex angles and indirectly generate contemporary forms in the architectural field.  A huge transformation of the trends of architectural forms has occurred along the years. The recent digital generated architecture which is the ‘Praxis of Flow’ by Arthur Azoulai and Melody Rees (Refer to Figure 3.6), shows that new forms which are more organic and fluid like are incorporated in their designs with the wonder of digital technology, and these forms are barely seen in the architecture from the past unlike today. Compared to the new age architecture, the buildings in the 1920s are more structural and inorganic like, besides having repetitive and rigid geometrical forms (Refer to Figure 3.7). In short, digital technology had made architecture evolved into a new age, where complex curve-linearity and compositions are made possible and enabled architecture to achieve greater heights and subsequently provide a whole new living experience to the users or the inhabitants of these buildings. Over the years, more and more interesting forms and ideas beyond our imaginations are surfacing in the field of architecture for instance the futuristic architecture (Refer to Figure 3.8) which might be the architecture of the future generations starting from now on, with the availability of ever growing functions of digital technologies.

Figure 3.6: The form of ‘Praxis of Flow’        

Figure 3.7: A building in the 1920s during the Art Deco period.

Figure 3.8: The possible architecture and city in the future illustrated using digital technology.