KARJVIT RIRERMVANICH, EDITOR OF ART4D, INQUIRES INTO THE UNIQUE ASPECT OF MIRROR WHICH IS BOTH VISIBLE AND TRANSPARENT, TANGIBLE AND INTANGIBLE, DEFINITE AND ELUSIVE
TEXT: KARJVIT RIRERMVANICH
PHOTO: KUKKONG THIRATHOMRONGKIAT
(For Thai, press here)
No matter how progressed the construction technologies have become, architects still contribute as a creative mechanism existing between conceptual ideas and reality. Architects’ job is to design, and the literal definition of that is to produce an actual format of ‘design’ or a working drawing. Working drawings serve as a universal language; the final product of the entire design process; a tangible representation of thoughts, conversations, discussions and negotiations. It’s a communication tool evolved and developed for architects to create a ‘representation’ of a building, enabling them to control the transformation of ideas into a tangible reality, remotely, without the need to be on-site and regulate everything first-hand. The creative role of architects comes to an end once the working drawings are no longer in their hands. Working drawings are transformed into an actual building through how other parties (who are not architects) read and follow the specified details and instructions. Our role after the design process is over is to follow up on the transformation process, providing a better clarification when a direction or specification isn’t clear, amending any mistranslation. To which extent we are required in the post-design process and how smooth such a process will be are varied by projects. But most of the time, the construction activities are, by their own processes, not included in most architects’ job description.
With this role, the world of working drawings is an ideal world. It’s the final product of the entire design process and the final product in and of itself as a representation of a complete building. Architects create working drawings to provide builders the directions needed for the building to be constructed with intended details and specifications, similar to how a photocopy machine makes a copied version of the original document. This process has been carried out since the time when the architectural profession was born into the world. The tangible, solid, livable and functional mass and skin of a building’s physicality are materialized from a collection of lines and letters, on pieces of papers or in digitized form displayed on screens of digital tools.
But the real world is full of uncertainties. There are a few or several years in between the second an architect delivers the working drawings, and the second a building gets transformed into a tangible object in its complete form. Among these seemingly infinite lines representing built structures in the world, glass is one of the most magical materials, because in the world of working drawings, glass rarely gets drawn. The intention and purpose for its transparent presence in the real work juxtaposes with its existence in the sphere of working drawings. One cannot draw up glass because it is meant to be see-through and transparent. What we can do is use a different language to indicate that this thing is, in fact, glass, and how to differentiate this particular material from others such as wood, stones, or concrete whose patterns still provide a good enough identification of their physical characteristics in working drawings. The predecessors of today’s architects were once at their wits end when it came to finding a solution about the matter, and ended up creating working drawings where the word ‘glass’ is ubiquitous. Then someone invented the ‘///‘ symbol to indicate ‘glass’ in working drawings. Its contribution is that of the human civilization level; a universal vocabulary that saves mankind an enormous amount of time.
At the same time, the conflict has caused the glass’ journey from working drawings to reality to be something that requires incredible imagination. That is because architects cannot represent all the glasses that will be materialized in the real world merely through the world of working drawings. The /// symbol in working drawings is actually a representation of so many other phenomena, all requiring one to know and understand exclusively through experiences in the real world. That is because they exist beyond any specific linguistic symbols, and are difficult to explain using a language in the world where we cannot explain or render the feeling clearly and without obscurity. This is where the design process becomes truly meaningful– when architects run out of words to use, when materials do their works, and the phenomenon exists far beyond the power of language architects can use to help explain or symbolize, when the /// symbol in working drawings gets decoded as transparency, airiness, the state of being see-through, a connected or a partitioned space, a blockage of noises and air, a presence of natural light. On a glass surface, something goes through, something reflects. But these things can never happen without the help of calculation. One cannot build models to present the entire reality, and in the meantime, it’s something we can neither resist nor deny, no matter how hard we try.
One can say that, for the making of each building, the journey from the world of working drawings to the realm of glass will always be a new experience. It is something akin to translating one language to another and the meanings of certain words and sentences get lost in translation, some are misinterpreted, deviated, or become difficult to explain, and are defined specifically by their surrounding environment. The beginning of glass in the world of working drawings is unexplainable and its final destination in the real world is no different. The journey is repeated, silently, in the world of design and construction. A work of architecture can take a relatively long time to complete compared to other things that have been created in the world. On the expedition filled with decoded meanings, obscurity and the transfer of the power to create, draw, and translate and the chaos that emerges from the translation, phenomena arise from how glass is interpreted from working drawings into reality. It is in this dimension that architects no longer have the power to control. In this world, things cannot be absolutely determined, understood and recounted to the point of utmost clarity. And this may be the only condition where all phenomena in architecture can be formed; when the existence of architects become obscured and defeated; when the words of architects are no long suffice; when working drawings lose their significance; when the real world and nature take their usual courses and those built structures naturally appear our eyes.
