Blog as Sketchbook

I have always maintained a sketchbook.  When I began architecture school we were pretty much required to have one and I have to admit that it was very daunting.  I was so self conscious about what went into the sketchbook.  I would “draw” pretty pictures (relatively pretty mind you), and write in as perfect of block letters as possible.  It was, restrained, controlled, boring, and useless.

It was not until after school that the sketchbook became something for me.  It became alive and real the moment I stopped thinking of it as precious.  I allowed myself to tear scraps of paper out of it, to scrawl phone numbers into it, to past things I found in newspapers and magazines into it.  It became alive and what I realized is that it became less a collection of design ideas, but more a collection of the context around me which led to understanding what was interesting me at the moment.

I am making this connection because I like this blog format for writing about architecture, and because it can be made to feel like the sketch book that I carry around.  It needs to avoid the pressure of having a super honed, spot on thought expressed or else there will be paralysis.  

In a way this is both a promise and a warning.  I promise to throw some ideas out there, I warn you that it will be like me throwing a lump of clay on the table and asking us all to participate in forming that clay into something more recognizable as clear thought.  Here we go …