Landon Lucyk

In-Between Imagining and Making

This thesis is interested in exploring the condition between imagining and making; drawing and construction. The moment in which an idea is translated into a built environment. Typically, building is the last stage in a project that is carried out by contractors on site. An architect creates a set of two-dimensional drawings and specifications which is then translated into a built environment. Today, architects have begun to lose control of this condition. A lot of the time the built environment tends to be very different than what was originally conceived. How can we propose a method of working that begins to regain control of this condition? This thesis will discover ways of combining and overlapping the process of drawing, modeling and making.

Making has been something that has always been fascinating to me. However, it is not solely the act of building that interests me. To build; one has to acknowledge the properties and limitations of the material. Although this can create limitations and restrictions, I believe once critically worked through; this can create new opportunities and ways of working. I am inspired by Sixteen Makers way of working developed during their project 55/02. Instead of starting schematic design with a set of drawings; they conceived and explored the potentials of the piece in the workshop. Working with the material at a 1:1 scale and the tools used to fabricate it. Instead of building being the last stage in a project; completed by a contractor on site, how can we activate the role of making in the way we practice? To study this inquiry a series of building components and instruments were constructed to activate the role of making when one engages the site context.