Design pedagogy: Form-finding strategies using Operative verbs and experimentation with controlled phenomena

Unlocking creativity can take place through intentional processes. This workshop draws on design thinking to present how experimenting with operative verbs with controlled phenomena involves creating new forms while managing and navigating the changes without randomness.

The power in the operational verbs provides a portal to the abstraction of shape. Participants will be introduced to the process and have a chance to experiment with it. This process offers opportunities for spatial exploration rather than limitations. It reinforces the idea of design as an active and fluid process, encouraging abstract thinking, where the result of volumetric interplay has the potential to craft complex and multifaceted spatial outcomes pushing the boundaries of traditional design proposals.

The potential in each verb such a split, bend, rotate, etc, unlocks possibilities of exploration and creation of new morphologies that might not remind us of the traditional idea of a house, of a chair, or any standardized shape, but that has the potential of being able to navigate on a more diverse range of creative outcomes. After experimenting with this design pedagogy for several years, I discovered that by introducing operational verbs, it helps to explore relationships between volumes, distances, connections, and experimental factors without creating a feeling of restriction yet making it possible to direct experimentations.

The Visual Methods Studio is a working group sponsored by the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture.