“A Way with Words” by Jane Rendell

1. The comment that design research puts “work first, and then later considers the larger field”; to me is only partially true. Do designers not have an overarching problem that drives the research, are they simply making in a vacuum?
2. I find Diller’s “Choreographed Shirt Folding Project” very fascinating, primarily through the lens of locationally informed skill sets or habits. Does the viewing of the product made through this manipulated skill, generate a new viewing of the space in which it was presumably performed?
3. “Black Tent consisted of a flexible structure, a number of steel framed panels with black fabric screens stretched……..” Even though Rendell argues for a more creative and thoughtful use of writing within Architecture she still describes her first work that would fa along these lines in a very typical way. Must all Architectural writing at some point be so purely spacial?

“A Two-Fold Movement” by Murray Fraser

1. The practicality and social benefit associated with critical practice makes it a very honorable and appealing way to conduct one’s practice. Would  contributing solely to these critical issues however alter the nature and skillsets of the Architectural Designer?
2. Lebbeus Woods writes, “To the knowing , this is supposed to be read as ‘irony’ or ‘critique’. To the regular people it is just business as usual in an authoritarian state.” I often find that Design carries with it an attitude of superiority, that in many ways causes an inappropriate value system. How can this be combatted in such a visually motivated field?
3. Is the shortcoming of Architectural Theory, in regards to its relevance and success over time not a result of misinformed design decisions but more so a factor of Architectures physical and permanent nature? Society and technology are changing at very rapid rates, whereas a built work is a permanent fixture that despite intense research for the time is undoubtedly going to become obsolete.