Restrictions and arbitrary rules

Abstract

Is architectural design a linear process? Can initial arguments foresee design?. If we consider the architectural design as a type of research that cannot anticipate accidents and discoveries through the process, we may suppose that the starting argumentative prescriptions cannot stay unchanged up to the end of the project. From the academic experience of the architectural design studio “The Dictionary of Received Ideas”, I analyze the usefulness of the starting project arguments, that don’t define a desirable design object, but generate an operative framework of rules and boundaries that intentionally separates it from this desirable or recognizable condition. The arbitrary terms of this framework restates its utility as a tool for detachment from preconceptions.