MFF research, Benga, Village of the Future
Logbook, week 1: drawing as a methodology
The camera can quickly capture an instant, but observing requires more attention and even then, the eye is not innocent, it ends up reaffirming pre-established perceptions.
In order to observe attentively, we need to stop being the centre, not let the ego get in the way, otherwise our preconceptions can jump to conclusions too quickly and miss details.
In order to enter the state of deep attention, I use drawing as a means of letting go of the centre and focusing on the lines that make up each element of the object under study. After all, drawing is a virtual caressing of the object being represented; it allows me to pay attention to the details. I take the house I came across as an example. After all, it has a water collector for rainy weather, the roof is used to store and dry masonry, the alignment of the blocks has its own peculiarity, etc.
In the meantime, I’m having a light, non-committal Sunday afternoon chat with the owners of the two houses I’ve designed, Norberto and his brother-in-law. In this way, I find out more about the houses and their relationship to the family structure. Open conversations, unlike interviews, allow us to digress and gather information that we didn’t expect at first, and allow ourselves to be surprised.
In the end, Norberto’s brother-in-law got the drawing. Nandinho, who is Norberto’s son, is also interested in drawing and asks me to draw him. In the end he gets the portrait. His father insists that he write his name on the drawing and read my name in the signature, which he does with ease.
In the end, I come out better informed, I integrate other perspectives into myself and I don’t mind sharing them in the line drawings they keep. The photographs in the drawing serve to invoke visual memory, but the body, through the gesture of the hand on the sheet, holds the memory of things, the energy of the place and the friendliness of Norberto’s family.
Adamo Morrumbe, Architect-researcher
