1 Introduction

I am interested in experiencing; not categorizations. (Holl and Zaera Polo 1996, p. 8)

With an almost generalised character, the processes of architectural production-projection run in a more or less systematic style. This is based on a general idea of organisation, diffuse and intuitive, that heads towards a more concrete configuration. The project author trusts in a process that offers fair possibilities of success, in that it consists of a gradual augmentation of the definition of the architectural object. Models and sketches are developed which go transforming in pieces each time more defined; executed in consecutive scales, in each of these are dealt with specific questions that cross from the scale of urban insertion to a set of drawings, with the objective of concluding the process in the drawing in detail of the proposed construction. During the process, the author concerns him/herself that the «idea» is not lost on the way, and is maintained as faithful to the original as is possible. This is how architects often explain their projects in public: they present an abstract «idea» that is ultimately reflected in a model or final photomontage work. To achieve such a high grade of coherence in the production, it is usual to resort to «false first sketches», gestural and energetic, that already contain the germ of what the building will be. Any reference to the «idea»—with platonic aftertaste—as any reflection on what is already in «potential» in the first drawing—an Aristotelian root—results, at least, suspect.

The process followed by Steven Holl is an exception, as he documents his work through the serialisation of graphic documents following a recurrent procedure that is the result of continued practice over many years of career. Affirms Pallasmaa:

Architect’s verbal accounts and explanations of their work usually read as after-the-fact rationalizations, i.e. the conceptual characterizations appear as later intellectualizations, rather than active constituents of the creative process itself. Your designs seem to develop as an authentic dialectical interaction between conceptual formulations and the formal and poetic responses. (Holl and Pallasmaa 2001, p. 17)

1.1 Focus

We focus our attention on trying to understand, from a phenomenological perspective, how the architectural object is produced; how, from an acceptance of the fleeting phenomenon as it manifests itself and is captured through perception, it is possible for the artist to define a visual perceptual field that in its turn is associated with a drawing. Focussing on the «display» it should be possible to reverse the process, to define a spatial configuration capable of inducing in the future viewer, a sensorial experience that reproduces the phenomenon. The role in this process that architectural drawing plays is of the highest importance, since, even at the risk of oversimplifying, we could conclude by saying that these developments of architectural design are a special case of perspective restitution (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1.
figure 1

Drawing of interior. Author Steven Holl

Full size image

1.2 Objectives

The objective that we propose, is to show that the process of architectural design, from the examination of selected case studies, brought together in a set of projects explained by Steven Holl in interviews and conferences, where the conjunction of the perspective fragments reflected in subtle watercolour drawings give rise to a coherent organism in a recognisable process of configuration. We try to demonstrate a singular process that, starting from the particular, configures a general reality: a transition from the molar to the molecular. A graphic and truthful subversion of the «diffuse ideas», of a formal or theoretical nature, of an idealist or expressionist profile, which architects usually use to sustain and clothe with arguments the projects they carry out, and try to provide them with a coherence that they are rarely gifted in.

1.3 Objectives

1.3.1 Some Previous Considerations. Formative Period. Theoretical Influence and Professional Beginnings

The architect was born in 1947 in Bremerton, a small town in the state of Washington on the west coast of the United States. Holl recalls the first manifestation of his artistic personality in the practice of painting: «Spontaneously I began to make paintings in 1959 before thinking of studying architecture» (Holl and Pallasmaa 2001, p. 8). He graduated as an architect at the university of his native State (1971). He studied in Rome for almost two years.

We know that Holl, back from his years of residence in Rome, was in Philadelphia in 1974 waiting for the final interview with Louis Kahn to join the office just as the maestro died. Holl considered Kahn one of the few architects worthy of respect for being the possessor of consistent theoretical development. The idea of «form» as challenging «design» (Kahn 2003, p. 125) is heir to the old idea of «concetto» as a latent form or «concept» in the interior design developed in mannerism by Lomazo and Zuccaro, and will be for Holl the one of «concept» or «idea-force» that will mark the direction of each design: «I have always believed that each project should have an idea which is driving the design» (Holl and Zaera Polo 1996, p. 7). Holl retains the memory of Sullivan’s phrase on his deathbed when it is announced the demolition of one of his works, to which the master replied: «It is only the ideas that count». Says Holl: «for me, what is important is the idea» (Holl and Kipnis 1998, p. 6).

For Holl the definitive text in those years was the book by the Danish architect Steen Eiler Rasmussen Experiencing Architecture [1959]. It is considered as a basic reference of architecture as an instrument of the perception of the environment (Holl 2014) [2006].

We also know of his rejection of the semiological, linguistic and formalistic concerns that monopolised the theoretical discourse of the time—Five Architects and Robert Venturi.

At the same time, I loathed the semiotic techniques that dominated architecture’s approach to the problem at that moment. Stimulated by my readings of Bergson, Merleau-Ponty and others, I made a conscious decision to approach architecture in an altogether different manner - to make every project different, but, in doing so, to avoid linguistic devices in favor of phenomenological experiences. (Holl and Kipnis 1998, p. 14)

This interest was extended in readings of the work of authors such as Husserl, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Gaston Bachelard. All of them are cited by him. Finally, we note the influence of the symbolism of Cassirer (1968) [1944]. Merleau-Ponty is the most quoted. About his influence in his later work he says:

One of the inspirations that I drew from my early readings in phenomenology, particularly from Merleau-Pointy (sic), was to grasp the profound uniqueness of each specific place, its light, its air, its smell, its ambient color, its history, or, I should say, many histories. (Holl and Kipnis 1998, p. 12).

1.3.2 Formation of a Critical Attitude

Given this background, it is easier to understand the main ideas that allow Holl to develop a theoretical foundation to support an artistic practice largely motivated by the commitment he acquired as a teacher in 1979 and with greater intensity from his incorporation into the University of Columbia in 1989 and 1981 as a visiting teacher. Holl founded the magazine Pamphlet Architecture in 1977 to disseminate the interests of young architects; where he starts to publish his drawn projects (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2.
figure 2

Gymnasium-Puente Project, New York, plan and elevation. 1977. Ink and graphite on paper (34.3 × 55.9 cm) published in No. 1 of Pamphlet Architecture magazine. Author Steven Holl

Full size image
  1. (a)

    First theoretical interests

When Holl publishes the first version of his book Anchoring 1975–1988 (Holl 1989) he is aware of the importance of developing a theoretical support and defines it as his «first manifesto». The place, the phenomenon, the history, the Idea are part of an «operative philosophy» connected with architecture. These principles will be present in later theoretical developments.

  1. (b)

    Writings on perception

The foundational date of the relationship of architecture with phenomenology is set by Steven Holl in 1993, from the collaboration with Alberto Pérez-Gómez and Juhani Pallasmaa to produce the book Questions of Perception: Phenomenology of Architecture. (Holl 2011a, b) [1994]. This work gave rise to the 1995 lectures given by the three authors at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen and the book The Eyes of the Skin by Juhani Pallasmaa of 1996 (Pallasmaa 2014 [1996]). On the occasion of the exhibition «Ideas and phenomena» Holl compiled a list of motor ideas, which he soon picked up in the book Questions of perception (Holl 2011a, b) [1994]). In this text, 11 fundamental points are outlined in his work, as follows:

  • The tangled experience: the fusion between object and field

  • The space in perspective: incomplete perception.

  • Concerning colour. (Díez Blanco 2016)

  • Concerning light and shade

  • The spatial quality of the night

  • Temporary duration and perception

  • The water: a slow phenomenon

  • Concerning sound

  • The detail: the reign of touch

  • Proportion, scale and perception

  • The circumstance of the place and the idea

But at the request of Kenneth Frampton, who demanded a cleared explanation, he prepared what he called «5 axioms for K.F.». All his projects deal with five points which are always present. (Holl 2011a, b) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISKsGeOAUHY and we will use them here as a guide for this thesis.

  1. 1.

    Location: Architecture is linked to the place where it is implanted. This is its physical and metaphysical basis.

I set out to offer an alternative approach opposed to the semiotic/typological models of contextualism […] One of the approaches I first developed was to pay close attention to my first thought about a project after I had encounter the site…. (Holl and Kipnis 1998, pp. 14–15)

  1. 2.

    Structure. It represents 25% of the cost of the building, so it must be a comprehensive contribution that adds meaning.

  2. 3.

    Spatial energy; perception develops from a series of superimposed perspectives, a fragmented vision of reality captured by the body of the space. This aspect is about phenomenology, where the instrument to measure space is the body in movement. (Firenze 2016)

  3. 4.

    Light. Luminosity is equivalent to consciousness. Space goes unnoticed without light: «Space is oblivion without light» Also in this Holl follows Kahn (Kahn 2003, p. 260).

  4. 5.

    The haptic world. Materiality; where the psychological dimension is most present, where the detail and the use of materials have their space.

Of all of them, we will focus our attention on the third, the one that relates the perception of a fragmented reality captured by the body in movement with an overlapping series of partial views drawn in perspective.

2 Discussion

2.1 An Experimental Generic Process

We will recount the process followed by Holl to address a new assignment. Holl begins each project with a visit to the place to capture the specific qualities it contains, not as a context, nor as an entity endowed with an ethnic nor cultural historical character, but willing to concentrate on its sensitive qualities; in this way the first drawings are produced. Later he draws up to fix the guiding idea—idea-force—endowed with a more conceptual character. Until he has not found it, he does not continue with the work, a process that can take him a few days or go on for months. Finally, he develops notes in watercolour drawn in perspective where the finer possibilities of the idea-force are explored. We will develop something more of this generic procedure as being valid for all work that is faced at the outset.

  1. (a)

    The first drawings

Holl has stated on several occasions that he starts the day by making a series of watercolour drawings in a small format notebook in order to fix the idea or the direction of ideas. Here the character of thought is of a graphic nature and is triggers the succession of related drawings.

We start each project with a study of the program and a visit to the site. We like to start as open as possible; to experiment and test spatial or and perspectival properties from which the concepts will emerge. (Holl and Zaera Polo 1996, pp. 13–14)

Pragmatic needs are combined with perceptions and sensory experiences giving shape to the idea. The exploration of spatial properties in perspective should be understood as a preliminary step to the fixation of the idea-force.

  1. (b)

    Consolidation of the «limited concept»

Once the first concept drawings are produced, the process of synthesis and search is started wherein the unitary idea capable of establishing a fixed idea combines with the dispersed. When Holl talks about concept, he is referring to an idea that can be expressed in writing. The concept is not graphic, it is descriptive, and it must be able to synthesize in a simple definition. The concept is always new in each project and is formulated for a singular place and program. Holl explains it this way:

Over twenty years, I have developed general, almost generic, aims –such as those we published in Questions of perception- however, in each project, a “limited concept” drives the design. (Holl and Pallasmaa 2001, p. 12)

The root of this idea is, in our opinion, taken from L. I. Kahn, as we had occasion to explore previously.

  1. (c)

    The directive «diagram» that synthesizes the «concept»

The diagram, the result of the concept, returns to have a formal nature—generally graphic—and operates from the beginning with the full spectrum of the architectural palette. This seems to be the culmination of Holl’s intellectual work, the diagrammatisation of the idea. He sums this up it as we see below:

Until I have the concept diagram, I do not know where to go, I’m lost. (Holl and Kipnis 1998, p. 12)

The diagram is a graphic expression that triggers the drawings that will preform the anticipatory partial visions of the presence of the associated sensitive phenomenon: illumination, chromatism, materialised body dynamics:

The first interest is in fixing an idea of abstract nature as an origin. Once fixed, the phenomenal potential of the idea is explored to the maximum (Holl and Kipnis 1998, p. 8).

Holl continues to manipulate the diagrammatised ideas he created for the Porta Vittoria project in Milan, at the beginning of his career (Fig. 3); In addition, each project is organised based on a specific diagram.

Fig. 3.
figure 3

Diagrammatic ideas of generic spatial relationships developed for the Porta Vittoria Competition, Milan, 1986. (McCarter 2015, p. 32)

Full size image
  1. (d)

    Holl draws specific visual aspects for a specific place and concrete characteristics, as perceived by an observer immersed in a constructed context. Generally, they constitute a set, a collection of linked perspectives. Objects that interact with each other are defined and configured through the relationships established in the head of the observer. This formal structure composed of fragments and parts that functions as an installation is what we define as “display”.

  2. (e)

    These drawings are transferred to models and a selective process of results takes place that culminates with the realisation of drawings. At this point comes into play the application of conventional representation systems to produce descriptive documents for the transmission of information, relying on current technological digital tools.

2.2 Case Studies

In the germinal works destined to competitions and small works pertaining to the first productive epoch, when Holl barely found commissions, it is, in our opinion, where the process is best evidenced. We selected three of them that represent milestones in the graphic and design evolution of Holl by means of which the mature procedure that is still used today is fixed.

  1. (a)

    Competition for Porta Vittoria, Milan, 1986. Holl presents a series of perspective drawings that offer partial views linked to their restitution in plan, which are the most defined parts of the project (Fig. 4). They are black and white, but each line drawing is accompanied by its corresponding in watercolour, highlighting the nuances that natural lighting brings to the spatiality of the drawing. He also presents his diagrams of generic spatial relationships (Fig. 3).

    Fig. 4.
    figure 4

    Perspectives and restitutions in the plan for the Porta Vittoria Competition, Milan, 1986. (Holl 1993, p. 147)

    Full size image
  2. (b)

    Competition for the Palazzo del Cinema in Venice, 1990–91

In the panels presented at the Venice Lido competition (Fig. 5), the complete form of the project is on show for the first time. We can affirm that the graphic process is fixed from the first drawings, limited concept, associated diagram, views with partial framing, model, development of descriptive drawings in plan, section and elevation.

Fig. 5.
figure 5

Conceptual diagram, perspective of the soffit of the building on the canal and photograph of the model presented to the international competition for the Palazzo del Cinema in Venice, 1991, Author Steven Holl (Holl 1993, pp. 136–139)

Full size image
  1. (c)

    D. E. Shaw & Co. Offices, New York, 1991. It is an experimental project that explores the phenomenon of colour reflected in space or «projected color» (Holl 1993, p. 48). This work overcomes the acid test that involved contrasting the model with the constructed work (Fig. 6).

    Fig. 6.
    figure 6

    D. E. Shaw & Co. Offices, New York, 1991. (Holl 1993, p. 48)

    Full size image

2.2.1 Kiasma

Holl made a profuse explanation about the conception and development of the project for the contest of the Helsinki Museum (Holl and Kipnis 1998), which will serve to illustrate what we think is an established procedure always applied a project’s subsequent production.

  1. (a)

    Limited concept

We find a development of the idea of «Quiasmo, the process of repeating an idea in its reverse form» applied to architecture, with an explicit reference to Merleau-Ponty (1986) [1964]. in the «Criss-Crossing» section of the Parallax book (Holl 2000). Holl uses it as an abstract, specifically based idea —limited concept— that accompanies the five generics to configure the organisation diagram of the museum project (Fig. 7). According to Holl, such an idea was developed in a chapter of a book—Merleau-Ponty, (The Visible and the Invisible) 2010) [1964]—and is defined by Merleau-Ponty as: «No more than the sky and the earth, the horizon is a collection of things that are held together, or a class name, or a logical possibility of conception, a being by porosity, by pregnancy, or by generality» (Holl 2014 p. 8) [2006].

Fig. 7.
figure 7

Initial conceptual diagram of the Kiasma project. Author Steven Holl. (Holl 2000, p. 39)

Full size image
  1. (b)

    Associated diagram

Synthesized in the watercolour drawing that represents the intertwining between the axis of nature and that of culture. It was made in Helsinki, in the hotel where he was staying the night of October 10, 1992. Holl attributes a germinal value to him as a guiding idea «idea-force» of the project.

  1. (c)

    Development of the idea

The overlapping spaces, body movement and parallax. Holl believes strongly in the idea of parallax, which is the phenomenon of the variation of the angular amplitude under which the vision of a certain linear dimension occurs, which explains why an observer in motion captures differences in the position and/or shape of an object. This idea is applied by Holl to the spatial perception experienced in an architectural environment where the movement of the observer follows a curved trajectory:  «Overlapping perspectives, due to the movement of the position of the body through space, create multiple vanishing points, opening a condition of spatial parallax» (Almagor 2016, p. 169).  «This building could in some way be a vehicle of the body moving through space and the notion of natural light» (Almagor 2016, p. 242). The building would be composed of a sequence of 25 rooms that would be traversed sequentially. Some views of the rooms connected by perspectives were drawn:

I then drew watercolour perspective drawings which I always do before the plan is set. Very often we will build models based on these drawings and then try to make plans; for the perspectival condition to take precedence over the plan. (Holl and Zaera Polo 1996, p. 18)

Frampton calls this process «reverse inductive method: first the perspective, then the orthographic projections» (Frampton 1996) and we have illustrated it with the image shown in Fig. 8

Fig. 8.
figure 8

Left Sketch of the built-in top ramp after the contest. (Holl 2000, p. 44). Center: Perspective of the ascending ramp incorporated to the panel nº4 of the contest. Right 3rd and 4th floors and project cross sections. (Holl and Zaera Polo 1996, p. 147)

Full size image

Holl systematically uses watercolour because he is interested in the effects of light:

Watercolours allow you to make bodies of light, to go from the bright to the dark. When I am making a series of perspectival views through a series of spaces and thinking about light, watercolor is a better media than line drawing. (Holl and Zaera Polo 1996, p. 19)

The truth of this is supported by the statements of Pallasmaa: «In the collaboration between you and my office in Helsinki, I was often fascinated by the design process, which began in your minute watercolours, and ended in complex computer drawings».

Holl has stated that in his studio the computer is used in all phases of the design process except in the initial conception: «For me, the original concept sketch must start with an analogue process intimately connecting mind-hand-eye. […] In the initial drawing, I feel a direct connection to spiritual meaning and the fusion of the idea & space conception. After this the work can be digitally supercharged» (Holl and Pallasmaa 2001, p. 25).

In this sense is shown a total agreement with Pallasmaa (Martínez-Díaz and Pallasmaa 2017, p. 19). Juhani Pallasmaa has an accurate idea of the implications of the handling and abandonment of certain graphic practices, especially the calling of the hand-eye-mind connection. Pallasmaa says:

The computer creates a distance between the maker and the object, while the drawing by hand, as well as working with models, places the designer in a haptic contact with the object or space (Pallasmaa 2014 [1996], p. 14).

2.3 The Effectiveness of the Drawings

It is precisely these exhibition spaces that stood out, apparently, in front of all the other proposals (Fig. 9). Tuula Arkio, member of the jury, speaks in the interview with her about the work presented, of the feeling she had when seeing the watercolours of the galleries (Fig. 10) for the first time:

Fig. 9.
figure 9

Composition of perspective made for contest panel, photography of work and photography of the building in use. Author Steven Holl

Full size image
Fig. 10.
figure 10

Perspectives in watercolour incorporated to the panels presented to the Kiasma contest. Author Steven Holl (Figueira 2009, p. 56)

Full size image

We all went [the members of the jury] to look at the proposals and, I think it was right at the start, I came across these littlewatercolours. I was totally absorbed in them. In a way, it was magical. They represented some scenes from the galleries and as soon as I saw them, I realised that this person, whoever he was, understood art; above all, the treatment of space. “[…]” [in Holl’s drawings…] I was struck by the shadows, the light… it’s so hard to say… It was all sensation. I felt that it was something really special. (Almagor 2016, p. 219)

3 Conclusions

Steven Holl has developed a specific mode of draw oriented to the project that has its appearance with the definition processes of the first professional commissions. Steven Holl presents for the Porta Vittoria contest (1986) drawings of restitution of fragments of plans linked to line-drawn perspectives, but that are reproduced in other similar drawings made in watercolour, still monochromatic. This is a change to his drawings of graphite and ink. We observe the mitigation of the use of axonometry that is replaced by perspective drawings, with which this means a modification of attitude when facing and relating to the (proposed) construction. The drawings abandon the black and white without hesitation, to develop the chromatic and luminous modulation that watercolour offers. As we have seen, this coincides with the date (1984) fixed by Pérez-Gómez to date the origin of Holl’s interest in the work of Merleau-Ponty (Pérez-Gómez, A. 1998).

Simultaneously (1984–88) Holl gets two commissions, one for housing—Martha’s Vineyard and the hybrid building in Seaside, Florida. The development of the design process of these projects already incorporates conceptual drawings and partial studies in watercolour in colour. Established is a defined a way of drawing oriented to the project that makes its appearance with the processes of definition of his first professional commissions.

These three projects of 1986 mark the point of transition between one way of drawing and another.

In the contest for the Lido of Venice (1990–91), Holl presents, as material incorporated in the presentation panels, the first drawings, the «limited concept», the initial graphic diagrams, the partial perspectives—all watercolours—scale models and descriptive scale plans. We find here codified the mature way in which Steven Holl will present and explain his projects, relying on the value assigned to the process a legitimative power.

The phenomenological vision of the physical and perceptive facts evidenced by through architecture, understood as an optimal means to trigger conscious, intense and controlled perceptive experiences, has undergone a very important development in the field of the study of perception and the aesthetic experience. Holl, with his closeness to a sensitive world, manifested by the expression force of light, of colour, of the material, attentive to the direct connection between «the eye and the spirit». We will leave the last words for Steven Holl:

I emphasise that it is to do with a concept, not a sketch. For me it has to be a conceptual strategy that can be clearly articulated; it cannot be just a shape or a drawing. It is a strategy. It begins in these four-by-five-inch watercolor pads and is worked on until the conceptual idea can be completely articulated in words, as well as an image, a reflection of space, a kind of spatial proposal, and also materials. (…) This process is more or less the same for any project - going from these watercolours to the workshop. (Almagor 2016, p. 245)