Architectural scaffolding

Abstract

Scaffolding is a necessary attribute when you are building and constructing buildings in practice and in design. Through design practice we use scaffolding to hold ideas, a thought, a method of making, that allows us to engage with the main focus of the project. Scaffolding has many types of operation and activation, as you will discover while reading this issue of Design Ecologies, which focuses on ‘architectural scaffolding’. The five articles in this issue offer varied and wide-ranging types of scaffoldings for their projects. It is important to note that these are all practicing designers, mostly in architecture, that are constantly searching for new ways to articulate and communicate their ideas as their projects and practices evolve over time. The patterns of how we use architectural scaffolding in space is a fascinating thing to study, but difficult to visualize – the soaring and swooping doesn’t leave a trail, the way a boat does in water. Using time-based methods, we can begin to showcase the patterns of our architectural scaffolding like the faint lines and marks in the construction of a drawing.