Concept-EN | 有限会社デザインネットワーク

Isometric-based Design Thinking

Isometric drawing, also known as a “monometric projection method” is a presentation method of drawing a space or object as if looking down diagonally from above, based on the three orthogonal coordinate axes X, Y, and Z. In contrast, a “perspective projection method” produces a drawing where a space or object drawn from a fixed viewpoint converges to vanishing points. Characteristically, the perspective projection method generates a spatial hierarchy of “front” and “back” of drawn objects when it is seen from any selected point. On the other hand, there is no spatial hierarchy between different parts in isometric drawings, because they are three-dimensional drawings without fixed viewpoints. Moreover, the space can be extended infinitely because there is no vanishing point. Isometric drawings therefore involve highly abstract spatial concepts.

We aim to create landscape where human activities take place extensively and humans and nature coexist in a harmonious balance. In order to materialize such landscape through landscape design, it is necessary to interweave elements and devices where people can visit, stay, and use into the landscape.

Now, we would like to define a “place” as an area created around elements and devices that inspire people to imagine various ways to use and spend time in them. A “place” may encompass an entire area in some cases, or may be an extremely personal domain or space in other cases. In our design study processes, “places” are treated equally regardless of the size, type of material, use and so on. It is because we want to avoid creating a spatial hierarchy such as “center/edge” and “main/sub” in addressing cases where busy places frequented by many people on a daily basis and quiet places visited by few people coexist in landscape. Landscape may be regarded as a conglomerate of “places” with respective centers, provided that all of them have equal value. In other words, “multicentered” conditions where various centers simultaneously coexist are created in landscape. We aim to promote interactions between places, invite people to stay and circulate, and promote activities while maintaining such conditions. Our idea is to bring about various activities throughout landscape by creating such sequential interactions in the conglomerate of “places.”

We feel that design thinking founded on the idea of these “places” and multiple relationships among them based on equal values, multicentricity, and sequence has some similarity to the concept of isometric drawing in which the drawn space can be extended infinitely. Our “isometric-based design thinking” which explores and creates relationships among “places” while keeping the parts and the whole in focus simultaneously can be applied not only to the required design scope but also to relationships with elements outside of the required design scope. It is because the same approach is used to address relationships among “places” in the “isometric-based design thinking,” while the size of the area defined by each “place” differs according to the distance between the subject and the viewpoint.

Moreover, landscape can be regarded as a “place” in larger environments including a city or nature. We think about the mutual relationship between the “place” created by landscape and the surrounding environment, as well as how the “place” harmonizes with the scenery from a higher perspective. It is along the same lines as thinking about how to connect inside and outside, how to place a square, and how places for people should provide a sense of comfort and diversity, for example. “Isometric-based thinking” is a way of creative thinking to construct diverse relationships by overlaying various domains that transcend the difference in scales and generating new scenery that harmonizes with the climate and nature.