Intangible concepts

Design has many aspects (charactertistics) or perspectives (contexts), both tangible (the physical object) and intangible. Time, light and darkness are examples of intangible factors investigated, articulated and manifested in the design process. Take architectural space, which, like time is a convention and cannot be grasped in a handfull and therefore intangible. Or, say transparency perception which is influenced by light reflected versus light transmitted, both intangible. Indeed an architecture experienced as a spatial phenomenon without physical measurements. And so in the ideation workshop where explorations take place, discoveries are made, and where transformations occur producing tangible forms from intangible ideas. In the same vein, Isozaki, the Japanese architect, urban designer and theorist, developed and worked on the idea of "Darkness" as an architectural prototype (1960s-), holding that architectural design is the process of giving concrete form to intangible concepts. However, it should be noted that ideas can be concrete, visual or abstract.