The figurative procedure, a resource that introduces the student to the solution of the form, analyzed from the academic results

Abstract

This essay exposes and systematizes the experience of the didactic application of figurative procedures as resources of stimulation in the exploration of the three-dimensional configuration of the architectural object (OA). This process occurs during the prefiguration phase of the architectural design method. Marin (1989) in her thesis explains that it is in the procedures where the method is concretized and applying them is when form and content converge; making clear, in addition, the difference between the first configurative proposal, as a product of the application of figurative procedures, and the final configuration, as a result of the method. This implies that other methodical resources lead to the perfection of the first proposal until reaching the final architectural object. The figurative procedures are then the guideline in the search for the three-dimensional configuration of the architectural object. The essay details and explains the structure of the design exercise; emphasizing the methodological moment where the student determines the figurative procedure. The results show how this resource facilitates the student to generate a design solution at an abstract level that responds to a character or a function; recognizing that, using different procedures or combining them, it is possible to generate more than one design solution, which, at this level, resolves from the formal, the content or character of the architectural object, guaranteeing its beauty. The analyzed results correspond to the two and three-dimensional abstract architectural models presented by architecture students in their initial learning stage; specifically, the first six places awarded in the competition for the best architectural and urban design projects that took place at the end of the first semester of 2023 at Universidad Americana, UAM Managua, Nicaragua.