Résumé
L'eau s’écoulant des montagnes jusqu’aux abords des rives urbaines et des places publiques aide à créer des atmosphères diverses qui sont essentielles pour comprendre l'identité de la ville. Ces atmosphères sont définies et établies par des scientifiques et des professionnels du design. Cette présentation explore la possibilité d'employer le dessin comme outil d’exploration afin d’intégrer le discours entre les scientifiques et les designers urbains qui sont impliqués dans ce type de projets. L'auteur discute de ce que le dessin peut apporter comme nouvelles connaissances afin de saisir l’essence du lieu, et d’enrichir le processus de développement des projets de design urbain qui sont reliés à l’eau.

Qu’est-ce que le dessin apporte à cette nouvelle forme de la connaissance ? “Drawing in the landscape, creates a sense of awareness of place that is a distinct form of information gathering and of understanding the landscape” (Lavoie, 2005). Le dessin est une forme unique de reconstruction de la perception, un aspect critique pour la recherche visuelle et pour l’enrichissement des atmosphères des espaces urbains.

Comme expression des valeurs professionnelles, le dessin a le potentiel d'informer le grand le public des enjeux sur les façons dont les perceptions du continuum de l'eau peuvent influencer l’analyse et le design. Ainsi, le dessin devient une nouvelle source d’information (un langage commun) qui faciliterait la communication parmi les scientifiques et les professionnels du design. Par exemple, les dessins des fluviaux-géomorphologistes montrent comment le transport de sédiments et l'écoulement des eaux affectent l'alignement des canaux, des berges, et autres considérations. Les dessins d'un biologiste par exemple peuvent illustrer le mouvement de l'eau qui forme des habitats aquatiques. Ces dessins sont faits par la relation intime qu’une personne a établie avec le paysage et donc ajoutent à la valeur des calculs techniques des modèles nécessaires pour mettre en application des idées de réaménagement. Un dessin peut montrer l'essence de la beauté (topographie, eau, associations d'usine…) aussi bien que l'essence des problèmes d’un endroit (étalement urbain, surpâturage, etc.). Le dessin devient donc une manière de percevoir l’interface entre le paysage des espaces en milieu urbain et périurbains, permettant ainsi de découvrir de nouvelles façons de reconstituer leur processus.

Les dessins de l'auteure aussi bien que ceux des scientifiques deviennent le langage commun pour montrer les qualités de la rivière et accentuent la contribution potentielle pour mieux comprendre l'atmosphère de la ville et la métaphore de l'eau.
Le continuum de la métaphore de l'eau, (de l'extérieur des frontières de ville, dans la ville jusqu’aux plaines d’inondations) doit être perçu et expérimenté de différentes façons. Enfin, pour que cette forme de connaissance et de collaboration entre les scientifiques, et professionnels du design soit significative, et pour comprendre l'identité de la ville, l'expression physique de l'eau et les différentes atmosphères qu’elle crée, doivent être accessible au grand public.

Abstract
Water running from natural upland source through urban edges and urban public places in the city helps creates different atmosphere(s) which are essential to understand a city’s identity and water as a continuum in time and space. These atmospheres are defined and impacted by resource scientists and design professionals as they manage water resources, plan and design spaces. This presentation explores the possibility of using drawing as a tool to integrate the discourse between resource scientists and urban designers involved in water related design projects. The author argues that drawing may bring new knowledge and richness to new water course related urban development.

What does drawing have to do with this new form of knowledge? “Drawing in the landscape, creates a sense of awareness of place that is a distinct form of information gathering and of understanding the landscape” (Lavoie, 2005). Drawing is a unique re-construction of one’s perception, a critical aspect of how one proceeds with visual research and uses the findings to enrich the atmosphere of urban spaces.
As an expression of professional values, drawing has the potential to inform the public and the stake holders about how professional perceptions of the water continuum can influence design. Thus, drawing becomes a new form of information gathering (a common language) for scientists or other professionals. For example, a fluvio-geomorphologist’s drawings may show how sediment transportation and stream flow affect channel alignment, stream bank cross-section and other design considerations. A fish biologist’s drawings may illustrate water movement as it forms pool and riffle habitats. These drawings are relational and add value to the technical calculations and computer design models needed to implement design ideas. A drawing may show the essence of beauty (topography, water, plant associations…) as well as the essence of problems in the watershed (urban sprawl, overgrazing, channel incision…). Drawing is an intrinsic way of reading the urban/wildland interface and discovering new ways to restore its processes.

The author will use examples from small town America. The author sketches (as graphic representation of places) as well as those from resource scientists are the common language to show the qualities of the river and suggest what should be conserved in order to preserve the river’s atmosphere, both its ecological and aesthetic functions, and also suggest appropriate design motifs and interventions. They highlight the value added contribution that drawing can make to better understand the atmosphere of a place from the water that runs though the city.

Furthermore, the continuum of the metaphor of water, (from outside the city boundaries into city as a canal into a floodplains for instance) needs to be perceived and experienced in different ways. This form of knowledge and collaboration between artists, designers and scientists, can also be used to assure that the physical expression of the water and its different atmospheres to be meaningful, need to be visible and publicly accessible in order to understand the city’s identity.

Abstract
All too often articulate building construction is traded for random materials cobbled together, which assume the semblance of a complex whole ; instead of becoming real buildings, the result is merely a simplistic agglomeration of atomized parts. As a consequence of this sort of activity we find our cities populated by “thin” overemphasized structures that are not so much buildings as “built drawings.” Through the German notion of stimmung (meaning both pervasive mood or atmosphere and one’s particular attunement to said mood) this paper will explore the limitations and possibilities of representation and how the notion of stimmung gets lost when the representation becomes the building.

Abstract
The visual bias of traditional urban and architectural design disciplines is well known and understood. Given the basis of design in the visual realm, what does alternative sensory modality mean for the design process itself ?
I shall describe two projects with different approaches to this problem. The first project is titled Vocal Ikebana. The project consisted of a simple sound installation : three movable speakers playing selected environmental recordings.
The second project is Sensory Notation. This work seeks to establish a notational system for the whole sensory experience of urban environments. Notators are asked to give a reading of place based upon their prioritisation of these perceptual systems.
These two projects explore some of the ways forward for designers wishing to break free of the totalising gaze of vision.

KEYWORDS:
Presence, Modality, Multimodality, Sensory Modality, Environmental Recording, Urbanism