6 ideas
Skilled hands hold knowledge that never passes through conscious, verbal thought. A craftsman's hand 'knows' pressure, grain and timing from repeated practice. Because this knowledge sits in the body's movements rather than in stated propositions, it cannot be fully written down or passed on through explanation alone.
When an architect draws by hand, the line comes out of a continuous loop between hand, eye and mind. Each mark changes the idea, which then guides the next mark. Drawing is therefore a way of thinking and discovering, not just recording a design already fixed in the head.
Computer modelling puts a distant, frictionless interface between the designer and the imagined object. The design becomes a visual construct seen from outside rather than something the body mentally occupies. What is lost is the unconscious bodily sense of scale, weight, material and touch that hand work carries into the design.
Buildings are met through the whole body: weight, balance, temperature, sound, texture and the effort of movement, not just by the eye. Judged this way, much modern architecture looks like retinal image-making that photographs well but is thin to live in. The measure of a building becomes how it registers in the muscles and skin.
People understand the world through a pre-reflective bodily knowledge built from lived situations. The body remembers places, gestures and actions, and this bodily memory underlies identity and a sense of being at home. Art and architecture work by addressing this existential layer rather than the analytical intellect.
Craft skill is passed on through apprenticeship: watching a master, copying their movements, and repeating until the skill moves into the body and becomes automatic. Only when technique is embodied can attention move from executing the task to the creative work itself. Learning is identification with the skill and the tool, not memorising rules.