Architectural Design

1st ProofTitle: BA: Architectural Design

Job No: PD0710-67/4028

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The design project

Initial ideas

In the initial ideas phase it is important to keep

possibilities open to allow innovative ideas to develop.

Favoured solutions are explored through early sketches

and models. The idea in the architect’s mind and the one

expressed by the hand need to be closely linked. Early

ideas may be general but they are never complete;

sketches and models are normally small in scale and

have a certain looseness or vagueness. There are details

to be resolved and connections to be made between

unconnected or even contradictory ideas.

Some ideas will not be needed; others will evolve to serve

more significant ones. This is necessary in order to manage

the overwhelming complexity of the task. A little ambiguity

of expression allows the gap between the mind and the hand

to be acknowledged. The architect thinks, expresses the idea

within the limitations of the media and reflects on the result

before making a decision. Occasionally this looseness

enables an idea to emerge like a happy accident: a small

organisational diagram might have a textural quality that

inspires an idea for the materiality of the building. The sketch

itself triggers a solution that was not anticipated before it was

drawn. Many projects make contradictory or incompatible

demands that must be resolved through ingenuity or

agreement of priorities. Initial ideas are experiments: they

test the effects on the constituent parts of a design and the

reactions of the client, architect and third parties.

Architects must gather project-specific knowledge on diverse

subjects from the client’s business practices to the water

table on the site. There will be project reviews, meetings with

the client, user consultations and negotiations with interest

groups and government bodies, such as planners. The

architect cannot rush to impose form on a project before

reaching consensus on its meaning and purpose. This act

of explaining the project to oneself, and to others, turns the

idea of the project into a story. This narrative informs design

decisions during the project’s development and also gives

meaning to the experience of those who will use the building.

Typical activities

at this stage

Concept sketches

and models

Initial drawings and models

Testing ideas

Research

Understanding scale

Brief development

Opening up possibilities

Inspiration

Concept development

Happy accidents

Feedback

Managing complexity

Setting priorities

Collaboration

Text

1st ProofTitle: BA: Architectural Design

Job No: PD0710-67/4028

Chapter 3 final (3.3)_.qxd:layouts to chapter one 7/26/10 8:46 AM Page 104