Making Architecture Through Being Human

A Handbook of Design Ideas

Philip D. Plowright

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780429537301
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Architecture General

Architecture can seem complicated, mysterious or even ill-defined, especially to a student being introduced to architectural ideas for the first time. One way to approach architecture is simply as the design of human environments. When we consider architecture in this way, there is a good place to start – ourselves. Our engagement in our environment has shaped the way we think which we, in turn, use to then shape that environment. It is from this foundation that we produce meaning, make sense of our surroundings, structure relationships and even frame more complex and abstract ideas. This is the start of architectural design.

Making Architecture Through Being Human is a reference book that presents 51 concepts, notions, ideas and actions that are fundamental to human thinking and how we interpret the environment around us. The book focuses on the application of these ideas by architectural designers to produce meaningful spaces that make sense to people. Each idea is isolated for clarity in the manner of a dictionary with short and concise definitions, examples and illustrations. They are organized in five sections of increasing complexity or changing focus. While many of the entries might be familiar to the reader, they are presented here as instances of a larger system of human thinking rather than simply graphic or formal principles. The cognitive approach to these design ideas allows a designer to understand the greater context and application when aligned with their own purpose or intentions.

SITUATED NOTIONS

CONTAINMENT

PEOPLE PUT BOUNDARIES around ideas, experiences and phenomena (i.e. void, air, light, temperature) to understand them. We make things that are not physically solid into objects so we can engage, understand or manipulate them (see Objectification). When an object has something inside it, we understand that thing as a container. A container is a special type of object because while it has edges and surfaces like all objects, it also includes the ideas of inside, outside, boundary, content and entrance. Our experience with containers means that we know that they can be open or closed and either full or empty, conditions which imply access and content. These are important ideas as containers create a volume of space that is recognizably not the same as what is around it regardless if the container is literal (i.e. there is a physical boundary) or conceptual (we imagine a boundary). When we divide our world and the things in it into categories, groups, sections, classes or ranks – this is an act of containment. When we connect three edges, a change in surface and an alignment to imply one space has different activities to another, this is also an act of containment.

One of the most important ideas about containment is how inside and outside allow us to make or deny relationships through association and separation. If we draw an imaginary line around several things, put objects together in a box, group things together in our heads, or place people together in a room, we understand these things to be inside through containment. The boundary of the container creates an expected association between things inside through implied sameness and proximity (see Relationship). The opposite is also true. Once we understand something to have an inside, it naturally has an outside as well. Anything located outside is considered separate to what is inside – any relationship between the two is denied or repressed. Things, in this case, can be ideas, objects, people, events, experiences or activities.

Containment in the built environment operates through any implied boundary created by a perceived association between things, a perceived change of environmental quality or a change in formal composition. These might include a change in ceiling form or height; the projection of building mass over an exterior area; the similarity of objects along a perimeter; a transition in quality of light; a change of material in the ground plane; the alignment of architectural objects such as stairs, ramps, platforms or columns to create bounded associations; or a change of grade that produces at least two edges. Containment is produced by the creation of an imaginary (but cognitively real) separation between spaces.

We use containment to organize formal composition to support human events. Much of the content that shapes the size, composition, detail and materiality of buildings and rooms is based on experiences and activities of people that use those spaces. If we consider two events, such as sitting casually talking to a few friends or attending a large, formal dinner, we understand that each activity takes up a particular amount of space of a particular shape and with particular materials. In addition, there are artefacts (objects, fixtures, furnishings) associated with that activity which also have a particular arrangement as well as qualities of the environment supporting that activity (lighting, air temperature, view, topography and so on) and qualities associated with time of occurrence and duration of the event. When there is a difference in how the formal space supports each human event, this is reflected in some aspect of composition, materiality, artefacts, arrangement and spatial quality. That difference creates a separation that can be experienced through how we bound those events. For example, two upholstered chairs in front of a small window with a dropped ceiling might be next to a large table centred under a lighting fixture and positioned on the major room axis supported by a large window and a raised ceiling area in a room. The relationship between the artefacts (chairs, tables, rugs) and the formal composition (dropped or raised ceilings, windows, floor material) will create two different contained spaces within another larger physical contained space (the room). When we experience or design a building or room, we use containment to create implied separations, areas of focus, areas of isolation and suggestions of use by implying boundaries, even if there is no physical separation.

Containment operates at multiple scales and we find containers next to other containers inside larger containers moving from the small to the very large (this is part of our ability to create layers through Hierarchy). The same notion that allows us to understand a quiet meeting nook as separate to a main dining room also allows us to organize a program by associating related activities into groups or clusters within a site bound through property lines that are not physically real (see Program). Zoning is an idea of containment that operates at an urban scale to restrict building use types to particular areas. Superimposition (the placement of two program elements on top of each other) interlacing (the weaving of two program elements where each maintains its identity), and nesting (the layering of one program element within another) are only possible due to our understanding of containment.

DIMENSIONALITY

THE TERM “DIMENSION” HAS become a shorthand for “measurement”, but this is an extremely limited way to consider a very important idea. More precisely, a dimension is a layer of information connected to a property. A property can be either an attribute (physical descriptions such as length, width, height, texture, weight, temperature, colour, solidity, luminosity, reflectivity), a quality (cultural and sensory descriptions such as smell, age, value, status, timeliness, emotions) or a characteristic (event descriptions such as duration, speed, rotation, momentum). If we consider a piece of paper, for example, the standard way of considering this object is as “two-dimensional”. However, the paper also has depth through its thickness (ranging from tissue to cardstock); it has texture (from smooth to rough or patterned); the surface might be gloss or matt; the paper has real weight but it also has perceived weight; it has cultural status (cheap lined notepad or watercolour rag); and so on. Each of these properties is a dimension of information of the paper. The two-dimensional paper has, in this case, at least nine important dimensions that should be engaged by a designer – length, width, thickness, texture, colour, reflectivity, real weight, perceived weight and perceived status.

If we restrict our understanding of dimensions in architecture to simply the length, width and depth of objects placed in the environment, we would create an artificially narrow, and fairly shallow, set of design options. As we can see from the paper example, there are many more physical dimensions of knowledge related to something that seems simple and architectural objects are not simple. This is because architecture is responsible to construct human environments for human events. This means that added to the physical dimensions, there is information that is psychological, social and cultural (i.e. human-to-human) involving qualities and characteristics rather than simply attributes.

We can start to unpack dimensional information involved in architectural projects by asking questions such as: How should a body move through this space? How do we know where to go or where we should go? How do we shape form to support different types of human activities? How should the building engage its surrounding context? How do the architectural forms respond to issues of human happiness or health? What aspects respond to how we see ourselves as individuals, as a group or as a culture? Some of these answers will be practical, others will be metaphysical or considered as an extension of identity or expression. Thinking about these questions, we can understand that architectural design includes dimensions of knowledge that address environmental factors (physical protection), human body ergonomics (physical comfort), social engagement (facilitating human interaction) and cultural identity (expressing who we are).

Environmental factors will range from formal responses to sunlight, ambient temperature, and shadow to the shaping of the ground (topography). Between these, there is wind and water – as rain, flood and humidity. These dimensions include knowledge which is measurable including sun angle, air movement, humidity, precipitation rate, ground slope, thermal capacity, sound transfer and so on.

Ergonomic dimensions will stress how things touch the human body, how we move through space (see Journey and Procession), and how things are made for us (i.e. humans). Most of these are also measurable and testable. We can try something out and see if our hand uses a railing better if shaped this way with that material. We can suggest and then examine if a path of travel through a building is easy to understand or if the arrangement of elements in a room make it easier or harder to use that room.

Social dimensions involve how objects and space interact to affect people engaging other people. These are about activities and include issues of publicness and privacy, gathering (see Convexity), exposure or isolation through physical connections (see Connectedness), sound and sightlines (see Exposure), various types of movement from stillness to high activity (see Journey) and issues of perceived and actual security.

Cultural dimensions are about identity – they address how we see ourselves or how we wish others to see us, what values we hold, and what we think matters (see Identity and Presence). This ranges from an individual, to a family, organization, neighbourhood, city and nation. Dimensional information in the cultural category address historical positions, cultural norms and media representations. Most of this knowledge is in the realm of beliefs and is not factual or testable. However, it can be described, debated and identified through human-to-human agreement and will be relevant to architecture if it produces an effect or change in the formal environment.

We can understand how the identification of dimensional knowledge is an important skill to learn as an architectural designer if we take something that seems basic such as a door. A door can be said to be a simple, physical artefact. Its primary dimensions are width and height. The event it supports is the movement through a solid plane. However, we can quickly start to unpack additional dimensions of knowledge attached to the door’s size and materiality. First, the size of a door contains more information than simply height and width. It can tell us social information such as if the door is private (small, narrow, discrete) or public (large, expressive, monumental), meant for one person (single door) or several (double door). The materiality of the door contains dimensional information that includes environmental (resist thermal transfer and drafts), ergonomic (how do we open it), social (allows exposure or creates privacy and security) and cultural (what does the door say about us?). We can continue to expand the dimensionality of the door through some more questions such as: How should the hand reach to open the door? What should be the perceived weight of the door, should it look heavy or light? What about actual weight? How should the door express entrance? How should it engage the street? Where should it be visible from and ho...