Basics Architecture 03: Architectural Design

Jane Anderson

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781350160484
• eBook ISBN: 9781350034433
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Architecture Design

Basics Architecture 03: Architectural Design explains the process of designing architectural projects. It describes the design studio and the activities that take place there. The architectural design process is as diverse as the people who practise it; all architects follows their own individual design process. In this dynamic new text the realities of the design process and the relationship between education and practice are explored in detail. The book introduces a variety of processes through examples and case studies. This allows readers to identify with certain methods with which they could respond to in their own work, and enables them to develop their own unique approach.

The design project

The design project is common to both architectural education and practice. It is not only the means by which buildings are built, it is also a vehicle for solving problems, experimentation, improving skills and communication of new ideas. It is important to remember that neither the process of design nor the course of a design project follow a neatly linear course. One project may start with client, another with site. Design might progress to a particular stage and then return to another, or even miss out a stage. Certain parts of a design might be at the beginning while others are already advanced.

This chapter of the book divides the design project into five, roughly chronological parts, starting with the client and ending with their occupation of the finished project. In accordance with the non-linear nature of design, this chapter can be read in at least two different ways. It can be read by architect: interviews and examples of work from five architects enables a comparison of their distinct approaches to design. It can also be read by stage: each section provides information and advice on typical activities undertaken in that stage of the design project.

Each of the five parts examines student design diaries, which help describe their parallel experience. There are exercises to try, which demonstrate methods that could be used to develop a design project at this stage. Where possible, connections have been made between design studio activity in practice and education. In addition to practising and teaching, the five architects interviewed have written and lectured on their work. Reference to their books can be found in Further Resources.

Clients, users and brief

Typical activities at this stage

Client meetings

Sketching

Recording ideas

Organisational diagrams

Gathering information

Opening up possibilities

Managing complexity

Research

Collaboration

Feedback

Setting priorities

Most student projects do not have a real client involved with the project, although real project briefs are often adapted and imaginary clients may be included. Tutors and visiting critics partly form the role of proxy-client and the project brief will be developed by research into the given client.

Most live projects emerge in order to fulfil the need of a client. This need forms the basis of the project brief. A client may decide that they need to build a new shop, contact an architect and commission them to design and manage the project. However there are many variations to this scenario. The client may be a developer who needs to make a profit on the development and therefore is not the intended user of the building. The architect may be designing for people whom they are not able to meet or consult. The client, the user and their various needs and constraints, must be identified and understood by the architect.

The brief normally has complexities that are not immediately apparent. The brief is not a static document handed to the architect at the beginning of the project; it must be developed in collaboration with the client and users an often has to evolve to cope with changes in circumstances as the project develops. The direction, ambition and nature of the project can be radically altered by the interpretation of the brief that is agreed by the architect and client. The architect is normally the driver for the detailed development of the brief and the process of discovery that this uncovers. They must seek to answer needs and aspirations that are both mundane and poetic.

Project: Tufnell Park School

Location: Islington, London, UK

Architect: East

Date: 2006

Internal perspective montage.

‘We always try to locate the need for architecture and that is very much about influencing the brief.’

Dan Jessen, East

East

East is an architecture, landscape and urban design practice based in London. Its three directors are Julian Lewis, Dann Jessen and Judith Lösing. They are interested in places, their uses and the way they come about; cities, spaces within them, buildings and landscapes. Their work is recognised for its innovative role in adjusting and improving urban fabric and its uses. Their experience in considering the broad range of people who will use their urban landscape interventions informs an engagement with all who will use their architecture. This engagement begins during the development of the brief and continues during fund-raising and construction of the project through to occupation of the building. Their work ranges from large-scale landscape and urban planning projects to community buildings and interventions to improve public space. They are particularly interested in the potential of previously disregarded edge places to become sites of generosity where public space can be formed to meet the needs of local people. The directors of East are design advisors at the London Development Agency and they teach at London Metropolitan University and the Accademia di Mendrisio in Switzerland, as well as lecturing internationally.

With great skill, East has used the opportunities afforded by its complex public realm projects to explore creative means of connecting with the many and varied users of its public spaces. The practice has translated this knowledge into methods for developing effective briefs with other complex client bodies, such as schools and community centres. Its involvement in large-scale landscape and urban projects also links to its work in formulating strategic plans and design guides, such as the Transport for London Streetscape Guidance, which is another form of brief writing.

Interview with Julian Lewis, Dann Jessen and Judith Lösing of East

When you formulated the Transport for London Streetscape Guidance, what ambitions did you set for yourselves and the brief?

Dann Jessen

It’s important to understand that the client is London and that therefore you don’t rely on the express aspirations of the paying client only, but look at the need for the work that you are doing and raise the aspirations for it yourself. That project was special because it stretched across London. Normally we would be really interested in the specifics of a local situation; with the Streetscape Guidance we needed to understand the spatial and cultural characteristics of large chunks of the city.

Judith Lösing

Transport for London’s ambition is not necessarily about making a decent background for ordinary life to happen. Their impetus is about making safe crossings, following guidelines. Our role was always to bring it back to what it is like spatially and how it can be simplified.

Does your application of the term ‘client’ beyond the person paying for the project change your approach to an architectural problem?

Dann Jessen

With public realm clients the paying client is not necessarily the one who’s going to use the project, who has most ambitions for it, who will live with it. Because we have the mindset that the client group can be big and multi-headed and ambitious, that means that we are not afraid of looking outside the red line site boundary. It’s in our mindset that people outside the red line are also part of the client group and that influences what we can do inside the red line. If you can actually push up against the boundary and think beyond that, then that influences the centre.

Project: Woolwich Development Framework

Location: London, UK

Architect: East

Date: 2003

Development framework study. East has developed a technique called ‘hairy drawing’. It involves several people sitting a...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• The design studio
• The design process
• The design project
• Conclusion
• Further resources
• Picture credits
• Acknowledgements
• Working with ethics
• eCopyright