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| Design is an art of making nothing! |
“The modern art of making nothing out of everything is an architectural design”.
A space making process which suites the user most efficiently and marks a
tangible impact on users and society. On fundamental level it deals with dividing
the area to achieve certain requirements, following certain rules and regulations.
The design process is not a linear path, it is an art of
intersecting various aspects while staying on a balanced path to avoid an
unbalanced outcome. Various aspects and assets are to be assessed first and then finding an intersection between every asset, which ultimately steer us to an
efficient pathway of designing.
Firstly the design should follow an uncertain path, then follows a certain and focused path. Designing
demands command over various aspects which is to be used while designing. Designing
includes majorly 5 major parts:
'Empathy is one of our basic human traits and one that differentiates us from other species. It evolved to nurture babies outside of the womb, as our upright position forced babies to be born before full gestation. Babies continue to develop through skin to skin contact with their mothers. Without this babies fail to thrive and suffer irreparable physical and psychological damage, and sometimes death.' said mette aamodt.
DESIGNING WITH EMPATHY
Now, we will take a look at each of the 5 key parts briefly to understand its position and importance in architecture design.
1. EMPATHY
1. EMPATHY
Understanding the user/client with requirements, emotions and need. This user centric approach is the most important step in architecture design. According to Juhani Pallasmaa, empathy in architecture is when “The designer places him/herself in the role of the future dweller and tests the validity of the ideas through this imaginative exchange of roles and personalities.”
Empathy requires conscious mind and awareness of the designer. Understanding the user/client is one step in empathy, analyzing, and studying the requirements takes up the major part. Analysis challenges the cognitive power of the designer and makes a huge impact on design. It includes, making out the important problems in relation to user and society. Proper problems are to be identified to deliver an exceptional design.
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| Talking to the client is the best thing in the world. |
Empathy also includes the major part of architectural research on the requirements, problems and solutions related to the project. Research is majorly done in two parts,
Include the study of contours, climate, surroundings, drawbacks, strong points, services, access, measurement and site conditions. Also called as ‘SITE ANALYSIS’, keen observations are the key point to reduce the chances of a design from bouncing back. The designer should keep in mind that 'Reading between the lines and making more than just lines' is important while creating an impact-full design.
It includes the study of observations came through on site research. Studying the different assets required for design and finding the interconnections of that asset. Analyzing the project type and understanding the existing designs, i.e. Case studies. Off-site research plays important role in the next part of architecture design.
Empathy is very important to make user-centric design which will perform greatly in post occupancy evaluation (POE). The building is in a continuous process of organic evolution even after is constructed.
Empathy mainly includes the scratch designs and sketch to start off with the problem.
2. DEFINITION
Assessing all the factors and defining all the assets are an invariable step in architecture design. Definition process is done in three parts:
Problem identification
It is a process of creating valid questions which are to be answered in further steps of designing. Proper problems identification makes design lot easier as it gives some hints in designing.
Problem analysis
Identified questions are to be carefully analyzed for its validation, solution and their major impact.
Problem definition
Identified analyzed problems are precisely defined as a firm statement which develops the core of the design.
'Definition' is the salient feature of architecture design, which reflects the designer and his attitude towards design. Defining every problem carefully and responsibly is crucial for the designer and the society.
It commonly includes the analytic study, area programs, final requirements and initial solutions.
Empathy mainly includes the scratch designs and sketch to start off with the problem.
2. DEFINITION
After perceiving the user/client from their perspective, from their shoe the very next important step is defining the problem carried from empathy. It is said that, “Answering to a wrong question is more dangerous than answering a wrong answer.” As a designer one need to validate the questions and start defining each and every aspect.
Assessing all the factors and defining all the assets are an invariable step in architecture design. Definition process is done in three parts:
Problem identification
It is a process of creating valid questions which are to be answered in further steps of designing. Proper problems identification makes design lot easier as it gives some hints in designing.
Problem analysis
Identified questions are to be carefully analyzed for its validation, solution and their major impact.
Problem definition
Identified analyzed problems are precisely defined as a firm statement which develops the core of the design.
'Definition' is the salient feature of architecture design, which reflects the designer and his attitude towards design. Defining every problem carefully and responsibly is crucial for the designer and the society.
It commonly includes the analytic study, area programs, final requirements and initial solutions.
3. IDEOLOGY
In simple words, it is the way to put in all the aspects noted before in Empathy and Definition. The actual designing process starts from an ideology and end with an ideology. It is the backbone of the whole design. Understanding the term ideology is very important, Ideology is IDEAL+LOGIC w.r.t. All the parts of architecture design.
Concepts are defined as an abstract idea or general notions that occurs in the mind, the concept is way beyond individual's perception. It is visible through every social dimension and every possible way. The concept challenges the cognitive ability of an individual and demand analytical mind to imagine beyond the applications. It delivers lots of applications in architectural designing, concept not only forms a foundation for the design, but in addition gives real meaning to the building.
Ideology mainly defines Psychological considerations, contextualization and conceptualization:
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| Chaos itself is an art. |
How the user going to experience is important to specifically define beforehand to ensure the efficient working of the design. The study of consciousness plays a major part in psychological considerations.
How the site is considered to design certain typology is also an important part in efficiency of design w.r.t. Surroundings. Design without context is like a body without a heart.
Having an answer to the question WHY? For every part of the design falls under conceptualization. Essentially, it is the reason for every action taken during designing.
Ideology is considered as a supreme quality that a designer should have, it is purely based on experiences and cognitive power of the designer. It is the perception of the designer towards the environment and society. Sometimes design may fail, but the 'IDEOLOGY' never fails.
4. PROTOTYPING
The art of putting all the elements or aspects together to form a balanced intersected figurative which represent the best combination of all the assets together, while keeping all the elements connected.
Prototyping is an important step to dive into actual physical design, while creating the prototype principle points to be considered are:
The building is beyond 3-dimensions, after the 3rd dimension real work of being the designer starts. The Designer should know every dimension of building that it’s going to impact on society.
User experience is foremost part in architecture design, considering the users and their experience, are playing an important role in prototyping. Reaction is the result of consciousness, that designer needs to understand very deeply.
The scale of the prototype decides the behavior of the user through the spaces. Scale decides the consciousness factor. Consciousness is followed by reaction and is reflected in its dimension.
After being constructed it is still in the process of being building which decides its long-term effects on the society/user.
Design should be rooted into the context in order to work in any conditions for a particular context. Considering context drives us to one step closer to a great design.
Nature tops in efficiency to efficiently design would mean in fewer resources, creating a design which is most impact-full under particular circumstances.
Prototyping essentially does mean, an option of combination of all the elements that come out of previous studies. More the options, more combinations are needed to be analyzed and ultimately it leads us to the most interesting and feasible option.
It mainly includes all conceptual drawings showing the whole idea of design. Conceptual modelling is also a part of prototyping.
5. EXECUTION
It is the most crucial part of any design process to be validated by the user/client, but it is the curtain raiser that how the designer and the client would think of any idea. Analyzing the execution actually pushes the designer out of comfort of being designer. This may lead designer to prototyping the design again, if taken positively it helps the designer in understanding the human even better.
After the approval neat planning for execution on paper and on site is important. It mainly comprises of final drawings and technical drawings. It includes many
details that one needs to understand about joineries, materials, construction
techniques, technical information etc.
All the processes are defined on personal experiences and perception, it may change person to person as of their thinking, but the main idea would remain same. Someone can define their own design process, but the efficiency is the ultimate key point in the design of any structure.
CONCLUSION
Designing is not hard, we make it. Design process evolves as required by the recent times. Every design process if studied carefully one can notice very similarities between all. All the processes revolve around one factor, USER!
It was no where for the comfort of user at the very initial stage of architecture, so when did this change came is is interesting to study. Everyone should understand that Design is not just about lines, but there lies our future.
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| Sky is the designer's canvas! |
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