Analyzing the process of architectural designAsst. prof. Surasak
Kangkhao
One doesnt have to study architecture to realise that we are
connected with built spaces from the very first moments of our
life. We may not be conscious about this all the time, but we have
to understand that architecture is based on experiences. Every
moment has its own place in our mind , like a file stored in our
memory. New experiences are lived and judged according to our
knowledge and what we learned by that time. If the experience
repeats, it will have its own file stored in the memory. That is
why, we can affirm that our behaviour and response to actions is
based on our experience, the one acquired during a life time and
the one we are teached from an young age.Design implies a complex
process , and its duration lasts until the building is given to
use. The design process will always have an objective to reach, a
purpose to fullfil. And the best way to make it happen is taking
into consideration all the details during the process and prepare
for further modifications if needed.The heart of a design process
is represented by three big elements: objective, user and site
location. These three main components of a design process reflect
the details and all the necessary information along the course. The
purpose of the design process is to accomplish the objective. It
can be enunciated as a proposal or policy, either way, this is
where all the information comes from. All the architectural models
are built according to the objective. This must be considerated the
main goal all the time, and all the decisions must be taken
according to accomplish it. This objective is the one that will let
us know who the user is, because at the end of all, he is the one
having direct contact with the built space. Architecture will be,
at the end of its process, seen with the eyes but felt with the
heart and our senses. The human, the user, is the filter between
interior feelings and exterior experience. It is the second element
of the third main components. Once we know the objective, we can
discover who the user will be and the relationship between
architecture and human cannot be unavoidable because we build for
the humans. In other words, the human component is the one
generating the architectural design.The third component is the site
location. This has to be adequate and always in accordance with the
objective. Never a project designed for a specific site has to fit
in other corner of the world. Because each place brings different
information and needs, and answering at this - the project can fit
in the specific site but will never answer the needs other location
has. This is why architecture is unique. Not because it invents
everytime new approaches, but because answers the most specific
requirements a place could have. When we say we need to have all
the site information before starting the design process, we mean
knowing the local community, the region but also be aware of
restrictional laws , the economy, pollution and all the factors
that contribute to our future development, because you begin to
realize that the important determinant of any culture is after all
the spirit of the place .In order to know the nature, the art, the
community, religion , science, a superficial approach is not
enough. We need to look after an intentional depth, because a
simple analyse of the phenomenons taken separated is not enough.
The same happens with the architectural design process. It has to
involve at the same time the profound analyse of the three
components: objective, user and site, brought together for the
purpose of identifying themselves in the relationship.From all the
three components, the most challenging component and the most hard
to discover completely, is the user. The user can be known from the
beginning of a project, or can be subtracted from the objective
itself. A building can be used by many groups of users, from
visitors, administration, workers and so on. The key is to discover
who the main user is. This way, during the design process, we can
adapt our decisions and establish the importance of it only by
knowing who the main user is and whats the most important to him.
Among the criterias of the users, we can find the different types
of behavior, life conditions, atitudes, personal ideas but also
differences: age,culture, material situation and
personalities.Talking about the human behaviour, we need to
underline the idea according to which in the relationship between
the human and the environment always comes the time dimension. The
experience of the man will always be bound by time. Human behavior
is experienced throughout an individuals entire lifetime. It
includes the way they act based on different factors such as
genetics, social norms, core faith, and attitude. Behavior is
impacted by certain traits each individual has. The traits vary
from person to person and can produce different actions or behavior
from each person. In order to assure an optimal relationship
between the architecture and the user, architects need to
acknowledge a good understanding of the human response to its
perception and expressive potential.Perceptual habits can manifest
as primary experiences with the environment, perceptual
predispositions and optical illusions. The first type of
experiences are based on our senses and our relationship with
territoriality. The filter of all these experiences is represented
by our senses. We can therefore establish sensorial experiences,
gravitational(vertically) and horizontally, the last two refering
to a more intelligible space. Kevin Lynch identifies in his book
The image of the city that a mental maps of a city consist of five
elements: (1)paths: routes along which people move throughout the
city; (2)edges: boundaries and breaks in continuity; (3)districts:
areas characterized by common characteristics; (4)nodes: strategic
focus points for orientation like squares and junctions; and
(5)landmarks: external points of orientation, usually a easily
identifyable physical object in the urban landscape
The perceptual predispositions are based on mental schemes in
the need of simplify and organise the exterior stimuls. Gestalt
theory first studied it as a visual perception but experiences
could also be felt through movement and senses. These sugestions
can vary then, from visual, born predispositions, like the
approximation of distance, closure and continuity impulse,
figure/background relationship to tactile experience and
kinestethic approaches. The optical illusions are nothing but a
prove that the human sees the environment based on what he saw and
learned before.Illusions were used from many years back, either to
emphasies a monument or to modify and adjust a form to make is more
pleasant for the eye.Territorialityis a term associated
withnonverbal communicationthat refers to how people use space to
communicateownershipor occupancy of areas and possessions. Personal
space can be regarded as abubblewith a person at the center,
forming an area which the person does not wish to be invaded.
During the years, behaviour and territoriality has been researched
and observed by psychologists as they tried to understand the human
behaviour. Territoriality can be found as four different stages:
personal space bubble, territorial unit, territorial cluster and
territorial complex. Each one reflects how the human behaves
according to his own personal space, and what happens when space is
invaded by something else. Humans are not the same. As we spoke
earlier about the differences between users, we can intuit that the
bubble of personal space can differ from person to person,
according to many factors: power, age, sex and so on. Distance
changes with action, from intimate distance, to personal, social
and public one.The more we see the how complex the human and his
actions are, the more we realise that the environment is as much as
complex. Because what surrounds us is nothing but a reflection of
the behaviour and the variations between them. To know the site
means to know all its characteristics: light, soil, neighbours, and
also know the restriction regarding height, surface, total area and
legislation one has to respect during the design process. This way,
the project can benefit from what the site can give, and the
opposite.Only by achieving all the information required and only by
understanding each and every part of the three main components:
objective, user, site, we can provide an adequate architectural
design that will respond to our purpose.
- prof. Surasak Kangkhao, The process of architectural
design
- Lawrence Durell, 1969 - Kevin Lynch The image of the city
