DESIGN AND DESIGN PROCESS

DESIGN IN THE CONTEXT OF ARCHITECTURE,IS SIMPLY THE ACTIVITY OF GENERTING

PROPOSALS THAT CHANGE SOMETHING THAT ALREADY EXIST INTO SOMETHING THAT IS
BETTER.
DESIGN CAN BE VIEWED AS A THREE-PART PROCESS CONSISTING OF AN INITIAL STATE, A
METHOD OR PROCESS OF TRANSFORMATION AND AN IMAGINED FUTURE STATE

THIESE COMPONENTS ALSO DEFINE THE FUNCTIONS OF THE ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN.

1. TO IDENTIFY PROBLEMS
2. IDENTIFY METHODS FOR ACHIEVING SOLUTIONS
3. IMPLEMENT THOSE SOLUTIONS.

IN PRACTICAL TERMS:
1. PROGRAMMING
2. GENERATING ALTERNATIVE BUILDING DESIGNS
3. IMPLIMENTING PLANS
Five-step design process:
1. INITIATION:

Initiation involves the recognition and definition of the problem to be solved. Although architects are
often expected to identify problems and opportunities. The tradition is of the client bringing the
problem to the architect.
Projects are almost always awarded after competitive interview. Sometime the interviews are open to
anyone who can meet the minimum qualifications, and sometimes the client limits the interviews to
3 /4 preselected firms. Architects also have begun to take more initiative in making contacts with
potential client.
architects are often directly involved in the early stages of problem identification. Another aspect of
initiation step involves the role of imagination and aspirations. That is ,architects attempt to raise the
aspirations of society in terms of the quality of the built environment. They identify general problem,
educate the public and suggest alternative solutions. They supply critical imagination in their area of
expertise that stimulates the clients aspirations. More than one architect has reflected that “good
client make good buildings”
Five-step design process:
2 PREPARETION:
Preparation includes the collection and analysis of information about the problem to be solved. in a
broad sense, professional education is itself a preparation for delivering design services. more
specifically ,preparation involves the systematic collection and analysis of information about a
particular project. This activity is called “programming”;the product is a building program in the united
state and a brief in England and Europe. Programs generally include a written report summarizing the
needs of a project and can include extensive analysis that identifies the important issues to be resolved.
Other preparation activities include the gathering of base maps of site and areal data (about the natural
and made environment ,traffic. utilities and so on) of information about legal constraints and economics
and finance data. another product of a preparation stage is a list of criteria that describes the desired
characteristics of an architectural solution. Solutions are measured against these criteria as the project
cycles through the proposal making and evaluation stages.
Some preparation activities are integrated into other stages of the design process. the designer may
find that certain types of information are required at various stages of design. For exm, the
criteria for hospital design may change due to technological innovation during the eighteen or
more months of design time that such a project might require.
Thus. information collection and analysis is both an initial step in design and one that continues
throughout the design process.
3. PROPOSAL MAKING:
INITIATION:1
An informal architect is prepared to generate ideas and make building proposal. Valid ideas can
come at any time in the design process from the first meeting with a client to the end. Too often,
the client ,student ,or architect proposes what the building should look like and then tries to
force the required activities into that image.
There is considerable debate among faculty and practitioners as to just how much preparation
is appropriate before proposal making begins. Some designers argue that the quality of design
is proportional to the length of time that the intuitive decision is delayed while others contend
that the parallel development of program and schemes ensures the appropriate interaction of
requirements and design solutions. Many architectural school faculty allot little time in design
studios to preparation activities because preparation is thought to be both relatively simple and
time-consuming while idea generation is allowed more time because it is more difficult. other
teachers do the reverse. Contending that the core of design is finding the right problem.
The actual process of making design proposals is
often called “synthesis". that is design proposals
must bring together a variety of considerations
from the context(socia,economic,physical),the
program, the site, the client, current technology
,aesthetics and the values of the designer.
Proposal are expected to be physical
demonstrations of the integration of a very large
number of issues.
The drawings and notes together form a tool for
successive explorations and iterations that
converge on a solution. At various stages the
design under study can be presented to the client
to confirm or revise program intentions.
4. EVALUATION:

Evaluation in architectural design occurs at several scales and includes a variety of

participations. This discussion focuses on evaluation of alternative proposals by the designer.
Evaluation of proposals by the architect involves comparing proposed design solutions with the
goals and criteria evolved in the programming stage. We can visualize the preparation-design-
evaluation cycle as a three-part process. Most important, however, is the designers ability to
evaluate his or her design proposals in term of a large number of design issues and in an
iterative fashion that converges on an appropriate and successful proposal.
5. ACTION:

The action stage of design process includes the activities associated with preparing and implement
ting a project, such as reading the construction documents and acting as the liaison between the
owner and constructor. Construction documents include working drawings and written specifications
for the building.
 Five-step design process:

I
I P
P

A
P
E

I
P I P

P P
E
Diagram of Design
Process
Cycles, feedback, iteration:

Cycle: designer may run through the sequence quickly at the advent of a project to
generate a range of preliminary or limited proposals. This ,in turn, may help to focus
programming activities such as the identification of appropriate information needs or client
reactions.
Feedback: describes the cyclic nature of the design process. New information causes the
designer to reconsider existing information as the design proposal progresses.
Iterative: the designer run through the cycles a number of times: each cycle incorporate a
large number of issues and the synthesis becomes more sophisticated. Successive iterations
converge on a satisfactory solution.