Image: on1stsite | Flickr

What would you do within your design if you had access to glass in architecture that was stronger and more durable than steel? Would you span longer distances with it? Create more transparent and “warped” forms with it? Or might you even create new combinations of perceptual intrigue — like a transparent cantilever which extends outward further, or a transparent building base which makes all that is above it appear to “float”.

Such questions in architectural design are important to ask yourself as a way to get you thinking “outside of the box”. So often, after using the same materials in very similar ways over and over again, you as an architect may forget, over time, to push the boundaries of what certain materials (like glass) can do.

So I invite you to take the materials and other architectural elements that you work with, and turn them on their head. Ask yourself what you would do if light could be laser focused within your design. Ask yourself what would happen if certain elements like windows could become transient. Ask yourself what you would do with …[Read Full Article]…

Image: Jeremy Levine Design | Flickr

Architectural environments can be a type of extension of oneself. Thus, by understanding the clues that we leave behind in our environments, we can actually gain a better understanding of ourselves. And such clues are everywhere within the spaces where we spend our time.

Such clues are architectural objects — which are everything from the type of furniture we have to the type of books we read and store in our bookshelves. Such architectural objects collectively say a lot about us. And as such, you as an architect can use this information to not only design better spaces for your occupants, but to also learn more about your occupants before you ever design their space.

If you have the opportunity as an architect, to visit your future occupants’ current environment, I would say that is definitely a worthwhile trip. They say that a picture is worth 1000 words, and I’d say that visiting a person’s environment is worth triple that.

By seeing where your future occupant currently spends their time (engaging in a multitude of the activities that you are designing for), you will get tremendous insight into their likes and dislikes that may very well inform you about …[Read Full Article]…

Image: thelittleone417 | Flickr

Commercial building plans evolve over time as you travel through the different stages of creating your building, from schematic all the way through to your construction document set. As your original architectural design concept materializes in the beginning, you soon begin to anchor in those building design ideas that need to be finessed and built upon as your design process moves forward.

But I have some questions for you today…

Do you still continue to design with the same amount of creativity as you delve into each stage of your building design process? In other words, are you more strategic and creative at the beginning during the schematic stage as compared to your design development phase? And how do you work with your team as your commercial building plans evolve through your various design process stages? Does your building design get handed off to others at certain stages? Or is there someone seeing the project through at all stages? And how do these different methods of working affect your end result?

I ask these questions because I am curious to learn about what happens to your design when focus shifts from a grand design gesture to a more detailed design nuance. Also, I am interested in what happens to your design if it pushes through different teams of people as it passes from stage to stage. Whatever your case may be, make sure that the following occurs: …[Read Full Article]…

Image: vinicius.cipriano | Flickr

So much of our time as architects is spent thinking and designing for projects that live on land, but what about architecture that lives on water? What if you had to design a human dwelling that is not only near the water, but actually in it?

Change a Major Variable…Like the Site

One would think that if you are an architect solely designing for buildings on land it would be a waste of time to think about what it would take to design them on water. But have you considered that by thinking about a design on water, you may actually come up with more innovative design solutions to many of the problems that arise when trying to design for land? For instance, in the following video you will see a hotel design concept that shows a hotel visitor’s room underwater — where you will see their bed, dresser and a couch (just like in a typical hotel room might have).

However, within this “underwater hotel”, a visitor could literally lay in bed and see a complete panorama of the underwater world floating above, as a canopy surrounding their bed. Can you imagine what it would be like to be a visitor there, falling asleep while watching fish and other sea life swim by? I know they say that fish tanks are relaxing, but what about sleeping beneath the ocean?

Kidding aside, by completely changing the type of …[Read Full Article]…

Image: lumaxart | Flickr

Over the decades, architectural design methods have been intrinsically linked with new tools that architects use to turn their visions into realities. New tools like virtual computer visualization techniques and remote computing while on a construction site allow architects and designers to have a new way of not only “drawing/modeling” how a building should be assembled, but also to innovate new building materials and construction methods.

But using these tools to their fullest requires optimizing your design process to its fullest, both at the beginning of early programming stages all the way past bidding, negotiation and even well into construction stages. So, how do you know when to use what tools and for what reason? How do you know you are really leveraging them during your design process to streamline your efforts — lifting the quality of your design, the speed at which you design and lowering your final building cost?

Where Are Your Leveraging Points

In many ways, it can be said that you gain the most leverage at the very onset of your architectural design process. The earlier you are in your design process the more leverage you have to affect the overall design quality of your building project. As your design process continues the less leverage you have over design quality.

Conversely, as your design process continues into bidding stages, the more leverage you have over the overall cost of your building. So, in the beginning you get the most “bang for your buck” over design quality, and toward the end you get the most “bang for your buck” over design cost. You can say, leverage is all about getting both design “bang” and “buck”.

How to Leverage Your Design Process

Leverage is as much about maximizing good results as about preventing bad ones. The main idea is to get rid of that which holds back your design process the most, which in turn will maximize what does work in your design process. So, a big part of leveraging your design process is to fix …[Read Full Article]…

Image: Ardonik | Flickr

Different architects and architectural teams work in different ways. Their design processes vary not only within their own artistic styles but also with each project type that they embark upon.

So how you do you decide which design process is the best one for you? Are you wasting valuable time and money by working with the wrong or not quite right architectural design process? Should a design process be specified by each designer or be carried throughout your entire firm? Or should it be based on your building-type? Your client preferences? Or some other parameter?

Whatever the case you should always design consciously, being well-aware of what your design process is, and how its limitations and capabilities can constrain or empower your design abilities. For starters, here is a simple run-through and illustration of common design process styles. Take a look at this slideshow, just to get you thinking:

Fix What Doesn’t Work, So You Can Amplify on What Does

When you experience a problem in your design process, your business will subsequently experience some negative symptoms. Yes, that is bad news because these symptoms compound and ripple through all aspects of your work. However, these same symptoms can be good because when you pinpoint them, they serve as major clues leading you to the biggest constraints (or problems) in your architectural design process and/or business.

Did you know that your biggest strengths are tied to your …[Read Full Article]…

Image: Alex Osterwalder | Flickr

Communication is fundamental in getting your design vision executed correctly. You communicate with a multitude of people as an architect: first and foremost with yourself, then with your team, with your client and ultimately with your occupants. And all of this makes up your design system.

At different points in a project you can use communication to leverage different things. Early on, communication can be a great leveraging tool to get your design optimized both aesthetically and functionally. Later on in your design process, communication can really leverage your building’s ability to stay with or under budget. Furthermore, it is communication that also sees to your building being constructed correctly in the field. Needless to say, communication is fundamental to getting your client what they want, building an environment that your occupant loves, and building an architecture that makes you proud.

Scheduling, Renderings and Diagrams, Are They Helping or Hurting You?

What if the very tools and ways you communicate are actually holding you back instead of helping your designs to move ahead? Yes, speed, quality and cost are paramount to most architectural design projects, but what about the way in which you prepare to communicate?

Much time during an architectural design process goes into …[Read Full Article]…