Image: La Citta Vita | Flickr

What will turn your architecture from merely being a place that people go to, into a place that people feel attached to — a space where they have made a connection and one that is meaningful? Many theories exist and contribute to what can make a place…well, more than a “place”.

In reading the article entitled What makes neighborhood different from home and city? Effects of place scale on place attachment, I found that this study determined that scale plays a large role when it comes to predicting and creating place attachment for those that experience it. So, this leads me to consider this notion of scale and its meaning for you, as an architect, when it comes to designing architectural spaces that attract — versus just standing to exist.

My personal notion about “spaces of attachment” also brings up the aspects of socialization. I deem that providing a community place within your architectural designs is important. The way in which your occupants interact not only Read more

Visualization of a hand in motion during a conversation
Image: jeanbaptisteparis | Flickr

Motion sensors are already all around us, they exist in certain appliances, mobile phones and even within your car — but what if nanotechnology and the miniaturization of these sensors down to the nano scale could have profound impact on the buildings in which we live?

With nanotechnology, development is in the works to make sensors 100 times more sensitive than sensors we have today. Here is a quote explaining this remarkable feat:

“Able to “feel” and sense the movement of individual atoms, the researchers’ new MEMS sensing device uses small carbon tubes, nano in size — about one-billionth of a meter long. Creating these tiny tubes using a process involving methane gas and a furnace, Prof. Hanein has developed a method whereby they arrange themselves on a surface of a silicon chip to accurately sense tiny movements and changes in gravity.”

- from phsorg.com, A More Sensitive Senor Using Nano-sized Carbon Tubes

The question now becomes, how can you as an architect make use of such significant advances in order to improve and uplift the lives of your occupant? And yes, I do believe that uplifting the lives of your occupants should be a primary focus for your work as an architect. Nevertheless, it is time to think outside of the box.

Where Would You Embed a Nano Motion Sensor?

Since MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) will be not only more sensitive, but also a lot smaller, your designs can make use of their ability to sense very slight motion. For instance, with architectural kinetic installations, perhaps your components which are in motion could respond to Read more

Salk Institute
image: TheNose | Flickr

I often use the term “lifestyle design” when thinking about the design of architecture. By this, I mean that architecture holds within it a great power to uplift the way humans live their daily lives — and it is “lifestyle” which is directly connected to human health, happiness and spirit.

Although many factors must be considered, architecture is ultimately for the occupant. And it is up to the architect to provide real and meaningful value for them.

When you stop to think about all of the things that make up an occupant’s lifestyle, the list is quite overwhelming. In many ways, simply understanding what your occupant really needs is an art. Translating those needs into a wonderful design takes a lot of ingenuity and forethought.

Asking the Right Questions Will Guide You Toward the Right Solutions

What I challenge you to do is to take their needs, in all of their complexity, and solve for them by incorporating and targeting their lifestyle. How can you improve it? What do you need to change about it? What do they want to change? What do they love about it? And so on.

Hone your ability to ask the right questions. Know where to look for Read more

image: MissTurner | Flickr

Architecture resonates at many scales — the human scale, the building scale, the urban scale, the global scale and the cultural scale. Each building creates a ripple effect beginning with one occupant to ultimately reach its even wider audience which experiences it. Thus, architectural scale is something which you, as an architect, should use instinctively and consciously.

Often, critics might say that a building captures a perfect “sense of scale”, and so often, many architects have trouble pinpointing exactly what they mean and what they did to achieve this. Conversely, when a building does not capture an appropriate sense of scale, what went wrong can be glaringly obvious. Either way, a building always makes (and leaves) an impression.

It seems that, even upon approach, an occupant immediately scans a building looking for ways that they can relate to it. They may find something beautiful, novel or even just plain useful. One thing is for sure though; occupants form opinions about what they like (and what they don’t like), for better or for worse.

Can the Key Be Translation?

Designing a “language” can take you a long way toward achieving a good “sense of scale” in your designs. Take narrative, for instance. Just as a story Read more

image: Manky Maxblack | Flickr

As you design your building, do you ever think about what will remain “standing” both physically and in the minds of those that experience it in the future?

Yes, buildings weather and must pass certain “tests of time”, but do you ever consider whether your building will be worth “saving”, or will even be in use as time passes? It has been said that “[i]t takes a lot of money to build a building, but it doesn’t cost that much more to get it right”.

Thus, you should think about how to gain the most “design leverage” to ensure that your architecture will not only “stand” in the future, but will also be of value to those that experience it.

What Makes a Building Stand the Test of Time?

Eventually as time passes, you will reach a point in your career where you will need to Read more

Diagram of red dot modules and lines of communication.
Image: Ethan Hein | Flickr

I am intrigued by this quote about modular design:

“A downside to modularity (and this depends on the extent of modularity) is that modular systems are not optimized for performance. This is usually due to the cost of putting up interfaces between modules.” (Wikipedia source here)

At first glance, modularity can give you ways to expand, re-locate or even provide for more mass customization opportunities within your work. And in some cases, modules can have such distinct characteristics that they actually serve to “brand” your work — if done well, this can be a good thing.

Yet, there is so much missed opportunity when it comes to the module. Instead of always trying to Read more

image: Manky Maxblack | Flikcr

What can flexibility do for you?

Let’s exaggerate for a moment and see if we can make what is flexible, even more flexible. The goal is to get you to push some design boundaries and of course, to use the idea of “flexible design” to get your architecture to that “cutting-edge”.

Of course, there is a find line between extreme flexibility and that ultimate point where something just breaks. But for now, let’s take a look at the following list which I’ve put together to get you thinking about how you can take full advantage of flexibility for your future designs.

The aim here is to design architecture that is both technologically, scientifically and aesthetically advanced, but to do this in a most humane and occupant-centered manner.

To get started, try asking yourself the following four questions and see if you can “strip away” what you take for granted to bring an innovative edge to your work: Read more

When You Think of “Skin”…What’s the First Thing You Think Of?

Have you ever compared building skin to human skin? Well, with new developments like nanotechnology, smart materials and ubiquitous computing the time is ripe to revisit the inner-workings of the human body’s largest organ. After all, there is much to learn by taking a closer look at what lies beneath its surface — particularly as it relates to architecture.

What do you typically think of when you think of “building skin”? Does it primarily function to keep the exterior outside and the interior inside? Or do you use it to bring the outside in within certain parts like windows, ducts and doors? Perhaps you have a more avant-garde way of working with “skin” — using it as part of your architectural language that allows your building to communicate with both its interior and exterior at the same time.

Wherever you may be in your ideas and way of designing building skin, I’m sure that the human skin can help to reinforce and spark new ideas for your architectural designs. You might be surprised to discover that there are many similarities between these two “skins”, and in essence, they are both there to protect and to communicate.

Can Human Skin Inspire Your Designs?

For starters, I want to show you this simple video that clearly shows how the human skin operates physiologically. Now is a good time to watch this sneak peek:

Notice any similarities between what human skin needs to do and Read more

How do you use color to “move” your occupant? Do you go beyond merely using it as a wayfinding technique? Or do you “paint” your three-dimensional space to lead your occupant on a journey that enhances the spirit of place?

As you will find within the following slideshow, color can be used within architecture in soul-stirring and innovative ways. Color not only engages a building occupant by making real the beauty of function, but also invites them “in” to truly “touch” a space — perhaps at first with their eyes, but then with all of their senses as color becomes much more when it meets the eye.

So, how do you use color to “move” your building occupants?

Today, the spectrum between a part and its subparts can be vast and rather static, yet already, there are prototypes for architectural systems that can adapt to triggers to self-perpetuate their own form — and blur the boundaries between where their sub-parts begin and end. Such is the character of adaptive design.

As adaptive architecture evolves, systems will become more seamless and their behaviors will stream more fluidly. The idea of nesting, fusing and embedding behaviors into a design’s systems and sub-systems will require that you consider the in-between states of your form — slowing down real-time behavioral movements and speeding up that which appears to be standing still.

Of course, if you don’t have it already, this all will require a mindset shift from you, the designer; thus, calling upon you to think of Read more