THE DESIGN PROCESS

INITIAL CONTACT

The success of any design depends on

the degree to which the finished project meets the needs of the client. It is therefore essential to establish a firm understanding of these needs from the beginning.

INVENTORY AND GOAL SETTING

To ensure that the designer, client, and all

concerned agree on the purpose and theme of the project, the designer next prepares a situation statement.

Once all parties

agree with this statement, the designer then prepares a very specific set of goals and objectives for every phase of the project based on the situation statement.

ANALYSIS 

The analysis stage involves an organized

and sequenced analysis of user wants and needs, site features, soil conditions, slope studies, and visual observations. All of these separate analyses lead logically to the development of a comprehensive analysis.

 

ANALYSIS

A. USER ANALYSIS

In a user analysis each goal is further refined

into descriptions of specific usage, space requirements, and the relationship between areas. The user analysis clarifies problems by enabling the designer to break down each design element into part of a manageable size.

ANALYSIS

B. SITE ANALYSIS 

The site analysis aids the designer in

making proper design decisions and also helps ensure appropriate land use.

Three types of site analysis techniques are

used to develop a final site analysis drawing: Soil analysis, slope analysis, and visual analysis.

SITE ANALYSIS

i. SOIL ANALYSIS

In general, course-grained soils, because of

their drainage and bearing capacity, are preferred for building but are not ideal for planting areas. Conversely, fine-grained soils with high organic content are preferred for planting areas but not for building.

SITE ANALYSIS

ii. SLOPE ANALYSIS 

The slope of a particular site greatly affects the

type of building that can or should be designed for it. The slope percentage may also determine what locations are acceptable, preferred, difficult, or impossible for building. The cost of building may also be acutely affected by excessive slope analysis drawings.

SITE ANALYSIS

iii. VISUAL ANALYSIS

The architectural designer must be able

to discover and analyze the aesthetic and environmental qualities of the site and visualize its potential.

ANALYSIS

C. COMPOSITE ANALYSIS

Once the soil, slope, and visual analysis

drawings are completed, the information needs to be combined into a composite analysis drawing. The major purpose of the composite analysis drawing is to determine the best location zones for the placement of structures on the site. Location zones are divided into four categories:

CONCEPTUALIZATION

A. IDEALIZED DIAGRAM

The ideal diagram is a series of study

sketches. The diagram represents the ideal special relationships of the major user elements from the user analysis.

The bubbles are not used to relate the size

of the areas, only their spatial relationship to other elements.

CONCEPTUALIZATION

B. SITE RELATED DIAGRAM

The site related diagram applies the

idealized diagram to the site and introduces the size requirements from the user analysis. Frequently called PUSH-PULL-BEND-TWIST PHASE, the effort is concentrated on “fitting” all the various elements of the user analysis onto the site while maintaining their most ideal relationships.

CONCEPTUALIZATION

C. CONCEPTUAL DESIGN

From all the site related diagrams and

sketches, one is chosen that responds best to the information on the site analysis and in the user analysis chart. From the site-related diagram the designer now begins to generate the form of the design.

EVALUATIONEvaluation is needed to determine the degree of excellence of the design. This

is a very difficult phase because it is subjective and based on judgment, which varies from one individual to another. However, whether the product is a design or anything else, its quality will eventually be evaluated and judged by clients or users. Self-evaluation of a design is critical and necessary. This requires checking the quality to see if it measures up to the predetermined goals objectives and the user analysis requirements. The concept design must be evaluated and altered prior to the beginning of the final design-development phase to avoid the possible needs to redesign at a later time, perhaps after much time and money have been spent on the project. It is easier and more time efficient to redesign some elements at this stage than later in the process. By the time the evaluation is complete and necessary changes have been made, the major design concepts will have been established, but the position of the structures and the relationship between the design elements should not change significantly after this step is completed.

To evaluate a design the contents of the conceptual design must be compared with each specific goal and objective found in the user analysis. If a goal has not been accomplished in the design, then that part of the design must be altered to achieve the desired result.

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

After the necessary changes have been made in the

conceptual design as a result of the evaluation and client feedback, design development can begin. During this design development phase details are added to the site related diagram in progressive sketches. Sketches are redone until the outlines of the design parts fit together without overlapping.

Once the plans of this stage are approved by all

concerned, the preparation of working drawings and documents are prepared to further refine the basic design concepts into very exact plans which can be used for bidding, budgeting, and construction purposes.