Untitled Document

Techniques of Design

1. "Concept" (also called "partee" or "idea") the essence of the design, the simply expressed main idea.

I.M. Pei Concept Sketch for the National Gallery, 1975

Church Schematic Plan - Richard Meyer, 2003

2. Combining elements

a. Grouping

b. Touching

Touching corner to corner

Touching corner to side

Touching side to side

c. Overlapping

Complete overlap

Partial overlap

d. Interpenetrating

e. Interlocking

f. Interlacing

3. Rearranging Elements

a. Slipping

b. Matching

c. Lining up

d. Rotating

e. Pushing and Pulling

f. Pin Wheeling

g. Telescoping

4. Superimposing a geometry

5. Working from simple to complex

6. Working from complex to simple

7. Additive Form (adding on)

8. Subtractive Form (scooping out)

9. Modular Organization

Chambered Nautilus Shell

A Sunflower Seed

Islamic Vaulting (looking up)

Chinese characters

Tobacco virus atoms seen through an electron microscope

Armadillo shell

Drawing by M. C. Escher

Example of Using a Module to Design

Modules

Exterior Precast Concrete,
Torrington Manufacturing Plant, Belgium 1963-64,
Marcel Breuer, Architect

Modular Design

Central Beheer Office Complex, Apeldoorn, Holland, 1972,
Herman Hertzberger, architect

Elevation

Floor Plan

Detail

Workstation arrangement

Habitat 67, Montreal, Moshe Safdie, 1967

10. Using a predetermined building plan "type"

a. Double loaded corridor

b. Single loaded corridor

c. Central hall

d. "H" plan

e. "C" plan

f. Atrium

g. Courtyard

11. Using a predetermined structural system

Example of an exposed vertical truss system
Crystal House, "A Century of Progress Exposition," Chicago,
George Fred Keck, 1934

Cable Net Structure
German Pavilion, Montreal World's Fair, Frei Otto, 1967

Space Frame
McCormick Place on the Lake, Chicago, C. F. Murphey, 1968

Exterior Braced Frame
John Hancock Building, Chicago, SOM, 1970

Bundled Tube
Sears Tower, Chicago, SOM, 1972

12. Design from the "Outside In"
(select a predetermined form and fill it up)

Reliastar Building, Formerly Northwestern National Life Insurance Building,
Minneapolis, Minori Yamasaki, 1964

13. Design from the "Inside Out"
(exterior form of the building results from the spaces needed on the inside, or from the functional program)

Boston City Hall, Kallmann, McKinnell and Knowles, 1968

Baker House Dormitories, MIT, Alvar Aalto, 1948

14. Design around a specific material

Design around glass block
Frank Fisher Apartments, Chicago, Andrew Rebori, 1939

Design around stainless steel
Pritzker Music Pavilion, Chicago, Frank Ghery, 2004

15. Optimize solar exposure

Tuburculosis Sanitorium, Paimio, Finland, Alvar Aalto, 1933

16. Design from energy conservation standpoint

a. Passive solar energy

Basic passive solar strategy

Passive solar house, Albuquerque, Studio E Architects, 2000

b. Active solar energy

Solar collector strategy

Solar solar hot water panels on house roof

Apartments with active solar hot water panels

c. Photovoltaics (PV)

Farm building

Photovoltaic solar panels
Gas Station, San Francisco, 2004, estimated 8 year payback period

d. Combination of passive and active solar energy

Solar assisted heating in Hayward, California

e. "Super insulated"

f. Double Skin

Thomas M. Siebel Center for Computer Science, Urbana, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, 2005

g. Active skin

h. Earth Sheltered

Earth sheltered house, Malcolm Wells

i. Wind Turbines

Turbine farm in Bakersfield, California

Freedom Tower Design with wind turbines, Daniel Liebeskind, 2005

j. Natural lighting

United Gulf Bank, Bahrain, SOM, 1987

United Gulf Bank Section thru exterior wall to study lighting

Lighting model

Lighting model

Lighting Model

j. Building envelope optimization
(the least area of enclosure to surround the maximum volume of building)