DESIGN 101 is the first course you are going to undertake once enrolled in architecture. It is basically from design 101 to design 110. This will be your ladder. In order to complete the whole course, you have to finish 10 design courses. Each course is unique and is a pre requisite of the next higher design class.
Design 101 is an introduction to the basics of architectural design. This will enable you to learn the tools and the skills you need to become a designer and understand the principles in designing a structure.
While you are learning to develop your visual skills and the standard drafting,
Design 101 will develop your analytic skills. You will learn the value of space, functional grouping and minimum standards.
structures are categorized according to functions and complexity of design, therefore Design 101 will guide you through your learning process from designing basic structure, that is learning the first place where we got involved with in defining space and it's functionality.
What is it? that is the place you live in - your house.
1. Starting with your house - Have a look around you and observe what you see inside your house. Let your observation be focused on the spaces within your house and determine the function of each area that is within your house. Then let your observation be more focused on the building elements like the windows, doors and other details - this will help you become more familiar with the minimum standards.
The DESIGN PROCESS
This is your first journey to develop your design skills in architecture. The first stage will be the ANALYSIS. Let's determine and develop some design principles by taking the example below:
( you can also make your own sketch of your house and see how they are arranged. The floor plan as shown is a top view of the house. As you see the spaces arranged together, start drawing your own plan as you enter and then link them altogether)
a. In determining the space - What are the spaces can you find inside your house?
you can list down all the spaces you see. Let's have an example on the plan shown below:
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| floor plan |
These are your space requirements.
starting from far left down, there are two groups of spaces that are arranged without any partition.
LIVING ROOM / AREA
second area, is a dining table with six chairs, this area is the
DINING AREA
Next one is a long corridor connecting 3 mores spaces:
PRIVATE OFFICE
Another one with a table with 3 chairs, sink, working counter, this is the
KITCHEN
and lastly, there is a water closed and a lavatory. This space is the
TOILET
You can also identify the stairs along, this is the access leading to the next floor level.
Putting them all together, you have now established the space that are available within a simple residence. These are:
LIVING AREA ,DINING AREA ,CORRIDOR, STAIRCASE, PRIVATE OFFICE, KITCHEN and the TOILET
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| isometric view |
b. In determining the function - How was it arranged? This is where you determine the public areas, private areas, semi-private and the common areas. This is what we call Functional Grouping
The best way to classify the spaces as private and semi-private and common area, we can best express this by balloon diagramming. Place a circle as to how the plan is arranged and identify the classification of its spaces.
Analyze:
How are these space interrelates with one another other?
What are the areas that are considered private in relation to its function?
What are the areas that needs to be adjacent that will compliment to their function?
Can you arranged them better?
This is the best exercise to group the spaces together and analyze it according to the usage and interrelationship of each space.
In relation to the question "can you arrange them better?", this question is more appropriate to ask when you are analyzing the activities within. In exploring your idea within the design process, keep on thinking about the ways and means to improve your design in terms of arranging the space in accordance to the most efficient way of solving the problem.
You can make your own arrangement and try to move each balloon representing the area. Make you own sketch and move the areas you think should be in close connection with each other. Once you have done that, you can make your own reason why you are placing that space next the space you think would be more reasonable. Arrows are good representation showing a circulation pattern. Draw an arrow to interconnect these spaces and determine which one should have direct access and which one should have indirect access.
After establishing your functional grouping, you can now start doing a single line presentation. What is the single line presentation? The balloon diagram is now translated into a more accurate space plan, that is the layout of your floor plan. As shown on this example, you are now going into the next phase of the design process.
c. In determining Minimum Standards - Do you see all the building elements that were put together? What do you see? if you noticed all those elements, these are the components within the building that were set to standards in relation to its size.
a. Let's start with the floor, do you see varying sizes? what's connecting the floor and the wall? what about the level changes from one area to the other, do you recognized the heights of each level change?
b. what about the walls? do you see anything that are attached to it like the doors and windows, do they have varying heights and widths?
c. and lastly, let's look at the ceiling. how are lights fixed? what are the attached elements that connects the ceiling and the wall? Aside from that, you can also see all the furniture that are within the rooms or areas. You can also observe that all have sizes relevant to the space and the usefulness of each furniture in relation to the end user - you.
All these are set to a minimum standard in order to guide you, as the designer, to know the required size of each of the space you are dealing with.
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