When you start a design process as an architect, you often start from scratch. Nothing is determined and ‘everything’ is possible. In the early stages of a design a lot of decisions have to be made, so sketching becomes very important. Sketching, whether it is done on paper or by using physical and digital models, is a way to investigate what the design should be. A lot of information needs to be gathered and processed. There will be the briefing from the client to hear what they want and expect, and the site will be investigated.

In student projects, but also in practice, you hear a lot about ‘the concept‘ of the design. Such a concept is the main idea that can become a driving force when the design decisions need to be made. In Delft, one of our colleagues, ir. Elise van Dooren, introduced the term ‘guiding theme‘ to indicate that a concept in design can be used as a guide to lead you to your goal. When you know your guiding theme, you can use it as the main criterium to focus on. This guiding theme should be taken into account while you develop your plan in many different aspects. Those aspects are called ‘domains’. Elise van Dooren mentions five ‘domains’ that can be used and explored in a relaxed and flexible way:

• space / form / image / composition
• material / construction / climate
• function / use / ritual / movement
• urban context / site
• social / historical / political context

Many of these domain aspects can be explored by making models.
This will be the task for the next 2 weeks. This week we will focus on ‘your guiding theme’ related to the larger context and the site. In the following week we will focus on the smaller scale details and ergonomics of your proposal.

For further reading, here you can find a paper by Elise van Dooren: ‘Making explicit in design education: Generic elements in the design process’, in: IASDR 2011: Proceedings of 4th World Conference on Design Research “Diversity and Unity”, Delft, The Netherlands, 31 October-4 November 2011.