DESIGN IN ARCHITECTURE

Architecture and the Human Sciences

By Geoffrey Broadbent.

INTRODUCTION:
Geoffrey Broadbent, the author of this book was the Head of school of
Architecture, Portsmouth polytechnic. This is a textbook, assembling in one
place material from the various disciplines, which, recently, have made
contributions to design. In this book Broadbent had explained most unfamiliar
terminologies and their modes of application to architects and the students of
architecture. This book deals with some design topics such as new attitudes
to design, new problem solving techniques, development of design methods,
new design processes, creative techniques etc.

DESIGN PROCESS
DEVELOPMENT OF DESIGN METHODS:
There are various stages in the design process from different
considerations. By the early 1960s, systems engineering, ergonomics,
operational research, information theory and cybernetics were all available to
the design theorist in highly developed forms, and several events marked the
emergence of design method from these sources as a discipline in its own
right.
Hans Gugelot, lecturer in industrial design at the Hochschulle,
described one approach to this methodology and he designed the Braun fan-
heater, record player and other electrical appliances.
Gugelot’s design method was as follows:
 Information stage
 Research stage
 Design phase
 Decision stage
 Calculation
 Model-making

INFORMATION STAGE:
In this stage one finds out all one can about the firm one is designing
for, its production programme, any emphasis or shift of emphasis towards a
particular class of product. One must review similar products of other firms
and find out generally all one can about the field one is working in.

RESEARCH STAGE:
Here, one must find out all one can about the users; too often, a
committee makes decisions on user ‘needs’, which, by reason of status alone,
is incapable of knowing what users really want. One tries to assess the
context in which the product will be used; at the same time, one looks into
function, possible production methods- especially new processes and
developments.

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DESIGN PHASE:
Here the designer can be creative; one looks for new formal
possibilities. Where no new formal idea is forthcoming, then one must fall
back on variations of existing forms. During this phase, one must bear in mind
the needs of other people who will be involved in making the product.

DECISION STAGE:
In this stage one seeks a favorable decision from sales and production
managements. If the design is radically new, then there may be great
difficulties in ‘selling’ it to them. An adventurous sales manager might be
persuaded to take a calculated risk, but production can only be persuaded by
sound, technical argument.

CALCULATION:
This is a matter of adjusting the design to specific production standards
and if it is done intensively, then the design itself can be utterly spoiled.
Production departments often fail to realize that alterations, which seem slight
to them often, have grave formal consequences. There must be continuous
two-way communication.

MODEL-MAKING:
Here, one builds a prototype, a working model, which is a great help in
production planning, and helps demonstrate the limits of any technical risk
involved. Following this method Gugelot became a practical and highly
designer.

According to Morris Asimow who produced his Introduction to

design, the first book in a projected series, under the general title of The
Fundamentals of Engineering Design. He describes design almost entirely
in terms of information processes. His method derives very clearly from
systems engg and he describes two scales of operation, one of which loops
within the other.
Asimow calls the larger of his two scales of operation, his strategy, the
design morphology and it comprises the following stages:
1. Feasibility study-phase 1
2. Preliminary design-phase 2
3. Detailed design
4. Planning the production process
5. Planning for distribution
6. Planning for consumption
7. Planning for retirement of the product.
The detailed design phase is further subdivided:
1. Preparation for design
2. Overall design of subsystems
3. Overall design of components
4. Detailed design of parts

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 5. Preparation of assembly drawings
6. Experimental construction
7. Product text programme
8. Analysis and prediction
9. Redesign.
Finally he outlines a general process for solving problems which he
calls the design process and which also has its stages:
1. Analysis
2. Synthesis
3. Evaluation and decision- which is extended into
4. Optimization
5. Revision
6. Implementation.
Asimow sees his design morphology as the vertical structure of engg
design and his problem-solving procedure i.e. his design process as its
horizontal structure. Each step in his morphology contains the sequence of
events, which he describes as the design process. Like this there are many
stages in the design process from different considerations.

CREATIVE TECHNIQUES like checklists, synectics, etc.

CHECKLISTS:
Broadbent had described certain techniques, which have been devised
for enhancing creativity in three groups:
1. Check lists
2. Interaction techniques
3. Techniques based on psychoanalysis.

Check lists are perhaps the simplest of all devices for stimulating creative
ideas is the checklist; a list of words-or visual images – which one scans in
the expectation that some of them, at least, will trigger off new ideas. It should
be a very personal thing, based on the designer’s knowledge of what sort of
ideas or words will stimulate him, and related to the class of problems in
which he specializes.