30x40 design workshop

concept
All architecture begins with a concept. If you’re struggling to find one, curious about what one is,
or wondering how architects begin their projects; this short course will walk you through the
process I use and some of the techniques I rely on to develop architectural concepts all illustrated
with one of my residential projects.

Design is a dialogue, and the concept ensures you have something to talk about. In this video I
discuss the precise steps I take when beginning each project and how those steps lead me to an
architectural concept.

Before we can develop the concept, we have to first understand the practical constraints. My
design process begins only after gathering and assessing all the given parameters for a project.
Now, this primarily consists of three types of information. There’s information derived from the site
- things like: local climate, the prevailing winds, the solar aspect, vegetation, neighboring
structures, the site’s history, and any unique liabilities or opportunities. The site of course also
comes along with legal frameworks for development, which describe where and what we can and
can’t build.

The second type of information we’ll gather is from the client. Every client has a set of cultural
beliefs and preconceptions, preferences and agendas. Of course, we’ll want to determine their
budget, and understand the personality traits and organizational politics which might also shape
the design. The client and the building type together determine what architects call, “the program”
which is essentially a detailed accounting of all the spaces the building will contain. And the third
type of information I gather is related to the building typology – is it a museum, a home…or a
school for example? To learn about a building typology we often conduct an analysis of notable
or relevant historical precedents. We want to know the essential problems these types of
structures grapple with. Understanding the history of the archetype allows us to approach a
problem from a fresh perspective.

All of this is necessary information that we collect for every project. This inventory can also serve
as the progenitor for the design concept – our seed idea. And, rather than shunting creativity,
these constraints often incite the creative process.

Concept Inspirations Discussed:

- Site

- Client

- Narrative

- Materials

- Structural

- Mainifestos

- Formal

As with a good film, the setting, the characters, the cinematography, and the plot all conspire to
make it what it is. It’s the experience you’ll recall rather than the concept per se. Sure, the
concept sets the film in motion and it’s the starting point for all that follows. But this concept – the
one or two-line description – can’t possible capture the richness and depth of the finished film…or
in our case the architecture. Yet without it, the work is unfulfilling and so it should be clear that the
concept is necessary for all our work as architects.

One Skill (+ item) Every Aspiring Architect Needs

What's the most important skill to cultivate if you’re interested in becoming an architect? Learning
to sketch. Sketching is an important part of the design process and a daily sketching habit will
teach you to see the world as it is, to divine why buildings look the way they do and to understand
proportion and scale. Sketching is invaluable for communicating your ideas in meetings to clients,
to your colleagues and to tradespeople in the field during construction. For most designers, the
sketch is where ideas are born.

Digital tools have their place in the design process too, but they serve a different purpose. The
analog sketchbook is a place to think and to move more slowly. It's in digital space that we
transform the thoughts and ideas into the documents we'll use to construct our architecture and to
make them real. There’s room for both in the design process and each informs the other.

To celebrate the release of the first run of BLANK sketchbooks, I’m opening mine up so you can
see how I use it in practice. I hope it shows you that ideation and exploration doesn’t require
perfect technique or polished renderings. In fact, the imperfect nature of an open-ended sketch
leads to novel ideas and better design resolutions. Follow along as I develop a few less than
perfect sketches, share my thought process, a few drawing conventions and personal musings
about the importance of building a sketching habit.

Special thanks to Mike Schiano and his company Airship Notebooks for helping make the BLANK
notebook a reality. This sketchbook was designed with creatives in mind. It has everything I look
for in a quality sketchbook.

Specs:

+ A5 size (5.8” x 8.3”) - portable, but not too small.

+ Cover: 650g chip, debossed (front + back) Heavy stock protects your work.

+ 50 pgs [ 70# - 100g ] White-cream stock. Works for pen

+ pencil.

+ 5mm dot grid. Helps with layout

+ proportion.

+ Red elastic closure keeps things tidy in your bag

+ serves as a placeholder

+ Double ring spiral binding lays flat on the page and works for both right and left-handed
sketchers.