Muhammad Saiful Rafif

5013201096

Concept Based Framework

A concept is an abstract idea used to order the elements of an architectural design project.
Concept-based methods set out the major organization of the proposal first, and then
determine how to make the elements fit. While the central idea may be developed from many
sources, it will always be a top-down process.

Methodologically, the issue is not whether a concept can be used to generate a design
proposal, it is how that idea operates to produce a legitimate and repeatable framework which
addresses quality, meaning, and purpose.
In poetry, the structure and choice of words create character. In architecture, Boffrand
identified the selection and arrangement of building elements as generating character, from
massing and proportions to decoration and ornamen- tation.
Blondel’s students, Étienne-Louis Boullée (1728–1799) and Claude-Nicolas Ledoux (1736–
1806), took character as the expression of usage to an extreme. The architectural proposal
became a representation of usage through analogy and pictorial effect. While Ledoux was
developing buildings as symbolic representations, Boullée approached architecture as art.
The usefulness of concept as a design method is its ability to address non-archi-tectural
knowledge as core content in early phases of the process. Openness to non-architectural
influences to address meaning and purpose became more important during the development
of Postmodern culture
Structural framework
While there are many examples of concept-based proposals, there is no clear source of
concept as a documented method in architecture. Instead, it is literature that provides the
framework, in an essay titled ‘The Philosophy of Composition’ (1846) by the American poet,
author, and critic Edgar Allan Poe.
It goes from focus or effect, than unity. . Effect would be supported by two things, originality
and vividness – what might be called novelty and evocativeness in architectural design.25
From this start, the final outcome of the plot would be developed through to its conclusion
before any writing was attempted – a sketch of the writing was created, which then guided the
development of the work. Such a sketch would be called a parti or esquisse in architecture.
 Muhammad Saiful Rafif
5013201096

What matters is how the elements and their relationships engage each other to support a larger,
predetermined whole.

Figure 10.5: Generic framework of a concept-based design

process including domain transfer and thinking styles

Sources of concepts: internal and external content

It must has relevance with the situation of the design. Concept-based methods of architectural
design are still focused on making decisions driven by relationships between elements rather
than overlaying images and symbols.
Variations of conceptual sources
Questioning, like “what happen if?”. Analogy. Use more than one conceptual focus. Source
domains do not need to be as immediately usable in a physical way, but they do need to be
mappable to aspects of the design situation in such a way that they add quality to the
relationships.
Applied methods
 Muhammad Saiful Rafif
5013201096

Coherent thinking
The selection of the concept and the mapping of content are both based on the skill, sensitivity, and
experience of the architectural designer. As a designer, when using concept based framework, it will
also possible for forced bsed and pattern based to involve.
 Muhammad Saiful Rafif
5013201096

Architecture addressing nature’s serenity (Example 1)

The first phase of this concept-based design engaged the same thinking pattern as the other
frameworks.There had been exploratory thinking through exploration that started with
questioning the role of the library, focusing through evaluation which chose to focus on study
and contemplation as a function of library, and the selection of a starting state to explore
(serenity as a quality of place).
HYPOTHESIS

REFINE
There was no attempt to consider architecture as nature, so there was no application of an
analogy. Instead, moments found in nature would be associated with moments in architecture.
It just combine them without transfer from another domain.
MAPPING
Reducing the moment of nature, then explore it. The reduction was explored through a series
of questions and answers. Site, context, programme are explored by forced based framework.

Architecturally, the priority was to create moments of blurred threshold that were points of
interaction between the architectural space of the library and spaces representing
nature.These could be reading nooks pushed into a natural surrounding and brought level
with a grass field, internal circulation brushing against the foliage of full-grown trees, the
acoustic element of falling water creating a quality of space, or an architectural water element
activating visuals and reflecting light. As the process continued, all aspects of the design were
checked back against the judgement criteria to maintain coherence to the overall intentions.
ARRANGE
To this point, the conceptual position had developed discrete moments with only tentative
relationship to the site context and the architectural programme. Moving back and forth
between the mappings, the moments, and their arrangement would develop a proposal for the
building.
 Muhammad Saiful Rafif
5013201096

Figure 10.22: Transfer of conceptual relationship of events to building

proposal in section inARRANGE ELEMENTS

PROPOSAL
As the moments became associated with particular locations in the context and relevant
programmatic pieces, the final proposal began to take shape. No part of an architectural
design process is truly linear, although it has directionality – there is a sense of movement
from a beginning to an end.

Figure 10.23: Schematic design elevation with implied façade treatment in PROPOSAL