Design Methods
ARCH 8074
WEEK 3 — Projecting Frameworks
September 16, 2024
Where does designing start?
The creative process is often
mysterious and not fully
understood…
However, unlike painting,
architecture exists in the real
world, where tangible metrics
guide its creation.
Along with these external
factors, your personal interests
and ambitions will shape what
you design and how you bring it
to life.
Where does designing start?
somewhere
in the world, or in your understanding of the world
it could be literally anything
but whatever that is, it must have spatial characteristics or implications
(remember Tao’s remark)
That ‘somewhere’ can refer to what we will call ‘projecting frameworks’
— or, in other words, project parameters, metrics, factors, aspects, drivers, etc.
- Issue / problem (ageing population, education, climate adaptation, etc)
- Agents (architect, client, user, labor, etc)
The design process
- Program (hospital, housing, retail, etc) can be understood
as a continuous
- Site (topography, context, climate) development and
interplay between
- Precedent (building XYZ, building XZY, building YZX, etc) these elements!
- Technology (timber, steel, concrete, etc)
- Timeline (design, construction, use)
‘Projecting frameworks’ Scenario 1
(one iteration)
Issue / problem
Agents (architect, client, user, labor, etc)
Program
Site (topography, context, climate)
Precedent
Technology
Timeline (design, construction, use)
Issue / problem
Agents Thinking about the design
process through the lens of the
projecting frameworks
Program
This will help you
conceptualise and better
Site understand what you are
doing as a designer
Technology
Remove some of the mystery
about the process (and some
Precedent of the anxiety as well)!
Timeline
Issue / problem
i.e. any current social, cultural, economic, issue that you can tackle as
an architect
1) help fix it
2) provide a commentary on it
(make us think about it in a new way)
ISSUE / PROBLEM — AGEING POPULATION
Peter Zumthor, 1943–
2009 Pritzker Prize
— ISSUE: how to provide spaces for
elderly residents who can still live on
their own and look after themselves
ISSUE / PROBLEM — AGEING POPULATION
Program:
elderly home
Site:
suburban
Orientation:
south-facing
Home for Senior Citizens, Chur, Switzerland, 1993
Client: private foundation
ISSUE / PROBLEM — AGEING POPULATION
— concept: make the inhabitants to feel at home through the use of elements
which they recognize from their own lives in the surrounding villages
— materials: a basic triad of exposed concrete, tufa and larchwood
— layout: every unit is a ‘small house’
— circulation space: generous and customizable
ISSUE / PROBLEM — VACANT OFFICE SPACE
ISSUE / PROBLEM — VACANT OFFICE SPACE
empty and dead! program issue!
What to do with
this building?
World Trade Centre, Brussels, 1972
51N4E, Brussels
ISSUE / PROBLEM — VACANT OFFICE SPACE
— PROGRAM: add volume and diversify
(housing, hotel, leisure, sports, and retail)
— TECHNOLOGY: reuse the existing
structure as much as possible
— SITE: change how the building meets the
ground
— AGENTS: architects move on site during
the design and construction process
ISSUE / PROBLEM — VACANT OFFICE SPACE
ISSUE / PROBLEM — VACANT OFFICE SPACE Issue program technology site agents
ISSUE / PROBLEM — INSUFFICIENT/INADEQUATE EDUCATIONAL BUILDINGS
Burkina Faso’s adult literacy rate Elementary school in Burkina Faso, today
Source: United Nations Development Programme,
Human Development Report 2007-08
ISSUE / PROBLEM — INSUFFICIENT/INADEQUATE EDUCATIONAL BUILDINGS
How to address an
issue with both
quantitative and
qualitative aspects?
rethink the school
building in Sub-
Saharian Africa
Gando, Burkina Faso, Centre-East Region (pop. 2,500)
Francis Kéré, 1965–
ISSUE / PROBLEM — INSUFFICIENT/INADEQUATE EDUCATIONAL BUILDINGS
— AGENTS: raised USD 50,000 in Germany and involved Gando users in the
construction process
— TECHNOLOGY: locally resourced material (clay) compressed in blocks Gando Primary School, 2001
— SITE: corrugated roof and perforated bricks for maximum cross
ventilation
ISSUE / PROBLEM — INSUFFICIENT/INADEQUATE EDUCATIONAL BUILDINGS
— AGENTS: raised USD 50,000 in Germany and involved Gando users in the
construction process
— TECHNOLOGY: locally resourced material (clay) compressed in blocks
— SITE: corrugated roof and perforated bricks for maximum cross
ventilation
— architect
— engineer
— planner
— client
Agents — user(s)
— contractor
— workers
— maintenance staff
—…
AGENTS — USERS AS BUILDERS
Iqique, northern Chile (pop. 190,000) Elemental
AGENTS — USERS AS BUILDERS
Program: social housing
Budget: USD 7,500 / unit
Apartment block
(too expensive)
Detached / semi-
detached house
(too much land use)
Row house (US) / Terrace house (UK)
AGENTS — USERS AS BUILDERS
AGENTS — USERS AS BUILDERS
Budget type agents timeline
— blends with the existing urban fabric
— no claims of full authorship
AGENTS — USERS AS BUILDERS
— disability therapy center + textile studio
— local materials + local sources of energy (including manual labor) +
global know-how
— project representations reflecting stakeholder alignments
Studio Anna Heringer, Anandaloy Center, Rudrapur, Bangladesh, 2019
AGENTS — USERS AS BUILDERS
AGENTS — USERS AS BUILDERS
program agents site technology
Program
or, what happens within a building or site
closely connected with the notion of ‘type’
— a single building type with its normative functional program (a hospital or school)
— a hybrid building type and program
— a hybrid, an entirely new kind of building type, or an entirely abstract or speculative
program
PROGRAM — A NEW TYPE FOR A NEW PROGRAM
Zeebrugge and the ‘Chunnel’, opened 1994
Zeebrugge, Belgium
typical ferry terminal in 1980s Europe
PROGRAM — A NEW TYPE FOR A NEW PROGRAM
Inside OMA’s Rotterdam office, late 1980s
unpublished video recording
PROGRAM — A NEW TYPE FOR A NEW PROGRAM
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Tower of Babel, 1563
PROGRAM — A NEW TYPE FOR A NEW PROGRAM
the ferry terminal as an exciting mixed-use building
a small city in a building…
a giant social condenser…
PROGRAM — A NEW TYPE FOR A NEW PROGRAM
4
2 3
1
circulation bus terminal
mall
hotel / movie theatre
PROGRAM — FORM FOLLOWS DIAGRAM
the library type in the 1980s…
Dominique Perrault, National Library of France, Paris,1989–96
Colin St John Wilson, British Library, London, 1997
PROGRAM — TYPE FOLLOWS DIAGRAM
OMA, Seattle Central Library, 2004
PROGRAM — FORM FOLLOWS DIAGRAM
PROGRAM — TECHNOLOGY FOLLOWS PROGRAM
“The concept of the building was to make one
very big room, where people and programmes can
meet together to have better communication,’
explains Nishizawa. ‘There are no walls to divide,
so any programme can meet anywhere. It is more
like a park.”
— Ryue Nishizawa
Sanaa, Rolex Learning Center, EPFL, Lausanne, 2011
PROGRAM — TECHNOLOGY FOLLOWS PROGRAM
‘This new campus hub exemplifies our vision of a university where traditional
boundaries between faculties are broken down, and where the public are
inspired and made welcome…. the SANAA scheme was something that we
had never seen before: a building without doors’. — EPFL representative
PROGRAM — TECHNOLOGY FOLLOWS PROGRAM
PROGRAM — TECHNOLOGY FOLLOWS PROGRAM
— plot size and shape
— topography (steep / flat)
—context (urban / suburban / rural)
Site
— climate (hot/cold, dry/humid)
— hydrogeological conditions
SITE —TOPOGRAPHY AS A GENERATOR
‘Proposal for an architectural landmark to stand apart above the
congestion and intensity of Hong Kong – centred on the creation of a ‘man
made polished granite mountain’. Excavated subterranean spaces, distinctive
horizontal layers and floating voids house the club’s various activities within
a unique ‘geology’, symbolizing the high life’. — Zaha Hadid Architects
Zaha Hadid, The Peak Club (unbuilt), Hong Kong, 1982
SITE —TOPOGRAPHY AS A GENERATOR
SITE —TOPOGRAPHY AS A GENERATOR
SITE — PROGRAM FOLLOWS GEOLOGY AND TOPOGRAPHY
Jinyun county, Zhejiang, China
SITE — PROGRAM FOLLOWS GEOLOGY AND TOPOGRAPHY
Quarry #8 — reading and study DnA, Zhejiang quarry project, 2021
SITE — PROGRAM FOLLOWS GEOLOGY AND TOPOGRAPHY
Quarry #9 — lectures, performances, or the staging of traditional Wuju opera
SITE — PROGRAM FOLLOWS GEOLOGY AND TOPOGRAPHY
Quarry #10— live performance by local stonemasons (heritage tourism)
— building materials
— structure
Technology
— tectonics
— HVAC systems
TECHNOLOGY — FORM FOLLOWS TECH
Konrad Wachsmann
1901–1980
1929
1941
TECHNOLOGY — FORM FOLLOWS TECH
Packaged House concept, 1941–47
TECHNOLOGY — FORM FOLLOWS TECH
TECHNOLOGY — FORM FOLLOWS TECH
1947–50
TECHNOLOGY — FORM FOLLOWS TECH
1947–50
scaling up…
TECHNOLOGY — FORM FOLLOWS TECH
single element (joint)
multiplied X times!
— site?
— agents?
— program?
irrelevant
Konrad Wachsmann, USAF Aircraft hangar, 1951 and up….
TECHNOLOGY — AS A SPECTACLE
Norman Foster, HSBC building,
Hong Kong, 1985
Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 1978
the museum type in the early 1970s…
Louis Kahn, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX, USA, 1972
TECHNOLOGY — AS A SPECTACLE
exposed structure
+
lightweight envelope
+
exposed HVAC
TECHNOLOGY — AS A SPECTACLE
Blue for air flows (air-conditioning)
Yellow for electricity
Green for water circuits
Technology program site Red for pedestrian flow (escalators and lifts)
TECHNOLOGY — AS AN IMAGE
Foster + Partners, Reichstag Dome, Berlin, 1999
TECHNOLOGY — AS AN
A MARKER
IMAGE
Foster + Partners, Reichstag Dome, Berlin, 1999 IM Pei, Louvre Pyramid, Paris, 1989
— existing projects
— issue, program,
Precedent technology, site, etc
(any of the seven
frameworks)
— highlight relevance!
PRECEDENT — HISTORY AS A REPOSITORY
’The strength of my conviction
that “A House is a Work of Art”
was born of the struggle with
this small house. I wished to
express the force of space
contained in the doma (earthen-
floor room) of an old Japanese
farmhouse, this time by means
of the geometric structural
design of a karakasa (oiled-
paper Japanese umbrella)’.
— Kazuo Shinohara, 1962 Kazuo Shinohara, Umbrella House, Tokyo, Japan, 1961
(rebuilt 2022, Weil am Rhein, Germany)
PRECEDENT — HISTORY AS A REPOSITORY
Kazuo Shinohara, Umbrella House, Tokyo, Japan, 1961
(rebuilt 2022, Weil am Rhein, Germany)
PRECEDENT — HISTORY AS A REPOSITORY
precedent technology program
Kazuo Shinohara, Umbrella House, Tokyo, Japan, 1961
(rebuilt 2022, Weil am Rhein, Germany)
PRECEDENT — HISTORY AS PASTICHE
Charles Moore, 1925–93
Piazza d’Italia, New Orleans, USA, 1978
— memorial to the city's Italian citizens
— most important PoMo public space
PRECEDENT — HISTORY AS PASTICHE
Nicola Salvi, Trevi Fountain, Rome, 1763
Charles Moore, ‘Water and
Architecture’ PhD Thesis,
Princeton University, 1957
— expected lifespan of
the building
Timeline — changes in the
building over time
besides space, time is a
critical factor in — financing structure
architectural design!
TIMELINE — THE BUILDING AS A TEMPORARY ENTITY
Aldo Rossi, Teatro del Mondo,Venice, Italy, 1979–80
TIMELINE — THE BUILDING AS A TEMPORARY ENTITY
— ephemerality
— timelessness of forms
— timeline program site
Teatro del Mondo sailing from Venice, Italy, to
Dubrovnik, Croatia, summer 1980
Teatro del Mondo sailing off Venice, 1980
TIMELINE — TIME AS AN ACTOR
Peter Zumthor, St Benedict Chapel, Sumvitg, Switzerland, 1988
TIMELINE — TIME AS AN ACTOR
Timeline technology
— technical problems of maintenance and decay
— weathering makes the "final" state of the construction necessarily indefinite, challenges the
conventional notion of a building's completeness
— materiality inextricably linked to time
to recap…
Issue / problem ‘The architectural project may be developed
beginning with any one, or with several of these
Agents seven [frameworks]. The project might grow out of
a particular site; a specific precedent; a
Program technological concern; a tectonic or formal aspect;
the work of a philosopher, theorist or poet; a set of
Site keywords or themes; a functional program or
building type… The idea is to start wherever one is
Technology with whatever is of current interest or with
whatever has been of interest for some time.’
Precedent
— Michael Tawa, ’Projecting Frameworks’, Theorising the Project: A
Timeline Thematic Approach to Architectural Design, 2011
Assignment 1 — projecting frameworks
due on Turnitin on September 23 at 11:30
(1) Choose one project (built or REVERSE ENGINEERING: to
unbuilt) from the last fifty disassemble and examine or
Years. (NEW: or a project from the analyze in detail (a product or
HKU thesis database!) device) to discover the concepts
involved in manufacture usually in
(2) Reverse-engineer the project. order to produce something
Identify the project’s starting similar.
point and describe how it shaped
(Mirriam-Webster Dictionary)
the design process and outcome
(500 words, 3 images)
WEEK 4 / SEPTEMBER 23 — DRAWINGS
— Helen Thomas. Drawing Architecture (London: Phaidon, 2018), 7–10.
— Laurent Stalder and Andreas Kalpakci. "A Drawing Is Not a Plan." In Architectural
Ethnography, edited by Momoyo Kaijima, Laurent Stalder, and Yu Iseki, 15–17.
Tokyo: TOTO Publishing, 2018.
— Nic Clear. "Drawing Time." Architectural Design (AD) 83 (2013), 71–79.