A2 S4 DESIGN STUDIO

ARCHITECTURAL ANALYSIS
2025

Lecturers:
Eoghan O Shea
Richard Kenny
Alan Hilliard
Aleksander Kostic
 ARCHITECTURAL ANALYSIS

CONTEXT
HISTORICAL POLITICAL
Layers of history Political influencers
Stylistic diversity Local Authority planning policies
Historical development (maps) Conservation Area
Create Nolli Map
SOCIAL & CULTURAL
PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE
Social and economic landscapers
Types of places and spaces
Type of people who live and work
Why town looks the way it does
Cultural influences and assets
Monument and nodes
Census data to produce diagrams, understand ownership
Scale of the street
Social hubs
Neighbourhoods, districts: scale and limits
ECONOMIC Relationship between historical backstory and urban grain
Land values + ownership Vertical an horizontal development
Scio economic demographics
DENSITY & DEVELOPMENT
Density and plot size INVISIBLE CITY
Future visions; past interventions Movement tracking to map interactions
Community sustainability Underground services
Traffic data and restrictions
MATERIALITY & STYLE
Local materials
Local styles and construction forms
Why settlement looks the way it does
 ARCHITECTURAL ANALYSIS

ROUTES
VEHICULAR
Hierarchy of routes through site
Bus, pedestrian, cycle routes in area

PEDESTRIAN
Experience city/town by walking
Explore new/alternative routes
Explore pathways based on desire lines

TRANSPORT
Bigger picture of transport infrastructure
How well is site serviced by transport interconnections?

TIMEFRAME
Bigger picture of transport infrastructure
How well is site serviced by transport interconnections?
 ARCHITECTURAL ANALYSIS

ENVIRONMENT
CLIMATE TIMEFRAME
Sun paths, shading, daylight How dies site vary during day
Wind paths / prevailing winds How dies site change over year
Microclimate of site
STREET HIERARCHIES
TOPOGRAPHICAL Proportion of pavement to road
Survey site levels Street height to width ratio
Determine site boundary
SUSTAINABILITY
Investigate ground conditions
Opportunities to utilize site’s resources
NATURAL FEATURES Opportunities to use local materials
Trees – roots and crowns
Natural habitats? PHENOMENOLOGY
Flood risk data Opportunities to create sense of hjourney
Backstory of formal landscapes Potential for architectural promenade and mystery
Awareness of historical connotations
MAN-MADE FEATURES
Consider existing streetscape
Furniture impact on site
Telecommunications/dishes etc. on site
Impact of artificial lighting
Noise impact on site
 ARCHITECTURAL ANALYSIS

GROUPINGS & USAGE INTERFACE

SITE USAGE SITE BOUNDARY
Functions around site Extent nature of site boundary
Has site function changed over time? Permeability of site boundaries
Site survey to o assess sites potential
AROUND THE SITE Consider thresholds where boundaries poorly defined
Awareness of functions associated with brief Legal restrictions impacting site
Proximity of key facilities
Previous uses of site VIEWS INTO SITE
Existing usages categories locally Sketches
Impact on townscape
Survey adjacent properties
RELATIONSHIP TO WIDER AREA
Emerging types and planned developments
Map repeating services, forms, types NEIGHBOURS
Interface distances to adjacent properties
Rights of light

ACCESS
Legal restriction on routes and access
 ARCHITECTURAL ANALYSIS
It can be based on climactic data, spatial data, cultural data,
volumetric data, movement, topography, etc and mix any of
these where relevant

It involves simplification, choosing the right means of

presentation but always presenting these in predominantly
pictorial form, to scale (where possible)

Edward Allen
How buildings work the natural order of architecture
 Building use and sectional relationship

Transport and movement

Edward Allen
How buildings work the natural order of architecture
Conservation Area
Why city looks the way it does
Character of street Public Realm
Mapping routes Create 3d model
Volume, detail, mass

Building systems (water harvesting)

 Building systems Air/heat flow

Edward Allen
How buildings work the natural order of architecture
Building mass and retained
heat

Ventilation
Edward Allen
How buildings work the natural order of architecture

External air flow and

building form
 Edward Allen
How buildings work the natural order of architecture

Acoustic performance
Edward Allen
How buildings work the natural order of architecture
Edward Allen
How buildings work the natural order of architecture

Movement/circulation
Edward Allen
How buildings work the natural order of architecture
Edward Allen
How buildings work the natural order of architecture
 • Analysis about choosing aspects to focus on.
• It is about using drawings/diagrams to simplify and filter only relevant information about a
building/site by ignoring other elements
• The following are topic Baker focuses on in his book outlining design strategies:
DESIGN STRATEGIES IN ARCHITECTURE Geoffrey Baker

ROLE OF ARCHITETCURE ASPECTS OF FORM ANALYSIS OF ARCHITECTURE

• Forces • Architecture and Culture • Analysis
• Genius Loci • Ethnic Domain • Diagrammatic Thought
• Nature & Art • Tension and Harmony • Slab Transformed
• Poetry • Permanence and Harmony • Generic and Specific Form
• Meaning in Use • Geometrical Design • La Tourette
• Materials and Meaning • Centroidal Static • Cartesian and Horizontal Absolute
• Primitive Architecture • Linear Dynamic • Mass And Surface
• Vernacular Architecture • Chartres • Articulation of the Mass
• Monumental Architecture • Dynamism • Centroids of Linear Form
• Culture and Meaning • Forces • Dynamics of From
• Programme and Site • Organization • Core Systems
• Orientation and Identity [nodes, paths, • Complexity and Contradiction • Linear Systems
districts – identity spatial context, meaning] • The Dynamic Energy of From • Axial Systems
• Movement • Alvar Aalto • Echelon and Radial Systems
• Views • The Classic Work • Interlocking Systems
• Structure and Geometry • Form Distortion
DESIGN STRATEGIES IN ARCHITECTURE Geoffrey Baker DIAGRAMS are the key to analysis. Diagrams …

• Are selective
• Are about Clarity and Communication
• Separate out so as to comprehend the complex
• Make Geometric Articulation Explicit
• Can quantify the energy in both site and concept
• Allow a degree of artistic licence
• Can have a vitality of their own
• Can explain form and space better than words or photographs
DESIGN STRATEGIES IN ARCHITECTURE Geoffrey Baker DIAGRAMS

• Are selective
• Are about Clarity and Communication
• Separate out so as to comprehend the complex
• Make Geometric Articulation Explicit
• Can quantify the energy in both site and concept
• Allow a degree of artistic licence
• Can have a vitality of their own
• Can explain form and space better than words or photographs
DESIGN STRATEGIES IN ARCHITECTURE Geoffrey Baker DIAGRAMS
 DESIGN STRATEGIES IN ARCHITECTURE Geoffrey Baker

Axonometric drawings
particularly useful for
clarifying movement,
spatial relationships,
sitelines

Sectional drawings
demonstrate scale,
volumetric variety, height
differences…
 DESIGN STRATEGIES IN ARCHITECTURE Geoffrey Baker DIAGRAMS

These
demonstrate
difference ways of
demonstrating
movement
patterns and
spatial
relationships, and
they vocabulary
(both verbal and in
drawing terms) for
demonstrating
these
DESIGN STRATEGIES IN ARCHITECTURE Geoffrey Baker
In the following pages you can see an example of analysis of
one important building from Baker’s Book
DESIGN STRATEGIES IN ARCHITECTURE Geoffrey Baker
DESIGN STRATEGIES IN ARCHITECTURE Geoffrey Baker
Charles Sauvageot Piranesi

Tectonic/structure and Tectonic/structure and

construction construction
Choisy - Minerva Medica

Mass and volume

Choisy - Minerva Medica
1827 Henri Labrouste

Makes sense of the general

construction of this Amphitheatre and
explain its distinctive nature in a single
drawing.
J. Dorm J. Dorm
St Peter’s, Rome Santa Maria dei Fiore in Florence as well

Structure and construction Structure and construction

Geoffrey Allen 1923-28
St Paul’s Cathedral, London

Not a diagram, this was the result of years of analysis