10 Structures and their Design Concepts

LoU Ruvo Center

From the mind of world-renowned architect Frank

Gehry, the breathtaking Keep Memory Alive Event
Center is as iconic as it is unique. Nestled in the
downtown Las Vegas Symphony Park neighborhood
and just minutes from the Las Vegas Strip, the Keep
Memory Alive Event Center is truly a one-of-a-kind of
us event space for guests seeking the extraordinary.
This 9,200 square foot blank canvas has transformed
events that no hotel ballroom or conference room can
duplicate. From weddings to corporate events, social
celebrations to product launches whatever you
dream of, we can make happen.

he house was built to be a three stories house connected by

series of stairs with two of the bedrooms and each having
the bathrooms of themselves. In fact, each of the two
bedrooms also consist of their own gym, parking lot, closets
and a nice and amazing view of the terrain. In which the
main challenging design of this architectural building;
building the house on a slope of the terrain. The main focus
of the building structure was to create a clear and wide open
space for the interior.

Those who love special things too can see this special home
located in Frohnleiten, Austria. It is made of some concrete
cubes packed away in velvety soft green Astroturf. This odd
building was designed by the architect Weichlbauer Ortis.
Perhaps the intention was to create something that would
integrate itself in the surrounding environment very well. The
house looks like a strange tree due to its odd shape and the
velvety soft green Astroturf.

Located in Lomas del Mar beach in Cerro Azul, Peru, 120

Km south of Lima, this amazing house named Casa Playa
Las Lomas I-05 was designed by Vrtice Arquitectos. It has
a 180 view to the Pacific Ocean to the south, and a
panoramic view of the beach to the east and to the north.
Before starting the whole project, the architects have
proposed one main objective: to fully exploit the best
possible view to the ocean from the social area, as well as
from the master bedroom.

PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, ABU DHABI

The facade of the building expresses this allegory with the natural world,
where both the structure and the openings resemble plant elements, such
as leaves and branches.
Shanghai World Financial Center

The most distinctive feature of the SWFC's design is the trapezoid

aperture at the peak. The original design specified a circular
aperture, 46 m (151 ft) in diameter, to reduce the stresses of wind
pressure[16] and to reference the Chinese mythological depiction of
the sky as a circle.[16] It also resembled a Chinese moon gate due to
its circular form in Chinese architecture.
Context

Architecture is a team-working process and rarely a lone activity.

There is always a client and there is always an interpreter of
that client's needs. The relationship between client and architectis
fundamental, and the establishment of a professional and trusting
relationship between the two is the bedrock of every successful
project.

Creating architecture involves art and beauty, science

and engineering, values and beliefs, friendship and team-working.
It is one of life's rewarding activities, bringing together a wide
range of personalities, skills and expertise. It is an adventure for
the client, the architect and their team.

It is important to place that adventure within a sound

organisational and contractual context so that procedural
complications do not derail the principal activity. A simple, clear,
legally-defined understanding of what is involved will benefit the
whole process, avoid conflict and help clarify the
interrelationships and responsibilities of all the partners involved
in commissioning, designing and building a project, large or small.

1.

This article focuses on the first four stages leading up to the

preparation of a 'scheme design' suitable for making a planning
application.
Receiving and understanding the brief,
agreeing how to proceed and gathering data.

Every project has a client, whether this is the community at large,

an experienced developer or a new client commissioning their
first project. Every architectural design process should begin with
a series of meetings and discussions with the client.

A briefing from a client might be a formal meeting addressing

overall development objectives, with a written brief, site
plans and legal documentation issued to the architect. Or, it might
be a conversation in a pub about a development idea and a
discussion about how to address a design problem, with a simple
A4 photocopy of a survey plan, handed over by the client.

It is important to realise that both situations are in fact formal

meetings, both should be minuted and both may form the start of
a sound and enjoyable working relationship. In both cases
thearchitect receives instructions, advises the client how to
prepare and proceed and amasses data on the site and project.

In both cases, the architect will need to formally receive

the client's instructions and confirm those instructions back to
the client in writing.

The architect, having absorbed the implications of the initial

briefing from the client, should advise them of their legal
and CDM responsibilities and also of the need for
other consultants, including an idea of when they will be required.
On a small, simple project, no other consultants may be
necessary until feasibility studies and appraisals have been
carried out, whereas a large, complex project is likely to require
additional expertise early on in the process.

The architect should advise the client of their fees and of likely
time-based and fee-based work and at what stages fees will be
payable. This should be confirmed in writing and agreed with
theclient. At the same time the designer should also collect all
available data, both formally via theclient and their legal team
and also by visiting the site or development area. No design work
is required at this stage.

It is also the moment to reflect on the wider social issues that a

potential project raises. Whereas accepting a commission for a
health clinic or a school may raise few issues, taking on projects
which imply a significant risk of pollution, projects of a military
nature, and animal and crop testing laboratories can all invoke
strong public reactions, and the ethical issues they raise and the
particular pressures they may bring to a practice require careful
consideration. If an architectis not comfortable with the potential
objectives and impact of a project, they should not take it on.
Feasibility and assessment

The next stage is sometimes called 'feasibility' and sometimes

'appraisal'. Feasibility and appraisal are in fact the same activity.

Large development companies often carry out their own appraisal

and feasibility work with aquantity surveyor's advice and prepare
an in-depth brief on the basis of that appraisal. Anarchitect is
often asked simply to participate in this process rather than to
lead it. However,clients of smaller projects with less internal
resource often appoint an architect to undertake initial appraisal
activities, including area study options and assessment of implied
costs and development strategies.

Having understood the client's introductory brief,

the architect explores whether the client'sdemands (often
couched in terms of area and use-type) can be accommodated on
a given site.

A typical brief from a client might be posed as a series of

questions, for example:

'Can I achieve a viable area of 10,000 sqm of offices and 2

residential penthouses on this ex-industrial site, next to the canal,
within the likely planning constraints of the area and its historic
context?'

Or alternatively:
'Do you think I could get planning permission for a family house
and design studio in this sloping woodland on the edge of an
historic village on a site which only has track access to an old
barn?'

The architect may, in discussion with the client, generate several

alternative strategies for developing a site, exploring the
advantages and disadvantages of various options and then
agreeing the best way forward. This is a process of strategic
assessment of development possibilities, often with a preferred
direction selected. Much of this work will be diagrammatic, and at
this stage is not an architectural design.

The architect and client may then commission additional advice,

such as planning advice, expertise on rights of
light, engineering advice, or other specialist services depending
on the complexity of the project. The need to commission
other consultants early in the process will often be determined by
the scale and location of a development and also by
the client's familiarity with the site and the local area. A large-
scale development with underground constraints will almost
certainly require engineering expertise in the early stages,
whereas a residence in a traditional street may not. Both however
may require an understanding of local authority or otherstatutory
consultee positions.

At this stage the client's brief is likely to expand, partly from the
conclusions of feasibility appraisals but also from knowledge
gained by research into planning precedents, legal
issues,engineering data and the technical constraints and nature
of the project.

Given the new knowledge generated by a feasibility and

assessment exercise and parallel research, it is important to
capture and agree how the brief has evolved and to formally
agree and 'freeze' the brief for the next stage of work, which is
when the real design process begins.

Concept design / outline design

The feasibility or appraisal stage is generally considered to be

about quantum, use and viability, rather than how a development
is designed or conceived.

Concept design (or outline design) requires that

the architect grapples with the real issues of form and bulk, scale
and mass and the generic appearance of a building within its
surrounding urban context, resolving and encapsulating the
principles of the scheme. Concept design implies an idea, or
range of ideas, a development approach, a guiding concept and
a design intent. It resolves the issue of 'what' and 'how much' and
begins to set the stage for understanding 'how'.Concept
design explores the resolution of the brief, implied or set out in
the feasibility and assessment stage. The conceptual approach
places the quantum of development intelligently on the site.

It is vital that the architect and the client agree the objectives and
outcomes of the concept design process in advance. Concept
design can be simply a series of sketches, ideas and explorations,
or it can go into considerable depth, including design illustrations,
indicative plans, sections and elevations and 3D models of a
development approach. Concept design can also be an iterative
process where, through a series of design meetings,
the architect modifies the concept, adjusting and narrowing down
a broad-brush approach toward a more precise, well-illustrated
concept, capable of being meaningfully discussed, not only with
the client, but also with external partners,
planners, engineers and other interested parties.

As a result, the architect's time commitment often gets stretched

trying to satisfy a client'sevolving requests as they better
understand their own project and the architectural concept. This
is why it is so important that both the client and
the architect understand and agree the deliverables required, the
work involved and the fees and other costs that will be charged.

Concept design is seldom a 'Eureka' moment where a single idea

pops into the head which resolves everything. It is virtually always
a series of iterative explorations, a testing of ideas, resulting in a
satisfactory resolution of often conflicting criteria, whether
aesthetic, organisational, technical, financial, social or contextual.
A successful concept design is one that fulfils most of the criteria
that the client, the architect and the team judge to be important.

A concept design may be summarised in a few simple sketches -

but those sketches will have implicit behind them much
prioritisation, evaluation, team and client discussion and
decisions. Synthesising concept design proposals is a creative
process. Earlier there was a problem to be solved and a possible
diagrammatic approach, now a possible solution or design
direction exists; a concept has been captured, so the project is
able to move forward.

It is here that the plan form, volumetry, architecture and overall

shape of the building is set, not in great detail, but captured in
essence. The concept design should encapsulate the spirit, form,
principal aesthetic and technical principles of the overall project
within its urban context , the realconstraints of its site and local
legislation.

From this concept design, there is sufficient information, either

described or implicit, to prepare a generic cost overview based
on floor areas, use types, likely forms of construction, facade
treatments, parking, access, building performance criteria and
technical systems. Concepts for external site treatments and
landscape may also be included.

With the recent increase in emphasis on early public participation

in the design process, the material generated may also serve as
the basis for informal community consultations. Consultations
may be organised by the client and architectural team in
coordination with the local authority, and provide valuable
feedback prior to the formal public scrutiny of a planning
application.

Concept design can be undertaken on a time-charge basis, as a

fixed fee or as part of a fullarchitectural services contract. In each
case the fee basis should be agreed with the client before
committing to significant amounts of work. Architects are often
asked to prepare a concept for no fee on the understanding that
they will be nominated as the architect later if the concept is
accepted and pursued. This should be resisted. Concept design is
a valuable service and should be properly remunerated.

Design development

Concept design proposals are followed by 'design development'.

The term 'scheme design' also captures the intent of the stage.

At this stage, the architectural design of the project is developed

and defined in detail sufficient to illustrate via plans,
sections, elevations and 3D imagery, the overall form and fabric
of the project and its detailed layouts, spatial arrangements,
facades, overall appearance and range ofconstruction
materials and finishes.

The design is sufficiently developed to generate detailed

quantities and cost information for the overall
appearance, structure, services, finishes, external works and
landscape.

At this stage, detailed consultations with local

authorities and statutory authorities will be carried out. The
material produced is the basic requirement for a detailed planning
submission. This submission describes the architecture of the
project and, if approved, becomes a binding legal document to
which the client, the architect and the construction team must
adhere.

A planning approval grants permission for a client and

their design and construction team to construct the building.
The planning approval gives the client certainty and captures real
development value, allowing them to raise capital against the
approved scheme. The planning approval allows the project
team to proceed with the delivery of the scheme as a physical
reality.

Architecture is not only the art and science of developing a good

design for a client but also the skill of bringing that design to
fruition as a real building.
 University of Pangasinan

Phinma Education Network

S.y 2016-2017

Application of Design Concept

Rsw no. 2

Submitted By:
Maclord aficial
Submitted to:
Ar. Mandie D. Pagaduan

1 Introduction

Steven Holl one of the most influential contemporary American

architects, acknowledges his dependence on open-ended
conceptual frames rather than on the existing building
morphologies or typologies. The notion of a concept suggested
by Holl coincides with the notion of design concept that is used
in this paper. Presented is a paradigm of how a design concept set
forth at the early stage of the design process can take generative
expression: it can be converted into a system of production rules
to produce architectural designs. The production rules are
expressed by the means of shape grammar formalism. The
presented paradigm demonstrates how porosity a concept
transferred from medicine, biology and organic chemistry, was
implemented by architect Holl and his team in designing the 350-
unit student residence Simmons Hall at MIT. In this presentation,
spatial algebras, rule schemata and shape rules are used to
capture Holls tectonic-urban version of porosity by capturing the
actions performed during the implementation of Simmons Hall. It
is proposed that a design concept is, at its root, a course of action
meant to be performed by designers in the studio. Novel aspect of
the research is that demonstrates how design concepts can be
treated by formal-generative means. It is shown that formal
generative methods provide an excellent medium for the
articulation of design concepts: First, by describing them in an
explicit way; second, by leading to the implementation of
generative devices with strong productive capacity; and third, by
making them available for future reference. The descriptive task
involves the mapping of the actions introduced by a design
concept with the aid of parametric rule schemata and rules. The
productive task involves their implementation in shape grammars
and/or computer programs. The reference task involves the
retrospective assemblage of data structures for concepts, which
can be retrievable by future users.

The combination of computational rules and machine readable

conceptual frameworks could provide the foundation for systems
that structure and store design information in more intelligent
ways. Connecting the rules and frameworks to web databases can
ease machine-to-machine communication. The Simmons Hall
paradigm shows that in architecture, conceptual frameworks may
be composites involving notions from various domains of inquiry,
extraneous to design. The ability to share such frameworks over
the internet would allow to store meaningful associations for them
and to provide answers relevant to the set of the design rules that
may imply. It would also allow the extraction of conceptual
information from existing rules, by allowing the meaningful
association of large rule sets.

2 Background

Concepts play a key role in the development of innovative design

solutions for many architects and engineers. Even though there is
no sharp distinction between the process of production and the
process of interpretation of designs, an intended interpretation
usually guides the actions of the designers. Concepts are used to
frame some general design approach. Design concept formation
has been the research topic of many engineers, and theorists. An
overview of five representative studies follows. Ullman (1992)
examines design concept formation in designing or redesigning
devices with specific functionality, within the context of
mechanical engineering. Key feature of Ullmans approach is the
generation of multiple concepts for the same design task, in two
steps: a) functional decomposition and b) concept generation
from functions. Functional decomposition involves breaking down
the needed function of a device as finely as possible, and with as
few assumptions about form as possible. Concept generation
involves listing conceptual ideas for each function. Conceptual
ideas come from the designers own expertise, enhanced through
patent searches, brainstorming etc. Schn (1963) proposes the
displacement of concepts, as a principle that explains innovation.
Schns approach is that old concepts can be used as a projective
model for new situations: they can be transformed, or simply
transposed to new contexts. In Schn (1990) the author examines
the design process as a situated activity during which designers
seek to solve a problem. The conceptual task of a designer is to
frame the problem. For this purpose the designer initiates a
reflective conversation involving action and reflection on the
consequences. This reflective, bi-directional process, leads to the
formation of new meanings and to the reframing of the problems.
Gero (1998) draws examples from the genetic engineering of
evolutionary systems to show that design concept formation is
based on the emergence of patterns in the available design
representations. Key feature of Geros approach is that the
observed patterns form the basis of concepts, which can be
memorized and remain available for future use. Finally, Richards
et al. (2007) presents an analysis on the use of frameworks in
electrical engineering, with the goal to identify practices to
improve the development of systems. Three are the key issues of
this discussion: the important role of artifacts in system design,
the benefits provided by frameworks and the measures-of-
effectiveness for assessing the value of frameworks.

3 Concepts and rules

In the absence of standard pre-organizing design principles,

designers base their search on tentative constructions, or
hypotheses1 , which they gradually convert into pragmatic ones.
Unlike a scientific hypothesis, which aims at being predictive
(predict all future occurrences of a phenomenon) a design
hypothesis aims at being productive: it aims to produce at least
one successful solution in response to a problem. Hypotheses are
associated with the introduction of concepts. While scientists
introduce concepts with predictive capacity, designers introduce
productive concepts. A concept singles out a property, a relation,
or a function we intuitively understand by setting out a name, or a
scheme. Concept definition obtains the form: _____ = Df _____ ,
where = Df can be read is. The left void is occupied by some
term and the right by a known expression. For example: Pore = Df
minute opening. Instead of providing a straightforward definition
like the previous, a design concept is usually defined
contextually, by a list of synonyms that explain it. This type of
contextual definition involves re-interpretation and may suggest
new meanings. The formal analogous of progressing from
tentative constructions to specific results is to move from general
rule schemata to rules and their parameters. Formal systems
make use of general syntactic statements when it becomes
necessary to state potentially infinite rules. Such statements are
rules with an empty class of premises able to introduce other
rules. The expression, g(x) g(y) denotes the rule schema, (x)
(y) g(x) g(y). Rule schemata determine rules each time the
syntactical variables x, y are substituted by specific instances. A
predicate g is used to specify the attributes of x and y. As shown
in Stiny (2006), a shape rule schema applies on some instance C
of a shape in two steps: First, a transformation t matches some
part of C geometrically similar to the shape g(x), which appears
on the left side of the rule schema. Second, the same
transformation t is used to subtract g(x) from C and to add g(y),
which appears on the right side of the rule schema, in its place.
Concisely, C' = [C t(g(x))] + t(g(y)).

5 Sharing Conceptual Frameworks

Architectural design involves exchange of information within a

diverse network of specialists who use a variety of applications,
and produce a variety of artifacts. These artifacts may include
physical objects, sketches, drawings and models, as well as
computational objects, grammars, computer scripts, CAD models
and finite element solutions. Richards et al. (2007) point out: The
particular list of artifacts produced will vary from engineer to
engineer, but all will agree that the production of these artifacts is
a key step in the process from problem definition to engineered
solution. A current obstacle in this progress is that design
information, in various formats, remains inaccessible by the
different design collaborators. Most systems developed within
specific branches of engineering adopt the conceptual
frameworks of the particular branches, and they are not
interoperable. The machine ability to share conceptual
frameworks over the internet will greatly improve the exchange of
information among different specialists. In the Simmons Hall
paradigm the notions of the computational rule and conceptual
framework are employed to produce architectural designs.
Computational rules are a standard expressive way to encode and
reuse knowledge across multiple tasks. Rules are economic and
effective in describing pre-conditions, post-conditions and
relationships and in outlining processes and their products.
Machine readable ontologies can be the platforms for sharing
conceptual frameworks (ontologies). Rules in combination with
machine readable ontologies, connected to the web, can provide
higher level of conceptual abstraction and enhance machine-to-
machine communication. The Simmons Hall paradigm shows that
in architecture, conceptual frameworks may be composites
involving notions from various domains of inquiry. In the
paradigm, the concept of porosity was transferred from medicine,
biology and organic chemistry in a new tectonic/urban context.
Nevertheless, conceptual frameworks have serious constructive
implications for the design process. Table 4 shows how the
concept porosity points to words and to actions (expressed by rule
schemata).

6 Conclusion

For many architects and designers the ability to diagnose design

problems and to propose productive concepts and hypotheses
play a key role in the development of innovative solutions in the
studio. Conceptual descriptions set at the early stages of the
design process are used to frame some general design approach.
Design concepts are introduced contextually and in parallel to a
course of productive design action that is described and explained
in terms of them. Interpreting the output of the design action
confers meaning on the concepts. This allows concepts and
design artifacts to evolve in parallel. In design implementation,
the existence of a conceptual framework allows necessary
revisions to happen within a framework of original design intents.
The paper proposes that formal generative means can enhance
the contribution of design concepts in the studio, in three ways:
First, by describing them in an explicit way; second, by leading to
the implementation of computational devices with strong
generative capacity; and third, by making them available for
future reference. The descriptive task involves the mapping of the
actions introduced by a design concept with the aid of parametric
rule schemata and production rules. The productive task involves
their implementation in computational objects such as shape
grammars and/or computer scripts. The reference task involves
the retrospective assemblage of data structures which can be
retrievable for future use. The paper claims that conceptual
frameworks are a significant aid in Computer Aided Design.
Against the common among architects temptation of
developing a computer program or script first, and then see what
happens, conceptual frameworks can assist in setting boundaries
and framing reasonable objectives. They can also enhance
communication among an extended network of collaborators and
they can assist in preserving the accumulated design knowledge.
All of the above are critical in architectural design, where the
isolation between abstract problem solving methods and specific
problems cannot be as clear as in other branches of engineering.
Associations with often vague, but familiar concepts have to be
consulted frequently, to assure that one is not dealing with
artificial issues.