Lesson 1: Preliminary Design
These three lesson sections are intended to launch you on your way into the design process. I hope to offer you words of encouragement, share my experiences, and keep you energized for the long but exciting journey ahead.
Preliminary Design -
The first approach to architectural design is, “from scratch”, working from a blank piece of paper. The key to this daunting approach is to break it into small steps. First, create a grocery list of sorts. Write one sentence describing each room. At the same time start a scrapbook. Cut out pictures, collect photographs, any image that you find appealing. Try and create an emotional feel, perhaps identify a style or a theme. I like to look at everything, plan books, Better Homes & Garden Magazines, historical works, etc. Once you have compiled all this information, I want you to put it away in a drawer. When you start drawing, it should in a sense be from memory, not trying to recreate exactly something you have seen you like, but recreate the feeling and emotion of your collection. Try to push yourself to get as many ideas on paper as you can. Don’t try and solve the whole problem at once, just play with it for now.
The next step is to start “for keeps”. Create what is called a “Bubble Diagram” by arranging circles with the names of your rooms by position on site and their relationship to each other. These bubbles are not to an exact scale but try to adjust the bubbles to the sizes and proportions of the rooms as best you can imagine. Do not proceed to next phase until all relationships are acceptable for site orientation and room placements.
The third step is to sketch your floor plans. Start with crayons or magic markers, no mechanical pencils yet, sketch with broad strokes, don't get hung up trying to fix flaws, you are searching for only one good idea to hold onto. I work in fits and starts. I like to let it rest, come back to it in half an hour or even two hours later with fresh eyes. In design you continue to work by a process of elimination, take as many wrong turns as needed until you “recognize the solution“. Design is much more trial and error than invention.
Your fourth step is to sketch your elevations. Your first sketches should ignore the floor plan completely. Sometimes it is better to start with the elevation before the plan because you want to create a style. You should still be working with magic markers or the like. Next start to integrate the floor plan by sketching in the critical elements of your house, the porch or dormers or entry. Now challenge the design for the first time by applying scale to your “concept” sketches, wall heights and windows should be to scale, room dimensions, etc. Does it still "feel" right?
Finally, jump back and forth, change the plan to make desired changes happen to the elevation, change the elevations to make desired changes happen to the plan. Repeat this process as often as required, back and forth. If you are particularly adventurous, draw ("slice") a section through the most critical rooms of the house, showing heights of ceilings, rooms looking into rooms below, sloped ceilings, etc.
Things to Ponder:
1. Have you "tested" the design against your shopping list? Do your room descriptions still fit? Are the images and emotional feel all that you had hoped?
2. How close were you able to come to your square footage target?
3. Should you start all over? Are you within 10 - 15% of your square footage and aesthetic goals?
RESOURCES
1. Historic neighborhoods, look beyond the peeling paint and disrepair, look beyond the gingerbread for proportions, or design elements, look for cues and clues.
2. Plan books, magazines, The Public Library
