To Prepare Junior Architects to Get Involved in Architectural Tasks and Responsibilities

5C-1 Mon. 9:00-11:00am 19/09/2011

GOALS

To prepare junior architects to get involved in architectural tasks and responsibilities and to face professional challenges in their future architectural practice.

To achieve this, students should obtain a quite large aspect of knowledge’s and skills that can cover all legal, ethical and professional sides of their profession.

INTRODUCTION

(As soon as I understand the scale of the building and the relationship to the site and the relationship to the client, as it becomes more and more clear to me, I start doing sketches)

FRANK O. GEHRY

·  Contracts between clients and architects identify types of building design services (e.g., schematic documents, design development documents, construction documents, etc.) and the tasks contained in each.

·  Several trends are affecting how architects approach and carry out building design:

·  First is the fact that clients continue to seek greater value from design services.

·  Clients who are more sophisticated; and better informed increasingly expect their building facilities to fulfill a range of needs beyond those mandated in health and safety regulations.

·  This expectation challenge's architects to be cognizant of those client needs and to respond to them creatively.

·  Other trends present opportunities for architects to increase their design capabilities and expand their range of creativity.

·  In the technology arena, software advances are giving architects more powerful tools to shape and evaluate design solutions.

·  In the regulatory arena, the growing use of performance-based building codes promises to provide architects with more freedom in meeting regulatory requirements.

BUILDING DESIGN SERVICES

·  WHY A CLIENT MAY NEED THESE SERVICES?

§  To respond to rapid or sudden growth

§  To move to a new location

§  To update or replace older facilities

§  To improve productivity in operations

§  To implement major organizational restructuring

§  To bring an existing facility up to current regulatory standards

§  To transform or create a new image or brand identity

·  KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS REQUIRED

§  Ability to evaluate program requirements critically

§  Ability to create concepts that respond to program requirements

§  Ability to delineate concepts and design solutions

§  Understanding of building materials, components, and systems

§  Understanding of building codes, standards, and regulations

§  Familiarity with contracts and construction documentation

§  Ability to communicate concepts to the client and consultants

§  Knowledge of construction costs

·  REPRESENTATIVE PROCESS TASKS

§  Develop project understanding

§  Develop schematic design documents

§  Develop design development documents

5C-1 Mon. 9:00-11:00am 26/09/2011

DESIGN PHASES

Building design is the keystone of architecture practice.

Translating needs and aspirations, theories and technologies, and schedules and budgets into appropriate and exciting places and buildings requires great skill as well as attention to broader concerns.

Design has moments of great inspiration and deep insight-but most of all it required hours, months and years of hard work.

DESIGN INFLUENCES

·  Every project situation is deferent

·  Different requirements and limitations

·  Cultural, environmental, technological, aesthetic contexts

·  Challenges and opportunities

It is both (problem –seeking) and (problem-solving) process.

PROGRAM

·  Requirements and limitations

·  General or specific descriptive of needs

·  Suggestive solutions

COMMUNITY DESIRES

·  Public agency(ies) approvals

·  To meet objections or to gain support.

CODES AND REGULATIONS

·  Safety requirements

·  Minimal land use

·  Light and air zoning

·  A major force in design that regulates every aspect of design and construction.

SITE AND CLIMATE

·  Physical characteristics: size, configuration, topography, geotechnical, etc.

·  Climate: wind, solar orientation, temperatures, humidity, precipitation, etc.

·  Environmental factors: view, existing vegetation drainage, etc.

·  Access

·  Adjacent land uses and other site factors.

BUILDING CONTEXT AND EXISTING FABIRC.

·  The surrounding environment Influence:

o  Materials

o  Fenestration

o  Color

o  Detailing

·  Existing structures

5C-1 Mon. 9:00-11:00am 03/10/2011

BUILDING TECHNOLOGY

·  Building configuration, materials, and systems are rarely arbitrarily chosen and are only partially based on aesthetic criteria.

·  Dimensions may be dictated largely by mechanical systems or even by the knowledge and preferences of the local construction industry.

SUSTAINABILITY

·  The ability of a society, ecosystem, or any such ongoing system to continue functioning into the indefinite future, without being forced into decline through exhaustion of overloading of the key resources on which that system depends.

·  For architecture, this means design that delivers buildings and communities with lower environmental impacts while enhancing health, productivity, community, and quality of life.

COST

·  Project has limited budgets.

·  Cost considerations significantly influence almost all issues from building size and configuration to material selection and detailing.

·  Budget: fixed of flexible

SCHEDULE

·  Design decisions out of sequence

THE CLIENT

·  The good client: is there such a thing as “good client”?

·  Some clients have a clear idea of program, budget, and other project objectives, including the final appearance of the building.

·  Others look to the architects to help them define the project objectives, as well as to design a building that meets theses goals.

THE VALUE OF PRE-DESIGN

·  Extend “pre-design” as long as possible.

·  It is defense mechanism against those “hot ideas” that will come up midway through the project.

·  Invent ways to force yourself not to dive into design immediately.

·  Find ways of getting the client involved in this “discovery phase”

·  Identify and achieve consensus on the five or six real issues the project brings you to solve.

·  Challenge the design team to find as many ways as it can to translate constraints into three- dimensional potential forms without actually designing the building.

·  Look for ways –writing diagrams, mass models, etc. – for describing both the minimum and requirements and your highest aspirations for the project.

·  Ask yourself: how will you know later that you succeeded?

·  Describe –again without designing the building – the strongest, best formal concepts to be explored in the design.

·  Involve the client in the program, budget, and expectations.

5C-1 Mon. 9:00-11:00am 10/10/2011

DESIGN PROCESS

·  Linear quality

Analysis Synthesis Evaluation

·  Non –linear qualities

Flashes of insight……….Creative leaps

The design process works with information and ideas simultaneously on many levels.

Interior, materials, colors, structure, systems, functions, circulations, access, form, shape, style, site climate, context, surroundings.

In his books, the reflective practitioner and the design studio, DONALD SCHON describes the process of designing as “reflection in action” a double- loop system such as the one drawn.

Working from an experiential inner image the process is interactive. The doing/

A sense of what might be – the architect reflecting are not sequential steps

Starts to design. They go on at the same time.

The process lets the project teach the architect the architect reflects on what

About itself at several levels of thought and experience is happening while it’s happening

Schon says that in order to design, the architect enters the

Virtual World of the project. Through the use of sketches,

Models and computer Simulations, the designer truly

experiences the project as though it were built

ANALYSIS

An initial step of design is to identify, analyze, confirm, and organize the factors that will influence the development of design concept.

DATA

·  From

o  Economic feasibility studies

o  Programming

o  Site analysis

·  To a form that allows the information to be used in building design.

PROGRAM ANALYSIS

·  Words and numbers graphic terms. Charts, bubble diagrams, and sketches of design concepts.

·  Be actively involved in the program.

·  Spend time confirming the program.

SITE ANALYSIS

·  Site data graphic record of physical, cultural, and regulatory factors

·  Begin to point the way to design solutions

·  Time spent walking the site understanding both it and the surrounding community.

ZONING AND CODE ANALYSI

·  Zoning codes graphic form of zoning envelope (height, setbacks, etc.)

·  Parking and load requirements, existing considerations building area and height limitations.

·  Help the architect begin to shape the program into mass that fits the site well.

DOCUMENTATION OF EXISIGING CONDITIONS

·  Existing structures

·  Accurate documentation of existing conditions

·  Converting existing drawings

·  Base sheets for use in design

· 

SCHEDULING

·  Project phasing

·  Time it takes to seek variances

·  Sequencing of design decisions to accommodate fast- track construction

COST

·  Project budget and its implications for the building design

·  Project budgets are limited

·  Careful use of funds

CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY PRACTICE

·  Local construction industry practice

·  Availability of materials and labor

·  Commonly used materials, systems, and detailing,

5C-1 Mon. 9:00-11:00am 17/10/2011

DESIGN PRECEDENTS

·  Relevant precedents from projects facing similar or related program, site context, cost or other design issues.

·  It common for architects to familiarize themselves with the design of buildings that deal with similar issues to stimulate solutions for their own design problems.

SYNTHESIS

·  The combination of all analysis, understanding, and response to base data collected and analyzed into a unified solution is the SYNTHESIS that is the core concept of design.

THE SYNTHESIS PROCESS

·  Most architects start with an analysis of the base data and then work through sketches, talking, and thinking until they reach the level of understanding necessary to form a concept.

Aspects of design unique to particular architect or firm.

·  particular design stimuli

·  organizing principles

·  areas of emphasis

·  aesthetic vocabularies

THE COMMON TASKS OF DESIGN

·  Establishing design goals

o  Expressed formally or informally

o  Create functional and aesthetic guidelines of judging design decisions

o  Project objectives help establish priorities

·  Evolving design concept(s)

o  Plan concept

o  Geometric form

o  Mass the building vertically or horizontally

o  Use of an organizing elements

o  Particular image

o  Historic precedent

o  “design vocabulary” of formal and aesthetic ideas

·  Evaluating concept alternative

o  Point –by point evaluation against the original design objectives.

o  Intuitive judgment based on experience

o  Combination of both.

CONTRACTUAL FRAMEWORK

Agreement between owner and architect

·  Outlines design tasks and requirements

·  Identifies specific responsibilities for the owner, and possibly of third parties,

·  Establishes a schedule, including starting and completion dates

·  Often defines design phases with interim milestone dates and own approvals to proceed.

5C-1 Mon. 9:00-11:00am 24/10/2011

FIVE PROJECT PHASES

1.  Schematic design

2.  Design development

3.  Construction documents

4.  Bidding or negotiation

5.  Construction contract administration

1.  SCHEMATIC DESIGN

General scope, conceptual design and scale and relationships among the components of the project.

OBJECTIVES

·  Arrive at clearly defined and feasible concept

·  Present it in a form that achieves client understanding and acceptance

·  Clarify the project program

·  Explore the most promising alternative design solutions

·  Provide a reasonable basis for analyzing the cost of the project

Typical documentation include

·  A site plan

·  Plans for each level

·  All elevations

·  Key sections

·  An outline specification

·  A statistical summary of the design area and other characteristics in comparison to the program

·  A preliminary construction cost estimate

·  Other illustrative material: perspectives, renderings, models, computer simulations , or additional drawings

Drawings

·  1:200 for large buildings

·  1:100 0r 1:50 for smaller buildings and interiors

Outline specifications

·  General description of the work that indicates the major systems and materials choices for the project and provides the information necessary to communicate the appearance and function of the building.

Preliminary estimate of construction cost.

·  Preliminary area analysis

·  Preliminary construction cost estimate

·  Limited detail” only; major trades and systems

·  Preliminary analysis of owner’s budget

·  Recommendations for changes.

Schematic design

Item / Area/quantity / Per unit / total
Foundation
Structure
Exterior closure
Interior partitions
Plumping
Mechanical
Electrical
Site work
-
total

OTHER SERVICES

·  Life cycle cost analysis (Life cycle assessment, the investigation and valuation of the environmental impacts of a given product or service caused or necessitated by its existence. Life-cycle cost include 15% construction costs, operational and maintenance costs, taxes, financing, replacement and renovation)

·  Energy studies

·  Tenant-related design studies

·  Economic studies

·  Models

·  Brochures and promotional materials

APPROVALS

·  Obtain formal client approval (in writing if all possible)

·  If approval is given verbally, send the client a letter confirming the architect understands of the approval and ask the client to initiate the letter and return a copy.

2.  DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

·  Refinement and coordination

·  A really polished work of architecture

·  Minimizes the possibility of major modifications during the construction contract documents phase.

·  Define and describe all important aspects of the project so that what remains is the formal documentation step of construction contract documents.

·  Clear, coordinated description of all aspects of the design.

·  Fully developed floor plans, sections, exterior elevations, interior elevations, reflected ceiling plans, wall sections and key details.

·  Drawings

·  Specifications

·  Recommended adjustments

·  Formal presentation and approval by the owner.

Schematic design à

Design development à

Construction documents

DESIGN DURING THE IMPLEMENTATION PHASES

·  During construction documents, bidding and negotiation, and construction contract administration phases of the project.

·  Design continues even through the construction phase and

DESIGN NEVER REALLY STOPS

Mon.9:00-11:00 AM 5c-1 1/04/2013

3.  Construction Documents (CD)

·  With the design fully developed, all the required technical information, such as dimensions and notes, should be added to the drawings.

·  A Project Manual should be developed, which will include a final Specification document (a detailed description of every material and product used on the job) and various material lists (door schedule, window schedule, finish schedule, etc.).