DESIGN

CONCEPT
What is a concept?
• Concept: Definition
• an abstract idea
• a plan or intention
• an idea or invention to help sell or publicize a commodity
• idea, notion, theory, conviction, opinion
• A concept is an idea, a theory or notion, but in architecture we could
also describe a concept as

‘an approach’ to the design.

Unchanging throughout the design process.

an abstract idea
This is not necessarily the case, a
concept can be linked to many
factors, and can evolve as the
design grows.

translating the non-physical

design problem
INTO
the physical building
product.
Why a concept?
Generally speaking, a weak
piece of architecture is a
result of an ill-conceived and
undeveloped concept.
provide clarity and a framework
To a design process

providing the answers and explanations to the questions asked of it

Approaches to the design
• Functional
• • Material
• Contextual
• • Conceptual
• Formal
• • Collaborative
• Philosophical
• FUNCTIONAL
CopenHill Energy Plant and Urban
Recreation Center by BIG
• MATERIAL
Zoma Museum
curator Meskerem Assegued
and artist Elias Sime
• CONTEXT
Netherlands embassy & residence
BY Architect Rahel
• CONCEPTUAL
Guggenheim Bilbao
BY Frank Gehry
• CONCEPTUAL
Guggenheim Bilbao
BY Frank Gehry
• FORMAL
Sydeny Opera house
BY Ben Hinson
• PHYLOSOPHICAL
The pompidou BY
Renzo piano & Richard rogers
Frameworks of architectural concept
01 Site
02 Design brief
03 Narratives
01 Site
the initial starting point to any
conceptual process

Typology, climate, orientation,

views, access, context, history,
boundaries, shape, features
02 Design brief
determines the schemes use,
program, priorities, end users
and sometimes even the
buildings location
The arrangement of the
program and priority of
spaces, should address the
end users requirements, and
can help to define either
functional or aesthetic
concepts
02 Narration
the story behind its inception

This can be based on the

client, setting, requirements
or use
Types of architectural concept
01 Analogies / To look at other things
Literal relationship between different things
Primary analogies ( Nature, human body etc.)
Disciplinary analogies ( architecture’s existing examples)
Related to different fields ( Art, literature, music ..)
Types of Analogy /
Literal Analogy
Direct imitation or transfer of an idea/ shape/ from
Intellectual Analogy/ Metaphors/ Similes
Represent the idea/essence/ theme/ spirit of something
The Petronas Towers in Malaysia's
capital city Kuala Lumpur
 Metro entrances
Norman Foster, Bilbao, Spain

Science Center
Amsterdam
02 Metaphors or Similes / To look at
Abstraction
Creating an abstract relationship

Turning Torso Building

Santiago Calatrava, Architect
Intellectual Analogy

TWA Terminal JFK<

Eero Saarinen, Architect
Flight
Lightness
Yale Hockey Rink
Eero Saarinen, architect
shell, leaf
Dulles Airport, Washington DC
Eero Saarinen, architect
Pompidou Centre, Paris
Piano and Rogers, Architects
Building as machine
Lloyd’s Bank, London Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, Hong Kong
Piano and Rogers, Norman Foster
Thorncrown Chapel, Eureka, OK
Fay Jones, Architect
Forest, light
La Sagrada Familia church, Barcelona, Spain
Antonio Gaudi, Architect
The Alhambra, Granada , Spain
Analogy: an oasis
Notre Dame Chapel,
Ronchamp, France
Corbusier, Architect
Notre Dame Chapel, Ronchamp Light, cave, mystery
Borobudur Stupa, Java,
Indonesia
9th century (Buddhist)
Lower terraces: orthogonal, straight, high balustrades, focused path, hard
Upper terraces: Circular, railings disappear, formless, free, open,
Holocaust Memorial, Berlin
Peter Eisenman , Architect
Dancing building, Prague
Frank Gehry, Architect
This must be how Frank Gehry got his idea for the concert hall.
Beijing Olympic Stadium
Herzog & de Meuron, Architects
Bird’s nest
Orient Station, Lisbon
Science Center, Valencia
Calatrava, Architect
03 Essences / To look beyond
programmatic concepts
Discovering as well as identifying
different causes of an issue
04 Problem solving / To look at
requirements
Giving a solution to an identified
problem
05 Ideals / To look at Universal values
An illustration of the architect’s
defined goals and aspirations
Lightning bolt
Slashes
Intersections and
juxtapositions
06 Pragmatic / driven by practical
needs
availability of materials
trial and error
07 Iconic / Use of an established
form/ symbol/ pattern
Retaining/ continuing an established
way of building
A fixed image derived over time
Beliefs in the origin and continuity of a
form
St Paul's Cathedral, London The Taj Mahal is a white marble mausoleum
located in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India.
 Hong Kong skyline

The Eiffel Tower, Paris The Louvre

08 Canonic / Derived from rules,
proportioning systems,
Prescription
 An inspiration to architects all over
the world over the last 2,000 years,
the Pantheon roof remains the
world's largest unreinforced
concrete dome

Built approximately 2000 years ago, the Pantheon

continues to inspire architects all over the world
 The Design brief
You cannot begin to generate a
will provide the vital details on the clients and buildings
concept until you understand requirements, along with the site your architectural
the projects brief, site and proposal will need to be placed within.
context, and so this should be
your first point of call and the The Site & Context
starting point to gathering all of explorations and research that will bring to light conflicting
the projects required aesthetically, organizational, technical, social or contextual
parameters. criteria, that can be used as ingredients for further
analysis and development.
Create an architecture concept

01 Site Analyse. Take the data described above and

identify the key constraints, features and
characteristics of the site and its surrounding context.
02 Design Brief. This is the information presented by
the client that should address the building type,
preferences, budget, culture, preconceptions,
agenda, personality, organization, and program.
03 Buildings Typology. This determines the genre of
the building, its purpose, the services it provides and
how it should work.
04 Project Narrative. This identifies the story behind
the project, the people who will use it, and how it will
sit and grow within its context.
FORM
Form refers to the shape or
configuration of a building.
Form and its opposite, space,
constitute primary elements of CONSIDERATIONS
architecture. A number of aspects must be considered in order to analyze or
design an architectural form,
Both form and space are given
shape and scale in the design
process. Principles of architecture
In addition, the placement of a shape, mass / size, scale, proportion, rhythm, articulation,
building form in relation to its texture, color, and light.
immediate site and neighboring
buildings is another crucial
aspect of this form/space
relationship
 01 Shape / configuration of surfaces and edges
We perceive shape by contour or silhouette, rather
than by detail

From left to right:

Fig. 1. Distinctive shape, Fig. 2. Cubic shape, Fig. 3. Cylindrical and pyramidal shapes, Fig. 4. Circle subtracted
from cubic volume
 02 Mass/Size/ the size or physical bulk of a building
can be understood as the actual size, or size relative to
context. This is where scale comes into play in our
perception of mass.

From left to right:

Fig. 5. Buildings of different sizes, Fig. 6. Gigantic scale, Fig. 7. Multiple scales
 03 Scale/ relative size as perceived by the viewer.
This relation is typically established between either
familiar building elements (doors, stairs, handrails) or the
human figure

From left to right:

Fig. 8. The human scale, Fig. 9. Buildings of different sizes
 04 Proportion/ the relationship of one part to the other parts,
and to the whole building
PROPORTIONING SYSTEMS
This process creates an internal coherence and sense of order apparent in the building

From left to right:

Fig. The Parthenon, Fig. The Taj mahal
 Arithmetic
Clear mathematical ratios for both visible and auditory phenomena
The Golden Section is also apparent in the Fibonacci series of
integers: 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,

From left to right:

Fig. The Ryugyong Hotel Fig. President Donald Tramp
 Geometric
In Classical architecture, the diameter of a classical column provided
a unit of measurement that established all the dimensions of the
building, from overall dimensions to fine detail.

From left to right:

Fig. Ionic column capital, Fig. Doric order, Fig. Santa Maria Novella, Florence, Italy by Leon Battista Alberti
 Harmonic
harmonic proportion in music was translated to architectural
proportion

From left to right:

Fig. Ionic column capital, Fig. Doric order, Fig. Santa Maria Novella, Florence, Italy by Leon Battista Alberti
 STRUCTURAL PROPORTIONS
The structural capacity of a particular material results in
distinct proportions

From left to right:

Fig. Brick properties and Fig. Window rhythm
 04 Rhythm/ The
reoccurrence or repetition of
architectural elements,
shapes, structural bays,
windows, etc. establishes a
rhythm, which may be regular
or complex.

Fig. The Sydney opera

CONEPT & FORM
01 Typography /
The environment the building provides (shelter /
exposure), its structural approach (cantilevering /
subterranean), how it is perceived (public / private),
and how it utilizes its context (views / features).
02 Vernacular /
Buildings need to relate to their
context and if your site has a
moderate to strong vernacular,
then based on the research from
your site analysis this can be used
to your advantage during your
conceptual development.
03 Historic/
Using the historical research of your site and its surrounding
context can open many types of various avenues to use and
explore. Every site has a history and quite often a story to
tell that perhaps leads into an investigation

Taking advantage of the stalled

Filene’s construction site at
Downtown Crossing, Eco‐Pod is a
proposal to immediately stimulate the
economy, and the ecology, of
downtown Boston.

Parasitic architecture
04 Physical Features/
Physical features generally refers to the
site elements, such as water bodies, trees,
vegetation, rock formations, manmade
structures etc.
05 Grid/
Site grids can be taken and created from almost
anything, and for this reason they can be incredibly
diverse in their use. The purpose of site grids is to
provide strategic and justified areas and
separations on what could be a completely blank
canvas.
CASES
C.B.E H.Q. Building winning entry
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CONCEPT

• Image of a
• Treasure Chest.

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URBAN INTEGRATION
• • The program is stacked on the building site, before the urban fabric and the site
interlace into a volumetric program distribution. The classical high‐rise plinth
dissolves into individual volumes to merge the scale of the surrounding district.
The designation of the programmatic fields, by twisting the shopping and
conference center volumes, opens spaces for plazas as urban connectors and
representative surfaces for the CBE.

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Dutch Embassy
A.A.
Royal Netherlands Embassy, A.A.
• PROJECT PARTICULARS
• • Architect: Dick Van Gameren
• • Client: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Netherlands
• • Country: A.A., Ethiopia
• • Design: 1998‐2002
• • Construction: 2002‐2006
• • Occupancy: 2005
• • Site area: 55,000 m2.
• • Total floor area: 3300 m2
• • Dimensions: 140 x 15 metres

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Concept
• • An encounter of traditional Ethiopian architecture with Dutch cultural
and architectural themes.
• • The concept merges the Ethiopian mountainous landscape with the
Dutch water planes.
• • The embassy with the ambassadors residence seem to have been
extracted out of a monolithic rock like that of the Ethiopian Architecture.
• • While all surface is out of rough red/ochre concrete like that of the soil
creating a cavernous atmosphere, the flat roof garden makes a reference to
the Dutch water landscape
• • Other Dutch themes like transparency and cantilevers are also expressed.

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Description
• • A drive way separates the western part of the ambassadors
residence (30m) from the eastern chancellery (100m)
• • Both parts are united by roof garden.
• • The ambassador’s offices are upstairs commanding a view of the
porch and the vista of the sloping corridor inside. Moreover the
ambassador has a direct link with the residence via a staircase over
the rooftop.
• • The corridor ends with a patio on the rooftop.

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 Daniel Libeskind's
Jewish Museum in Berlin:
The Uncanny Arts of Memorial Architecture
Description /
The The Jewish Museum
Berlin, which opened to the
public in 2001, exhibits the
social, political and cultural
history of the Jews in
Germany from the fourth
century to the present,
explicitly presenting and
integrating, for the first time
in postwar Germany, the
repercussions of the
Holocaust.
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Genesis /
Initially the design was to be only an extension of the existing baroque
Berlin Museum to accommodate the Jewish department. But after
several years of discussion, it was decided that the whole building, both
old and new in its entirety, be dedicated as a Jewish museum.

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Ideas /

• • Irregular zigzag building next to the former court building, appeals

complete contrast to the existing structure.
• • A monolithic structure clad in zinc sheeting.
• • The structure's shining silver facade will eventually patinate over
time.
• • Its slit windows are designed to suggest scratches, wounds and
scars.
• • Included in the four stories are three for exhibition and one for
administration.

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• • It is entered below ground from the older structure
• • There are three intersecting paths.

• The first one is an "axis of historical continuity”.

• The second path leads into a Garden with its slanting pillars that are symbolically
denoting exile
• The third comes to a dead end inside a bare concrete tower with no exit.

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…
• • The zigzag form that defines the Jewish Museum's structure is
pierced by a straight
• line.
• • This line cuts through concrete shafts in the building.
• • These spaces are partially inaccessible and linked by bridges.
• • These symbolize the void which the extermination of Jewish life in
Berlin has
• left.

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Peace & Security
Building, African
Union A.A.
Peace & Security Building AU
• PROJECT PARTICULARS
• • Architect: Hascher + Jehle Planungsgesellschaft mbH
• • Country: AA, Ethiopia
• • Won among 17 competitors

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CONCEPT
• • A very compact articulation of building mass combined with the use
of natural, regional materials like the trachyte give the building the
impression of a solitary rock, representing a certain stability and
transporting the visual connection to African Nature.

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HOAREC, Head Office,
Guellelle Botanical Garden
A.A.
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EAL, Head Office,
A.A.
Concept
• • The landscape, being an important part of the interior design, is
flowing through and underneath the building.
• • The office blocks are cantilevered above the street level as a floating
form to represent the mountains, canyons or rocks.

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Concept
• • Bridges are the connecting elements as a symbol of connecting
cultures and nations.
• • Like the landscape is flowing into the building, the lobby itself is
floating and rising and there are always connections from the inside
to the outside. You always feel like being in nature.
• • The gardens in between the office blocks are landscaped areas with
trees, benches and art sculptures.
• • As man‐made buildings intrude into the landscape and in the midst
of natural processes, so should the landscape and all adjoining natural
processes make a striking yet pleasant intrusion into man‐made
buildings.
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