Concepts in Architecture

IVTH YEAR,
T H E O R Y O F A R C H I T E C T UR E ,
DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE,
SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING,
A D A M A S C I E N C E A N D T E C H N O L OG Y
UNIVERSITY,

Asst. Prof. Sumantra Misra, M.Arch, PhD Research Scholar,

Department of Architecture, School of Engineering, Adama Science and
Technology University
Ideas
Notions

Concepts
and Ideas

Concepts and
Architectural Design
Conceptual
Scenarios

Appropriateness

Self
Concept
Hierarchies

Criticism

Analogies

Metaphors
Module Structure

Concepts

and Similes

Essences
Direct
Response and
Problem
Solving
Five Types of Concepts

Ideals
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts
A simple definition of a concept suggests that
concepts are ideas that integrate various elements
into a whole.
These elements can be ideas, notions, thoughts,
and observations.
Concepts are the antithesis of notions, which do
not make any pretense about being appropriate.
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts
Concepts are the antithesis of notions, which do
not make any pretense about being appropriate.
A concept implies appropriateness; it supports
the main intentions and goals of a project and
respects each project’s unique characteristics and
restrictions.
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts – 5 Similes
architectural ideas,

themes,

super organizing ideas,

parti and esquisse,

literal translations,
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts – 5 Similes
architectural ideas, Architectural ideas are concepts
that have been reduced to a
themes,
formal architectonic concern
super organizing ideas, like daylight, space, sequences
of spaces, integration of
parti and esquisse, structure and form, and sitting
in the landscape.
literal translations,
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts – 5 Similes
architectural ideas,
Each can influence the general
themes,
design of a building. The
super organizing ideas, specific architectonic concern is
then used as the basis for the
parti and esquisse, design decisions that follow.
literal translations,
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts – 5 Similes
architectural ideas,

themes, A theme is a specific pattern or

idea that recurs throughout the
super organizing ideas, design of a project
parti and esquisse,
literal translations,
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts – 5 Similes
architectural ideas,
Charles Moore suggests that his
themes, work is a search for the
particular way in which each of
super organizing ideas, several themes or principles
parti and esquisse, that interest him can be
developed.
literal translations,
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts – 5 Similes
architectural ideas,

themes, The title of a booklet on Louis I,

Kahn’s Kimball Art Gallery in
super organizing ideas, Fort Worth, Texas, is “Light is
parti and esquisse, the Theme.”

literal translations,
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts – 5 Similes
architectural ideas,
Super organizing ideas refer to
themes,
the general geometric
super organizing ideas, configurations or hierarchies
that the parts of a project
parti and esquisse, should respect.
literal translations,
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts – 5 Similes
architectural ideas,
Urban design and campus
themes, planning provide some clear
examples in which overall
super organizing ideas, organizing patterns are
parti and esquisse, established and the pattern
idled in.
literal translations,
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts – 5 Similes
architectural ideas,
This was true in Jefferson’s
themes,
design, where there is a clear
super organizing ideas, overall pattern yet the
individual houses have their
parti and esquisse, own identities.
literal translations,
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts – 5 Similes
architectural ideas, The goal of the super organizing
idea was to give enough
themes,
structure to the pattern so that
super organizing ideas, the individual parts could be
developed with their own
parti and esquisse, idiosyncrasies and still support
the whole.
literal translations,
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts – 5 Similes
architectural ideas, The parti (Scheme) and
esquisse (sketch) are the
themes,
conceptual and graphic
super organizing ideas, products of a particular method
of instruction developed in the
parti and esquisse, Beaux Arts Schools of France
during the nineteenth century.
literal translations,
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts – 5 Similes
architectural ideas, This method demanded that
students develop their conceptual
themes, skills to a high level. They were
expected to develop a concept and
super organizing ideas, preliminary sketch of the building
configuration in the first few hours
parti and esquisse, of work on a project and to hold to
that parti throughout the project.
literal translations,
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts – 5 Similes
architectural ideas,
Literal translation is a phrase used
themes, by Edward Larrabee Barnes to
describe the goal of developing a
super organizing ideas, concept and diagram that can
become the simplified plan for the
parti and esquisse, project.
literal translations,
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts – 5 Similes
architectural ideas,
To Barnes, the concept for a project
themes, should be expressible in the kind of
sketch one might do on a napkin.
super organizing ideas, Presumably, that original diagram
would be just as visible and
parti and esquisse, identifiable in the finished building
as it was on the napkin.
literal translations,
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts – 5 Similes
architectural ideas, This method demanded that
students develop their conceptual
themes, skills to a high level. They were
expected to develop a concept and
super organizing ideas, preliminary sketch of the building
configuration in the first few hours
parti and esquisse, of work on a project and to hold to
that parti throughout the project.
literal translations,
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts
Concepts and Concept formulation is not an
Architectural Design automatic activity; it takes a
concentrated effort to develop a
concept that appropriately
integrates things not previously
brought together.
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts
Concepts and Bringing things together is a
creative act-one that designers,
Architectural Design
architects, critics, artists,
musicians, and writers have
identified as being about 10 percent
inspiration or genius and 90
percent hard work.
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts
Concepts and
Concept formulation is an
Architectural Design
unfamiliar activity for most people,
and students of architecture have as
much trouble mastering it as they
do other aspects of design.
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts
Three problems block skill
Concepts and development in conceptualizing.
Architectural Design
•The first block deals with problems
of communication,
•the second with inexperience, and
•the third with the problems of
generating hierarchies.
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts
Surprisingly, the most difficult
Concepts and communication problem is not in
explaining our concepts to others,
Architectural Design
but in explaining our ideas to our
selves.
Designers learn to develop a
Three problems block skill dialogue within their own minds as
development in conceptualizing. a prelude to explaining ideas to
others.
•The first block deals with problems
of communication,
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts
Another communication problem that
Concepts and influences concept formulation is graphic
communication.
Architectural Design
In architecture, everything must get drawn if
it is to be build, and drawings comprise half
Three problems block skill of the contract documents for building.
development in conceptualizing.
The process of sketching should begin early
so that the proposal and its concept can
•The first block deals with problems continually be criticized and improved.
of communication,
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts
Concepts are difficult to invent if they are an
Concepts and unfamiliar aspect of architecture.
Architectural Design
Since many buildings are built without the
benefit of a concept and since most critics
and many architects avoid writing about
Three problems block skill them, it is relatively easy for the beginning
designer to have no ambitions for concepts
development in conceptualizing. and no understanding of the role they play in
building design.
•the second with inexperience,
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts
This is especially a problem for the
Concepts and beginning student who, because of
Architectural Design lack of experience, has difficulty
deciding if an idea is a brilliant
concept or an awful one.
Three problems block skill
development in conceptualizing. The architect must be able to make
discerning judgments.
•the third with the problems of
generating hierarchies.
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts
Concepts and Ideas are specific, concrete thoughts we have
as the result of an understanding insight, or
Architectural Design observation.

Buildings and building design are composed

of many small decisions, and it is important
Conceptual
and Ideas
Ideas
Notions

Concepts

Scenarios

to develop skills in generating ideas and

concepts that respond to the wide variety of
issues that emerge.
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts
Notions are very similar to ideas except that
Concepts and there is a connotation of randomness.
Architectural Design
Notions are ideas that are presumed to be
insubstantial, unsubstantiated, or often
trivial when tested against other ideas.
Conceptual
and Ideas
Ideas
Notions

Concepts

Scenarios

Still, there is always the possibility that there

is an important germ of truth hiding in even
a glib remark.
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts
Concepts and One of the basic tenets of scientific problem
Architectural Design solving, or synectics, as it is called by
Gordon, is random idea generation.

When one is working on a problem that has

Conceptual

evaded resolution, any idea or notion might

and Ideas
Ideas
Notions

Concepts

Scenarios

contain the germ of the solution.

Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts
Synectics and other idea-generation
Concepts and techniques depend on the ability of a small
Architectural Design group of people to generate many ideas-
some of them apparently absurd, irrelevant,
and notional-as the initial and critical step in
a process aimed at resolving the problem.
Conceptual
and Ideas
Ideas
Notions

Concepts

Scenarios

Students can expect to be inventing notions

when they wish they were inventing
concepts.
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts
Concepts and Concepts are similar to ideas, in that they
are specific thoughts we have as a result of
Architectural Design an understanding, except that a concept has
this particular characteristic.

It is a thought concerning the way several

Conceptual
and Ideas
Ideas
Notions

Concepts

Scenarios

elements or characteristics can be combined

into a single thing.
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts
In architecture, a concept also identifies how
Concepts and various aspects of the requirements for a
Architectural Design building can be brought together in a
specific thought that directly influences the
design and its configuration.
Conceptual

A concept in architecture is an ambitious

and Ideas
Ideas
Notions

Concepts

Scenarios

thing, the result of a concentrated and

imaginative effort to bring apparently
dissimilar things together.
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts
The character or expression of any building
Concepts and can only be achieved if it is itself a total
expression. Like any work of art, it must be
Architectural Design dominated by a strong, simple concept. All of
its parts must be an active part of one
dominant attitude. This is true whether the
elements and decisions are big, early ones, like
Conceptual
and Ideas
Ideas
Notions

Concepts

Scenarios

plan and structural systems, or later ones, like

interior color and door knobs. This challenge
of making a building a total expression seems
to me the highest and most difficult one. But it
is the one that I think must concern all of us
most. – Eero Saarinen
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts
Given that the requirements for a building can
Concepts and number in the hundreds, supplemented by
Architectural Design additional requirements and goals that the
architects themselves incorporate, it should be
apparent that a single concept statement that ties
all the elements together could be both ambitious
and elusive.
Conceptual
and Ideas
Ideas
Notions

Concepts

Scenarios

Architects, in their writings and lectures about the

concepts behind their designs, often offer short
essays of scenarios that tie together all the
important factors and ideas that influenced their
solution.
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts
While the goal in developing a concept appropriate
Concepts and to a project is to integrate the various parts into a
Architectural Design unified whole, a designer expects the final building
itself to be the integrated statement of several
concepts.

The name for this design strategy based on

Conceptual
and Ideas
Ideas
Notions

Concepts

concepts for individual parts is instrumentalism.

Scenarios

An incremental attitude toward design suggests

that architecture comes from resolving individual
issues according to their own needs, and not by
searching for overall concepts.
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts
Another strategy or resolving this dilemma is
Concepts and for the architect to be less demanding about
how much a concept should include.
Architectural Design
Saarinen, although known for his enthusiasm
for using concepts, typically generated only
very general conceptual statements for his
Conceptual
and Ideas
Ideas
Notions

Concepts

Scenarios

buildings.

Saarinen often developed concepts only for one

or two issues in a project, leaving the
development of other aspects of the design to
circumstances.
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts
Concepts and The conceptual scenario expands the concept
statement, turning it into a short essay that
Architectural Design includes more than one major issue and
identifies more than one set of visual images
for the project.
Conceptual
and Ideas
Ideas
Notions

Concepts

Scenarios

The conceptual scenario can be used to identify

how all the important ideas and issues that
might be left out in a briefer conceptual
statement could be brought together in a
longer prose statement.
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts
Why not, then, build a temple, not to GOD in that way
-more sentimental than sense - but build a temple to
Concepts and man, appropriate to his uses as a meeting place, in
Architectural Design which to study man himself for his God’s sake? A
modern meeting-house and good-time place.

Build a beautiful ROOM proportioned to this purpose.

Make it beautiful in this simple sense. A natural
Conceptual
and Ideas
Ideas
Notions

Concepts

building for natural Man. . .

Scenarios

That ROOM; it began to be that same night. Enter the

realm of architectural ideas. The first idea - to keep a
noble ROOM in mind, and let the room shape the
whole edifice, let the room inside be the architecture
outside. Frank Lloyd Wright
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts
The sequence is ordered as: notion, idea, concept, and scenario.
Concept This is based on a pattern of increasing complexity, appropriateness, and depth
of thought.
Hierarchies In the early stages of a project, ideas have a good chance of being notion able,
especially if minds are open to innovative, unusual, and imaginative thoughts
that might help resolve unique or difficult design and programmatic
requirements.
Appropriateness

At some point architects become more informed and familiar with the project
Criticism

and begin to identify some notions as more important and more appropriate than
Self

others.
Finally, similarities, potential interactions, and groupings of ideas become
apparent.
These observations create the base from which a sustained argument for doing
things is developed.
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts
The problem of choosing an appropriate form for concepts-
Concept whether metaphors, analogies, or scenarios-is less important than
Hierarchies the self-criticism applied to those concepts as they are
formulated.

The key question in critical dialogue is still, “Is this idea

Appropriateness

Criticism

appropriate to the project?”

Self

Both the concept and the solution should ultimately be

appropriate and integrated with problems and activities of the
building.
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts
Concept Another interesting variation on the question of appropriateness
Hierarchies is whether or not concepts are necessary and appropriate for all
building types.

Are they appropriate for some buildings and not others?

Appropriateness

Criticism
Self

Both architects and critics have argued that not all buildings are”
sculpturally” important or “foreground” buildings, that some
buildings deserve to be “background” building
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts
There are five types of concepts:

Five Types of Concepts analogies (looking at other things),

metaphors (looking at abstractions),

essences (looking beyond the programmatic

and Similes

needs),
Metaphors
Analogies

Response and

Ideals
Essences

Problem
Solving
Direct

programmatic concepts (looking at the stated

requirements, and

ideals (looking at universal values).

Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts
Most frequently used device
Five Types of Concepts Identify possible, literal relationships between
things.

One thing is identified as having all the desired

characteristics, and thus it becomes a model
and Similes
Metaphors
Analogies

Response and

Ideals
Essences

for the project at hand.

Problem
Solving
Direct

direct analogyies can be used in which one

building provides an appropriate image for
another project
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts
Like analogies, metaphors identify
relationships between things.
Five Types of Concepts
However, the relationships are abstract rather
than literal.

Similes are metaphors that use the words “like”

and Similes
Metaphors
Analogies

Response and

Ideals
Essences

or” as” to express a relationship.

Problem
Solving
Direct

Metaphors and similes identify possible

patterns of parallel relationships while
analogies identify possible literal relationships.
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts
Essences distill and concentrate aspects of
Five Types of Concepts more complex issues into terse, explicit
statements.

Essence connotes insights into the most critical

and intrinsic aspects of the thing being
and Similes

analyzed.
Metaphors
Analogies

Response and

Ideals
Essences

Problem
Solving
Direct

A statement of the essence of something can

also be the result of discovering and identifying
the roots of an issue.
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts
Not all concept capture the essence of a project,
nor do they all symbolize the function of all the
activities in a building.
Five Types of Concepts
Concepts can be developed around more
pragmatic issues often explicitly identified in
the building program.
and Similes
Metaphors
Analogies

Response and

Ideals
Essences

While many architects take pride in their

Problem
Solving

ability to solve a client’s problems, only a few

Direct

actually make a pragmatic approach sound

inspiring and many designers inadvertently
avoid working on the problem at hand while
trying to be creative.
Concepts and Concept Five types of
Architectural Design Heirarchies Concepts

Concepts
In contrast to the previous categories of concepts,
which suggest that the architect look inside the
problem or at a similar problem to discover
Five Types of Concepts appropriate concepts, ideal concepts are those that
architects bring to the problem.

If architects bring the right concept to the project,

they are praised for their genius.
and Similes
Metaphors
Analogies

Response and

Ideals
Essences

If their choice is inappropriate, it becomes a

Problem
Solving
Direct

preconception and their basic competence is

questioned.

Ideal concepts represent the highest aspirations

and goals of the architect.
Thank you.