Course Title: Fundamentals of Architecture

CHAPTER TWO :
Basic Elements and Principles in Design

By:-Selehadin.N
CONTENTS

▪ Basic Elements of Design

▪ Design Principles
BASIC ELEMENTS OF DESIGN

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 BASIC ELEMENTS OF DESIGN

✓ There are six basic visual elements used in any design act
ivity:

❑ Line ❑ Space
❑ Color ❑ Texture
❑ Form and Shape ❑ Value

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 BASIC ELEMENTS OF DESIGN Line

Types of lines:

✓ Vertical – Represents dignity, formality, stability, and strength.

✓ Horizontal – Represents calmness, peace, and relaxation.

✓ Diagonal – Represents action, activity, excitement, and movement.

✓ Curved – Represents freedom, the natural, having the appearance of

softness, and creates a soothing feeling or mood.

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 BASIC ELEMENTS OF DESIGN Vertical Line
✓ Vertical lines designate Dominance, dignity, stability, and strength
Brandenburg Gate,Berlin

The Empire State Building, New York Axum Obelisk, Ethiopia

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BASIC ELEMENTS OF DESIGN Horizontal Line

✓ Horizontal lines represent calm,

peace, and relaxation.

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BASIC ELEMENTS OF DESIGN Diagonal Line

✓ Diagonal lines give the sense of

movement, action, and activity.

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 BASIC ELEMENTS OF DESIGN Curved Line

✓ Curved lines often appear more natural than angular lines and
give the sense of freedom and soothing mood.

Sydney Opera House

Architect: Jorn Utzon

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 BASIC ELEMENTS OF DESIGN COLOR
Saint Basil’s Cathedral Moscow

✓ Color has an immediate and profound

effect on a design task.

✓ Saint Basil’s Cathedral was designed in

the shape of the flame of a bonfire rising
into the sky.

✓ Bright colors create a festive feeling and

sense of excitement.
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 BASIC ELEMENTS OF DESIGN COLOR

Based on Warmth:
▪ Warm Colors (Red, orang, yellow)
▪ Cool Colors (Blue, purple, light green
)
Based on Formation:
▪ Primary Colors (Red, Yellow, Blue)
▪ Secondary Colors (E.g. Green, Oran
ge)
▪ Tertiary Colors
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 BASIC ELEMENTS OF DESIGN Warm Color

✓ This attempts to use colors of sun and fire, on the right side of the
color wheel and their respective values as elements that control the
composition.
✓ Composition using reds and yellows (and their values)

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 BASIC ELEMENTS OF DESIGN Cool Color
✓ This technique will attempt to use cool colors, colors of snow and ice, on the left
side of the color wheel and their respective values.
✓ Composition using blues, greens, purples (and their values)

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 BASIC ELEMENTS OF DESIGN COLOR

❑ The meaning of colors

✓ Didn't a blue sky imply a pleasant day?
✓ Didn't dark clouds announce a storm or rain?
✓ Wasn't red the color of blood?
✓ Wasn't white the purest possible color?
✓ Didn't darkness frighten people?
▪ certain colors are associated with facts, events, ceremonies, and
titles. What may surprise us is to find that some colors have different
meanings in various parts of the world.
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 BASIC ELEMENTS OF DESIGN COLOR
✓ Colors can affect how humans feel and act

How do you feel for each seats ? & why?

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 BASIC ELEMENTS OF DESIGN Form and Shape
Identify between Shape & Form

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 BASIC ELEMENTS OF DESIGN Form and Shape

❑ Form:
✓ Form is the primary identifying
characteristic of a volume.
✓ The shape and structure of
something as distinguished from
its substance or material.
✓ Form can also be described as the
composition of geometric shapes.
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 BASIC ELEMENTS OF DESIGN Form and Shape
❑ Shape:
✓ The two-dimensional contour that characterizes an object or area.

✓ It is the visual field that the object occupies demarcated by the outer
limits that distinguish it from its surroundings.

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 BASIC ELEMENTS OF DESIGN Form and Shape
❑ Category of shapes:
1. Geometric and/or Organic.

2. Regular and/or Irregular.

3. Static and/or Dynamic

4. Positive and/or Negative

5. Primary and/or Secondary

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 BASIC ELEMENTS OF DESIGN Space
✓ The great act and challenge in architecture is the charge of creating a
space. “space”, is
“the protagonist of architecture”
/the leading character or one of the major characters/
✓ Different types of spaces

▪ Open, ▪ Perceptual,
▪ busy spaces, ▪ Behavioral
▪ Unused ▪ Recreational …
▪ Physical,

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BASIC ELEMENTS OF DESIGN Space

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 BASIC ELEMENTS OF DESIGN Texture
✓ Texture is the surface aspect of something.Exterior metal façade of Disney Concert
Hall Los Angeles
Types of Textures:
I. Based on Nature:
▪ Smooth Surface – Reflects
more light and therefore is a
more intense color. Park Guell – Barcelona,Spain
Architect: Antonio Gaudí
▪ Rough Surface – Absorbs
more light and therefore
appears darker.

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 BASIC ELEMENTS OF DESIGN Texture
II. Based on Perception:
▪ Visual Texture – the texture is perceived visually.
▪ Tactile Texture – the texture has may or may not be perceived
with eyes but has a value.

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 BASIC ELEMENTS OF DESIGN Value
✓ Value deals with the relative lightness or darkness of a color and
light.

Methods:
Downtown buildings in Bangalore, India
▪ Shade – degree/gradient of darkne
ss of light
▪ Shadow – relative darkness in light
▪ Tint – a pale or faint variation of a
color
▪ Saturation, Intensity, Hue ….
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To be continued…
Design Principles

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 BASIC DESIGN PRINCIPLES
✓ Design Principles are techniques applied to compose elements in ord
er to create space for its need.
✓ Some of the fundamental principles in design are:

❑ Balance ❑ Movement
❑ Rhythm ❑ Contrast
❑ Emphasis ❑ Unity
❑ Proportion and Scale

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 BASIC DESIGN PRINCIPLES Balance
✓ Parts of the design are distributed in a way to create a sense of sta
bility.
✓ Both physical and visual balance exist
❑ Types of balance in design:

• Symmetrical or formal balance

• Asymmetrical or informal balance

• Radial balance

• Vertical balance

• Horizontal balance 28
 BASIC DESIGN PRINCIPLES Balance
❑ Symmetrical or Formal Balance Taj Mahal, India

✓ The elements within the design are ident

ical in relation to a centerline or axis.

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 BASIC DESIGN PRINCIPLES Balance
❑ Asymmetrical or Informal Balance
✓ Parts of the design are not identical but are equal in visual weight.
✓ The large boxy section far left balances the main section of the chate
au. Chateau de Chaumont Saone-et-Loire, France

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 BASIC DESIGN PRINCIPLES Balance
❑ Radial Balance
Dresden Frauenkirche Deresden, Germ ✓ Design elements radiate outward from
ay
the center.
African union, Ethiopia

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 BASIC DESIGN PRINCIPLES Rhythm

✓ Rhythm refers to repeated use of line, shape, color, texture or pattern

✓ Refers to any movement characterized by patterned recurrence of
elements or motifs at regular or irregular intervals.
✓ The movement may be our eyes as we follow recurring elements in a
composition of our bodies as we advance through a sequence of
spaces.
✓ In either case, rhythm incorporates the fundamental notion of
repetition as a device to organize forms and spaces in architecture.
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 BASIC DESIGN PRINCIPLES Rhythm

❑ Different types of Rhythm:

• Regular rhythm (Repetition)
• Random rhythm
• Gradated or Ascending rhythm
• Descending rhythm

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 BASIC DESIGN PRINCIPLES Rhythm
❑ Regular Rhythm (Repetition)

✓ An element is repeated with the same

interval each time.

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 BASIC DESIGN PRINCIPLES Rhythm
Ex:The repeated use of the onion domes
❑ Random Rhythm
creates a random rhythm in the design of
Saint Basil’s Cathedral.
✓ The beats of the element are
random or are at irregular intervals.

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 BASIC DESIGN PRINCIPLES Rhythm
❑ Gradated or Ascending/Descending Rhythm
✓ The repeated element is identical with the exception of one detail incr
easing or decreasing gradually with each repetition.

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 BASIC DESIGN PRINCIPLES Emphasis

✓ It is a feature in a design that

Mosque - Egypt
attracts observers eye – to
the focal point.
✓ Emphasis can be achieved
through size, placement,
shape, color, and/or use of
lines.

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 BASIC DESIGN PRINCIPLES Emphasis
What draws your attention in these images? Why?

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 BASIC DESIGN PRINCIPLES Proportion & Scale

✓ Comparative relationships between elements in a design with respect to

size.
✓ 3:5 ratio is known as the Golden Mean
Example

• Because of its Scale, the Washington Monum

ent is the most prominent structure in Washi
ngton, D.C., shown here with the Lincoln Me
morial in the foreground and the U. S. Capito
l building in the background.

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 BASIC DESIGN PRINCIPLES Contrast

✓ Is creating noticeably different intention

ally
✓ Can be developed from:
▪ Color
▪ Proportion and scale
▪ Shape
▪ Texture

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 BASIC DESIGN PRINCIPLES Unity

✓ Is Unity or Harmony can be achieved by the consistent use of lines, color,

material, and/or texture within a design.

▪ West Virginia University used

red brick.
▪ Notice: that the red brick
used in the building is also
used in the landscape walls in
the foreground.

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 BASIC DESIGN PRINCIPLES Unity

What elements unify each of these designs?

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To be continued…
End of Lecture - II