Fundamental Steps in the Design Process

The Design Process

• The design process is a cyclical, iterative process that involves exploration and generating ideas.
• It is non-linear, and the outcome may not be predictable.
• The design process is a purposeful and systematic activity aimed at devising a plan for changing an existing situation into a future preferred state.

Fundamental Steps in the Design Process

• Initiation: identifying a problem and its social, economic, and physical context.
• Preparation: collecting and analyzing relevant information, establishing goals and criteria for an acceptable solution.
• Analysis: separating a whole into its constituent parts, studying the nature of the whole, and determining its essential features and their relations.
• Synthesis: combining separate, often diverse parts or elements to form a single or coherent whole, discovering constraints and opportunities, and hypothesizing possible alternative solutions.
• Evaluation: simulating, testing, and modifying acceptable alternatives according to goals and criteria.
• Action: selecting and implementing the most suitable solution.
• Re-evaluation: assessing the implemented solution, concerning the goals and criteria set.

Architecture

• Architecture is the art, science, and profession of designing and constructing buildings within their environment.
• It is an art that involves the conscious use of skill, craft, and creative imagination in the production of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.
• It is a science that applies scientific methodology to the design and construction of buildings and their environment.
• It is a profession that requires formal academic training and is regulated by the government through licensure examinations.

Characteristics of Architectural Design

• Creativity: the ability to transcend traditional ideas, patterns, or relationships and to initiate meaningful new ideas, forms, or interpretations.
• Originality: the creative ability to imagine or express independently and individually.
• Innovation: the process or act of introducing new ideas, devices, or methods to meet changing requirements, trends, and unarticulated needs.

Nature of Architectural Design

• Design is a plan or drawing produced to show the look and function or workings of a building or other objects before it is built or made.
• Design is a process that conceives, or devises the form and structure of a building or other construction.

Test your knowledge on the fundamental steps in the design process, from initiation and preparation to analysis and implementation. Understand the key components involved in problem identification, information collection, goal setting, and cyclical iterative design processes.