BASIC ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN

ASHENAFI EZO’O
ashenarchdoc@gmail.com
WOLAITA SODDO UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE
 LECTURE ONE

INTRODUCTION
 WHAT ENGINEERING REALLY IS...

Idea Design and Test Reality!

Re-design
 ENGINEERING BACKGROUNDS

Aerospace
Engineering

Mechanical Engineering

Civil Engineering

Bioengineering
Electrical Engineering Industrial
Engineering
 WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH AN ENGINEERING DEGREE?
Research Doctor Teacher/Professor

Lawyer Governor Industry

 WHY SHOULD YOU BE AN ENGINEER?

$ Good Pay $ Practical skills for

other career paths
Fun work
in g b s
environm g Jo
en t erest in
Int
Make the world Research
a better place opportunities
WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT ENGINEERING?

IF YOU WANT TO SAVE A PERSON…

BE A DOCTOR

IF YOU WANT TO SAVE THE WORLD…

BECOME AN ENGINEER!
 WHAT IS ARCHITECTURE

• Architecture is the ART and SCIENCE of

designing buildings and structures

• The design of the total built environment from

the from the
• Macro-level (urban design, landscape
architecture) to the
• Micro-level (construction details, product
and furniture design).
 WHAT IS ARCHITECTURE

• In the field of building architecture the skills

demanded an architecture ranged from the more
complex such as for a hospital or a stadium to the
apparently simpler such as planning residential
houses.

• Architectural works may be seen also as cultural

and political symbols and or works of art.
 WHAT IS ARCHITECTURE

• Planned architecture often manipulate space,

volume, texture, light, shadows or abstract
elements in order to achieve pleasing aesthetics.
• This distinguishes it from applied science or
engineering which usually concentrate more on
the functional and feasibility aspects of the
design of the construction or the structure.
 WHAT IS ARCHITECTURE
• Architecture is the ART and SCIENCE of
building
• It is the conscious creation of utilitarian
spaces with the deliberate use of material
• Architecture should be technically efficient
and aesthetically pleasing.
 ARCHITECTURE AS A DISCIPLINE

• ARCHITECTURE - an ability to organize,

manipulate and articulate the constant and
variable component parts of size, shape, and
treatment.
• ARCHITECTURE - a language of sequential
path, place, and transition spaces in
relationship to site, location, and orientation.
 SCOPE OF ARCHITECTURE
• According to the very earliest surveying on the
subject good buildings satisfy three principles: Utilitas-Useful
• Vitruvius said that architecture was a building that Commodity
incorporated: Utility
Function

Venustas-Beautiful Firmitas-Solid
Thus; Delight Firmness
• Architecture can be said to be a balance and Attractive Structure
coordination among this three elements with no over Appearance Construction
Aesthetics Technology
powering the others, means it should be balanced.
 ARCHITECTURE AND BUILDING
• Any building ≠ architecture
• Architecture = design BEFORE building

• Architecture is DESIGNED BUILDINGS, SPACES and

ENVIRONMENTS.
• According to HUMAN NEEDS

• Using TECHNOLOGY and

SCIENCE,
• With AESTHETIC QUALITIES.
 ARCHITECTURE AND BUILDING

• A modern day function sees ARCHITECTURE as

• A GRACING AESTHETICS,

• STRUCTURE and

• FUNCTIONAL conditional considerations

• However, looks another way of function itself is seen as

encompassing or criterion that is function includes
structure and functional considerations.
 WHO IS THE ARCHITECT?
• The word ARCHITECT is derived from the Greek
word architekton, meaning master builder.

• One who designs buildings and supervises their

construction.

• Architects are licensed professionals trained in the art

and science of building design.

• They transform
• needs into concepts and
• then develop the concepts into images and
• plans of buildings that can be constructed by
others.
 WHO IS THE ARCHITECT?

• The work of the architect is the result of the

architect’s interpretation of
• the PROGRAM IN RELATION to the CLIENT’S
BUDGET,
• the BUILDING’S SITE,

• the AVAILABILITY OF MATERIALS and

• STRUCTURAL TECHNOLOGY.
 ARCHITECTS PROFESSION

• Architecture, as a profession is the practice of

providing a service,

• which includes many different disciplines

while the overall aim of an architect is to
DESIGN BUILDINGS. 

• Architecture can refer to the actual product,

• the architecture of a building or it can refer to

the method or style used to design the building.
 ARCHITECTURE IN PRACTICE

Owner(Client)

Architect Engineer

Consultan Consultan Consultan Contracto Contracto

Contractor
t t t r r
WHAT YOU SEE IS NOT ALWAYS WHAT YOU THINK!
 GRAPHICAL LANGUAGE

The graphical language which the architect or the

designer uses …..
• Freehand
• With instrument
 FREE HAND DRAWING…
• Done by sketching the lines with no
instruments
• Original ideas, scheming and inventing are
worked out
• Excellent method during the learning process
because of speed…
• Used commercially for preliminary designing
and for some finished work
 INSTRUMENT DRAWING….
• Standard method of expression
• Most drawings are made to scale with instruments
• Used to present drawings concisely and accurately
• Manual drawing…
• Architectural (drafting, working drawing)
• Mechanical drawing
 WORKING DRAWINGS…
• Graphical language of a designer
• Most convenient tool to develop power of
imagination, attention and accuracy base
of creativity.
• Made up of lines that represent the surface,
• edges and contours of objects,
• symbols,
• dimensions, size and
• words making up a complete description
 DESIGN
• Aesthetic sensitivity, Free creativity of the
artist
• Scientific knowledge, Welfare of mankind ..
• For economical design
• Intellectual discipline of the technician for
social useful purpose of;
• To plan, conceive, invent
• To transmit the plan to the others e.g. the
design of fabrics, clothing, furniture, buildings
• To make out new
• The process of developing plans, schemes,
directions and specifications for something new
creation in the purest sense
 WHAT IS DESIGN

• DESIGN is a both a verb (to design) & a noun (a

design).

• Design is both a process & a product

• The process of designing and product that is

designed.

• Design is an activity aiming at the production of a plan

of action which if executed is expected to lead to a
situation with certain desired characteristics and
without unforeseen and undesired side and after
effects.
 WHAT IS DESIGN

THE ORGANIZATION OF PARTS INTO A

COHERENT WHOLE
A CREATIVE ENDEAVOR TO SOLVE A
PROBLEM
 WHAT IS DESIGN

IN THE BEGINNING…WHAT WAS

THERE?

CHAOS…
 WHAT IS DESIGN

WHY WE NEED DESIGN OR DESIGNER?

THE DESIRE FOR

ORDER….
 WHAT IS DESIGN

• The objective of a design is to create new

objects for the mind to feast upon.
• Major characteristic features about design;
• PROCESS
• PROBLEM SOLVING
• CREATIVE ACTIVITY
 WHAT IS DESIGN

• What it takes to undertake a design activity.

• Knowledge: set of accumulated information
• Imagination: power of visualizing various
layers, sides, dimension & possibilities of
information
• Skill: the ability to execute our ideas
 DESIGN PROCESS

• The design process is an approach for breaking

down a large project into manageable chunks.
• Architects, engineers, scientists, and other thinkers
use the design process to solve a variety of
problems.
• Use this process to define the steps needed to
tackle each project, and remember to hold to all of
your ideas and sketches throughout the process.
ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN PROCESS
CONTEXT FOR ARCHITECTURE AS SATISFYING HUMAN NEEDS

PHYSICAL
NEEDS
Food, Shelter,
Clothing

GENERAL INFLUENCES NEEDS OF

MAN
INTELLECTUA EMOTIONAL
L NEEDS NEEDS
Education, Science religion and art
and government recreation
CONTEXT FOR ARCHITECTURE AS SATISFYING HUMAN NEEDS

PRESERVATION

ACTIVITIES OF MAN
SELF- Desire RECOGNITION
EXPRESSION for

RESPONSE
CONTEXT FOR ARCHITECTURE AS SATISFYING HUMAN NEEDS

CLIMA
TE

INFLUENCES OF
NATURE NATUR
E
TOPO
MATERI
ALS GRAP
HY
CONTEXT FOR ARCHITECTURE AS SATISFYING HUMAN NEEDS

INFLUENCES OF SOCIETY

1. SOCIAL CONDITIONS
2. MAN'S PERSONALITY
3. MAN'S INTERESTS
 FUNCTIONAL, AESTHETIC AND PSYCHOLOGICAL

SPATIAL SEQUENCE
SPATIAL FIT
“Is the study of ease of use, of how quickly
someone can understand how to use a
particular human-made object and how easily
they can use it”

The architect should have a comprehensive

understanding of the client activities before
beginning to design
 FUNCTIONAL, AESTHETIC AND PSYCHOLOGICAL

ACTIVITIES ARE TRANSLATED INTO A LIST

OF PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS, THAT MAY
INCLUDE:
Number of users involved Physical requirements are the base for
establishing goals of
Human physical dimensions
UTILITARIAN NATURAL
Furniture + equipment
Circulation within the space
Vehicles to preform the activities
 FUNCTIONAL, AESTHETIC AND PSYCHOLOGICAL

NO FUNCTION…NO SOUL
 FUNCTIONAL, AESTHETIC AND PSYCHOLOGICAL

BEAUTY
ELEMENTS OF AESTHETICS
• Mass & space
• Proportion
• Contrast
• Decoration
• Massing
• Symmetry
• Balance
 FUNCTIONAL, AESTHETIC AND PSYCHOLOGICAL

Play with human mind

Mood and productivity
Affect health and wellbeing
Expression of cultural pride, societal
passion, or national esteem
Space, form, and light
 FUNCTIONAL, AESTHETIC AND PSYCHOLOGICAL
• Physical structure has a significant effect on • Space, form, and light are elements that are
human behavior. often incorporated either purposefully or
• As humans find themselves spending more unconsciously for aesthetic or practical
time enclosed within the walls of structure, it reasons
becomes valuable to design structures • but more pointedly give people meaning,
integrating features of the natural environment purpose and stability amidst an ever changing
and structural landscape features into the physical universe of seeming chaos
human-made environment (joye, 2007).
• Research suggests the design of residential and
commercial space has pervasive effects on its
inhabitants and is an important consideration in
architectural design.
FUNCTIONAL, AESTHETIC AND PSYCHOLOGICAL
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION