Every building design starts with a concept. That concept or dream a person has is illustrated in a number of ways. Some people take a string and some wooden stakes and outline the building design on the building lot. Some will take a piece of paper and sketch out a rough drawing of what the building should look out.
No matter how or where the building design is conceived, to make it real the concept will have to be drafted into a building design.
From Concept to Design
People are often amazed at how we design. Perhaps that is because they can’t do it themselves. That’s ok because we can’t do most things others can do.
There may be a magic or mystique to designing a building, especially when we come up with designs from scratch. There may be some magic involved, but there is also work, repetition, searching and at times serendipity.
Building designers express ideas through sketching. It is their way of communicating and exploring. The first sketches are often awful, but it gets it out of their heads. Architecture is more than space planning and arranging a program. Ideas for building designs are generated and influenced by many sources. In some ways, the ideas are reactions to the fixed or known aspects of the building site or from a statement the client made about the concept.
However, to get past the dream phase into exploring the wonders of opportunities is where it gets to be fun. In conjunction with or apart from analytical work, the building designer must sketch and sketch a lot.
From Sketch to Design
Since architecture is all about space, we often build digital models to see and test our ideas. We think of them as 3d sketches.
This process continues to work to refine, test, reinvent and redo.
One critical skill is the building designer must be able to always think in three dimensions.
Once a series of sketches and ideas become developed into scalar building elements, the process evolves into more precision.
This ultimately leads to a finished building design that is presented to the client for review.
Taking a concept from the mines eye to reality takes work and only an experience building designer is suited for this work.
Contact FrankieZed Studios the next time you have a concept for a building that needs to be flushed out. You will be surprised at what develops.
