Epoka Square Garden

Bicycle Shed Design

Bicycle Shed Poster

Circle-ation Parasite

Bicycle Shed - Wood Joints

The Architect at Work

If we try to separate certain capabilities of an architect, we’ll see that there are different types of professions that study the same thing, but what makes an architect different from every other professional and artist, is the way of generating the three dimensional forms of buildings. From different studies, Geoffrey Bawa came across three more significant ways of designing that Architects use: pragmatic, iconic, analogic and canonic.

Pragmatic design is the way of generating a space by it’s natural surroundings, thus site analysis is an important part on this type of design. We can identify form of design being used since the beginning of humanity, when they use leather to create shadows, or when they created igloos to survive the low temperatures.

Iconic design is the way of designing according to a certain image that is proved to be efficient for a certain reason. For example in some cultures a couple of families live in one big house and in some others only one family lives in a smaller house, because there’s an image created for them that they that’s the type of design for their living style. In Albania, when the bunkers were proved to be efficient, there were more than 750.000 of them built through the whole country.

Analogic design can be understood by the meaning of it’s name alone. Just like the analogic words in literature, who have similar usage to each-other, the same is for this type of design. So when an Architect creates a design based on a concept that is already familiar, we have an analogical design.

Canonic design is the grid created in a design so regularity, pattern and order can be achieved. We can see this type of design in Plato’s four primary bodies, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Unity Temple Plan and many other examples that we occur on our day to day life.

The Architect cannot solve a building design problem without generating a three-dimensional design. 

Seating Arrangement

On our day to day life, we come across different types of surroundings and environments, whether it is at the doctor’s, business office, cinema etc., the space is usually designed in a way to fit and go together with it’s purpose. There are different types of design patterns that we see everywhere that are known to be in a specific way because they are more effective likewise. We’ve studied this occurrence previously when we got to learn about Archetypes, and how there are some rules that are always the same in every building. Every parliament, every university class and so on have a different seating arrangement according to the tradition that is thought to be more effective. For example in our studio every one of us have our own desks, we are in groups of four and we are free to discuss with each other, on the other hand, on our Math class we share a desk with a friend and we can’t talk during the lecture. In some meeting rooms all the participants sit around a circle table and everyone is equal and has the same importance as everyone else, contrariwise there are meeting rooms where all the chairs are turned to on main chair who is usually the leader of the meeting and who has a more important role. Little details like the way we sit and interact might go across our minds but they indirectly affect us every day, so we have to put more thought on the way we design the seating areas of a room/building.ery day, so we have to put more thought on the way we design the seating areas of a room/building.