Perceptual bases for Architectural Design

The way you can tell if a building has good architecture is by the way the elements communicate with one-another. This communication can be achieved with vision, temperature, humidity, sound and texture. The architect has to select the communication image and design techniques. He has to pay attention to making the architectural form a composition of components. A big design issue appears when the architect has to find the substance of the architectural expressions. There are three important alternatives when it comes to architectural statements. We have to know the meaning of the building and the forms or images related to that meaning, the relative importance of the meanings have to be expressed and a logical order of building construction that will develop these images visually while providing good physical enclosure.

The image communication in architectural design can be approached in different ways:

The architect has to know the room shapes and sizes, who is going to use the space and for how long and he has to have environmental control. They have to know the building type, because there’s specific designs for some types of building, like schools, hospitals, banks etc. The architect also has to analyze the site and the approachability of the terrain. Every architect has it’s own style and they express it in every one of their works. They study the environment and the human behavior. Building technology is a relevantly new concept but it has become really important in the past decade. All of these have to come together to create a successfully designed building.

The next step for the architect is the ordering of the spaces that are required in the building.

Signs and Symbols are used to understand the function of the building or the spaces within the building.

Our minds are structured to perceive our surroundings in a way that organizes our visual field. This is called gestalt psychology and the organizations we see are called gestalts.

Figure-ground designs are presented when we can’t tell which part is the background and which is the physical figure.

Center of gravity is when our understanding of the composition develops from their relationship to the center.

Configuration is the process of our mind simplifying the visual elements in order to understand it.

When an object’s form, color, texture, sense of mass and cultural signification can be used to create hierarchies between it and other objects, we have similarity.

Proximity allows the designer to relate two dissimilar objects by placing them near each other.

Symmetry produces visual groupings to hold our attention longer.

Closure and good continuation is the concept of our mind finishing incomplete objects.

The concept of Form Reproduction argues that we will visually complete a form that we’ve seen before from our memory.

Vignettes are powerful images that are not exact in the way they are produced.

Archetypes are common used rules in different constructions for a specific reason.

Structural and mechanical systems follow well-defined Patterns, as does the process of constructing a building.

The architect should be continually conscious of the design objectives and the way the form of space will convey these concerns to the user.