Design Grid#
Designing better, more sustainable buildings requires interdisciplinary analysis and improvement throughout the design process.
Building Design Challenges#
In the early design stages (when it is easiest to make changes) consultants do not have all the design information they need to do their analysis.
If we lock the design too early in the process we risk missing out on a better design. If we don’t lock the design at some point it is difficult to analyse, therefore we must be able to ‘lock for analysis’, but still be able to change in response to that analysis to make better, more sustainable buildings.
Building design requires different disciplines to work toegther, but each discipline can only see their own requirements, models, building systems, work practices and knowledge and may not be able to empathise with other disciplines, reducing the chance of effective compromise.
Modelling the building in seperate building models and drawings can make it difficult to get an ‘overview’ of the building.
A new design and analysis framework#
To address these challenges we propose a lightweight framework called the ‘Design Grid’ to help simplify the design and analysis of buildings. Designs progress from top to bottom and left to right. The grid does not differentiate between disciplines but instead focuses on 16 conceptual elements of the building. It does not explicitly define the relationship between the concepts instead it prompts the design team to discuss and identify these themselves.
The Design Grid has the following properties:
1. Provide simple overview (Rows)#
Buildings are complex, but this can be simplified by dividing the elements into functional, horizontal, bounding or vertical elements, this is how we have designed the rows.
2. Encourage disciplinary empathy (Connections between boxes)#
Enable members of the design team to quickly see the implications of each other decisions. Furthermore the framework reduces the complicating factor of ‘disciplinary ownership of systems’ which increases the potential for conflict and reduces opportunites to achieve effective compromise.
3. Enable the iterative exploration of alternatives#
In order to design better, more sustainable buildings we need to develop and analyse different ideas, the DesignGrid enablesus to see the implications of different options and the effect they have on other elements.
4. Define and monitor goals#
The last row includes both the materialised solutions for the building and the use of the building, so that you can check your design against the original need of the building (its use).
Row A#
Site#
Do you know where it is? What is the buildings footprint? What is the relationship to and affect of other buildings?
Height#
Do you know how tall it is? Have you considered its height with respect to its surroundings?
Mass#
Do you know the shape or ‘form’ of your building? how is this affected by its surroundings, the daylight, and the building’s access?
Floors#
Do you know how many floors you have and what you have on them?
Row B#
Space#
Do you have the spaces you need?
Relationships#
Is the relationship between the spaces logical?
Walls#
Have you bounded the spaces appropriately?
Plenum#
After providing the plenum is there enough floor to ceiling space?
Row C#
Stuff#
Do your spaces provide the stuff your users need to use them?
Vertical flows#
Have you considered all the vertical flows in the building, load services people etc.?
Openings#
Have you considered the openings in the bounding elements (doors and windows)?
Horizontal flows#
Have you considered all the horizontal flows in the building, load services people etc.?
Row D#
Use#
Does your building provide the safe, pleasant and comfortable use that is required of it?
Vertical components#
Are the vertical flows transferred through the materials, systems and products of the building?
Facade#
Is the facade design integrated and detailed with real products?
Horizontal components#
Are the horizontal flows transferred through the materials, systems and products of the building?