Design Methods and Techniques

The term design method refers to techniques and procedures of designing, for example, the use of graphic method of communication during the design process. The topic, “design process” looks like a new issue of this past century, architectural history archives that Vitruvius expressed his views about the design process about two thousand years ago. Vitruvius, stated that ‘architectural designing is the process of selecting parts to achieve a whole’ (Lang, 1987). Also, if we look back through the history, intellectuals and architects have expressed some opinions on the subject of design process.

For example, Alberti (1485) viewed the design process very similarly to that of Vitruvius; Descartes (1637) established a set of ideas for structuring his own creative efforts in his dialogue on design method.

Design process term explanation

Following Descartes, architects such as Laugier (1753) expressed the term design process as one of decomposing a problem, solving the components, and then synthesizing the unfinished solutions into whole ones. Many denote this as the logical method.

This trend of thinking has influenced designers through the past to the present time. For instance, Le Corbusier, defines his own design process in very much these terms in “vers une architecture” (1923). This is a decomposition/composition procedure involving a number of steps, which includes, the formulation of the problem in terms of the functions to be housed; the formulation of design standards; and the composition of these into built form.

Many authors recognize that the quality opportunities for improving a building’s energy overall performance appear early in the design process (Goulding and Lewis 1992).

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The same way the design process presents a structure to everyday commercial commitments, the process analysis additionally gives a plan that can tackle the most necessary questions for an energy aware design, identified early by Burberry (1978):

• What essential design choices involving energy has to be made?

• What is the importance of each decision?

• Who should make these decisions?

• At what phase of design must the decisions be made?

• What data are accessible to guide thermal choices to be made?

We can only have an answer to these above questions, after an understanding of the climate interaction and the building itself. Nonetheless, the answers beings with revisiting and reviewing the past and current views on design process.

What is design process

In reviewing the background of the design process, a comprehensive book by Broadbent (1973) named Design in Architecture, he mentioned that ‘By the early 1960s, system engineering, ergonomics, operational research, information theory and cybernetics, not to mention the new math and computing, were all available to the design theorist in highly developed forms, and influenced the emergence of design methods’. These design methods were, and in some case, they still are the principles of design education in most architectural schools. Morris Asimow, (1962), agrees with these design process. He wrote his book Introduction to Design, which he outlines an overall process for solving problems which he calls the design process. These design process comprises of:

• Analysis,

• Synthesis,

• Evaluation and decision,

• Optimisation,

• Revision, and

• Implementation.

In his text, Asimow (1962) established two structures in the design method, a horizontal structure in the system of a decision-making cycle common to all phases and a vertical structure involving sequential phasing activities (see Figure 2.6). The sequential categorisations of phases in the vertical structure proceeded from a definition of need, through feasibility study, initial design, detailed design, planning for production and lastly the production itself. Also, within each design phase there was a sequence: preparation for design, subsystems design, etc. The overall sequence of activities advances from abstract consideration to those that are more actual and precise. Several feedback loops, which includes relationship between phase along which information about the design state was seen to flow and were fused to account for the noticeable trend of tracing back through the process in order to respond to new information or challenges.