Pantheon of Wonder
Essay
Strategy: Have Your Design Answer to Scale
by Maria Lorena Lehman
Image Strategies
Featured Image Takeaway Design Strategy:
When you design architecture, how do you think about scale? Is it something that you simply understand intuitively, where you design for it on the fly? Or do you try to make statements with your architecture about scale? …where you give some serious thought to the behaviors, emotions, and thinking that may go on for an occupant when you provide for spaces of different scales? In the image above, you can see how the scale is enlarged — as though to engulf the occupant experience within. So, I invite you to think about scale within your own work — are there places where you might want to exaggerate it? Or are there places where you would want the scale to be more intimate?
To Apply This Strategy, Ask Yourself:
Find ways to play with scale that make sense for your given project. Ask yourself about whether changing the overall scale of a space would impact occupants for the better. Often, scale can become about needing more physical space — but please do keep in mind that there are ways to play with scale that use the same amount of space. The key is to understand the different ways occupants might respond given the different ways that you present scale to them within your work. Within the image above, occupants may think of that space as lonely, inspirational, or inspiring awe. It all depends on context. So, be sure to give your use of scale another pass, to make sure that you’re creating the right kind of space within which your occupants can thrive.
Image Credit: © kimdokhac | Flickr
Maria Lorena Lehman has received the following awards and has been seen in the following publications: