Essay

Featured Image Takeaway Design Strategy:

The beauty of design is that you can uncover unique ways to respond to a site and all of its features. By seeing site features — like water, a hill, or even a tree — as aspects that can be leveraged to make your design better, you will discover exciting new ways to engage it, and thus engage your occupants. Through your architectural building design, you have the opportunity to position your occupants, to frame what they see and how they experience it. Don’t take these opportunities for granted. Be playful with your initial ideas about how to make your main architectural gesture on your site. You may be surprised with what you come up with — as it may change your notion about what commonplace experiences should be like — like dining, working or learning.

To Apply This Strategy, Ask Yourself:

WHAT UNIQUE AND BEAUTIFUL CHARACTERISTICS ABOUT MY SITE WOULD BE WORTH EXPLORING AS A LEVERAGE POINT ARCHITECTURALLY? AND OUT OF THOSE, WHAT GESTURE MIGHT I MAKE THROUGH MY INITIAL BUILDING CONCEPT THAT WILL ENRICH THE BEAUTY, MEANING AND FUNCTIONALITY OF BOTH BUILT FORM AND SURROUNDING SITE CONTEXT?

Image Caption: Tadao Ando, Lagen Foundation

Image Credit: © seier+seier | Flickr