The document discusses concepts in architecture. It provides definitions of concept, context, and structure. It discusses how architects create concepts to organize design elements. Nature is an important inspiration for concepts, as shown through quotes by Einstein, Buckminster Fuller, and Mikko Heikkinen. Examples of Frank Lloyd Wright and Kisho Kurokawa are given that demonstrate how their works were inspired by nature and incorporated natural principles.

1. Concept
By Ar. Zamri Ismail FSRB-UPM Nov 2012

2. As defined by RIBA
What does an Architect do?
To Create
To Plan
To Supervise

3. SITE SYNTHESIS
Understanding Nature
"Look deep, deep into nature, and then you will
understand
everything better." Albert Einstein
“We do not seek to imitate nature, but rather to find
the principles she uses” – Buckminster Fuller
“Don’t create an object, create a site when you are
working… the site will not remain the same, for your
design will create a new site and a new landscape.”
Mikko Heikkinen

4. Concept
Concepts are abstract
Words are not concepts.
Words are signs for concepts.

5. Concept
A concept is an abstract idea or a mental symbol, typically
associated with a corresponding representation in and language or
symbology, that denotes all of the objects in a given category or
class of entities, interactions, phenomena, or relationships between
them.
Concepts are abstract in that they omit the differences of the things
in their extension, treating them as if they were identical. They are
universal in that they apply equally to every thing in their extension.
Concepts are also the basic elements of propositions, much the
same way a word is the basic semantic element of a sentence.
Unlike perceptions, which are particular images of individual objects,
concepts cannot be visualized. Because they are not, themselves,
individual perceptions, concepts are discursive and result from
reason. They can only be thought about, or designated, by means
of a name. Words are not concepts. Words are signs for
concepts.

6. Concept
Generally speaking, concepts are:
(a) acquired dispositions to recognize perceived objects as being
of this kind or of that kind, and at the same time
(b) to understand what this kind or that kind of object is like, and
consequently
(c) to perceive a number of perceived particulars as being the
same in kind and to discriminate between them and other
sensible particulars that are different in kind.
In addition, concepts are acquired dispositions to understand what
certain kinds of objects are like both :
(a) when the objects, though perceptible, are not actually
perceived, and
(b) also when they are not perceptible at all, as is the case with all
the conceptual constructs we employ in physics, mathematics,
and metaphysics.

7. Concept
On some accounts, there may be agents (perhaps some animals)
which don't think about, but rather use relatively basic concepts
(such as demonstrative and perceptual concepts for things in
their perceptual field), even though it is generally assumed that
they do not think in symbols. On other accounts, mastery of
symbolic thought (in particular, language) is a prerequisite for
conceptual thought.

8. Concept
Concepts are bearers of meaning, as opposed to agents of
meaning. A single concept can be expressed by any number of
languages. The concept of DOG can be expressed as dog in English,
Hund in German, as chien in French, and perro in Spanish. The fact
that concepts are in some sense independent of language makes
translation possible - words in various languages have identical
meaning, because they express one and the same concept.
The acquisition of concepts is studied in machine learning as
supervised classification and unsupervised classification, and in
psychology and cognitive science as concept learning and category
formation. In the philosophy of Kant, any purely empirical theory dealing
with the acquisition of concepts is referred to as a noogony.
A term labels or designates concepts. Several partly or fully distinct
concepts may share the same term. These different concepts are
easily confused by mistakenly being used interchangeably, which is a
fallacy. Also, the concepts of term and concept are often confused,
although the two are not the same.

9. Ingredients of Architecture
Concept
1. A general idea derived or inferred from specific
instances or occurrences.
2. Something formed in the mind; a thought or notion, a
scheme or plan.
3. A broad abstract idea or a guiding principle, such as
one that determines how a person or culture behaves,
or how nature, reality, or events are perceived and in
architecture, it is what kind of creation will it be.

10. Ingredients of Architecture
Concept
The concept is what the architect owns in the project.
Architecture is such that through codes, context,
structural systems,etc. many parts have become
almost constants.
It is the concept that the architect brings to the project
that organizes the “constants” in a way that is
unique.
It is what makes the architecture.

11. Ingredients of Architecture
Context
The situation within which something exists or happens,
and that can help explain it.
The circumstances of events that form the environment
within which something exists or takes place

12. Ingredients of Architecture
Context
“All an architect does is make spaces. It is the quiet and
thoughtful arrangement of these spaces that makes
houses, neighborhoods, streets and environments”
“…Good architecture never shouts”
“…It is like a well-mannered lady that is polite to its
neighbours.”
“…The order and progression of the street is more
important than the individual buildings”
Hugh Newell Jacobsen

13. Concept
Design – process
Points to consider:
Approach
Methaphor
Parables- corelatioanship
Trend
Style
Theme
Issues
Ideas
Brain Child
Hyphothesis
Thesis
Rational-use information available to forecast and anticipate

14. Concept
Conception Stage
-Vital image in mind of a designer
-Attainable, possible within the constraints
-Dream
-Utopian
-How a perfect creation it is
-Clean, Elegant, Compelling, Desire, Motivation
-Pure, Beauty
-Burning passion in design process and sustainable

15. HOW?...
• Recognize a problem, create a statement that shows
intent to correct the problem, and then provide
the means to a successful solution
2. Generate and initiate a strong design concept
that has a clear focus on the intent of the problem.
3. Develop a design through the strength of concept.
4. Strengthen the concept through the initiation and
development of the design.

16. Ingredients of Architecture
The Skin & Bones: Giving form to concept

17. Nature as Inspiration
Albert Einstein
"Look deep, deep into nature, and then
you will understand everything better."
- A. E.
Albert Einstein saw the universe as a
puzzle, and he delighted in trying to
solve its mysteries. All he needed to
contemplate the cosmos was his most
valuable scientific tool—his
imagination.
American Museum of Natural History
'All art is but imitation of nature.' — Seneca
Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Wuttemberg, Germany on March 14, 1879,
and spent his early years in Munich. Although Jewish, he was obliged to
attend a Catholic elementary school while taking private lessons in Judaism
at home.

18. Ingredients of Architecture
Structure
“In understanding the world of architecture, the language of
geometry is as important as the language of structure.
Both are significant sources of inspiration for me, along
with the properties of materials and the world of nature”.
Santiago Calatrava

19. Examples

20. Frank Lloyd Wright
He authored twenty books and countless articles, lectured
throughout the United States and in Europe, and developed a
remarkable plan for decentralizing urban America (Broadacre
City) that continues to be debated by scholars and writers to this
day -- some 60 years after its conception.
Wright is considered by most authorities to be the 20th century's
greatest architect. Indeed, the American Institute of Architects in
a recent national survey, recognized Frank Lloyd Wright to be
"the greatest American architect of all time." Architectural
Record magazine (the official magazine of the American Institute
of Architects) declared that Wright's buildings stand out among
the most significant architectural works during the last 100 years
in the world.
The soil that sprouted Frank Lloyd Wright was the rural
Wisconsin countryside.
Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation 1867-1959, American architect

21. Frank Lloyd Wright
Throughout his life Wright
spoke of the influence of
nature on his work and
attributed his love of nature to
those early years in the rural
Wisconsin countryside. During
summers spent on his uncle's
farm he learned to look at the
patterns and rhythms found in
nature - the branch of a tree (a
natural cantilever),
outcroppings of limestone,
and the ever-changing
sandbars.
Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation 1867-1959, American architect

22. Wright later advised his apprentices to "study nature, love nature,
stay close to nature. It will never fail you." The influence of nature
is apparent in his work. From the earth-hugging "Prairie" houses
such as the 1909 Robie House in Illinois and Taliesin in
Wisconsin, to the cascading cantilevers of the 1936 Fallingwater
in Pennsylvania (considered to be the most famous house ever
designed for non-royalty), from the sky-lighted forest of concrete
columns of the 1936 Johnson Wax Administration Building in
Racine, Wisconsin, the rugged beauty of Taliesin West in Arizona,
to the spiraling, "snail-like" Guggenheim Museum completed in
1959 in New York City, his work shows a command of nature and
native materials and an instinctive understanding of social and
human needs.
No other architect so intuitively designed to human scale. No
other architecture took greater advantage of setting and
environment. No other architect glorified the sense of "shelter" as
did Frank Lloyd Wright. "A building is not just a place to be. It is a
way to be," he said.
Frank Lloyd Wright

23. Frank Lloyd Wright Falling Water

24. Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie Style House
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece completed in 1959

25. Kisho Kurokawa
In 1958, he predicted a “Transition from the Age of the Machine
to the Age of Life,” and has continually utilized such key words
of life principles as metabolism (metabolize and recycle),
ecology, sustainability, symbiosis, intermediate areas
(ambiguity) and Hanasuki (Splendor of Wabi) in order to call for
new styles to be implemented by society.
Architecture is a spiritual statement and an
expression of thought of the age in which it is
created. Therefore, architecture has also entered the
age of symbiosis, the age of diversity and the age of
diffusion.
Formalism, style and symbolism similar to fashion
design are currently rampant in the architecture
industry. There is no future for architecture without
thought.
December 18, 2006
Kisho Kurokawa

26. A great conceptual revolution is underway across the world,
but it is taking place so quietly that it has gone largely
undetected. It is not the birth of a new ideology, like capitalism
or communism; nor is it the advent of a new philosophy to
replace that of Kant or Descartes. yet the new currents of
thought that are arising around the world will have a
greater effect on us than any ideology or systematic
philosophy. They are unarguably changing our way of living
and our idea of what it is to be human. This great, invisible
change identify as the philosophy of symbiosis.
Kisho Kurokawa

27. Kisho Kurokawa
Fusionpolis, one-north Development, Singapore
2) Competition theme
The 123,000 sqm building, internally referred to as ‘Techpolis’, will be the first major
development in the Central Xchange ? the cluster for the Infocommunications & Media (ICM)
industries in one-north. It will be home to ICM research institutes, industry players and
supporting industries.

28. Kisho Kurokawa
Fusionpolis, one-north Development, Singapore
Characteristics of the KUROKAWAs Plan
1. Layered City
2. Vertical Zoning
3. A Super Slab is layered artificial ground.
4. Crack at Level 1 (GL)
5. The Common is arranged on Super Slab
6. The Eco-Tec City is a Hi-Tec Building
7. The super slab is equipment and machinery space.
8. Vertical air ducts (natural ventilation system from the interior to the outside)
9. Double Skin
10. Privacy in the residential and office zones
11. Eco-Tec City is ecology oriented and sustainable architecture.
a) Solar energy
b) Sky Garden
c) Recycling of Home Garbage
d) Recycling rainwater
e) Recycling body heat
f) The double skin sharply reduces the penetration of heat from the outside.
g) The road pavement is all rainwater permeable paving that allows that part of rainwater not
recycled to return to the ground for keeping eco-systems.
All these systems are the characteristics of a sustainable Eco-building.

29. Osaka International Convention Center (Grand Cube Osaka)
Kisho Kurokawa

30. KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport) connotes the Islamic space by using four H-P shells.
Kisho Kurokawa
The terminal building area was designed using the concept of
Airport in the forest, forest in the airport, in which it is surrounded
by green space.

31. The Sidra design is the creation of Pelli Clarke Pelli and the project’s
executive architectural firm Ellerbe Becket.
Medical Centre in Doha
Selected as one of the 10 most influential living American architects in 1991 by the American Institute of Architects, Pelli remarked
that his firm Pelli Clarke Pelli has tried to connect in every possible way the forms of SMRC with Qatar’s history, tradition, climate,
apart from Islamic architecture
Qatar Foundation's Sidra Medical and
Research Center today revealed architectural
plans that combine cutting edge technology
with an incandescent design that both reflects
and celebrates the sky

32. Menara Mesiniaga
Design Features
The building brings together the principles of the bioclimatic approach to the
design of tall buildings developed over the previous decade by the firm.
In particular, the building has the following features:
• "Vertical Landscaping" (planting) is introduced into the building facade and at the
"skycourts". In this building the planting starts by mounding up from ground level
to as far up as possible at one side of the building. The planting then "spirals"
upwards across the face of the building with the use of recessed terraces (as
skycourts).
• A number of passive low-energy features are also incorporated: All the window
areas facing the hot sides of the building (ie. east and west sides) have external
louvres as solar-shading to reduce solar heat gain into the internal spaces. Those
sides without direct solar insolation (ie. the north and south sides) have
unshielded curtain-walled glazing for good views and to maximise nautral lighting.
• The lift lobbies at all floors are naturally ventilated and are sun-lit with views to the
outside. These lobbies do not require fire-protection pressurisation (ie. low-energy
lobby). All stairways and toilet areas are also naturally ventilated and have natural
lighting.
• The sunroof is the skeletal provision for panel space for the possible future
placing of solar-cells to provide back-up energy source. BAS (Building Automation
System) is an active Intelligent Building feature used in the building for energy-
saving.

33. KenYeang

34. KenYeang
T.R. Hamzah & Yeang Sdn Bhd
Jabal Omar Towers
Mecca, Saudi Arabia

35. “…Highly intuitive and reflexive”
Morphosis- Thom Mayne
…constructing large-scale “environments” wherein the
architecture provokes an active dialogue: the buildings
and its surroundings mutually interpret each other.
Innovation arises in a matrix of conflicts — rather than
necessarily underwriting the given function of a space,
Mayne’s designs often challenge the idea of spatial
coherence.
November 9, 2009November 9, 2009
byby will cordeirowill cordeiro

36. “…Highly intuitive and reflexive”
Morphosis- Tom Mayne

37. Morphosis- Tom Mayne
“…open ended and reflexive rather than visionary or pre-conceived”

38. Morphosis- Tom Mayne
“…while programmatic aspects of project are being defined, our designers
begin their assessment of the contextual issues”

39. Morphosis- Tom Mayne
Vienna Housing, Vienna Austria (1995)
Lawrence Residence, California (1980)
Crawford Residence, California (1990)
Kate Mantilini Restaurant, California (1986)

40. Case Studies
Performance assessment of:
Function
Form
Economy
Time
Idea

41. Case Studies
Performance assessment of:
Function:
Activities- classification, inside, outside, in between, relationship,
distance
Form:
Aesthetic, materials, technology, context, sustainability
Economy:
Users, added value, shared usage, wastage
Time:
Life cycle, durability, future expansion or addition, heritage value
Idea:
Originality, vernacular, influences, reminiscence, copy (‘ciplak’)

42. Case Studies
Critical obvervation to identify:
-significant and relevant issues
-lesson from creation or architecture being tested
Help formulate a strong design concept for future creation

43. EXAMPLEAdib Marzuki IIUM

44. EXAMPLEZIA

45. EXAMPLEAmal Mohd Tahir IIUM

46. EXAMPLEAfif IIUM

47. EXAMPLEAkmyr Ahmad IIUM

48. EXAMPLESuhail IIUM

49. EXAMPLEAdib Maruziki IIUM

50. EXAMPLEShafei Kudos IIUM