How to Start an Architectural or interior design project

1. Thoughts on
Developing A Design
Concept
BY A. C. KALEIA

2. A good design begins with a good design concept.
You’re trying to solve a problem and your concept will lead the
way and give you direction for your design decisions.
How do you form a concept?
What questions do you need to ask in order to develop one?
How does your concept become the roadmap for your design?

3. What is a Design Concept?
Concept: Definition
an abstract idea
a plan or intention
an idea or invention to help sell or advertise a commodity (product)
an idea, theory, opinion.

4. •Verbal – the verbal parts of your concept might be words you use to describe
the project.
For example your design concept might be one of sophisticated elegance word
or sentence.
Verbal concepts tend toward the plan. They’re focused on the message your design is to
communicate.
•Visual – the visual parts of your concept might be a specific image or color
scheme. It might be an idea to use circles, rectangles or geometrical shapes.
Visual concepts tend to be a little more tough. They should come from the verbal part of
your concept.
Visual concepts are focused more on the how of conveying your message.
We can think of design concepts in two ways.
Generally verbal concepts come before visual concepts as the visual is really about how
you’ll communicate the verbal, though it likely depends on the individual and how you
think best.

5. What to do Before Creating a Design Concept
Developing a design concept is something of an individual process. There’s no one right way to generate an
idea and what works for one won’t necessarily work for another. However there are parts to the process that
everyone should go through.
•Research –You’ll have to do your own research into their industry looking at competing sites and trying to
understand more about. The next part is finding ways you can gather inspiration and generate ideas,
•Defining the problem – You can’t solve a problem without knowing what that problem is. Before developing a
concept for a project you need to talk to your client and ask questions about the client’s brand, their customers,
their general market.
Questions you should be asking yourself and your client.
•What is your client’s brand?
•Who are your client’s customers?
•What are the requirements for the project?
•What is the objective of the project?
•What’s the budget for the project?
The answers to each of the above should give you ideas for your design concept.

6. For example BMW and Volkswagen have two different brands with different types of customers. The
goals of their showrooms might be the same (to sell cars) and different in others (history of the car vs
technical specs). Knowing these things should start to point you toward a concept.
You should be searching as many questions as you can in order to understand as much as possible
about your client, your client’s business, their customers.

7. How To Develop Architectural Concepts
Architectural concepts are the designers way of responding to the design
situation presented to them. They are a means of translating the non-physical
design problem into the physical building product. Every project will have
critical issues, central themes or problem essences, and the general issues of
designing a building can come under the following categories:
•Functional zoning
•Architectural space
•Circulation and building form
•Response to concept
•Building envelope

8. This diagram is a reaction to the brief for a cancer care centre to be built in the grounds of a
hospital. It addresses a few of the elements discussed above – it is not an extensive list but gives
you an idea of the sort of things to be thinking about.

9. Design Factor
How will you interpret the design problems and use your values and philosophies to come
up with the design solution?
How do you understand the design brief?
What are your responsibilities as a designer?
Some of the factors you will need to consider are:
•Function
•Form
•Space
•Geometry
•Context
•Human factors
•Economic constraints
•Enclosure
•Limits
•Opportunities
You need to break down the elements of the brief and give yourself a full understanding of the
requirements of the project. Consider all of the above in relation to your project. Draw out diagrams

10. Sketch
A useful way to develop your ideas, sketch out your concepts. Whether it is tiny elements
of design detail, or general form of your building. Keep referring back to your sketches,
as they may inspire a development of design.

12. Stages of design:

13. It’s your idea for how you’ll solve the problem of communicating your client’s message.
While there is no one way to develop a concept the first necessary step is gathering
information.
You gather information by searching as you can for similar projects and try to read
between the lines.
THE BEST DESIGNS START WITH A GREAT CONCEPT.
Summary
The more information you have
The better you’ll be able to create different concepts
for the design.

14. THANK YOU
A R C H I T E C T
Ahmad ch. Kaleia