a concept is the idea that shapes a design project and pushes it forward
this video will take you through the process that I go through to develop
architectural concepts all demonstrated with one of my projects an aircraft
workshop this episode is sponsored by Skillshare but more on that later for
now let's dive into the design process
it takes less than 10 seconds to develop first impressions of someone and that
impression sets the tone for the relationship that follows similarly the
first impression that we have of the site is important it will guide future
design decisions and it's important to document them from the beginning the
site was in RAF Cosford which is a Royal Air Force Station that opened in 1938 as
a part of the pre-world War two RAF expansion plan we were asked to design a
museum building for the restoration an exhibition of military aircraft my first
impression was the scale of the museum designed by fielding Clegg Bradley
Studios rising 130 meters into the air my design I had to respect that and work
with it in some way the site will suggest a series of parameters that will
affect the architectural design for example broad considerations might
include orientation how the Sun moves are on the site and access how do you
arrive at the site what is the journey from and to the building for this
project I wanted you to be able to seek the peak of the building tower between
the buildings which sparks your curiosity I've also added these red
sculptural objects that help guide you through the site and into my building a
major concert driver for me was a figure-ground study which is a type of
drawing that map's buildings as solid blocks which then clearly identifies the
space around them from that study I have noticed a radial organization about the
context and the center was my building which helped initiate the concept of
radiating angles shown in my early sketches a step that I stress the
importance of especially from the beginning of the project is to work
smarter and not harder one thing this really helped with that has been taking
classes on Skillshare that are more focused on
productivity skillshare as you know is an online learning community where you
can take classes on all sorts of topics from creative writing to business and
marketing the class that I took most recently was by a Productivity expert
Thomas friend who I was so thrilled to see as a teacher on Skillshare because
I've been following his YouTube channel for some time now his class about real
productivity talks about how to build habits that turn into long lasting
routines which in turn helps you make progress on your long term goals all
demonstrated with realistic examples so my friends I have a link in the
description that you can use to get a 2 month free trial otherwise the annual
subscription of Skillshare is less than 10 dollars a month which is still
affordable because I was working on a building typology I was unfamiliar with
I use precedent studies as a starting point for my concept if I was working on
a building type I have experience in I would still find precedents however once
that challenged long-held beliefs or organizational layouts I also analyze
major spaces in terms of area dimension environment relationship with other
spaces services fittings and construction now all of this necessary
information is something that I collect for every single project, it might seem
a lot however in time you'll soon build an imaginary library in the back of your
mind when you're designing and having this collection makes the design process
a lot more enjoyable the precedent that helped inform my design was paradise by
Schwartz fest nosov architects as you can see by the drawings it's a simple
building meaning that the drawings are easy to scale and then measure the
organization of the plan was straightforward as well which means I
can understand the fundamental relationships between spaces then to
challenge the brief and really push the boundary with the architecture I looked
at many precedents specifically Daniel Liebeskind who is a Polish American
architect best known for his military Museum in Berlin from Daniel Libeskind I
learned to appreciate the imperfections of the slanted walls acute angles and
uncomfortable spaces I was also very interested in how he creates his forms
through multiple volumes in my design I chose to organize each major space into
a tailored specific volume of its own the resulting form is a complex
composition of different volumes together in an abstract way that
radiates and creates cavities for plants and life to grow with finding
high-quality precedents I rely mostly on architectural books in the library that
shows examples of my building typology or online sites such as Archdaily and
Dezeen for this project the client wanted a signature building to attract
more visitors the design had to have a connection with an adjacent hangar
building to allow visitors to move from one building to another smoothly in my
design my connection with the other building was in the form of a tower that
takes you underground into the gallery spaces exhibiting the after-effects of
the war then you are led into an interior courtyard with a floating plane
where you get slivers of light and then you transition into the top floor where
you get ample daylight I try to create this transition between darkness and
light to give you an expression of the effects of conflict and violence
once we've gathered all of the necessary information it's time now to begin
processing it into a usable form such as development sketches and development
sketch models I rely mostly on sketches because sketches have a character and
they lack accuracy so you'll see that I have a really big sketchbook with loads
of sketches as you sketch and as you develop fragments of your concept
fragments of your ideas will start to appear slowly but you just have to trust
it and go with it as you can see in my first two presentations the concept was
there ish but did not fully transfer to the drawings if you give it enough time
and effort it will evolve into something creative but you just have to trust the
process
even though development was the previous stage it doesn't end there
I rarely create CAD drawings that work from the first attempt as you can see by
this CAD file I went through a large amount of CAD drawings before I designed
let's say the perfect one so my advice is to combine sketches and CAD at the
same time if you know that you need a core for a high-rise project theater
classrooms offices etc start drawing minimum and standard spaces in
AutoCAD they don't have to be perfect but then you can print them to scale and
layer on sketches the result is a combination of the accuracy of the CAD
drawings and the playful nature of the sketches and then once you're happy with
that you can take it fully and develop it on AutoCAD
time management is a valuable skill as we've previously discussed because trust
me I know how easy it is to simply get carried away with your creative process
but there comes a time when you need to put the pen down and focus on their
representations preferably two weeks before the deadline I won't discuss
representation about this project in further detail as I have previously
shown my thought process in this video where I share a few tutorials and
representation tips all combined for this project finally remember that even
though this video is in a straightforward format design process is
it linear you don't create concepts and cling to it they develop and evolve as
you present your ideas and learn a little more each day
my concept started off as a fragmented building but then as it evolves I added
a layer of complexity each time I sketched in today's episode of secret
survival show I will be answering a question by Art Dray I don't have a
proper desk at home so I mostly sit on the floor I do sit sometimes on the bed
to rest but I try to be strict and keep my normal routine intact as much as
possible which involves waking up early and then start working on my videos for
YouTube or my university projects at 9:00 I work from 9:00 to 1:00 and then I
always have a lunch break from 1 to 2 otherwise, I get hangry frustrated and
become unproductive but because my lunch break is always at this time when I'm
tired or bored at 11:30 or 12:00 and I want to take a break I can stop myself
so easily because lunch is at 1:00 I have something to look forward to where
I can have a nice long break and then I work from 2 - I know actually like my
work never stops does it um sometimes until 8 sometimes until 10
mostly until 11 where I go to bed I know how hard it is to be productive when
you're at home so I hope that you are doing well and you are staying positive
let me know in the comments who is an essential part in your design process
and what have you been doing to stay productive during this time I hope you
found this video helpful I'm Rasha Shrourou and I will