hi everyone and welcome back to our channel the number one place for designers artists
and creators i'm jacqueline and i'm an interior architect and designer here at D & B in today's
video i wanted to talk about how to create a design concept and my design guide process to help
you and really it's for any architects and interior designers who are struggling to come
up with a concept or who need to develop their idea even further or if you are an architecture
or interior design student then i hope that this really helps you out and gives you a foundation
for creating a concept that being said let's jump into the video now i'm not sure what you
guys think but for me coming up with a creative and innovative design concept is the hardest part
of any project however when i start a project i do have some guidelines that steer my idea generation
and initial ideas and before i give too much away i do want this video to be completely balanced in
terms of coming up with a concept for architecture as well as coming up with one for interior design
so what is a design concept then a concept is the idea that ultimately influences your final outcome
and shapes your whole design scheme and having a clear concept is usually favored by clients
because they can clearly see your idea generation and yes although we're inspired by the greats like
frank gehry and his method of scrunching up a bit of paper we need to also be realistic
and have a few guidelines that we follow on every project so let's unpick some concepts to start
okay so here we have a coastal retreat a sweet shop and a residential property
so pause the video and try to work out what types of concepts lay the foundation
for these designs in other words what has influenced the design decisions in each scheme
the coastal property has clearly been inspired by its surroundings with the natural fabrics ocean
colour scheme and artwork too the sweet shop has been inspired by the grimm's brothers fairy tale
hansel and gretel and the residential project has been influenced by the sun direction
and sight now these were just a few examples but in my eyes there are five concept inspiration
groups to look at sight narrative culture the client's brief and different design styles
and you may be thinking why isn't sustainability on the list and well personally to me i think that
we should be thinking about sustainable factors all of the time on a project
and that sustainability shouldn't be boxed into its own group it's a design element to take into
consideration not a movement or design style but let's dive into those categories i said even
further of course every project starts with a site analysis where you collect all the information of
a site and that ultimately does start the design process once you know the location of a project
you need to be documenting all the information surrounding it and the information that you need
to be documenting is the location the history the accessibility surrounding buildings views
from the site dimensions legal documents topography and natural surroundings materials
utility areas and the climate sun direction the wind direction and of course hazards
wow long list right it may seem ridiculously long but you do need to know all this information for
a project and especially if you are designing a building from scratch all these aspects will
give you a solid understanding of the site so that you can use each individual element
as guides when developing your concept a small plot of land ultimately leads to a small build
this example of a church in new zealand by dalman architecture really highlights how the
positioning of the window has ultimately allowed a beautiful shadow to be cast onto the wall
optimizing the sun direction in this case there are also many designs that blend into
the landscape that surrounds them in order to respect the natural beauty of the location
or they may even stand out but rather use the materials found in the surrounding landscape
a great example of design inspired by the site is the outlook house by faulkner archisex
they have purposely designed the house to frame the forest views
use thick concrete walls for insulation as the climate gets extremely cold in the winter and
red and orange glass suggests the color of cooling magma referencing the site's geology and offering
a warm approach so you can see how sight is such an important factor when thinking about your
design concept and let me know in the comments if you prefer designing with an existing build
or designing from scratch use the aspects i said and also use it like a checklist and personally i
always go onto a site and handwrite notes and then i normally write that up in a questionnaire format
and i also do a hand-drawn site diagram so that i have a visual aid too and of course
these are absolutely fine to present to the client but if you wanted to level up your
um presentation even more i would personally do a more complex 3d model and the next category is
narrative and this is a great idea if you want to convey a story or theory behind a concept so
let's dive into some of these examples first the shard designed by renzo piano building workshop
when talked into designing a tall building at london's major transportation hub
piano initially disliked the idea but then he went on to sketching a spy-like form
rising from the river thames on the back of a napkin in a restaurant piano's design was
inspired by the adjacent railway lines mass of a sailing ship and caneletto's london spires
so he didn't actually conjure the name the shard it was the english heritage organization that did
by objecting to piano's tower and claiming it would be a shard of glass through the heart of
the historical london quite funny right another example is deschum restaurant in london designed
by aphrodite crazer and russell sage studio the restaurant diners are invited to imagine mid-20th
century bombay at this restaurant the restaurant is seeped in narrative and a quite long one at
that but in summary zoroastrian iranian immigrants crossed the indian ocean from iran to arrive
in early 20th century colonial bombay they worked in the homes of established party families
leaving to set up their own cafes these irani cafes became an irreplaceable bombay institution
an institution which earned a fun place in the hearts of the people of bombay
regardless of caste and class by reliably providing a cheap snack a meal or just a cup
of chai and a refuge from the street i urge you to read the full description on their website because
it truly is fascinating and a great example of how narrative can influence your design concept and
the third category is culture and this group can be broken down into different parts such as food
architecture fashion celebrations and much more take a look at this project we did for a moroccan
spa aham is a traditional spa experience that originated back in the ottoman empire
they were public bath houses where people were cleansed scrubbed and there were also social
meeting areas too whereas today her mums are seen as a luxury spa treatment consisting of a full
body exfoliation steam massage and swim i already knew about this cultural moroccan tradition as i
went traveling there in 2015 to marrakech if you love architecture and interior design please visit
here the intricacy colors and craftsmanship are really next level i would definitely be going
back because laszlo hasn't been so i'd love to show him all the amazing architecture and food
i think that's also a small tip to add within this category travel inspires your ideas and
thoughts it opens you up to the wider world new experiences cultures and design ideas and i know
that it's expensive to travel but i highly suggest traveling to new places to feed your design
inspiration because i know for myself this morocco trip really did inspire me and stay with me
anyway back to the hammam when designing the scheme i wanted it to be traditional as well as
having a luxurious feel and i hope that that comes across in these visualizations i was actually
inspired by moroccan food and if you don't see it here do you see it after the mood board
as you can see the warm rich colours of the souk spices ultimately chose the colour scheme i also
wanted a luxurious feel which is why i included metallic elements and i wanted to use some light
fittings for the lighting because we all know that morocco are famous for their exquisite moroccan
lamps i hope that with the mood board you can see how i was influenced by various cultural aspects
when it comes to the hamam design a great example of cultural aspects can be seen in
langji's cartilage project in chengdu the building takes elements from traditional
chinese design and modernizes them these structural fixtures or dugong
look really aesthetic but they are actually way more functional than they look
they are designed so that when there is a strong earthquake the building does not crumble
but rather moves with the flow of the earthquake the system is a series of interlocking beams cut
to precise measurements that when compressed under the weight of buildings heavy timber roofs
are strong enough to withstand an earthquake it's truly genius so you can see how this was
influenced by cultural aspects but also factors surrounding the site and geography of the location
my fourth category for you guys is the client's brief without the client's brief
we can't go on to design the scheme let alone a concept and they may be very vague with their
desires or they may be very specific we all know that the client is hiring us it is so that we can
materialize their dream vision into a reality but unfortunately for us um when it comes to
some clients they really do think that what our job is to turn their ugly scheme into reality
and of course they don't know that it's ugly but we clearly do and let me stop you right
there if you think the client is making you design something that is hideous or actually dangerous
then please leave the project because it's your own design reputation and taste that you're
tarnishing i also can't stand when celebrities say that they designed their own house when really all
they did was say yes or no to material choices put forward by the designer the designer did
the work you didn't do anything nonetheless the client is king we need to take on board
their wants and needs even if they're not quite sure what that actually might be it's our job
to lay out to them what isn't working and why their desires and what they need and ultimately
come up with a solution for all of the above and most importantly we need to know their
budget the budget will then form a base of how far we can actually go in terms of the concept
i usually carry out a client questionnaire so that i'm absolutely crystal clear on what the
client wants and then i'll go on to brainstorm some ideas and map out the client's feedback into
a diagram as well i also always ask my client if they have a particular style that they like
or perhaps they'll even show me some photos and then i have to deduce a style from what they've
shown me and i doubt that an architecture client would ask for a specific style as usually that's
up to the architect and their design practice but you never know maybe someone will ask for a
brutalist style house i'm just saying that it's more common in interior design for clients to
specify a specific style that they like pause for a sec and think about what styles these might be
industrial futuristic mid-century modern and maximalist and i'm not going to go
into detail about the styles and how many there are because that's a video for another time but
when thinking about your concept do also think if there's a particular style that you're going for
because you'll find more online tools like pinterest where you can clearly find inspiration
on these types of styles it's also worth saying that if you have a plot of land that's empties
to work with then you have a lot of free range there and oppositely if you're working with a
current building or space then you can bump into a lot of limitations and problems
and that limits your design concept choices but if you are designing on a clean slate then that can
cause a lot of problems too as you have nothing to sort of guide you in your direction making
that another difficult situation so always keep in mind what problems and restrictions there are with
your projects as that will definitely influence your design concept now there are other exercises
you can do to develop your concept even further like programming or zoning diagramming sketching
and so many more but i'm not going to go into those because those are more like developmental
tools that just refine the circulation structure and planning of the project compared to actually
changing the concept idea i hope that makes sense now in terms of piecing these bits together and
showing them to the client there are certain things that you need to show concept sketches
these can be basic and messy zoning or programming diagrams imagery and mood boards site analysis
physical models detailed sketches if you just type that in pinterest so many more will come up
giving you enough inspiration i would also suggest to do hand drawings as well as the
digital stuff because i found that clients really do like that hand-drawn element and it's also sad
because it's dying out because of the digital era so definitely continue to do some hand-drawn work
and i really recommend looking at big architects or bjark ingles website because they have some of
the best concept diagrams i've seen and that was my guide on creating a design concept and if you
have any questions then please say something in the comments and i'll help you as best as i can
and if you're new to the channel then welcome this channel is all about interior design
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okay guys thanks for watching and i'll see you in the next video bye
you