Skip to main content

That Elusive Concept of Concept in Architecture

A First Snapshot of Concepts during Design

  • Conference paper
Book cover Design Computing and Cognition ’04

Abstract

Design concepts in architecture typically feature in post-hoc explanations or reviews of finished design projects. By contrast, this paper tries to chase concepts during the design process, and shed more light on when, why and how they pop up in the designer’s mind. To this end, the role of concepts is studied through the eyes of an architect involved in the design of a school building. The results of this pilot study amount to a tentative model of the generation and development of concepts, which tries to take into account their highly elusive character.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 169.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Akin, Ö: 1979, Models of Architectural Knowledge: An Information Processing View of Architectural Design, PhD. Dissertation, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alexander, C: 1979, The Timeless Way of Building, Oxford University Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P: 1977, Outline of a Theory of Practice, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Carrara, G and Kalay, YE (eds): 1994, Knowledge-Based Computer-Aided Architectural Design, Elsevier, Amsterdam.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chandrasekaran, B: 1999, Multimodal perceptual representations and problem solving, in JS Gero and B Tversky (eds), Visual and Spatial Reasoning in Design, Key Centre of Design Computing and Cognition, University of Sydney, pp. 3–14.

    Google Scholar 

  • Churchland, PS and Sejnowski, T J: 1992, The Computational Brain, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cross, N: 1982, Designerly ways of knowing, Design Studies 3(4): 221–227.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cross, N: 2000, Engineering Design Methods. Strategies for Product Design, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cross N, Christiaans H and Dorst K: 1996, Introduction: The Delft protocols workshop, in N Cross, H Christiaans and K Dorst (eds), Analysing Design Activity, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, pp. 1–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Damasio, AR: 2000, The Feeling of What Happens: Body, Emotion and the Making of Consciousness, Vintage, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Darke, J: 1978, The primary generator and the design process, in WE Rogers and WH Ittelson (eds), New Directions in Environmental Design Research, EDRA, Washington D.C., pp.325–337.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ericsson, KA and Simon, HA: 1984, Protocol Analysis: Verbal Reposts as Data, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldschmidt, G: 1996, The designer as a team of one, in N Cross, H Christiaans and K Dorst (eds), Analysing Design Activity, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, pp. 65–91.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldschmidt, G: 1999, The backtalk of self-generated sketches, in JS Gero and B Tversky (eds), Visual and Spatial Reasoning in Design, Key Centre of Design Computing and Cognition, University of Sydney, pp.163–184.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamel, RG: 1990, On Designing by Architects: A Cognitive Psychological Description of the Architectural Design Process, PhD. Dissertation, Universiteit van Amsterdam, AHA books, ’s Gravenhage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heylighen, A and Neuckermans, H: 2001, Destination: Practice. Towards a maintenance contract for the architect’s degree, in W Jabi (ed), Reinventing the Discourse, ACADIA, Buffalo, NY, pp. 90–99.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holland, JH, Holyoak, KJ, Nisbett RE and Thagard, PR: 1986, Induction: Processes of Inference, Learning, and Discovery, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kosslyn SM: 1999, Visual mental images as re-presentations of the world: a cognitive neuroscience approach, in JS Gero and B Tversky (eds), Visual and Spatial Reasoning in Design, Key Centre of Design Computing and Cognition, University of Sydney, pp. 83–92.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lawson, B: 1990, How Designers Think, Butterworth Architecture, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lawson, B: 1994, Design in Mind, Butterworth Architecture, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leclercq, P and Heylighen, A: 2002, 5,8 analogies per hour, in JS Gero (ed), Artificial Intelligence in Design ’02, Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht, pp. 285–303.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Lemaire, P: 1999, Psychologie Cognitive, De Boeck Université, Paris.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leupen, B, Grafe, C, Körnig, N, Lampe, M and De Zeeuw, P: 1997, Design and Analysis, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York , NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindekens, J, Heylighen, A and Neuckermans, H: 2003, Understanding architectural redesign, in G Aouad and L Ruddock (eds), Proceedings of the 3rd International Postgraduate Research Conference in the Built and Human Environment, University of Salford, Salford, pp. 671–681.

    Google Scholar 

  • McClelland, JL and Rumelhart, DE: 1985, Distributed memory and the representation of general and specific information, Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 114 159–188.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McClelland, JL and Rumelhart, DE: 1988, Explorations in Parallel Distributed Processing, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp.11–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rowe, PG: 1987, Design Thinking, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sharp, D: 1990, Twentieth Century Architecture: A Visual History, Facts on File, New York, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stiers, J and van Beuningen, A: 2002, Designing with DYNAMO, unpublished case study report.

    Google Scholar 

  • Suwa M, and Tversky, B: 1997, What do architects and students perceive in their design sketches? A protocol analysis, Design Studies 18(4): 385–403.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taura, T, Yoshimi, T, and Ikai, T: 2002: Study of gazing points in design situation. A proposal and practice of an analytical method based on the explanation of design activities, Design Studies 23(2): 165–185.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tovey M, Porter S, and Newman R: 2003, Sketching, concept development and automotive design, Design Studies 24(2): 135–153.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2004 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

About this paper

Cite this paper

Heylighen, A., Martin, G. (2004). That Elusive Concept of Concept in Architecture. In: Gero, J.S. (eds) Design Computing and Cognition ’04. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-2393-4_4

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-2393-4_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-6650-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-2393-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics