On the Evolution of Thoughts, Shapes and Space in Architectural Design

Abstract

With a common vision, studies that looked into the configurations of shapes and structures in architectural spaces agree on the possibility of externalizing a universal language to interpret architectural artifacts. Focused on the product of architecture, it is less clear how this language evolves in the course of design. Studies within the framework of protocol analysis have been devised to decode design cognitive activity. In what concerns architecture as a social artifact, these studies were detached from the syntactic and grammatical readings of architecture. In an attempt to bring the relationship that couples form and structure together with the pronounced mental activity we aim at capturing regularities that tie thoughts, shapes and structures as they coevolve. For the purpose of the analysis, verbal comments along with their associated hand-drawn sketches were tracked in progress focusing on how space is partitioned in real-time. The addition of partitions marks changes on shapes and structures of the designed spaces. The paper discusses parametric relationships between shapes and structures as they change over the course of design and tracks their associated cognitive behavior on a linkograph. Our findings suggest that architects even though starting from different design preferences plot similarities in the course of design thinking and doing.