theory III

CHAPTER : 1

CASE STUDIES IN DESIGN THINKING
LEC:1

Research
Methodology and method
Types and methods of research
Case study method
Data collection and processing
Design thinking
Architecture design
Design thinking of a good designer

RESEARCH
Doing research is a creative activity which allows to gain a much clearer perception of selected issues
In case of studying an architectural establishment ???
Researches could be:
quantitative
qualitative

Research is a multi-stated process adopted to fulfil the objectives (almost an empirical cycle of research):
1.Formulating a topic
2.Reviewing the literature
3.Choosing a strategy
4.Collecting data
5.Analysing data
6.Answering the research question
7.Testing the results
8.Writing up the results

Research methodology and method
What is the difference?
Methodology: theory of generalised overview of any types of research
Method: specific and addressing more of individual issue

TYPES OF RESEARCH
Generally of three types:
*Exploratory: What is needed?
*Descriptive: What really is it?
*Explanatory: How it generally operates?

Several methods out of those case study is one
Case Study: is a method to gather the information and analyse them for generalisation. One of more real life examples are selected as cases so that a broader generalisation could be made.

Selection of case
Unit of analysis: what is to be analysed and up to which level? (sets the limitation of boundaries of research)
For example community, experts, stakeholders, quantifiable interpretations
Collection of data:
Quantitative: dimensions, numbers, quantity
Ht of the building, width of the street, depth of the courtyards, number of shops etc
Qualitative: descriptions, reasons, opinions, relations etc
Where is it located? What is the use? Why it is important? How it operates?


DATA AND THEIR COLLECTION
Data as discussed earlier are not only of two types but according to their nature they are:
*Primary and secondary data
*Primary data is collected on the site by the researcher however secondary data is the data which already exist ( like population, number of houses, physical facilities etc.)

Secondary data could be:
*Documentary data ( found in documents)
*Survey-based data ( found in plans, maps, indexes etc.)
*Compiled from multiple sources ( publications of CBS, Municipality profiles etc.)

Collection of primary data could be done through two methods:
Participants observation
which focuses on:
*Validity
*Observer bias
has advantages like:
*Clear explanation of what is going on
*Clear insight of significant social processes to the researcher
*Opportunity to experience the real emotions of those being researched
*Almost all data could be used later

Structured observation
which focuses on:
*Short term research
*Indirect involvement of researcher
*samples
has advantages like:
*Anyone could be involved
*Yielding of highly reliable results ( more of tentative nature)
*But data are expensive to collect, sometimes less valid and reliable because of the observer effect

DATA COLLECTION AND QUESTIONNAIRES
How structured observations are done?
By open interviews
Put questions which may satisfy your problem buy be aware that you may miss the information your respondent gave so
Keep notes, records, snaps etc but ask the respondent before doing it

By Structured interviews
Structured interviews ( sometimes semi-structured too) are done with the help of sets of questions, called as questionnaires.
*Prepare sets of questions, type them and fill them in front of your respondent
*Before starting to ask, make your objectives clear
*Make the questions non-ambiguous, objective and less time consuming ( take max of 30 minutes per respondent)
*Don’t put offending and irrelevant questions
**Don’t ask additional favour
*Respect your respondent
*Codifying and numbering should be done if the research is too large

Focus group discussion
*If the answer is expected from a certain group of people, FGD could be done
*In this case, you will work as a interviewer and group will act as interviewee
*Put questions in a systematic order and try to invite different people from your sample
*Record the discussion using technology

SAMPLE
Since all the research population could not be interviewed, samples has to be taken
Samples might be classified according to their:
*Location
*Age group
*Social status
This will help to have an overview of the situation and is less time consuming.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS:
Being based on analysis, conclusion is drawn.
Conclusion contributes for recommendation.
Being based on recommendations, further process in the real life is carried out.
Your case study is a part of research and your finding as conclusion is to be presented to the experts and colleagues for recommendation.

Case studies in Design Thinking
LEC:2

Design thinking
What is architectural design?
A systematic and intelligent process
*Of generating
*Of evaluating
*Of specifying
the best possible solution whose forms and function meet the clients requirements and satisfies the specific sets of constraints

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN
Involves qualified professionals
Leader is the ARCHITECT
To whom to work?
To user
Directly tied with innovation
Design thinking is one of the possible methodologies for the achievement of appropriate and innovative product satisfying the user’s demands

DESIGN THINKING OF A GOOD DESIGNER:
could be characterized as the ability to:
Tolerate ambiguity created by the sets of divergent and convergent questions;
Maintain the sight of a wider spectrum of the product;
Handle uncertainty created while:
recognizing the context;
making estimates;
performing experiments;

Make decisions;
Think as a part of team in a social process;
Think and communicate in several languages of design;
In spite of all aforementioned factors, the key role played by following actors which contribute for a fruitful design.
Client and society
Architects
Contractors

ROLE OF SOCITY AND CLIENT IN DESIGN THINKING
What is a client?
A person or a group of people willing to invest for a building or an infrastructure ( if talked of architectural or engineering designs)
Does a client represent the society?
Does because society is the group of individuals having common way of life .
What a society has?
It contains people who have similar problems and similarly they think to find out the solution.

Society has
*Identical problem and identical solution
* often perceived nowadays as chaotic (disordered) but it also has a particular structure
*behaves like authority in a representative manner
*criticizes Architecture quite differently than that of an individual

Society
*Societal taste Vs individual taste
*to a certain degree, free itself from pure individual interest whenever criticizing Architecture
* criticizes Architecture taking a base of unsuccessful design on the ground of practical and economical information.
*criticizes Architecture more objectively rarely realizing that common needs frequently have to be satisfied in unconventional ways in order to make the solution more effective

SOCIETY AND ARCHITECTURE:

architecture is being criticized to be more fantastic, artistic and not concentrated on commodity
Do you agree on it? Example PREM PINDA
*architecture has to address commodity reflecting social focus to the community
*Beauty and power of architecture must be underpinned by a social dimension.
*all the projects embody a strong social concern
Relation exists between society and architecture

*Any project is a physical expression of the ways in which different societies respond to the task of educating, informing, nurturing, governing and caring for its citizens
*From courthouses to kindergartens, from town halls to centres for handicapped children, each articulates an important aspect of human life.
*Without this social dimension, humankind is reduced to an assortment of individual private pursuits, with no notion of community or the greater good

*As the most social of the arts, architecture has always had a critical role to play in this expression, providing the built framework that mirrors, regulates and defines society
*much recent architecture has retreated from social responsiveness, becoming instead self-referential and self-motivated.
*Empathy and social conscience have been replaced by narcissism and self-indulgence.

*Society accepts your design if it is cheap. Is this phenomenon good?
*Architecture's current failure to achieve a wider social responsiveness and consensus can be attributed to many factors, but one of these must surely be the way in which buildings are viewed simply as economic commodities. These days, the outcome of architecture is viewed exclusively as an economic transaction.

*Another important aspect of architecture's social dimension>> the ability to respond in a perceptive way to traditional patterns of life with interpretations of contemporary technology and need.
*…Society is that menacing character that makes a successful person feel guilty about his success…

LEC 3: LECTURE ON ALTITUDE

What is attitude?
*often heard the term
Example: Half filled or half empty??
*Is a psychological phenomenon
*Could be at individual level or at mass level
*Reflected on the interpretations of individual or a group
Example: House fly on the nose of the professor

Taking consideration of the interpretation of any individual, the attitude is readable
Excersise: a COBRA in the lecture hall
Group A: Laugh Loud
Group B: Cobra should be killed
Group C:Cobra should be let free as it is then dangerous if someone disturbs it

*Negative attitude often has a kind of offending nature
*Positive is more of defending and cool in nature
*Reluctant is WHO CARES? WHY TO BOTHER??

Various people thus have various perception on the same thing.
*Class input
-Time
-Context
-Mood
-Reflexive action
How a building is then judged by an individual? Does attitude play role while judging a building?

The same building is judged to be beautiful and not beautiful by the same person. Do you agree?
If yes, why ? What are the parameters that makes the change in perception?

Attitude is also changing over the time but it changes in a large cycle but perceptions are changed rapidly
Is there any connection with mood and attitude?
No, there is not the direct connection.
If, is there any indirect connection?
Discuss

*Mood contributes for react.
*Reaction leads to perceive.
*Perceptions are reflected on the attitude.

“…attitude is often taken as the outcome of the summation of event and the reaction on that particular incident…”

*Is attitude constant?
-could be different to the same thing depending upon the situation as the reaction is the changing factor
-One may not react as he or she has reacted earlier

REACTION:

*What is it?
-Reaction is the outcome of aggregation of belief, focus and vision.
*What is belief?
-belief of a person is expressed by his/her activities, words, writings, actions etc. example: car sticker ‘ LIFE IS A BITCH’
-Sometimes the sticker might have been patched just for the sake of sticking something on the back of the car, but usually your likes are selected by you.

*What is focus?
-On where you are focusing matters a lot to trace your beliefs. Example:
-hole of the doughnut: does that have any sense? Perhaps not!!
-That hole make the bread doughnut but as a consumer are you buying that hole? If not, why are you focusing on that?
-You are focusing on the wrong object and your reaction would entirely different.

*Vision also contributes for reaction.
*Your vision is future oriented or something you want to see.
*If something happens which confronts to your vision, then your reaction would be negative.
*IS ATTITUDE THEREFORE STATIC?


CHAPTER : 2

PRIVACY, FILTER AND INSULATOR

INTRODUCTION
“openness in their life” Vs privacy
*certain level of privacy is maintained in life of any individual.
*classical architectural definition>> a building should be structurally sound, weather tight, functional and stimulating the senses through its gesture. Every design is dominated by one of three basic aspects of architecture.
*entire concept of architecture revolves around security and safety>> everywhere the level of privacy exists as the factor of security .
* If there were no security requirements, architecture of human civilization may not have reached in the contemporary position.

*One has to expose something hiding more things.
*A grown up child dares to enter the room of parents and the parents don’t like their children to enter their room just because of the privacy they intend to maintain.
*The boundary is needed between the public and private life of any individual.
* a residence is a private zone for a family and rooms for individuals.
*Housewives do not share kitchen with others because they’d love to maintain a certain level of privacy in their kitchen.
* personal computer with pass words for maintaining privacy.

*People buy a plot and construct the boundary wall immediately, why?
-could be several reasons behind it being privacy one of them. People do not like to be peeped and once there exists a boundary wall, they feel more secured and lying in a private space.
-Wall is for those who do not like to interfere others or create problems. If someone wants to break the social rules a wall merely interrupts him to do so.
Why people hold pets? Especially DOGS?!

*Human activities could be categorized into four broader types:
-Intimate>> conversation of husband and wife
-Personal>> conversation between two friends
-Social>> conversation in group
-Public>> politician addressing public

PRIVACY:
*refers to isolation and limited distance is expected.
*is needed everywhere, be it a residence or a public building
-An outsider or not directly concerned people hardly enter a public building. If they enter the building they might not go direct inside the chief’s room before asking until and unless the intention is clear.
-Security guard, personal assistant
-the concept of appointment

*Is cultural in nature
-Bathing considered as private activity but one can find ladies taking bath in urban spaces in Kathmandu valley
*is a psychological aspect that influences architecture a lot.
-Spaces where people have direct relations are kept usually on the ground floors and other spaces are kept on upper floor to maintain privacy<<>> major factor in design.
-The towns in the medieval age>> designed considering security with first priority.
-certain criteria for the security is needed because crime is being increasing day by day.
- Roller shutters outside the windows of departmental stores or grills outside the window on the ground floor of residential buildings are the outcome of security requirement.

FILTERS AND INSULATORS:

*Filters and insulators provide physical comfort inside the building and at the same time creating a positive psychological impact.
-An interior full of noise and more/less than 18?C do not pose a character of physical comfort, which directly influence psychology of a person.
-Day light even has a great role for the creation of comfort as it brightens the interior of the building. But GLARE discomforts.
-Shading devices play a role of filter

FILTER:

*One of the major Building task>> moderation of climate
-Exterior is considered to be both physically and socially inconvenient or uncomfortable
-Exterior contains heat in summer and cold in winter
-Air, land and water in the exterior is polluted
-Crimes are prevalent in exterior
-Such negatives could be reduced if not eliminated by using the filters
-By making blank walls ( as they work as filter against noise, heat and humidity)
-By deploying security system ( as they work against anti-social activities)

*Corridors and staircases >> filter.
-If the building is closer to the busy road people prefer to have a corridor in the adjacent side as it help to reduce the intensity of sound in a great extent.
-jali windows are also play a role of filter>> to stop the insects to enter and let wind to pass through.

INSULATORS:

*Filters and insulators are almost the same
-Filtration is possible because of the insulating properties of materials or the system
-If wall is taken as example, the wall insulates the heat or light and hence filters them to get in to the building
-So far as smell is concerned, a wall is a barrier.
*Availability of several insulating materials in the market have contributed to achieve greater degree of filtration too.

*insulators also play a vital role to maintain privacy as well.
-in apartment building, thickness of the wall between two apartments if too low that the neighbor could listen what is happening in the next apartment. Is it good? If not, what would you do?
-The chamber of department chief, even if is visible, is required to be soundproof in order to maintain the privacy. Providing sound insulators does it.
-In designing of theaters the wall acts not only as a filter but also as an insulator not allowing the sound to come out of the hall.

CHAPTER III: RESIDENTIAL ENVIORNMENT AND SELECTION CRITERIA

Content

Introduction
Good physical environment
*Heat control
-Using thick walls
-Orientation
-Use of proper vegetation
-Use of proper materials and tehchnology
*Light control
-Provision of properly sized windows
-Use of artificial lighting
*Sound control
-Sitting the building
-Use of screen walls and vegetation
*Smell control
-Insects and dust control

INTRODUCTION:

Residences>> largest bulk of architecture
*Nepal living standard Survey( 2004)>>
-92% of the total households live in their own residences
-3 million houses: 2.7 million in rural areas and 0.3 million in urban areas
-Tremendous migration resulting in population growth in urban areas due to economic opportunities leading towards the pressure in residence design>> resulted in mushrooming of apartment buildings in Kathmandu valley

-People spend half of their life in the residence hence residential environment has to be good
-Residential environment is reflected in the human behavior
-A good physical environment contributes to develop good social and cultural environment.
-Good residential environment contributes to build good personality of a person.

Prof. C. N. Scultz has written
“…it is convenient to divide our environment into physical, social and cultural objects. Together they make up the world. The classes of objects are logically interrelated. The cultural objects (ideas, works of art) etc. are known through social and physical manifestations while social objects are known through the study of behavior (physical manifestations). The physical objects finally are known through observations, and may be reduced through observation, and may be reduced to sense data or phenomena. This does not imply that the higher objects consists of the lower ones; it is a matter of course that a cultural object is different from and something more than its physical manifestation…”
*Physical environment>> observation
*Social environment>> study of behavior
*Cultural environment>> social and physical manifestation

GOOD PHYSICAL ENVIORNMENT:
Environment is totality of the objects around.
One of the main objectives of architecture is to create a good environment.
Extremity of temperature causes problems and results in bad environment. The same is with glare, sound, smell, dust, insects etc.


HEAT CONTROL:
*Places are hot in summer and cold in winter.
*The breeze makes a difference in the degree of hotness and coolness.
*The temperature around 17? C is considered to be the comfortable temperature for human beings, hence the building has to be designed accordingly.
*There are some means to achieve such desired degree of temperature. They are:
-Using thick walls
-Orientation
-Use of proper vegetation
-Use of proper materials and technology

HEAT CONTROL FOR GOOD PHYSICAL CONTROL:
**Using thick walls:
*In older traditions, this technology was popular. In Kathmandu context, several such examples are found in traditional Newari houses.
*Mud mortar also contributes for thermal control, hence, before mechanical devices and thermal insulators were developed, people used mud for thermal insulation.
-Use of Kacchi appa: in Newari houses and Adobe construction elsewhere were for thermal comfort.

ORIENTATION:
*The proper orientation of the building also contributes for thermal control.
-In the cold places, living rooms and bed rooms are orientated towards south. Example>>Himalayan architecture
-In hot climates, such rooms are placed either in the north or in east. Example>> Terai architecture
Orientation:
Aristotle>>
“…For the well being and health…the home stead should be airy in summer and sunny in winter. A home stead possessing these qualities would be longer than it is deep; and the main front would face south…”
According to Xenophon in his memorabilia, Socrates>>
“… when one builds a house must he not see to it be a pleasant and convenient as possible? And pleasant is to be cool in summer but warm in winter. In those houses, then, that look towards the south, the winter sun shines down into the paestades ( portico) while in summer, passing high above our heads and over our roofs, it throws them in shadow…”

-Its not always possible to place the rooms according to principles. In such cases special devices like louvers, shading devices, deep porticos are used.

USE OF PROPER VEGETATION:
Trees which shed the leaves in winter and grow them in the summer>> Deciduous<<>> Palm trees<<>> 30-60 Lumens/ ft²
Germany>> 12-25 Lumens/ ft²
Britain>> 30-100Lumens/ ft²
USA>> 100-150 Lumens/ ft²

**Light control could be achieved by:
*Provision of properly sized windows
-Natural light always is the best solution to the purpose
-To have natural light inside the building, properly sized windows are needed
-If there is glare inside the building because of the larger windows, use of louvers, curtains have to be used.
-Common practice>> Area of window=25% of the floor area
*Use of artificial lighting
-Not a sustainable solution, is cost intensive but inevitable in most of the urban cases
-Uses fluorescent or incandescent lighting fixtures

SOUND CONTROL FOR GOOD PHYSICAL ENVIORNMENT:

*Sound inside a building could be internal as well as external
*Sound of excessive intensity (more than 60 dB)creates noise.
*External noises are from automobiles, crowd, street animals etc. whereas internal noises are produced by the domestic or office equipments like grinders, refrigerators, mixers, typewriters, sound systems etc.
*Sound control is possible through following means:
-Sitting the building>> locate away from the noise source, if that is not possible then make double panel window shutters, place the building perpendicular (not parallel) to the noise source, don’t place rooms of regular use to the side of noise source or make cavity wall or sound buffer space
-Use of screen wall and vegetation>> plants and trees absorb sound or filter it. Screen wall also does the same,

SMELL, INSECT AND DUST CONTROL FOR GOOD RESIDENTIAL ENVIORNMENT:

*Smell control
-is the foul air produced usually by organic waste. Since it is air-bound, it is not possible to restrict smell. Hence, technique similar to sound control is better solution in such cases.
-Air gaps could be sealed.
-Identifying the air path helps to control the smell in the building.
*Insects and dust control
-Insects and dusts create health hazards to the people.
-To control the dust, turfing and vegetation is sustainable approach whereas for insect control, Jali shutters could be used in the openings exposed to the exterior of the building.

LECTURE IV: LANDSCAPE:

MODERN LANDSCAPE AND ALTITUDE TOWARD IT

DEFINATION:
*Landscaping deals with various components of nature like geography, topography, panorama, land, site, ground, trees and bushes, water and water spouts, scenery, pavements etc
*Landscaping refers to early days of human civilisation (e.g. Hanging garden), it continued and was refined. In our era, it is inevitable component of design.

BACKDROPS:
*Landscape thus enhanced the exterior environment in a great extent and it came along with architecture in human civilization.
*Landscape being a different specialization, has a correlation with architecture. They supplement each other.
*Landscape deals with basic three kinds:
-Natural
-With minor human intervention (like farmland)
-With major human intervention (creation of completely new environment like parks)

LANDSCAPE DESIGN:
*Figure and ground
-Figure: designed component
-Ground: base for design

FIGURE:
-Complementary or contrast to nature
-Usually sculptures, monuments and even the buildings
-Vertical (??)
-Key attraction or the focal point

LANDSCAPE AND ITS ELEMENTS:
*Figure (see previous lecture)
*Ground: the space to place the figure, called as canvas, pleasant if the figure and the ground supplement each other

ELEMENTS OF LANDSCAPE:
-Land forms,
-Water
-Vegetation
-Manmade structures

DEFINATION:
-Landscape is reflection of the land use of that particular area
-Use of vegetation is expected in larger quantity and dominating
-Should not challenge nature but has to supplement

RAW MATERIALS OF LANDSCAPE:

-As the building, landscaping also has similar raw materials: Mineral based and vegetative materials.
-Mineral based materials: brick, stone, cement, lime, sand, water etc
-Vegetative materials: forest, grasslands, deserts, plants, flowers etc.

SCALE IN LANDSCAPE DESIGN:
*Is similar to architecture
*Has three basic scales, foreground, middle ground and background
*Foreground is that which appears in front
*Background which appears behind
*Middle ground: the intermediate one and problematic in design as it involves distance
*Allocating the distance for any substance is the challenge in design

*Scale could be outdoor scale and indoor scale
*Objects in indoor are smaller and miniature kind
*The grand object seen in the indoor might be smaller in the outdoor
*Objects in exterior therefore needed to be larger in scale
*Paths and steps>> wider

ARCHITECTURE AND LANDSCAPE:
*Life of vegetation influences on the design of landscape
*Architecture lasts long than the landscape
*Updating, maintenance and restructuring of landscape has to be pre-conceived in design phase
*The forth dimension-time plays a vital role in deciding the landscape components to be used

LANDSCAPE AND HUMAN PERCEPTION:

*Comprehension of the outside objects is done by human perceptions
*Human perception has thus role in landscape design
*Landscape is judged by human perception
*Some biological parameters exist those contribute human to see
*The physical object we see is comprehended by our social and cultural setups

CHAPTER V: SPACE AND PLACE

INTRODUCTION:
*Mass and space forms the world
*Mass>> physical object which can be seen and touched
*Space>> exists between two masses; could be small to large; is generally hollow and lacks meaning
*Place= space + meaning
-Meaning generally provides the function to that particular space
-Handkerchief on the turf in a park

CREATION OF PLACE:
*Place is most of the time created by an architect.
*A space when gets physical, social and cultural meaning becomes a place.
-An open space is surrounded by a boundary wall, it becomes a place. This is because, the boundary wall helps humans to define it physically, socially and culturally.

ARCHITECTURE: MODERN AND TRADITIONAL

*Debate on modern cities not being able to provide sense of place in comparison to their traditional counterparts
*The traditional buildings and cities are considered to be more able to create the sense of a place.
-In a traditional Newari settlement ( a part of a city), the northern side was considered as place for dead, ghosts and goblins. Similarly, deadly form of gods were placed there. The south was for the living beings and hence one can see palaces, temples, residential and market places. Patan could be taken as the example for this purpose.
-A house as a place also represented whole universe.
-In modern days, such meanings are not getting proper attentions.

USE OF LOCAL MATERIAL AND SKILLS:

*The use of local tradition, rituals, materials and skills also creates a sense of place.
Example>>
-Delhi>> gives the feeling of place or red sandstone
-Kathmandu valley>> place for brick and timber
-Patan>> place of Macchendranath