Theory of

Architectural
Design
 Research work No. M-1
Q. What is THEORY in Architecture? How
does this theory affects architecture? In
what ways?
• Due Sept 17, 2022
 Understanding Theory

1. Nature of Design Theory

- Design Theory states facts.
- Design Theory aids design.
 Understanding Theory

II. Scope of Architecture Theory

- Includes all that is presented in the
handbooks of architects.
- Includes legislation, norms and standards,
rules and methods.
- Includes miscellaneous and “unscientific”
elements.
 Understanding Theory

Q. Why Design Theory?

- To aid the work of the architect and
improve its product.
- Proven theory helps designers do work
better and more efficiently.
“Skill without
knowledge is
nothing”
Architect Jean Mignot, 1400 AD
 “Architecture is not an
inspirational business, it’s a
rational procedure to do
sensible and hopefully beautiful
things; that’s all.”
Harry Seidler
-The product or result of
architectural work: buildings,
collectively.

-A style or method of
building characteristic of
a people, place, or time.

-The profession of designing

buildings and other habitable
environments.

-The conscious act of forming

things resulting in a unifying
or coherent structure.
 Architecture of Space and Structure

Experienced through movement in space-time

Achieved by means of a technology

Accommodating a program

Compatible with its context.

Architectural orders

1. PHYSICAL

2. PERCEPTUAL

3. CONCEPTUAL
 Architectural Orders

1. Physical

1. Space
2. Structure
3. Enclosure
4. Machines
Spatial System Structural System Enclosure System
Architectural Orders
2. Perceptual
1. Approach and
departure
2. Entry and egress
3. Movement through
the order of spaces
4. Functioning of
activities within
spaces
5. Qualities of light,
color,
6. Texture,View, Sound
Circulation System Context
Architectural
Orders

3. Conceptual
1. Images
2. Patterns
3. Signs
4. Symbols
5. Context
Villa Savoye, Poissy, France
https://i.pinimg.com/564x/52/9e/42/529e42164f27148ea0930e747f628f8b.jpg
 Architectural theory (The Introduction)

• Is the act of thinking, discussing, or most

importantly writing about architecture.
• Architectural theory is taught in most
architecture schools and is practiced by
the world's leading architects.
• Some forms that architecture theory
takes are the lecture or dialogue, the
treatise or book, and the paper project
or competition entry.
• Architectural theory is often didactic
(educational/informative), and theorists
tend to stay close to or work from
within schools.
• It has existed in some form since
antiquity, and as publishing became more
common, architectural theory gained an
increased richness.
• Books, magazines, and journals published
an unprecedented amount of works by
architects and critics in the 20th century.
• As a result, styles and movements
formed and dissolved much more quickly
than the relatively enduring modes in
earlier history.
• It is to be expected that the use of the
internet will further the discourse on
architecture in the twenty first century.
 Antiquity

• There is little information or evidence

about major architectural theory in
antiquity, until the first century BCE, with
the work of Vitruvius.
• This does not mean, however, that such
works did not exist.
• Many works never survived antiquity, and
the burning of the Alexandria Library
shows us a very good example of this.
• Vitruvius was a Roman writer, architect
and engineer, active in the 1st century
BCE.
• He was the most prominent architectural
theorist in the Roman Empire known
today, having written De architectura,
known today as The Ten Books of
Architecture, a treatise written of Latin
and Greek on architecture, dedicated to
the emperor Augustus.
• It is the only surviving major book on
architecture from classical antiquity.
Probably written between 27 and 23 BCE
https://i.pinimg.com/564x/f1/6a/8f/f16a8fad94cd26ca25e5811aa4cc227b.jpg
• It is the only contemporary source on
classical architecture to have survived.
• Divided into ten sections or "books", it
covers almost every aspect of Roman
architecture, from town planning,
materials, decorations, temples, water
supplies, etc.
• The famous orders of architecture that
we can see in every classical architecture
are rigorously defined in the books.
• It also gathers three fundamental laws
that Architecture must obey, in order to
be so considered: firmitas, utilitas,
venustas: firmness, commodity (in the
sense of functionality), and delight.
 Vitruvius Theory

venustas

utilitas firmitas
https://i.pinimg.com/564x/03/18/49/03184997bb970b37e3fd013367137283.jpg
• The rediscovery of Vitruvius' work had a
profound influence on architects of the
Renaissance, prompting the rise of the
Renaissance style.
• Renaissance architects, such as Niccoli,
Brunelleschi and Leon Battista Alberti,
found in "De Architectura" their rationale
for raising their branch of knowledge to
a scientific discipline.
• Architectural theory as a theory of
design aims to support the individual
development of an approach to design by
learning from history and others.
• The chair Theory of Architecture fosters
this development.
• The subject place special emphasis on
enabling the students to aesthetically and
functionally analyse and interpret their
own designs as well as others’ with
regard to the assessment of the various
effects on “target groups,” such as users,
onlookers, those who enjoy as well as
those who suffer, and to keep these in
mind in their own activities.
• It is also important to us that students
recognise social contexts, reflect on
positions in art theory, and verbalise
these clearly and understandably.
• Architectural theory as philology – this
is perhaps a typically German approach –
is discussing theoretical texts on
architecture since antiquity historically-
analytically.
• We consider this to be important as
architecture can neither be properly
understood nor designed without
knowledge of these texts.
• Theory of architecture means specifically
thinking about architecture across
disciplines, reflection on methods, and
consequently a scientific and meta-theory
of architecture. Thus we understand theory
as “perception”, as it is frequently
understood according to the original Greek
meaning of the term.
Symbolic Art and Architecture
dcsymbols.com
• This does not refer to something visual,
but rather to a scenario or a narrative
whole; less to seeing or something seen,
but rather to a view.
• Theory is a process, an inner and a social
discourse, which engages with its object
(grounded theory).
• Theory introduces criteria, gives
knowledge and creates order; it is thus at
the same time always a creative
construction.
• Theory is grounded in the appropriation
of reality (in the act of habitation), in the
construction of reality (in the act of
building), and in the abstract reflection on
reality. Theory can be questioned and
shaken by other theories.
• Theory starts before language, it
originates already in everyday experience
and in the future-oriented conception of
a field of action.
• It will be only elaborated in language,
however, not all that is talked is already a
theory. Theory is methodical, it has a
specific ratio, and it intends to be
communicable and comprehensible.
• Architecture is for us a collective term
for the material environment, for interior
design, surface engineering, infrastructure,
urban planning, landscape and region, but
also for their construction and
appropriation, for planning, construction,
and inhabiting.
• Theory of architecture is a survey of the
built environment by its inhabitants,
architects, and specialists form other
disciplines, such as architectural and art
history, cultural sciences, ethnology and
sociology, geography, psychology,
anthropology, and of course philosophy.
 The Aspects that have
influences on Architectural
Design

I. General Influences
II. Influences of Nature
III.Influences of Man
 I. General Influences

A. Needs of Man
1. Physical Needs
a. Self Preservation
- Food, shelter, Clothing, water,
electricity, education, livelihood, medical
etc.
Example: Shelter… is something that covers,
protects, or defends as a roof that shields
one from the elements and changes.
 b. Reproduction
- For the population to increase and
continue in existence.
2. Emotional Needs
To be joyful, to be love or comforted
expressed in the construction of
theaters, concert halls, museums of Arts.
3. Intellectual Needs
To have knowledge, ideas… express in
the construction of Schools, Libraries.
4. Spiritual Needs
To have faith, belief in the existence of
God…
express in the construction of
Cathedrals, Mosques, Synagogue,
Temples… etc.
B. Activities of Man
- If life is to exist and civilization is to
developed, there are fundamental
impulses or desires which much be
satisfied. These forces may be called the
stimuli to action. Their effect upon life
and architecture may be designated as
Resulting Manifestations.
1. Desire for Preservation
- In obtaining food, shelter, clothing and
security, civilized man must have
commerce, government and religion.
These activities call for their
accompanying structures or architecture.
2. Desire for Recognition
- This is a desire for prestige, pride and
ambition, social status, physical
supremacy, intellectual attainment,
personal or civic, result in the struggle
for position. As a result man build palaces,
skyscrapers or communities may erect
cathedrals or public buildings and
monuments.
3. Desire for Response
• This arises from the gregarious nature of
man, from his wish for love, friendship
and sociability in seeking the
companionship of his fellow creatures,
man congregates.
• His social instincts call for fraternal
buildings and city clubs. His semi public
buildings must contain banquet halls and
ball rooms, his home must have a living
room to make human association
possible.
4. Desire for self expression
• This is urge of man to assert himself as
an individual to do things in his own
particular way. Examples like: theaters,
museums, sports, gymnasiums.
 II. Influences of Nature
A. Climate
• This affect the habits and temperaments of
people. Those near the sea are quiet, taciturn
(speak little) and bold people. They are easy
going and care free and produce an
architecture different from people in the cold
and forested areas, whose people plan in
advance. This requires initiative, patience and
energy.
• In the arctic regions, civilization is less
advanced as climatic conditions are so
unproductive and absorb so much energy
that natives have little surplus with which
to develop civilization or art.
• In the temperate zones, people are
energetic and progress is assured. Here, a
man may plan and may realize his
ambitions without interference from
droughts, monsoons, blizzards, or tropical
fevers.
 Climatic effect on Architecture

a. Building Plans
1. Warm Regions – The plans are more
open and often include courts or patios.
 Climatic effect on Architecture

2. Cold Regions – More compact in

arrangement. The severe cold winds is
avoided by providing a cover from
portion of the building to the other.
Provision of Fire place to heat up the
rooms.
b. Roof Design
1. Warm Regions – The roofs are
usually flat and colorful.
2. Cold Regions – The roof becomes
steeper and less colorful. The necessity of
shedding the rain and snow makes the
greater pitch of the roof more practical.
c. Windows
1. Warm Regions – Windows are
usually small to admit light lesser
light/heat.
pueblo adobe house guspaifrasney1980.metroblog.com
Pueblo I pithouse with the deflector and other parts labeled.
www.crowcanyon.org
2. Cold Regions – windows are usually
wide in order to capture the greatest
amount of light and to heat up the
interior.
Due to the advance technology and
science, designs and needs can be
possibly meet to suit the needs of man.
travel.ezinemark.com
B.Topography
• Topography in its broadest sense may
mean the general terrain or contour of
the surface of the entire country. If the
country is small and the topography is
uniform, there tends to be a similarity of
character in architecture. It may be
nationalistic and may assume traits
common to the entire area.
reynolds.asu.edu
geology.isu.edu
• In the earliest periods of civilization,
elements of topography – mountains,
deserts and seas constituted barriers to
migration.
• This retarded the intermingling of people
and the cross fertilization of cultures.
• Ideas traveled slowly and the customs
and arts of different countries assumed
definite national patterns.
• However, as navigation became more of a
science, the sea that had been barrier
became an aid to travel and
communication.
Example:
In the mountain regions, design goes
with the terrain of the area while in the
level country, there is no limitation of
selection of site.
C. Materials
• Availability of materials depends on what
area. In the past, certain materials have
had a local use and have influenced the
development of an indigenous
architecture.
kelseybissell.blogspot.com

goodlife.com.ng
• However, they have changed as new
contacts were made and as new
developments came into existence, ideas
were borrowed, commerce and industry
grew and now modern transportation has
made building materials international in
distribution and use.
 III. Influences of Man

A.Social Conditions
• Architecture because it is the most
permanent and cumulative, reflects the
social structure of the period in which it
is developed.
• The interests of the people dictate the
type and appearance of its buildings.
www.iranreview.org/;f.f
www.wonderingwanderer.com
• Stable government and improved social
condition eliminate the necessity of many
protective features such as high fences,
shutters, wrought iron or steel railings
for doors and windows, broken glass and
barbed wire on top of fences.
• Comfort and convenience now control
architecture.
Examples: 1. The different periods or eras.
2. Man’s personality
3. Man’s interest
B. Economic Conditions
- The social life of a nation and the
resulting architecture are linked closely
with economic conditions under which
people live.
jumpei-mitsui.com
... dos Marqueses de Fronteira" Monuments and structures Tip by 64novpt
members.virtualtourist.com
- The nature of trade, commerce,
industry and agriculture determines to a
large extent the occupations and
standards of living within a particular
country.
- These factors influence the types of
buildings erected and the materials used.
- Examples: height of buildings, use of high
technology (elevators, escalators, close
circuit camera, communication etc.)
“All architects want to
live beyond their
deaths.”
Philip Johnson
End!
 Reference:
• Salvan, George S. (1999). Architectural theories of
design. Quezon City: JMC Press.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architectural_theory
Assignment
1. Illustrate any famous platonic building or
structure at least (4) four examples. In
the form of a plan or elevation on A4
paper.
Due: September 23, 2022