Using Diagramming for Ideation in Architecture: an overview by means of examples.

1. d
D i a g r a m m i n g
using line to think and convey understanding

2. d

3. d
Some thoughts on the diagram…

4. d
Some thoughts on the diagram…
“First I think, then I draw my think”
Amanda K. Coomaraswamy (1877 – 1947)
“Diagrams, in whatever visual form they take,
represent a threshold moment in the creation
of successful architecture” Alan Phillips

5. d
Some thoughts on the diagram…
•“Any building should be described by three or four lines”
Stefan Behnish
•The diagram, as part of the process of design, is inherent
to Modernism
•Purpose of the diagram?

6. d
More thoughts on the diagram…
•“ In general, diagrams and sketches explain and highlight
a design quite well…”
•“Like caricatures, they will focus on the general idea…
describe a design concept…”
Stephen Behnish

7. d

8. d
“A diagram is something
between a concept and a
plan… a visualisation of a
plan” Toyo Ito
Sendai Mediatique,
Japan

9. d

10. d
Diagrams expressing
clear ideas with simple
pencil strokes.
Mies van der Rohe:
“tense, elegant and
serence… prelude to
impeccable architecture”
Le Corbusier:
“categorical, strong and
forceful, speak of the
universality of his works”
Alvar Aalto: “lyrical,
organic, fluid, put forward
the emotion of his spaces”

11. Louis Kahn: Adler House, Philadelphia
d

12. d
John Miller (John Miller + Partners)
•Primary & secondary parts of a building
•Figure ground theory
•Genesis of building through concept rather than
through the diagram
•Diagram can be used to explain a building, but is not
necessarily a tool in its development

13. d
Fumihiko Maki, Maki and
Associates
“I always evaluate and consider
that the best diagram is one that
is simple because the power lies in
its suggestiveness for broader
interpretation”
New campus for republic
Polytechnic in Singapore –
educational system: PBL
(problem based learning)

14. d

15. d
John Ronan architect
• Generated diagrams
clarify project intentions,
and are “reductive,
isolating essential project
issues… short hand”
• Interpreted diagrams
“suggest a new way of
thinking about a project…
transformative”

16. d

17. d

18. d

19. d

20. d
aro 2 .0 8 . 2 0 0 6
d i a g r a m m i n g
Combination of technologies,
techniques

21. d
1. The Architectural review, January 2006,
pages 28 - 82
s o u r c e