Architectural Design Principles: Why Great Rooms Begin With Low Doors
The hidden rules behind spaces that move us: proportion, geometry, sequence, light, site and the way homes are organized.
Try 3 questions
1. Why do architects treat the empty void of a courtyard as much a 'designed form' as the walls around it?
- Building codes count voids as floor area
- Courtyards are always built before the walls
- Space itself is shaped and experienced as form
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Answer: Space itself is shaped and experienced as form
Architecture is experienced from inside its spaces, so the shape of the void, its proportions and edges, is designed as deliberately as the solids.
2. In a row of evenly spaced columns, one gap is twice as wide as the rest, and the eye goes straight to it. Why?
- Symmetry always hides irregular parts
- Larger voids always read as background
- A break in rhythm creates emphasis
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Answer: A break in rhythm creates emphasis
Repetition sets up an expectation; interrupting it marks a special place, which is why entrances are often signaled by a wider bay.
3. In a symmetrical plan, how does a designer usually signal that one space matters more than the others?
- Make it the darkest and lowest room in the plan
- Put it on the main axis, larger or unique
- Hide it at the far edge of the building
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Answer: Put it on the main axis, larger or unique
Hierarchy comes from exceptional size, shape or position; the end or center of the dominant axis is the classic place of importance.
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