Description
The Floor Plan Manual Housing builds to some extent on a kind of knowledge acquisition whose form is probably specific to designers: namely the ability to draw independent conclusions from the projects of others for use in one’s own design work without simply copying them. Nigel Cross* argues that architectural knowledge is embedded in designs, and that architects are capable of deciphering projects and drawing conclusions from concrete examples about the underlying demands and design intentions. What can be deciphered here are essential aspects of the design, for instance, functional relationships, experiential qualities, or the relationship between an individual and the community – all of which are issues solved by the spatial configuration of a plan.
In this essay, an attempt is made to illustrate graphic methods of approaching some of these overarching spatial, functional, or social criteria, enabling their exploration at an early stage so they can be used to develop design intentions before they are confined to an architectural form. The following two themes, “Before Use” and “Before Form,” describe two fields of application of this approach, the first morphological in nature, the latter more organizational. A definitive, all-encompassing strategy for designing a floor plan is not the goal here – and should continue to remain part of each individual design strategy.
Before use
The following studies investigate spatial aspects of floor plan designs that in principle can be defined independently of how these are later utilized. The example of the Palazzo Antonini by Palladio, but also mid- to late-19th-century European floor plans as well as emphatically use-neutral designs (fig. 1) show that to a certain degree functional specifications were simply not considered – or were intentionally avoided – and that floor plans have and can be developed on the basis of a spatial order alone.
Structuring the depths of buildings
Simple graphic studies on the spatial organization of a housing unit as it relates to the depth of the building (fig. 2) can help bring different aspects in relation to one another in such a way that an initial schema for the design of the floor plan can be formulated. The basis for such studies is formed by an initial assessment of the total living area within a grid as a placeholder for rooms or spatial units, which in a second step are laid out in spatial layers either parallel or perpendicular to the facade, depending on the building depth. The following can then be illustrated in a basic schema:
— The depth of the units (as represented by the number of tiers, i.e., the spatial layers parallel to the facade), their width (as represented by the number of spatial layers transverse to the facade) as well as their height by the number of horizontal levels.
— The potential orientations of each unit: if, in the given context, the particular unit can be oriented on one, two, or even more sides to natural light and a view of the surroundings.
— The determination of spaces that need or can do without natural light – particularly relevant for units oriented to one side only or with an increased number of dark room tiers.
In the subsequent design steps, one can work out how the floor plan can potentially be organized and the functions allocated – whether, for instance, in a very deep floor plan the unlit groups can be used as hallways and enclosed bathrooms, how the sequence of rooms in an apartment with a single spatial layer can be arranged, or in which field the vertical access of a multi-story unit should be placed.
A sequence of rooms as a graphic composition
Diagrams in the style of figure-ground drawings can help develop ideas on composition, room sequences or experiences. They form spatial compositions of enclosed volumes and empty spaces with a specific rhythm and relationship to one another, as dualities of open and closed, light and dark (fig. 3). Another aspect can be taken into account: black can be used for designating closed areas such as storage or sanitary rooms and white for common areas. Even structural studies that make use of grids as well as linear or pointwise elements to develop structural strategies can simultaneously generate initial spatial hierarchies as basic, abstract systems (fig. 4).
Room patterns
Schematic studies can develop patterns for spatial juxtapositions and the way they connect to one another. In a following step, each proximal relationship can then be formulated in more detail into direct connections – the more spaces adjoin a room (for instance, by offsetting them to one another) the greater the connective potential (fig. 5). Such figure-ground and structural studies as well as patterns of spatial juxtaposition can generate schemes which, when subjected to a subsequent layering of functions and activities, can be post-rationalized, or more precisely formulated. Even at this stage, these schemes can work with approximate room sizes.
Spatial experiences
Working with spatial sketches, which are often produced only at the end of the design, can help to conceive of floor plans in situational terms, for instance, to consider how visually permeable an apartment is, or how it can potentially forge a connection between its residents and the immediate surroundings. The sketches by Alison and Peter Smithson on page 12 show the value of such sketches (fig. 6).
Before form: activities, functions, and relationships
Besides these rather spatial and morphological considerations, a floor plan can also be devised from purely abstract relational patterns with a view of, for instance, the organization of functions or activities, as well as the organization and prioritization of relationships between the individual and the collective.
Functional diagrams
A convention of such preliminary analyses is the development of a functional diagram. This starts with taking inventory of the number and approximate dimensions of the rooms, their functions, and their resulting division into serving and served rooms, those requiring natural light and those that can do without. In a diagram, the relationships between the individual rooms to one another and to their surroundings are devised using connecting lines. The rooms are grouped and categorized hierarchically according to their functions, placed in either peripheral zones or in the center. Additionally, the interfaces with the surrounding context as well as the exterior orientation of the rooms to specific environmental conditions, such as direct sunlight, noise, or the public sphere, can be indicated. A spatial scheme begins to emerge, in which a preliminary organizational system is illustrated without too much formal or dimensional determination (fig. 7).
Activities instead of functions
In a diagram by Kiyoyuki Nishihara, a concept for room configurations is illustrated, which despite being based originally on traditional Japanese lifestyles, presents a transferrable alternative model to the functional diagram. The practice of flexible use in traditional Japanese housing – some of the rooms in his diagram are named only by their proximity to one another, not according to their functions – inspired him to take a closer look at the activities of the residents instead of focusing on the functions of the individual rooms. He defined six essential activities that cover the entire complexity of domestic life: gathering – eating – cooking – sleeping – working – washing and relieving oneself (fig. 8).
Localization of activities
While Nishihara’s graphic inquiries analyzed pre-existing situations, allocating activities can also form the basis for a floor plan design. Intentions can be formulated early on: rooms can be flexibly used for a number of activities; cooking, dining and gathering can be combined; all residents can work in one space, or in their own rooms. Simultaneously, these classifications allow conclusions to be drawn on how important certain rooms are for the overall structure, how open they should be and whether they are mono- or multifunctional (fig. 9).
The integrity of floor plan organization
The term ’integrity’ is used by Julienne Hanson to examine the floor plans of existing residential units as matrices of a spatially organized social framework. Emanating from the idea that the design of a spatial configuration always goes along with an attempt to formulate a specific balance between common and individual demands, the studies on integrity analyzed the level of connectedness between rooms within a unit and along its periphery, as it is precisely at these junctures that encounters are structured using spatial means.
Integrity as a design question
Such aspects – such as how the transition between public and private spheres is formulated, whether rooms are linked directly or through intermediate spaces such as corridors, whether they branch off in different directions or create circular paths, or how thresholds are composed – can be taken into consideration before a concrete spatial design is drawn up in order to form clear intentions and ideas on cohabitation before a floor plan is devised. The aspects presented in the following examples and graphic codes, as well as the resulting diagrams on spatial integrity are for illustrative purposes only. Ultimately, this type of graphic instrument should be customized for each individual design strategy.
— Public-private gradient
The gradual transition from more common, public areas to rather intimate private areas can be structured with a series of spatial situations. Differently spaced hatches can be used to indicate different levels of exposure (in this case: the more dense, the more private). When such transitions both within an apartment and in relation to its surroundings are indicated with lines in different directions, the design of such junctures can also be considered (fig. 10).
— Differentiation between branching and circular spatial connections
Connections that branch off – with only one link per room – threaten to turn rooms into isolated dead ends. The facilitation of circular paths with multiple connections per room increases both the social potential and the functional flexibility of an apartment, but can possibly come into conflict with the demands of individual intimacy (fig. 11).
— Circulation spaces
A supplementary differentiation can help to decide whether the spatial distribution should be organized using actual rooms (the living room, for example) or intermediate spaces (such as corridors) (fig. 12).
— The permeability of thresholds
Depending on the relationship between the shared and the private sphere, transitions can be formulated using buffer zones, closed walls, variable or somewhat hidden connections, or even open ones (like a niche adjacent to another room) (fig. 13).
Diagram for the assessment of spatial integrity
Combining such aspects and their schematic organization into a single diagram can help to visualize a matrix of cohabitation, which in a further step can be transformed into a floor plan design (fig. 14).
Verification
Working with diagrams can also take place while more concrete design work on a floor plan has already begun – as a verification measure. In this example, one aspect is considered: the examination of possible alternative occupancies within a unit for different resident constellations (fig. 15). The type and number of connections, assessment of privacy, and the degree to which rooms are predetermined can be adjusted depending on the results of such verification measures. It is always helpful to transfer projects – even ones at a much more advanced stage in the design process – back into such abstract graphic illustrations in order to reassess important qualities such the organization of the community or the structure of spatial connections.
Literature
Nigel Cross, “Designerly ways of knowing”, Design Studies, vol. 3, no. 4, October 1982, pp. 221–227.
Kiyoyuki Nishihara, Japanese Houses: Patterns for Living, Tokyo 1967.
Julienne Hanson, Decoding Homes and Houses, Cambridge 1998.
Originally published in: Oliver Heckmann, Friederike Schneider with Eric Zapel (eds.), Floor Plan Manual Housing, fifth revised and expanded edition, Birkhäuser, 2018.