Programming for Design EDITH CHERRY - Chapter 1

1. Programming for Design: From
Theory to Practice
EDITH CHERRY

2. PROGRAMMING FRAMEWORK
Dr. Yasser Mahgoub

3. Dr. Yasser Mahgoub
PROGRAMMING FRAMEWORK

4. Chapter 1
Introduction

5. Part I: PREPARING FOR PROGRAMMING
Ch. 1: Introduction
• What is Architectural Programming?
“Architectural programming is the research and decision-making
process the defines the problem to be solved by design.”
• Architectural Programming process provides the designer with a
clear definition of the scope of a project and the criteria for a
successful solution.
– Human factors
– Functions
– Form-givers: Site and climate.
• Listen to and understand the client’s ideals and aspirations.
• Criteria for relationships of spaces and activities that support the
client’s operations.

6. Part I: PREPARING FOR PROGRAMMING
Ch. 1: Introduction
• Lists of spaces
• Client’s budget
• Concepts of acceptable intensities of
development
• Synthesize the information and make
statements that summarize the problem to
be solved by design.

8. Part I: PREPARING FOR PROGRAMMING
Ch. 1: Introduction
• A design can take a universe of possible forms
But
• When is completed it will have only one.
• AP process establishes the criteria appropriate to
a particular project.
• The process provides the designer with guidance
for selecting the most appropriate form.

11. Part I: PREPARING FOR PROGRAMMING
Ch. 1: Introduction
History of Architectural
Programming

12. Part I: PREPARING FOR PROGRAMMING
Ch. 1: Introduction
History of Architectural
Programming
• Self-conscious and unself-
conscious design
• Unself-conscious
– People create, by trial and
error, forms that meet their
basic social and physical
needs.
– Traditions  Right way to
design and program
– Designer is Builder and
User
– Communication of Success
and Failure is Automatic.

13. Part I: PREPARING FOR PROGRAMMING
Ch. 1: Introduction
History of Architectural Programming
• Self-conscious and unself-
conscious design
• Self-conscious design
– Tradition provides “archetypes”
but does not dictate them.
– More freedom in the selection of
forms  More opportunity for
error.
– Designers don’t use or build the
buildings they design
– Communication about success and
failure requires conscious effort
(POE)
– Failures may not be corrected in
subsequent projects.

14. Part I: PREPARING FOR PROGRAMMING
Ch. 1: Introduction
• The Science and Technology Arena
– WW2 – Communication Technology
• Communication techniques and information
– 1950s – Computer Technology
• Process large amounts of information
• Input – Output
• What are your goals?
– 1957 – Space Travel
• Techniques for examining existing systems
• Designing new systems
• System Analysis

16. Part I: PREPARING FOR PROGRAMMING
Ch. 1: Introduction
• The Sociopolitical Arena
– 1950s and 1960s Racial issues – Problems of urban centers
– failure of urban renewal programs
– 1962 Gans – The Urban Villagers – Boston’s West End -
Urban renewal process insensitive and inhuman.
– Quality of Information!
– Whose values? Who is to consult?
– Community participation in planning urban renewal
projects
– Participation by the people – Public involvement
– “Implicit” rather than “Explicit” process.

20. Part I: PREPARING FOR PROGRAMMING
Ch. 1: Introduction
• Academic Arena
– Design Methods Research or Design Methodology
- How we design!
– West Germany - Horst Rittle
– Great Britain - Bruce Asher, Christopher Jones,
Geoffrey Broadbent
– 1960s Rittle  UC Berkeley (wicked problem)
– Christopher Alexander  MIT & Harvard –
Berkeley (Pattern Language)
– Conferences on deign methods research

22. Part I: PREPARING FOR PROGRAMMING
Ch. 1: Introduction
• Academic Arena
– Alexander:
• Participation in Design
• Layperson to undertake for themselves the design of their
environment
– User participation in the Design Process:
• Habraken
• Friedman
• Brolin
• Zeisel
• Deasy
• Sanoff

24. Part I: PREPARING FOR PROGRAMMING
Ch. 1: Introduction
• Academic Arena
– Criticism:
• Programming was viewed as the definition of the
functional problem alone.
– Peter Rowe (Design Thinking):
• Programming could define aesthetic, psychological and
many other problems.

25. Part I: PREPARING FOR PROGRAMMING
Ch. 1: Introduction
• The Professional Practice Arena
– Academics researching design methods.
– Architects applying them in the filed.
– Postwar baby boom after the 1940s

26. Part I: PREPARING FOR PROGRAMMING
Ch. 1: Introduction
• The Professional Practice Arena
– Caudill Rowlett Scott (CRS, CRSS) produced design criteria
for new high school facility – Working with client prior to
design - “Architectural Analysis – Prelude to Good Design”
 Architectural Programming.
http://crs.arch.tamu.edu/about-us/history/

27. Part I: PREPARING FOR PROGRAMMING
Ch. 1: Introduction
• The Professional Practice Arena
– Pena and Caudill – Programming as a vital part of
architectural practice.
– 1977 Pena and Focke – “Problem Seeking”
– CRS + HOK – Problem Seeking Approach
– Davis – McLaughlin – Burns – Edward T. White – Preiser.
– Today the architectural programming phase of an
architectural project is incorporated into standard
architectural contracts and national architectural
licensing examination.

29. Part I: PREPARING FOR PROGRAMMING
Ch. 1: Introduction
• The Professional Practice Arena
– Performance Specification Concept
• Describes what a designed object should do rather
than what it should look like or be made of
(prescriptive).
• It should describe the desired performance and leave
to the designer the development of forms to
accommodate those performances.

30. Part I: PREPARING FOR PROGRAMMING
Ch. 1: Introduction
• The Professional Practice Arena
– 1960s - Community Design Centers
• Client (user) involvement
• Providing architectural and planning services those
communities and individuals who could not afford
professional fees.
• Volunteers

31. Part I: PREPARING FOR PROGRAMMING
Ch. 1: Introduction
• The Professional Practice Arena
– Performances Specifications
– Public Participation
– Systems Analysis

32. Part I: PREPARING FOR PROGRAMMING
Ch. 1: Introduction
• The Professional Practice Arena
– Programming vs. Design
• The act of programming implies a separation of the
criteria definition process from the design act

33. Part I: PREPARING FOR PROGRAMMING
Ch. 1: Introduction
• Professional Issues and Programming
– The architect should be skilled at all states of
architectural programming and be able to
provide the service.
• Small Projects: without an additional service charges
• Large Projects: client paying separately for the program
to a specialist
– A new kind of professional who specializes in
architectural programming.

34. Part I: PREPARING FOR PROGRAMMING
Ch. 1: Introduction
• Professional Issues and Programming
P D
P D
P D
P/D
ProjectScale

35. Part I: PREPARING FOR PROGRAMMING
Ch. 1: Introduction
• Professional Issues and Programming
– Some professionals feel that it is the clients’
responsibility to provide the functional program
and the architect’s responsibility to develop the
architectural program.
– Good program addresses the problem in a
comprehensive way, Qualitatively and
Quantitatively.

36. Part I: PREPARING FOR PROGRAMMING
Ch. 1: Introduction
• Professional Issues and Programming
– Other professionals view the programming
process to expand the client’s horizon
significantly.
– Every building has a “hidden program” that is the
basic social-physical form that society expects.

37. Part I: PREPARING FOR PROGRAMMING
Ch. 1: Introduction
• Professional Issues and Programming
– Some architects are skeptical about studying the
design process at all.
– It affects Creativity!
– Programming restricts creativity!

38. Part I: PREPARING FOR PROGRAMMING
Ch. 1: Introduction
• Professional Issues and Programming
– Programming – Avoiding preconceptions.
– Our training as architects emphasizes solutions
– Uncomfortable with programming.
– Our society rewards good answers much more
than it rewards good questions.
– Uncover issues, prejudices and conflicts.

39. Part I: PREPARING FOR PROGRAMMING
Ch. 1: Introduction
• Professional Issues and Programming
– A client is too busy to make the decisions.
– Investment
– Involvement
– Uncomfortable working closely with the users of
the buildings
– Clients don’t pay for it.

40. Part I: PREPARING FOR PROGRAMMING
Ch. 1: Introduction
• Professional Issues and Programming
– How much programming is enough!
– More or Less.

41. Part I: PREPARING FOR PROGRAMMING
Ch. 1: Introduction
• Who does architectural programming?
– Clients: Those who build frequently – developers
– real-estate companies - …
– Consultants: Develop the program independently
of the design architects
– Architects: In-house effort.
– A designer should always review the entire
document before proceeding with design.

42. Part I: PREPARING FOR PROGRAMMING
Ch. 1: Introduction
• Summary
– Programming Process = Research + Decision Making
– Problems to be solved by design
– Conscious or Unconscious
– Programming as sub-discipline of architecture
– Programming precedes design phase
– Why programming should be done?
– When should it be done?
– Who should do it?

43. End