Restrictions

A good architect could use this as an opportunity to design communal circulation spaces of real quality where people will take pleasure in meeting on the way to their otherwise isolated cellular offices. You’re drawing something that gets you to the real thing.’
Graham Haworth, Haworth Tompkins Many would say that they need restrictions in order to design. Architects often describe restrictions and the requirements of a brief, site and client as examples of positive generators for design. The willingness of architects to use their critical judgement and creativity to challenge assumptions, coupled with the freedom of knowing that there is no one right answer, means even the most difficult design problems are seen as an opportunity for creative thought. However, the flexibility of an empirical design process and the familiarity with the possibilities of multiple solutions should equip the architect to take a creative approach to such situations. Architecture seeks to fulfil a need or purpose; to have a function. For example, fire escape regulations may impose conditions on the means of escape and therefore circulation of a building. This demands a solution to a real problem that cannot be ignored and so the design activity begins to work on the restriction until it becomes something positive. Critical discussion in practice occurs within the design studio and between clients and other interested parties such as planners, building users, heritage groups and politicians.