Typical activities at this stage

This narrative informs design decisions during the project’s development and also gives meaning to the experience of those who will use the building. far right:
Coloured pencil sketch of floor materials. There are details to be resolved and connections to be made between unconnected or even contradictory ideas. Early ideas may be general but they are never complete; sketches and models are normally small in scale and have a certain looseness or vagueness. Favoured solutions are explored through early sketches and models. Many projects make contradictory or incompatible demands that must be resolved through ingenuity or agreement of priorities. There will be project reviews, meetings with the client, user consultations and negotiations with interest groups and government bodies, such as planners. Concept sketches and models
Initial drawings and models
Testing ideas
Research
Understanding scale Brief development Opening up possibilities Inspiration
Concept development Happy accidents Feedback
Managing complexity Setting priorities Collaboration
In the initial ideas phase it is important to keep possibilities open to allow innovative ideas to develop. The idea in the architect’s mind and the one expressed by the hand need to be closely linked. A little ambiguity of expression allows the gap between the mind and the hand to be acknowledged. Initial ideas are experiments: they test the effects on the constituent parts of a design and the reactions of the client, architect and third parties. The sketch itself triggers a solution that was not anticipated before it was drawn. Some ideas will not be needed; others will evolve to serve more significant ones. The architect thinks, expresses the idea within the limitations of the media and reflects on the result before making a decision.