mohan kumar

The following is an outline of services typically offered by architects and their sub-consultants:
• Project Inception
- The planning of your project starts here. Working together with your architect, you will share your project needs, dreams and goals.

• Schematic Design – During this stage your architect will begin by preparing preliminary design sketches based on your requirements and budget to explore and illustrate possible options. The architect will review these options with you, pointing out the merits and responding to your input.

• Design Development – This stage refines the agreed upon schematic design for a clearer definition of the scope and quality of the finished project. Further cost projections will determine how closely the design conforms to the budget expectations, or what, if any, adjustments are required.

• Construction Documents – When the design concepts have been decided, the architect prepares working drawings and specifications. These are required to obtain building permits and bids, and to guide the contractor in construction.

• Bidding and Negotiation – Your architect can advise you on your choice of contractor – usually done by calling for competitive bids. Your architect will help evaluate the bids and select the contractor, and prepare the contract between you and the contractor.

• Construction and Contract Administration – Your architect will consult with you and advise you during construction. On-site visits will determine if construction is proceeding in general accordance with the contract, and that the design, materials, and workmanship meet with acceptable standards.

• Substantial Performance of Construction / Occupancy Certificate – Your architect provides regular progress reports to keep you informed, authorizes staged payments to the contractor and remains involved until the project is completed.

There are a number of additional services an Architect can provide including:
• project management]
• feasibility studies
• site selection
• building condition audits
• programming
• interior design
• renderings and promotional materials
• full time site representation
• multiple contract preparation

Design thinking is an approach used for practical and creative problem-solving. It is based heavily on the methods and processes that designers use (hence the name), but it has actually evolved from a range of different fields — including architecture, engineering and business. Design thinking can also be applied to any field; it doesn’t necessarily have to be design-specific.

What’s the difference between Solution-Based and Problem-Based Thinking?

As the name suggests, solution-based thinking focuses on finding solutions; coming up with something constructive to effectively tackle a certain problem. This is the opposite of problem-based thinking, which tends to fixate on obstacles and limitations.

 What is the Design Thinking process?

As already mentioned, the Design Thinking process is progressive and highly user-centric. Before looking at the process in more detail, let’s consider the four principles of Design Thinking as laid out by Christoph Meinel and Harry Leifer of the Hasso-Plattner-Institute of Design at Stanford University, California.

The Four Principles of Design Thinking

• The human rule: No matter what the context, all design activity is social in nature, and any social innovation will bring us back to the “human-centric point of view”.
• The ambiguity rule: Ambiguity is inevitable, and it cannot be removed or oversimplified. Experimenting at the limits of your knowledge and ability is crucial in being able to see things differently.
• The redesign rule: All design is redesign. While technology and social circumstances may change and evolve, basic human needs remain unchanged. We essentially only redesign the means of fulfilling these needs or reaching desired outcomes.
• The tangibility rule: Making ideas tangible in the form of prototypes enables designers to communicate them more effectively.

The Five Phases of Design Thinking

Based on these four principles, the Design Thinking process can be broken down into five steps or phases, as per the aforementioned Hasso-Plattner-Institute of Design at Stanford (otherwise known as d.school): Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test. Let’s explore each of these in more detail.

Phase 1: Empathise

Empathy provides the critical starting point for Design Thinking. The first stage of the process is spent getting to know the user and understanding their wants, needs and objectives. This means observing and engaging with people in order to understand them on a psychological and emotional level. During this phase, the designer seeks to set aside their assumptions and gather real insights about the user. Learn all about key empathy-building methods here.

Phase 2: Define

The second stage in the Design Thinking process is dedicated to defining the problem. You’ll gather all of your findings from the empathise phase and start to make sense of them: what difficulties and barriers are your users coming up against? What patterns do you observe? What is the big user problem that your team needs to solve? By the end of the define phase, you will have a clear problem statement. The key here is to frame the problem in a user-centered way; rather than saying “We need to…”, frame it in terms of your user: “Retirees in the Bay area need…”

Once you’ve formulated the problem into words, you can start to come up with solutions and ideas — which brings us onto stage three.

Phase 3: Ideate

With a solid understanding of your users and a clear problem statement in mind, it’s time to start working on potential solutions. The third phase in the Design Thinking process is where the creativity happens, and it’s crucial to point out that the ideation stage is a judgement-free zone! Designers will hold ideation sessions in order to come up with as many new angles and ideas as possible. There are many different types of ideation technique that designers might use, from brainstorming and mindmapping to bodystorming (roleplay scenarios) and provocation — an extreme lateral-thinking technique that gets the designer to challenge established beliefs and explore new options and alternatives. Towards the end of the ideation phase, you’ll narrow it down to a few ideas with which to move forward. 

Phase 4: Prototype

The fourth step in the Design Thinking process is all about experimentation and turning ideas into tangible products. A prototype is basically a scaled-down version of the product which incorporates the potential solutions identified in the previous stages. This step is key in putting each solution to the test and highlighting any constraints and flaws. Throughout the prototype stage, the proposed solutions may be accepted, improved, redesigned or rejected depending on how they fare in prototype form. 

Phase 5: Test

After prototyping comes user testing, but it’s important to note that this is rarely the end of the Design Thinking process. In reality, the results of the testing phase will often lead you back to a previous step, providing the insights you need to redefine the original problem statement or to come up with new ideas you hadn’t thought of before. 

Architectural visualization is an easy, rapid, and cost-effective way for designers to communicate their ideas. In this guide, we'll explain what architectural visualization involves as well as its benefits, history, and future.

The product design process, as expressed by Koberg and Bagnell, typically involves three main aspects:

• Analysis
• Concept
• Synthesis

Depending on the kind of product being designed, the latter two sections are most often revisited 

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