voa design newsletter process 2014

CULTURE AND ENTERTAINMENT - DESIGN PROCESS

A Discussion on Process“STORY AND DESIGN - HOW STORY

HELPS CREATE GREAT ARCHITECTURE”

Projects Listed NATIONAL MUSEUM OF INDUSTRIAL HISTORY

(Shown above)

LONGS LANDING ESTUARY

DAYTONA MUSEUM OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

FLORIDA OCEANOGRAPHIC CENTER

MOROCCO TAPAZ

DESIGN NEWSLETTER

VOa

[ 2 ] VOA D ES I G N D ES I G N P R O CESS

PROCESS

Story and DesignHow Story Helps Create Great Architecture by Jonathan F. Douglas, AIAText originally published in the TEA 2013 Annual Directory

Last year during TEA’s annual SATE (Storytelling, Architecture, Technology, Experi-ence) conference in Orlando, I, along with a panel of experts, began a discussion that was termed

“The Architecture of Engagement”. There were several different viewpoints on what this topic meant. The discussion began with the idea that engage-ment comes from essentially spatial and visual design, using examples such as the Parthenon or Kahn’s Salk Institute. It continued to the other end of the spectrum where engagement is essentially a social construct about emotional connections; how viewed through this lens, they can create a framework for designers to create compelling and personalized stories based on desired ex-periences. It was a great discussion and got me thinking a little more about the whole idea of a framework for understanding visitor/guest experience and design methodology.

There are probably as many ways to approach design as there are numbers, and each method says something about the biases inherent in any discussion about what actually constitutes good design. We each bring our own unique perspective to any project. We have our unique personality, background and style, and every design has the individual fingerprint of the designer.

Florida Oceanographic Center – Concept development sketch

National Museum of Industrial History – Concept development sketches


PROCESS

Daytona Museum of Arts and Sciences – Concept development sketch

As designers, our approach comes from both experience and the expectations of the types of clients we like to work with. We use a theoretical framework derived from the tenets of interpretive planning to develop story-based themes and mes-sages that become the drivers for thinking about and discussing design concepts. The backbone of our design method defines the overall vision and long-term goals of the project. This process, by providing a reference framework for decisions, encourages development of targeted, realistic design strategies that work toward achievement of these goals. It identifies key experiences and sets forth an outline for the entire design and development team to understand the important elements of the project.



PROCESS

The traditional definition of interpretation goes back 30 years or more and is typically defined, per Interpretation Canada, as “a communication process designed to reveal meanings and relationships of our cultural and natural heritage, through involvement with objects, artifacts, landscapes and sites.”

Interpretation is different from simply presenting information; it is a spe-cific communication strategy used to translate information for a visitor to understand. Great interpretation uses communication principles from many areas of study and is today used not only in cultural and natural resource planning but in virtually every other communication strategy, in-cluding an advertisement in a magazine or on television.

Interpretation is the process of finding opportunities to personally connect with a place. While each of us may connect to a place in a different way, we share a universal goal to increase our enjoyment, understanding, and stewardship of our physical surroundings on our own terms.

Interpretation is ultimately about choices. We choose what stories to tell, whom to tell them to, and how to tell them. While there are infinite alterna-tives, our use of interpretive planning techniques as a design methodology

Longs Landing Estuary, entry sequence – Concept development sketch

Morocco Tapaz - Concept development sketch


PROCESS


guides our decision-making and helps us to always “do the right thing”. As architects, our work takes interpretation in a different direction by using it to first, find the right story and establish a framework, so that decisions are made within the context of the story, rather than simply becoming one opin-ion over another. Our clients expect that they will be involved in the design discussion: it is not done outside the room, but in collaboration with them each step along the way, and the methodology that helps guide the process often determines the difference between success and failure.

As architects, we are often asked how stories are created. We frequently work with writers and thematic designers and consider everyone an equal partner at the table during the design process. We consider ourselves story-tellers and always work to improve the art of telling a story because it helps us engage our clients in unexpected ways.

Confidential Project - Design Concept


PROCESS

Stories have existed from the very beginning of time and continue to evolve, although their purpose remains the same. They entertain, allow us to share common experiences, sometimes teach, and often are the only means to pass on traditions. Although today we may communicate through ever-changing technology and rapid 140 character bits, stories still remain immensely personal.

Almost all projects have great stories about how the design was con-ceived or how someone will live, work, or play in this wonderfully designed space. Our thought is that these stories are more about the designer than about who will actually be using the design. Using in-terpretive theory as a means to create stories is about understanding what we call the “know, feel, do” of a project: the “know” is the vision, the “feel” is that expressive or physical connection that great design can produce, and the “do” is the business construct of buying into the experience either with your time or money.

As architects we use storytelling to create compelling experiences that build human connections. However, great stories don’t just hap-pen randomly; they are designed. There is a pattern at work similar to any story narrative.

National Museum of Industrial History – Concept development sketch

Longs Landing Estuary – Concept development sketches


PROCESS


Substitute light and shadow for tension or mass and volume, or even time and distance, and our design tools are used to write the building’s story. And, in order to be entertaining, have the right dramatic cues, and tap deep into our collective psyche, our design tools write different storylines about what we want our audi-ence to know, feel and do. This, in essence, is the experience of architecture.

Architecture that fails to pull you emotionally, keep your attention, and create a personally compelling experience may not have used enough of these patterns as a guide. So, in a sense, our approach may be considered as an understanding of the degree and depth of your engagement based upon a clearly defined set of goals. The social experience becomes as important as its form; in other words it’s become a lot more complex and multi-dimensional.

At the very beginning of a project, long before actual design has begun, we start by exploring the complex relationship between the site, program and story; not as fixed entities but as constructs. These constructs help frame multiple per-spectives (above, below, arrival etc.).



PROCESS

Points of view (child, teen, friend, mother, employee, shareholder, neighbor etc.), or even qualities (light, movement, surface, volume etc.) become the voice for telling each story, and weaving or mapping these different but simultaneous experiences together helps us understand these interactions in a completely different way. Fortunately, it also often leads to unexpected outcomes, a better ‘wow’, organizational change, stronger vision, and yes -- maybe less money needs to be spent to accomplish the same result.

Perhaps it is true that the old ideas about architecture (top down, controlling and controlled experiences, building as object) are being replaced by a new social ecol-ogy where experiences are defined by personalized stories that interconnect and relate to each other. It’s a story now not only of aesthetics but of the ways in which we experience things today and shifting rapidly to a more sustainable paradigm.


Florida Oceanographic Center – East Elevation

Florida Oceanographic Center – West Elevation


PROCESS

Florida Oceanographic Center – Render

Florida Oceanographic Center – Concept development sketches


PROCESS

Florida Oceanographic Center – Concept development sketches

[ 11 ] VOA D ES I G N CU LT U R E A N D E N T E RTA I N M E N T

PROJECT TEAMS

National Museum of Industrial History

Longs Landing Estuary

FloridaOceanographic Center

Confidential Project

Daryl Le Blanc

Jay Jensen

Fred Rambo

Michelle O’Shaughnessy

Daryl Le Blanc

Rob Terry

Michael Shemelya

Photo Unavailable

John Page

Fred Rambo

Daryl Le Blanc

Andrew Garrels

Rob Terry

Fred Rambo

AIA, LEED AP

TEA, CFHLA

AIA, LEED AP, NCARB, TEA, CFHLA

TEA TEA

AIA, LEED AP, NCARB, TEA

Jay JensenAIA, LEED AP, NCARB, TEA



Jay JensenAIA, LEED AP, NCARB, TEA

[ 12 ] VOA D ES I G N CU LT U R E A N D E N T E RTA I N M E N T

PROJECT TEAMS

Daytona Museum of Arts & Sciences Morocco Tapaz

Daryl Le Blanc

John Page

Jay Jensen

Fred Rambo

Stephanie Moss

Richard Reep

Alec Sithong

Veronica Zurita

Rob Terry

Jay Jensen

Jeanette Gurtis

Alonso Rodriguez

Fred Rambo

Craig Murdock

Photo Unavailable

Rob TerryAIA, LEED AP, NCARB, TEA

AIA, LEED AP

LEED AP ID+C, ASID

AIA, NAIOP

AIA, LEED AP, TEA, CFHLA

LEED AP ID+C

ASID, IIDA

LEED AP BD+C, NCARB

TEA

TEA

AIA, LEED AP, NCARB, TEA


Copyright ©2013, by VOA Associates Incorporated

voa design newsletter process 2014

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