Project Title :City Center

Location:Santa Ana Cagayan

General Concept: 21st century development:mordernize and sustainable

individuals: biotech integration of commercial complex through applying modern and traditional design
; following the guidelines of sustainable development goals of the country and passive design principles
and from the place economic place and environmental status

Sustainable and green architecture

Baquiran:

Eco-moda modern design and environment friendly development.

Nathan: contemporary architecture

Biotechnology

Sustainable and green architecture

21st Century Developments benefit all living systems by enabling

human and natural systems to coevolve and regenerate. They are
resilient and sustainable, thriving in the midst of change and
seeking to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity
for all.
is a model for the creation of regenerative communities that strives to provide a
healthy environment for all people and living systems now and in a dynamic
future.

For people:
21st Century Developments improve health, provide healthy living and working
environments, and create a productive, equitable society.
For the environment:
21st Century Developments regenerate all resources used, and they continually
restore and renew local and regional ecosystems.
Statement of the Problem

The town of Sta. Ana, Cagayan has been socio economically transforming during the last
decades, has always been known as the most visited place in the region. The town is rapidly
growing, the development of a city center becomes even more important piece of the whole and
a lot of thought must go into its design. The study aims to develop a City Center in Sta. Ana,
Cagayan taking into account the local and the needs to transform the town with unified
architectural design and treatment. Aims to provide a city center into a more vibrant and that
enhance the experience and the community in different ways and aims to answer these
questions:

 What concept will be acquired to the development?

 How it is going to be fundamentally distinct from all other city center development?
 What are the possible outcome of the development to the locality of Sta. ana?
 What are the different infrastructures present forming the city center?

How to come up with an architectural concept

Creating and developing architectural concepts is something a lot of students and
indeed many architects struggle with. This may be due to project pressures, writers
block, limited inspiration, or just the fact that for many students their architecture
schools particularly in the first couple of years, don’t teach and stress the importance
of them.

As we discuss here in “ How to develop an architecture concept ”, the best conceptual

approaches should always a im to provide the backbone and foundation to a new
project, and form part of the initial process as much as your site analysis should do.
There are many methods o f coming up with a concept, and by following the process’s
described in the above articles, they can be derived from almost anything; personal
experiences and influences, emotions, perceptions, research, analysis …there are
many

Here we provide a list of 2 1 concept ideas that can be used as starting points for
your conceptual development and help steer you in the right direction as your project
develops. Note though, that to create a meaningful approach these listed ideas must
be tied back to your own thought processes, interpretations and analysis, in order for
them to be bespoke to your project …there is not a one size fits all.

Following each description we provide a Pinterest link to a list of examples that

demonstrate how each concept can be used in a real world scenario, or how it can be
explained through concept sketches and models.

Architecture concepts list

In short the 21 concept ideas are:

 Typography
 Vernacular
 Historic
 Form & Volume
 Physical Features
 Views
 Public & Private
 Accommodation
 Use
 Mass
 Journey & Movement
 Adding & Subtracting
 Materials
 Atmosphere
 Grid
 Culture & Society
 Protection & Shelter
 Structure and Technology
 Users
 Light
 Orientation

Types of Architecture Concepts…

Typography

The typography of your site can be used to develop many different conceptual
approaches such as the environment the building provides (shelter / exposure), its
structural approach (cantilevering / subterranean), how it is perceived (public /
private), and how it utilises its context (views / features).

For example, a steep site calls for a strong structural concept from the outset,
whereas a flat site may wa nt to address its exposure and how the building interacts
with its north, east, south and west facing aspects.

Concept Examples:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/archisoup/typography -architectural-concepts/

Vernacular

Buildings need to relate to their context and if your site has a moderate to strong
vernacular, then based on the research from your site analysis; this can be used to
your advantage during your conceptual development.

For example a strong pitched roof typology, can lead to study of how to adapt and
push its form forward. Take The Dune House by Norwegian
Architects Jarmund/Vigsnæs, one simple sketch quickly explains their concept and
demonstrates how it is rooted back to the si te.

Concept Examples:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/archisoup/vernacular -architectural-concepts/
Form & Volume

You may want to start with a simple form and volume study, where you can
experiment and study into how to manipulate positive and negative spaces. An
excellent set of books that explains this very method is the Spacial verbs series
listed here and featured at the end of this article.

It’s worth noting however that this method will not be enough to successfully create
and ground a meaningful architectural proposal, and should be accompanied with at
least one other approach.

Concept Examples:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/archisoup/form -architectural -concepts/

Historic

Using the historical research of your site and its surrounding context can open many
types of various avenues to use and explore. Every site has a history and quite often
a story to tell that perhaps leads into an investigation into how to modernise pas t
construction techniques or how a new housing project should be master planned
based its towns original plan.

Connecting and using past influences and methods will severely strengthen your
conceptual approach.

Concept Examples:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/archisoup/historic -architectural-concepts/

Physical Features

Physical features generally refers to the site elements, such as water bodies, trees,
vegetation, rock formations, manmade structures etc.

Take 6a’s architects “tree House’ project that uses the sites natural elemen ts (in this
instance a tree) to inform and shape the proposed building, or Carmody Groakes
Burgh Island house and Adalberto Libera’s Casa Malaparte that both use their sites
coastal cliffs to support themselves.

Further Examples here:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/archisoup/site -specific-architectural-concepts/

Views

Utilising the views from your site can help to define and shape your building in levels
of importance and priority. Key spaces will want to take advantage of them and
utilitarian areas should be set aside. Equally, if your site does not h ave views out,
then you will need to create views in, and start to build a concept based on internal
views.

Where there are views however you may also want to draw site lines out and across
your site to create a lattice like diagram that may lead to the gr id concept described
below, or simply further exploration.

Additionally, your concept could be based around how and where the views are
revealed, and how your building opens up to them.

Concept Examples:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/archisoup/view -architectural -concepts/

Public & Private

Through your site analysis you should be able to quickly establish were the public
and private areas are, and depending on the bu ilding type and the nature of your
context, establishing this concept early on can be a great project driver.
For example in an urban context, the private spaces may need to provide a complete
detachment from its soundings to create its own micro environme nt. However within a
rural setting the private spaces could still have a strong connection to their
surroundings but be set away from the public areas.

An excellent example of this is OMA’s Maggie Centre in the heart of Glasgow

https://www.maggiescentre s.org/our-centres/maggies-glasgow/architecture -and-

design/

A few more here also:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/archisoup/public -private-architectural-concepts/

Accommodation
Taking the design briefs specified accommodation and mapping it out to represent
separate squares and rectangles to the required floor areas, can help to develop and
visualise the spaces that should be connected, separated or be within close proximity
to one another.

This can create a spacial concept where the areas are arranged in order of use,
requirement, orientation, views, shelter, served and servant, public and private etc

Use

This is very similar to the above, where the arrangement of your buildings spaces
and accommodation are based purely on their category, and how the user will
interact within that space as they enter and move throug h it.

Supermarkets for example are purely based on this strategy where the fruit and
vegetables are always found at the front of the store. This is a conscious decision to
provide your brain with the impression that you’re entering a natural and fresh
environment …a pleasant oasis apart from the rest of your working day, this then
sets you upon your journey throughout the rest of the store.

The same can be said for museums and art galleries where the user is purposely
guided through the building and exhibit ion spaces.

Mass

Using massing to form a conceptual approach is essentially taking the planned areas
you may have created for an accommodation study and extruding them into 3D forms
for arrangement.

A simple example of this might be Bjarke Ingles' LEGO

House https://www.designboom.com/architecture/lego -house-bjarke-ingels-group-big-
museum-billund-denmark -09-28-2017/
Further examples of this concept here:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/archisoup/massing -architectural-concepts/

Journey & Movement

This masterplan proposal by Swedish architects Jagnefalt Milton for Åndalsnes in

Norway, is a really good example of using journey and movement to create a
concept.

Through site analyse, current, old and disused train tracks were used as a foundation
to create this sustainable response, where the sizes and weight limitations of the
tracks went onto also help create the living pods\carriages.

Concept examples:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/archisoup/movement -architectural-concepts/

Adding & Subtracting

For this method you need to start off with a solid volume that exceeds the
requirements set out by the design brief but also sits comfortably within the given
site. Elements of this mass are then removed and shaped according to site factors,
design brief requirements, accommodati on placements etc.

A good example of this can be found here

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f9/fb/03/f9fb031d16d8c745886d837598a2a1fe.jpg

…and further ones here:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/archisoup/subtraction -architectural-concepts/

Materials
The type of materials you propose can be used to form the foundation of a design
concept by utilising their properties in terms of their type, size and limitations.

For example a two story building, may have a stone or masonry base, and then a
lighter material could be used to form the second floor, say timber. T he conceptual
strategy is a light object sitting upon a heavy one, the properties of the materials
dictate this arrangement, as it would not work the opposite way around.

Similarly the material choices may be a play on the local vernacular of your site, or
the construction techniques originally used. You can investigate how these can be
modernised and improved upon.

Grid
Site grids can be taken and created from almost anything, and for this reason they
can be incredibly diverse in their use. The purpose of site grids is to provide
strategic and justified areas and separations on what could be a completely blank
canvas.

Mapping views that pass through or overlook the site, can help to located areas of
exposure or desire. Or mapping and pulling through the loc al street typologies into
your site can again divide the site up and provide a grounded take on the local
context.

Examples:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/ar chisoup/grid-based-architectural-concepts/

Culture & Society

This is largely generated from the design brief and the use and occupancy of the
proposed building. Take a monastery for example, where the monks living within and
using the building follow very strict rules and day to day activities. They live
extremely simply with limited possessions, and this instantly starts to map out and
define the proposed spaces.

There is a lot to be said for really scrutinising your design brief, and breaking it down
into its separate parts.

Protection & Shelter

Stemming from your site analysis, this works particularly well in exposed areas
where the concept plays with open and closed spaces to create different
environments and experiences. This can be done by controlling how your building
interacts with light, shadow, wind, rain and general weather patterns.

Equally this method could tie into a public and private design concept, where the
protection and shelter elements form the required divides.

Atmosphere

Peter Zumphor does this very well and talks about it in both his two books
“Atmospheres”(amazon link ) and “Thinking Architecture” ( amazon link ).

Playing with atmosphere is about the use and adaption of light, shado w and space to
provide the buildings users with the experience of feeling and emotion as they move
through and occupy its spaces.

Special attention should be made to orientation and seasonal variations of your site,
where the light and weather patterns sho uld be mapped in order to assess how they
pass through and over the building.

Concept examples:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/archisoup/atmosphere -architectural-concepts/
Users

Again taken from the design brief and the requirements for the project, Architec ture
is created for and around people, and so why shouldn’t they be used to create a
concept. An infant school for example, needs to provide for very small humans as
well as fully grown ones. This often results in single storey zonal planning, with
strong connections to the outdoors.

Light

Light can used in a number ways to shape, create and define spaces, however with
natural light in particular, it can only be used once you have (again) carried out your
site analysis. The size, orientation and shape of your site will help to determine how
it can help conceptually.

For example, a narrow rectangular site may struggle to bring light into its core, and
so this opens up the option of creating courtyard spaces. Or there may be a certain
period of the day where the light casts a particular ray or shadow, and the massing
of your building may want to work with or around this.

Concept examples:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/archisoup/light -shadow-architectural-concepts/

Orientation

Again established from your site analysis, the orientation is key factor to consider in
every architecture project and using it to help define the conceptual development of
a design project, can provide vital information for the siting your building and
accommodation within it.

Mapping out how the light enters and affects the site will provide key information on
how the building can be used and arranged.

For example, in the northern hemisphere with the sun rising and setting from east to
west, a buildings utilitarian spaces where natural direct light is less important, could
be located on its northe rn side and/or centrally.

Equally, this will also assist in the positioning of openings and outside spaces …the
orientation will help to map out and organise the programme.

Concept examples:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/archisoup/orientation -architectural-concepts/

Structure and Technology

Knowing how you wish to build your proposal from the beginning can heavily
influence your conceptual development. This c an be an investigation into local
vernacular methods of construction, through to techniques and technologies that are
in the very early stages of development and not yet widely available.
Equally, structural features such as a large cantilever or span can also create
inspiration, for example London based architects HAL’s design for a suspended
swimming pool aptly named “ sky pool” calls for a transparent structure free proposal.
The proposal itself is simply a glass rectangle, the magic is all in how it is
suspended.

Concept Example:

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/archisoup/structural -architectural-concepts/
For further reading, we have a selection of recommend books here that from various
perspectives provide a further insight into concept and design development.

…and lastly we’d love to hear how you get on with finding and adapting your own
architectural concepts, and if you have any questions, please leave them in the
comments below.

Thanks