Architectural Design Models Convey Multi-Sensory Intentions Beyond Visual Representation

Why It Matters

This challenges the assumption that design models are solely for visual communication. It highlights the importance of understanding the implicit sensory information embedded within design artifacts, influencing how designers and stakeholders perceive and interact with proposed spaces.

Key Finding

Even in early design stages, architectural models and drawings can communicate more than just visual aspects, including intentions related to sound, touch, and other senses, and designers actively think about how different users will experience the space sensually.

Key Findings

• Graphic components in early architectural design can express multi-sensory design intentions.
• Architects consider how users experience space differently, even when not explicitly visualized.
• The absence of obvious visual cues does not equate to a lack of consideration for sensory experience.

Research Evidence

Aim: To investigate how sensory experiences are represented and communicated in the early stages of architectural design, beyond explicit visual cues.

Method: Ethnographic observation and qualitative analysis of graphic components from design artifacts.

Procedure: Researchers observed architects in practice, collected 985 graphic components from their design process, and analyzed these components to identify expressions of sensory-related design intentions and how architects consider diverse user sensory experiences.

Context: Early phases of architectural design within an architecture firm.

Design Principle

Design representations are multi-modal communication tools that can encode implicit sensory information.

How to Apply

When developing or reviewing design concepts, actively consider and document the intended sensory qualities (e.g., acoustics, texture, temperature) and how they might be perceived by different users, even if not explicitly drawn.

Limitations

The study focused on architectural design; findings may not directly translate to other design disciplines without adaptation. The analysis of 'graphic components' might be subjective.

Student Guide (IB Design Technology)

Simple Explanation: Designers don't just draw what things look like; they also think about how spaces will feel, sound, and be experienced by people, and they put clues about this into their drawings and models, even if it's not obvious.

Why This Matters: Understanding that design artifacts communicate more than just visuals helps in creating more holistic and user-focused designs, and in better explaining your design intentions.

Critical Thinking: To what extent can purely visual design representations effectively communicate complex multi-sensory experiences, and what are the limitations of this communication?

IA-Ready Paragraph: In the early stages of my design project, I considered how the chosen materials and forms would not only appear visually but also how they would contribute to the overall sensory experience of the user. This approach aligns with research indicating that design representations can convey multi-sensory intentions beyond explicit visual cues, prompting a deeper consideration of tactile, auditory, and even olfactory aspects of the designed environment.

Project Tips

• When creating models or drawings for your design project, think about how to hint at non-visual experiences.
• Consider how different users might interact with your design using senses other than sight.

How to Use in IA

• Reference this study when discussing how your design models or visualizations communicate intended user experiences, including non-visual aspects.

Examiner Tips

• Demonstrate an awareness of how your design artifacts communicate beyond the purely visual, considering sensory aspects.

Independent Variable: Type of graphic component/representation in architectural design.

Dependent Variable: Expressed sensory intentions and user experience considerations.

Controlled Variables: Design phase (early), architectural context.

Strengths

• Ethnographic approach provides real-world context.
• Analysis of a large number of graphic components.

Critical Questions

• How can designers intentionally embed multi-sensory information into their models?
• What are the most effective methods for analyzing and interpreting these implicit sensory cues?

Extended Essay Application

• Investigate how different forms of digital modeling (e.g., VR, AR) can be used to represent and test multi-sensory aspects of a design before physical prototyping.

Source

Representations of sensory experiences in the early phases of architectural design: there is more than meets the eye · J of Design Research · 2014 · 10.1504/jdr.2014.065846