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INTRODUCTION TO QUALITATIVE DESIGN (1)

Steven CONRAD Harrison,
B.Tech(Mfg & Mech.), MIIE, gradTIEAust

Design starts with an idea conceived in the imagination. In the imagination an idea is fluid, malleable and easily transformable. The human imagination is capable of generating and manipulating 3 dimensional physical models far faster than any modern computer. Imaginations however are not shared and are therefore unable to communicate the ideas to others. More importantly the imagination is an abstract universe which does not have to obey the physical laws of the real world. In the imagination perpetual motion machines and anti-gravity machines are possible. It is possible to travel faster than the speed of light, to teleport from one place to another in a matter of seconds, to be immortal, to be every where at once, both now and in the past and in the future. In short the imagination can defy nature. Unfortunately when it comes to building your own house, or factory it is not possible to defy nature, any attempt to do so will result in either economic lost at the least, to loss of life. Now everyone seems to assume that the loss of life is that of risking their own life, this is not so, legislation governing design is because the threat to life is imposed on the community at large. For example if a building fails in a wind storm, besides the roof being ripped off and the building owners expensive DVD player and DVD collection being ruined by rain. The roof cladding itself becomes a low flying object that causes damage to neighbours property, causes road accidents, and other wise physically harms people that it hits. {To put it bluntly, it can decapitate people, cut their heads off and deliver them up on a platter of corrugated iron.} It is the designers role to minimise the risk of such events. To minimise such risks it is first necessary for the designer or group of designers to communicate or present the idea in a form sufficient for the idea to be evaluated. It is also necessary to determine what level of performance and other criteria define the acceptability of the idea becoming a physical reality. This is usually, and traditionally accomplished using words and pictures. The pictures are usually presented in the language of engineering graphics. Engineering graphics is a tool for communicating an idea, evaluating ideas and generally solving all kinds of problems. It should therefore be noted that many of the calculations carried out by modern engineers can be solved graphically on a drawing board, and prior to the invention of trig/log tables, slide-rules, calculators and computers, the easiest, fastest and most practical way of solving problems was graphically. In this age of electronic computers and computer aided drafting (CAD), it is possible to solve problems using the old graphical methods but with the level of accuracy expected from mathematical computations. The calculation of areas, and the lengths of the sides of triangles are some of the simplest calculations that can be solved using the simplest of CAD packages. However what I am going to present in the next few pages are the qualitative aspects of design as opposed to the quantitative aspects of design. In qualitative design we do not deal directly with the attributes of an idea that have measurable properties such as mass, length and time. We do not ignore them, but we are not interested in measured values, thus a weight of 10 Kg, or length of 10m is of minor interest, what is of importance is the relative proportions of quantitative properties. For example if we increase pressure does volume increase or decrease? Does a rectangle look right if its width is half its length? Is a rectangular room the correct size to hold the furniture we wish to place in it? The answers to most of these questions can be answered using engineering graphics. {Just to reinforce: when I am talking about qualitative I am not referring to the concepts of quality control or quality assurance. I am talking about that which is not yet or cannot be quantified.} Since our primary interest here is the design of buildings and structures in general, I will take some simple buildings forms as examples for design and analysis. So to start: a building consists of three primary structures: floor, roof, and walls. Though possibly the most important structure is the Earth itself, that provides the ground on which the building rests. Then again ships, submarines and space stations dont need the ground on which to rest. Also consider that in terms of a building that is used as a dwelling, or home, then the simplest building form would be a floor. In other words what additional value do the roof and walls provide?

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floor

walls

roof

Fig 1 : The Basic Structural Forms of a Building Envelope Consider for a moment that humans are part of the animal kingdom, not the plant. We are born with legs that allow us to move about the surface of the earth from one place to another to find the sustenance that we require to survive. Plants on the other hand are stuck in one place and have to build an increasingly larger and larger root system that draws sustenance from ever distant places, until eventually not enough sustenance is available to maintain the root system and transport food back to the plant, ultimately the plant starves. It therefore should be obvious that the last thing an animal, a hunter/gathered, needs is a building that firmly roots them to one location. Hence historically the most important building, dwelling for a hunter/gatherer is a suitable floor, all other protection and shelter from the environment is provided by suitable clothing, and inhabiting a suitable environment. Trees and caves provide shelter from the rain if there is some reason why you dont want to get wet. After all 90% of our bodies are water and 2/3 rds of the planet is covered with water. So what is our human aversion to water? The water itself is not a problem, it is mainly that if you get wet, the wind evaporates the water from our bodies and rips heat out as well, causing us to freeze. Rainfall itself is usually associated with low environmental temperatures. However, in equatorial climates, the cooling effects are more welcome than they are in temperate and polar climates. The other point to note is that rainfall turns the ground into mud, whilst a lack of moisture turns soil into dust which then becomes airborne in the wind. So we are already starting to determine the qualities that we want, or rather, at the moment what we dont want. Actually that is an important aspect of design. Acceptable design options are not so much selected on the basis of advantages and benefits, but more in terms of what disadvantages we are willing to accept. Thus we are willing to accept less benefit because the disadvantages of the solution are more acceptable than those associated with the greater benefit. In other words it is a compromise and trade-off. You can seldom achieve all you would like, this is the difference between your imagination and the real world. In your imagination a roof can float above the ground with no walls to support it, in the real world you have to have the inconvenience of at least a few columns to support it of the ground. In your imagination you can have a small roof that floats above your head and moves with you. In the real world the roof has to cover the area where you wish to work. Well unless you wear a big hat. Yet another aspect of design. One crazy notion can lead to an entirely different product form. Building transformed into hat. And the floating roof was brought to mind by the simple sketch I had drawn above. So if we are going to expend resources on constructing a building we really need to know what that building is for and if we really need all the functions the stereotypical dwelling can provide. Admittedly to a certain extent the building regulations say we have no choice in the matter, a building shall have these functions, and this level of performance. But that is only because the regulations are not created by imaginative designers, and not created to meet the diverse needs of a people. The regulations are largely created to meet the needs of commerce. If you didnt ever want to sell your house, and you were the only ones to ever live in it, then there would be little need for regulations other than to protect neighbours. Removal of the regulations however does not remove the need to design. Back to our dwelling design. For the sake of argument, I am going to consider that we are resource poor, and surviving in the Third World: the slowly developing world, and the environmentally harsh. Either we experience drought or monsoons and floods. Our crops fail on a regular basis, and we would largely be better of, abandoning agriculture and adopting our ancestral traditions of being nomadic hunter/gatherers. Unfortunately political boundaries prevent our migration across the surface of the planet. We are stuck where we are, like plants, all the benefit of being human are lost, except for one: our imaginations that feeds our ability to invent.

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To a certain extent a building is merely an extension to our clothing. Or even an extrapolation of a simple mat or rug. The rug provides a dry patch of ground on which to sit. Carrying it around is an inconvenience, then an idea is struck upon: wrap the rug around the waist then the arms are free for hunting and gathering. It rains so hold the rug over your head, and a roof is born, but now weve lost our floor mat. So now we need two rugs. It gets cold so we wrap a mat around our shoulders, blankets are born, clothing is born, walls are born and the first tent is on its way. Three rugs: one for a floor, one for a roof and one for walls, our own personal dwelling. Do we need any more? Well that depends on the individual and the other required functions of our dwelling shelter. Our first consideration is the floor. When you sleep on parasite infested damp ground, the first requirement to improve health is a impermeable barrier that prevents the parasites burrowing into your skin and infecting your blood stream. Something that insulates you from the damp, and even provides warmth. A simple mat and blanket: a sleeping bag. A simple tent is most likely to be blown away in the monsoons or a sand storm. Thus governments supplying or ensuring everyone has a simple weather proof sleeping bag is a first step towards providing an improved developed environment. {It should be noted that is uneconomical to impossible to design buildings to resist extreme environmental phenomenon. Thus we need take precautions to survive the aftermath of such destructive events.} Now it should be noted that the ground is largely infested with parasites due to poor sanitation methods, not the least of which is digging latrines in the wrong place, and water being in short supply. Then again when the rains do come they flood the latrines and wash the whole village with sewage. Hey ! I didnt say engineering design was about nice things. Engineering design is about solving problems of the human condition. If you want niceties go look up fashion design. Now take note we are talking about our environment. We are sleeping on the ground, digging latrines in the ground, take water from wells in the ground and rivers in the ground. We are subsistent agriculturalists growing crops and raising livestock on the ground. So our starting point for design is that block of land that is to become our own private prison. That block of land that is our own flower pot, where we are going to put down roots and vegetate. Clearly only the stupid would make a capital investment in bricks and mortar as an investment for a future retirement, and then prevent the construction of retirement villages nearby because it would reduce the selling price of their functionally useless property development. It should be noted that such an approach makes retirement villages in short supply and therefore extremely expensive, thus a monstrosity is sold for an extortionate price to some gullible fool, so that the stupid owners can then purchase a tiny retirement unit also at an extortionate price. It is thus vastly more intelligent and sensible to invest in developing property so that you become increasingly self-sufficient, depending on what it is you intend on retiring from and to. Basically you only really need a retirement village or nursing home because you have retired to a sorrowful state of poor health, and otherwise given up on life, that is : retired from life. Hence we are no longer concerned with designing a building but designing a lifestyle. So onwards with design. Thus far I have only used words to describe and evaluate ideas, the original intention was to describe technical drawing and engineering graphics. The primary reason for choosing to write this in Microsoft Visio Professional was so that I could change between writing and drawing with relative ease. Not as easily as I do with pencil and paper, as I do in the original form and version of my journal, but easier than messing with WORD or AutoCAD LT. However, we are not quite into technical drawing just yet. But we will start to get more graphical, by introducing a common design tool in the form of bubble diagrams. This diagram consists of simple bubbles encircling words or ideas that are linked together by simple lines, to show relationship and association or simple connectivity. The actual style and presentation of the diagram is up to the needs of the individual and the nature of the problem or idea being considered. Creating the diagram itself will help determine such points.

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So land is our starting point. What characteristics are we looking for when considering a block of land? To assess we develop a bubble diagram identifying what we know about land, and see how it develops, as one idea leads to another.
Education Schools Industry Employment Commerce

Health

Proximity to Stores = Shops

roads Promity to Water Promity to food Promity to food Wells Rivers Water Mains Rainfall flora Is the soil suitable for gardening ? Growing food vegetables? Proximity to labour fauna Storm water drainage Wind Weather and Climate Natural Environment

Proximity to construction materials

Are there restrictions on raising livestock?

This diagram can become increasingly complex as we continue, and at the same time we can isolate a small portion of the diagram to have a detailed look at just one aspect of the issue involved. We thus keep this diagram on side as we develop our design ideas and present them in different forms. At this point we are not so much concerned with the readability of the diagram, just the generation of ideas, issues, characteristics and features that we should or maybe should be giving our attention to. It should have become apparent that the next most important engineering graphic that we should be taking a look at is a map of the area where our block of land is located. Maps are illustrative of several other important design tools: symbols, grids and scales.

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Grids and scale are important design tools. The following table presents common reduction scales for which scale rules are available removing the need to carry out scaling calculations. Just use the scale rule, measure and draw.

scale
1:1 1:10 1:100 1:1000 1:10 000 1: 100 000

equivalent 1
1 mm = 1 mm 1 mm = 10 mm 1mm = 100 mm 1mm = 1000 mm 1mm = 10 000 mm 1mm = 100 000 mm

equivalent 2
1 cm = 1 cm 1 cm = 100 mm 1 cm = 1 m 1 cm = 10 m 1 cm = 100 m 1 cm = 1 km 1 cm = 10 km

1: 1 000 000 1 mm = 1 000 000 mm

Regarding grids and the building and construction industry, dimensional coordination methodology puts the preferred modular sizes in multiples of 300 mm, 100 mm, 50 mm and 25 mm. There are also two kinds of grid to consider, axial or structural grids, face or spatial grids. Structural grids are used for planning the location of columns and beams, and the grid lines represent the centre lines of the structural members. Spatial grids are used for planning spaces and the grid lines represent the faces of walls, ceilings and floors. A building project requires consideration of both grids. Grids are normally square, but they can be any useful shape, rectangular, triangular or isometric, circular or hexagonal. Circular grids are useful for evaluating centre to centre distances between various regions, such as service centres, schools, shopping centres etc. However, when the circles are stacked together they leave gaps that are outside and between the circular regions. But as the diagram below indicates the stacked circles have an association with hexagons, and if vertices of the hexagon are joined triangles are formed. If the hexagon, is a pure hexagon, that is 6 equal sides, then the triangles formed are equilateral triangles, the triangular grid that results is known as isometric.

Circular Grid Hexagonal Grid Isometric Grid

As may be noticed from the geometric and dimensional inaccuracies in the above diagrams Visio is not the easiest program for drawing with accuracy. Not for an AutoCAD user any how. However it will suffice for my current illustrative purposes. A relationship should now become apparent between our bubble diagrams and the grids, and how they can be used for space planning. If the bubbles represent the functional use of space and the links between the bubbles represent travel paths between the spaces, then our objective is to get all the spaces arranged so that we do not need any hallways or corridors to travel between each space, and to minimise the total area occupied by each space. That is the ideal situation, the reality is that we will need hallways.

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One thing that we can do with hexagonal grids is use the scale of our street directory to produce 1 km and 5 km grids on overhead transparencies. We can then centre these grids over the block of land we are considering and then identify what services, shops, schools etc.., are within reasonable distances of the block of land. For business operators another concept is that of hinterlands and the von Christaller model of geographical economics. Basically if your business is at the centre of the hexagon, then the boundaries of the hexagon define the limits of your market place, whilst the centres of each hexagon define the potential locations of competitors.

business

business

business

For a more accurate assessment, take a map and draw a radial line from the location of your business premises to all other businesses of like nature. Then mark a point midway along the lengths of all these radial lines, and then join all these points together. The enclosed boundary is your hinterland, or the geographical extents of your market place. Compare this with your historical sales data, and identify what geographical features result in distortion of this picture. For example a main road may be directing potential customers to a more distant supplier. Another cause of distortion is when common businesses all locate in the same area. For example in a central business district, like businesses can be found right next door to each other. As a consequence travel distance alone is not the factor controlling the geographical extents of their market places.

Location of hinterland Thus we have considered business locations from two viewpoints. That of house owners and their need for suppliers, and that of businesses and their need for markets and customers. Businesses also need suppliers and a similar diagram to that above should also be produced with respect to a businesses suppliers. A competitive advantage may be as a consequence of reduced transportation costs compared to other market players. Drawing diagrams of this nature can produce a map of the industrial food chain, and identify opportunities for business improvement such as vertical and horizontal integration of business functions. Thats all for now. Next issue I will cover more of the actual development of a block of land and the building itself. For now I will leave you busy producing bubble diagrams, and getting a grasp of what functions your building needs to fullfill.

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