Design traps

Prepared by: Ayman Abduljaber , Reman A.yehya

Supervasior: armange
Contents Design traps

• Traps for the unwary -There is a great deal of wishful thinking in such cases; it is the easiest
thing of all to deceive one’s self.
• The category trap Demosthenes

• The puzzle trap -The physician can bury his mistakes, but the architect can only advise
his client to plant vines.
• The number trap Frank Lloyd Wright, New York Times

• The icon trap

• The image trap
-Traps for the unwary

No area of human thought is as full of pitfalls as design. Perhaps because design problems are so complex and
‘wicked’ or tricky it is comparatively easy to make decisions which, with the benefit of hindsight, may seem quite
ridiculous. The life of the design critic is in truth far easier than that of the designer! Since designers create things
for other people to use they find themselves surrounded by critics all of whom seem to know how to design but just
choose not to earn their living that way! No field of design is more prone to exposing its creator’s weaknesses than
architecture. The great architect Frank Lloyd Wright, responsible for the famous advice quoted at the head of this
chapter, was clearly speaking from firsthand experience of this! As a teacher of design students I have seen more
design mistakes than most and in many cases they result from the designer falling into a mental trap which it is
relatively easy to learn to avoid. This chapter identifies some of the more common traps and discusses ways of
avoiding their clutches!
-The category trap

The most obvious trap of all for the unwary or inexperienced designer is to identify the problem by the category of solution most
commonly found. Thus architects speak of ‘housing design’ or school design’. Whilst schools undoubtedly share much in common,
they are also all different. Thus to transfer solutions previously seen at other schools to a new one may be quite inappropriate.
What is worse, is that the designer working in this way may not even notice the difference or be aware of the parts of the
problem which have not been addressed.

these designers study design solutions remotely through magazines and journals which tend to focus attention on purely
organisational and visual properties. It is quite understandable and almost inevitable that designers will develop ideas about
solutions and bring these to bear on their own problems. The category trap yawns wide open when a designer is looking for an
opportunity to use some of these ideas and is tempted to do so too uncritically
-The puzzle trap

design problems are not puzzles. There are no correct or, even, optimal answers to design problems. This means that neither
the designer nor others can recognise a ‘right’ design solution, although designers often experience an emotion similar to the
feeling of ‘rightness’ when a design idea suddenly emerges which seems to satisfy many aspects of the problem. However, we all
enjoy puzzles and gain enormous satisfaction from solving them.

Design problems are not puzzles, but they often have puzzle-like components, and designers rely on this almost obsessional
drive to achieve their goals. Planning problems can sometimes be almost like jigsaws.

Designers treating a part of a design problem as a pseudopuzzle can be trapped into thinking that the elements and rules of this
pseudo-puzzle are as inviolate as a normal puzzle. In fact many brain-teasers also rely on our weakness for treating puzzles
overrigidly. The well known nine-dot four-line puzzle is a good example of this (Fig. 13.1). The puzzle is to find a way of connecting
all the nine dots by drawing only four lines without lifting the pen from the paper..
1. The structure to be load-bearing cross-walls carrying concrete
plank floors.
2. All rooms to be naturally ventilated.
3. Kitchen to be a separate space from the living-room.
4. Internal circulation to be minimised.
5. Living-rooms to overlook the access deck and face south.

The second aspect of the puzzle trap comes into play only when
pseudo-puzzles have been solved. Indeed it is the very satisfaction
that we experience when solving puzzles which is likely to ensnare
the unwary designer. So pleased are we with the solution that it
becomes a focal point of the design and may prevent other
much more important ideas from emerging.

The second aspect of the puzzle trap comes into play only when
pseudo-puzzles have been solved. Indeed it is the very satisfaction
that we experience when solving puzzles which is likely to ensnare
the unwary designer. So pleased are we with the solution that it
becomes a focal point of the design and may prevent other
much more important ideas from emerging.
Consider then the two jigsaw puzzles illustrated here (Figs 13.3 and 13.4). The object in each case is to fit the pieces together in the
neatest and simplest way. Undoubtedly the best answers to these puzzles are a square and a rectangle as shown (Figs 13.5 and 13.6).
The square in particular has the kind of elegance as a solution which is likely to please the puzzler who discovers it! However, the next
and more difficult part of this puzzle is to fit all the pieces from both jigsaws together into a neat and simple form (Fig. 13.7). As can
be seen from the suggested solution this entails demolishing the two earlier solutions since they will not fit together neatly (Fig. 13.8).
The unwary
-The number trap

Any powerful tool is dangerous, and mathematics is no exception. The incorrect use of mathematical techniques on the wrong
sort of numerical systems was thoroughly

However, even if all the rules have been obeyed, one even more tricky aspect of the number trap still remains. The assumption
that larger numbers represent things which are bigger, better or more desirable!
This solution was achieved at considerable cost which could hardly be considered value for money. However, even more
ridiculously, the actual usable space was now probably lower. As a result of moving the door the space behind it when open was
now less than the width of normal furniture preventing the location of a wardrobe or chest of drawers there. In the new design
therefore a dressing-table could no longer be fitted in. However the local authority, taking seriously their responsibility for
protecting the public by maintaining minimum standards, insisted on the change! They were truly ensnared by the number trap!
-The icon trap

Today design by drawing is commonplace, to the extent that we shall devote the whole of the next chapter to the subject. Here,
however, we shall see how such a powerful tool as the drawing can itself easily become a trap for designers

the drawing itself can easily become a trap for the designer. All designers are, by nature visually sensitive and graphically
skilled, so they like to make beautiful drawings and models which, these days, may not just be physical but might be elaborate
computer constructions.

A whole generation of architecture students started to imitate this, using these drawings throughout the design process. In
many cases decisions were being taken in order that the drawing would compose well rather than the building. Of course we
never see buildings from a ‘worm’s eye view, and rarely from the ‘bird’s eye view’. But then neither do we ever see buildings in
plan or section and rarely do we get near seeing a true elevation. As we shall see in the next chapter, all drawings have their
shortcomings as well as their possibilities. There is nothing wrong in producing beautiful presentations, so long as they continue
to do their job of revealing and communicating the design so it can be properly understood and thoroughly examined.
-The image trap
The designer invariably has an image of the final design held in his or her mind. However, there can often be a mismatch between
intention and realisation in design.

Over the years I have listened to many hundreds of design students telling me in their crits how their designs will look, feel or
what they will be like to live in or use. The natural and perfectly understandable inexperience of the design student means that
quite often they are just plain wrong. An architectural student may intend a space to be light and airy or to achieve some
particularly dramatic lighting effect, but since he or she has no experience of actually creating such a space their design may be
a great disappointment if constructed. All too often these days design students, and some of their tutors who should know
better, are content to have the ideas without testing the realisation. Quite recently an architectural student in my school had
drawn an absolutely delightful section through a most imaginative and atmospheric space. Unfortunately the lighting effects
shown on the drawing would have been quite impossible from the relatively small aperture
he proposed constructing in the roof. This student described his work with considerable verbal skill and no little advocacy but
had deceived himself and some of his critics through both his drawn and word pictures of the design