Discourse versus design: a comparative analysis of expected spatial performance as stated in briefs and laid out in plans

Abstract

This paper addresses coherence between design schemes and designed performance by applying space syntax analytical techniques to building proposals, in order to verify whether some spatial qualities and patterns of use sought by the designer, as described in the brief, correspond to spatial properties that tend to enable those qualities and encourage those uses. Accessibility and visibility properties of integration were examined in two pairs of plans developed and submitted as final examination design pieces required for attaining of architect in four architectural schools in Brazil. Plans were selected from a database compiled as part of a research project to assess the output of architectural training at graduate level. A main criterion for selecting the plans was the designer’s explicit indication of the ways he or she expects the spatial structure to encourage certain patterns of use and encounter. The two sets of plans refer to building types that relate people to people – homes for the elderly – and people to knowledge – museums (Markus 1987). Results suggest that coherence between design and discourse derives more from intuitive and empirical knowledge – "ideas we think with" – than from an analytical evaluation of morphological properties – "ideas we think of".