Storytelling in architecture design

A vital tool in design process for Students

Welcome back to the part-2 of Storytelling in Architecture Design.If you have missed part-1of Storytelling in Architecture Design check this link before you start with this one.

Storytelling in Architecture is not just physical interaction but a permanent one. It helps us connect to events with a holistic experience through time. This unique nature of stories makes it one of the essential tools during the design process. Previously, we have explored approaching the design, Architecture as human experience, and storytelling as a tool and how it aims to understand problems from the user perspective to address them with a human-centric approach. Each design, communicates a tale of value, identity, faith, belief, place, people, culture, time, knitting together with an understanding of all these, the situation within the set context of the design using the spatial language through an interactive tale. This solely depends on the ability of the design in guiding and shaping the user experience.

Okay, having said all that how do you tell your design story? When you design a building and imagine it is built you can’t always hang around the building to tell the user the story. Your work needs to tell the speak for itself.

“Art is not what you see, it is what you make others see” — Edgar Degas

The stories that you as a designer perceive in your mind don’t exist unless they are translated on paper. So, the perception of the space is portrayed as a story. This approach takes the circumstances that makeup space, and adds a certain bend to space this solely depends on the ability of the design in guiding and shaping the user experience. This could be:

• Action-based storytelling where, the user(protagonist) through whose point of view, the entire design is driven.
• Metaphorical storytelling — an idea conveyed in the form of a story, where the design is expressed by the quality of meaning associated.
• Impressionistic storytelling — where the user and the experience are communicated through perceived interpretations to make sense.
• Instructive storytelling — direct establishment of communication conveyed through the purpose.
• Value-based storytelling — Scenarios based out of certain deep-rooted faith and believes.

The stories could also be a combination of the styles but comprise of four parts basic. For our understanding, we can be categorized as

• Backstory — a setting that needs to be studied based on which the story development happens. In the case of design, we are given a design problem based on which we arrive at a context development for the design.
• Narrative overlay — basically how you attempt to present the story to your audience. In design, initially, we come with an understanding of our users, functions, and space. This helps in prioritizing and emphasizing certain things in the design that are of greater significance.
• Theme — the genre on which a story mainly focuses, but there could be minor components of another genre that comes in between and could exist in the story without conflict and reducing the essence of the main focus. In design, the conceptual idea evolves based on the demands of design as a whole. Also, we try to work on minor concepts in certain spaces in cohesion with the main concept or in complete contrast but could coexist within the design in harmony.
• Experience & Interaction — the exact feel that a story invokes in its audience while rending a scenario. In design, based on the context, analysis and concept perceived and induce the users’ experience. Where the design carefully crafts these using form, color, light, material, spatial language to transform the meaning of elements to embodied values & experience.

These forms of approaches to design, open up possibilities for many analytical approaches. The patterns derived from these analyses, with qualitative and quantitative data, values human needs as authentic. When you try to write down these interpretations of yours into a creative design brief- the script of your design story, that guides you through the project and not as a story for you to juries but a real one that helps you throughout the design process.

Hope you find this article useful in approaching your Architectural design. Enjoy this reading? for more please click the link https://kris02.medium.com