As you’re starting your project, you’ll start coming across an array of terms that have their own place and meaning in the world of architecture and design. One of these words your architect will start tossing around is ‘Program.’
Architectural programming is a concept worth understanding. Let’s take a minute to go through it.
What is Architectural Programming?
At the outset of any project there are many important questions to start asking. One of the biggest ones that your architect needs to know is ‘What are we actually designing?’
This may sound like an easy question with easy answers. You might be able to say: ‘I want a house that has this many bedrooms, this many bathrooms, i need a studio, a spa, a place to watch movies, a place to hang out by the fire, a great kitchen, and so on.’ You might say: ‘I want it to look like this, and have this color of walls, this kind of tile in the bathrooms, this style of cabinets, and so on.’ And you might have a very clear vision in your mind of what you want. But is this list complete? Have you thought of everything? How big are all these rooms? And, when you put them all together, does the total building size fit your budget?
Without very specific answers to these questions, it can be a challenge for your architect to come up with the design that matches your vision. Even though it feels like your list is pretty complete, there at still unlimited possibilities.
The Program is a document that takes these ideas and makes them specific. Architectural programming is the research and decision-making process that identifies the scope of work to be designed.
To start with, it is a list of every room in the house. This includes all the bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen, dining and eating areas, living room and gathering areas, offices, private rooms, secret rooms, storage, closets. Everything you need to support your daily routines.
From there, it needs to get specific. Not just what the spaces are, but how big they are. What are the dimensions and how tall are they? To get these numbers, you need to think about how you are going to use each space.
Think of this series of questions as an example to guide you:
Do you like to entertain? How many people do you like to have over? Will they all sit at one big dining table? Will it be families with kids? Where to they go after the meal? Is there one grand living room with enough couches and chairs for everyone? Will groups break away into smaller rooms, like a lounge, a bar, a games room? As you can imagine, a dining room with a table that fits 36 people needs a different amount of space than a room with a table for 12.
Also important to consider are questions like: Do you have any specific furniture or rugs that need to fit properly in a space? Do you have art that needs a certain size of wall? Sculpture that needs to fit somewhere?
All of these details are important to consider in order to build out your program.
It’s worth noting here that coming up with the program is outside the scope of your architect’s basic services. According to the standard agreements, a detailed program is on the list of your initial responsibilities, which also includes other pre-design work such, feasibility studies, surveys, soil reports, and so on.
At Vera Iconica we are often brought on board to help our clients with the pre-design work. It is a great way to get involved early, establish goals, rapport and communication, and come up with a clear Program document to take into the design phases.
To help you think more deeply about some of the questions listed above, we start with a series of questionnaires and journaling exercises to get to know you, and to help us understand how you will use the building, how you will move between the rooms, and where the hidden opportunities are to create special moments. We believe that your home affects how you live. It can support you or distract you from your ideal routines and habits. This pre-design work, including building out the detailed program document is helpful to guide the design towards achieving your goals.
The Importance of Architectural Programming
Starting out your project with a clear, detailed, well considered program is important for several reasons:
- Design Direction: Establishing the program, with all the rooms and spaces defined, sets a strong foundation for the design process and helps set up the initial budget goals.
- Communication: Clear communication at this phase sets the stage for clear communication throughout the process.
- Staying on Target: Inevitably, changes and new ideas come up during the early phases of design. There is a fairly direct correlation between square footage and costs. It happens regularly during the first reviews of floor plans that a client will picture themselves using the spaces, and think of something they want to add. While adding one powder room near the entry can be easily absorbed into most plans without major adjustments, putting in the extra powder, a closet, a sauna room, and so on, into the design can add hundreds of square feet. This is fine, in the early phases, so long as you’re ok with raising your budget to add the space. (If these changes or additions happen in a later phase of the process, it can lead to a larger redesign exercise.) It is good to have the initial program to compare against to make sure the project either stays on track, or that the changes are worth the extra costs.
- Client Satisfaction: Being clear what you want up front makes it much more easier to get you what you want in the end.
- Stakeholder Alignment: On a large, complex project with multiple stakeholders, getting everyone to agree on the program can be challenging. Differing opinions and priorities can make it difficult to develop a program that satisfies everyone’s needs. Pushing through any disagreements or differences at this stage will help avoid challenges later on.
In addition to these reasons, architectural programming also helps in identifying potential challenges early in the process. By addressing these issues upfront, architects can develop solutions that prevent problems down the line. This proactive approach not only saves time and money but also leads to a more successful project.
Steps in the Architectural Programming Process
The architectural programming process involves several key steps:
- Pre-design Research: This initial phase involves collecting relevant data about the site, existing structures, local regulations, and other contextual factors. Understanding the context of the project is essential to developing a program that meets your budget and can address environmental and regional challenges, while still being tailored to your lifestyle needs and goals.
- Client Interviews and Needs Assessment: Engaging with the you to understand your goals, preferences, and functional needs is important, and can be a fun way to get to know each other. This step includes the workshops and questionnaires we described above. We often will meet you on the jobsite, sometimes several times at various times of day, sometimes we will do a ceremony on the site, and sometimes we’ll travel with you to look at architecture or places that inspire you.
- Space Planning and Allocation: Based on the information gathered, the architect develops a space program, detailing the required spaces, their sizes, and relationships. This step involves creating an abstract plan that outlines how the space will be used and how different areas will relate to each other.
With all of this in place, the architect can move forward into the conceptual design phase, starting to look at room adjacencies, which start to layout floor plans, building shape and massing, size and proportion.
Conclusion
Architectural programming is a vital component of the design process. By thoroughly understanding what you want your project to be, and organizing your thoughts into a detailed program document, you are giving your architect a big piece of what they need to get started with their work.
If you are considering an architectural project, ensure that comprehensive programming is a part of your process. And consider bringing your architect on board to guide you through the pre-design process. Contact us to learn more about how we can help you out. Our team of experienced professionals is ready to help you turn your vision into reality.
