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So far, I talked about hierarchy and balance,

because these are the most important design principles.

Hierarchy helps us understand the space while balance helps

the space just feel right.

Now we're going to talk about what I call secondary principles, which

help us establish hierarchy and balance, and also can have effects on their own.

These principles are, contrast, rhythm, alignment and proximity.

Contrast is a design principle

that we use when we want to emphasize a difference between two things.

So for example if we want to emphasize the difference in size

with these two things then we probably want to increase the contrast

if we want to make the big element look bigger.

And so, we might want to do this.

Or, we might want to increase the contrast not only in size,

but also, in material finish.

In this way, we can use different

elements to improve the contrast.

And the reason we actually want to use the contrast and

the reason that we want to emphasize a difference is that sometimes we want to

use the contrast to improve the hierarchy of the image and sometimes we simply

want to use contrast to make some elements more visible against the backdrop.

So these are the two ways we use contrast as a design principle.

Second design principle that I would like to talk about now is repetition or rhythm.

Now repetition is very inherent in architecture and

the dealing of repetition is very important because by nature architecture

and proposition are often repetitive.

That's because in a program because we often get problems such as we need to make

a building with 200 offices and also because of the structure

because we can use repetition to evenly distribute the load and

so as an architect, it's very important to know how to deal with repetition

especially because repetition is something that people usually perceive as boring.

So if we take one visual element and repeat it

over the same distance we will get what we could call a monotonous rhythm.

It's an equivalent of repeating the same note in music all over again or

the same, let's say, drum sound.

We get what we call in music as well as in visual arts a monotonous rhythm.

On the other hand, if you try to vary either the shape that you're repeating or

the distance between them we can make this composition more playful.

And, as a matter of fact, we can gradate, let's say,

the playfulness of the composition by the way we vary elements such as windows.

Sometimes we want to because of the nature of the building we make, we want to make

a building very playful for some sort of users, while other sort of users would

maybe require something more serious or let's say more monotonous rhythm.

Also, it's important to say that rhythm or

repetition helps us understand space better.

Let me just show you a simple example where we can use

very similar elements, and repeat them.

Now, by using this, by repeating the same element but

by varying the size we in a way help our brains understand the composition

better because although we might say the repetition is boring, our brains often

like repetition because it's something that we can instinctively understand.

Another thing that's very important to say when we talk about repetition.

If we have same visual elements, say window, and

we repeat it in the same monotonous way but we make the windows so

small then at one point we will stop seeing windows and

we will see all these windows, we will stop seeing, sorry, individual windows.

And we will start perceive all these group of small, repetitive windows,

as one visual element, as a pattern.

So always have a scale in mind when you think about repetition in architecture.

Third visual element or design principle that I want to discuss now is alignment.

And alignment is a design principle where we

position elements in such a way so that their edges

are perceived as basically positioned on the same line.

Now, in general, as a rule of thumb, aligning architecture

help us conceive more order composition and less complex spaces and

sometimes we have to measure which is the thing that's more important to us.

When I say less complex, the reason why that happen is that there's

some sort of visual effect that occurs in our brain when we see aligned images,

or aligned forms and that's called closure.

Closure is a tendency of our brain to complete incomplete shapes.

That's why we sometimes can see pandas or circles where they actually do not exist.

The same thing happens in architecture,

that's why alignment usually help us perceive space as something more simple.

However, we don't always want to have a simple order space.

And we can see the example.

If we contrast a typical modern city such as a Manhattan city grid with

a medieval city where all these buildings are, none of the buildings are aligned and

therefore let's say network really complex spaces.

What we have on one side on Manhattan we have very

simple way to orient us and we perceive space in a very simple way.

But on the other hand, on in the medieval city what we get

is a very rich spatial experience because we get to experience space square,

corner by corner, little plots over plaza and the end we feel that

our perception of space is something that we just feel much better about it.

Finally the final design principle I would like to talk about is proximity

which is very simple.

It just says things that are grouped together are perceived as one element.

And so, whatever, especially when we deal with the complex compositions,

we want to try to group elements together, so

that these elements could be perceived as one element instead.

And so we simplify the composition.

So there we have four secondary exam principles,

which are contrast, rhythm, alignment, and proximity.

In next video we will see how to put all these together in to one creative

workflow.

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Design principles: C.R.A.P.

Making Architecture

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