Tag: designingspaces

Factors That Affect Architectural Space (2)

Warm greetings to you, friends. This is the second serving of factors that affect architectural space and I am happy to finally bring it to you. Please pardon my inconsistent patterns. I do acknowledge that regular rhythms are important. This is a thing I am working on and my goal is to post an article each week. I do have a lot to share and I’d love to interact more with y’all in/on these streets. Without further ado, here they are:

Climate

GETTY IMAGES

Yes, this affects architectural space. According to Oxford Languages, climate is the weather conditions prevailing in an area in general or over a long period. Climate will have an effect on the size of spaces as well as different building features such as windows. In areas with a tropical climate, for example, one could use shading devices right above the windows to avoid the direct sun heat and glare, while still getting as much light into the space as possible. This is because tropical areas are typically characterised by intense sunlight and high temperatures. One other way that the designer and building owner can deal with this is using anti-glare glass, building deep verandahs and balconies, among other solutions. The topic of climate affecting architecture is quite vast. Since this is only meant to tickle your curiosity and give you a bit of information, I’ll move right along to the next factor.

Physical Context & Topography

IMAGE FROM ESSENTIALHOMES.EU: “Located on the highest point of Costa San Giorgio, this luxurious villa offers extraordinary views of Florence.”

This refers to the geographical location in which the building project will be and the areas surrounding it. It is important to note that one needs to be in an area where they feel safe. It’s also desirable to be in an area with amenities such as water and electricity with proper access roads. Any other factor that contributes positively to the building’s environs is welcome. Such factors could include a nearby picturesque nature feature which facilitates the building with great views which brings us to topography.

Topography

The topography here refers to the the natural or artificial physical condition of the land. Topographical features include things such as mountains, hills, valleys, lakes, oceans, rivers, cities, dams, and roads.

Cultural Context

IMAGE FROM PIKIST.COM: Republic of Korea traditional building with korean pattern and roof design.

How and why would culture even start to affect architectural spaces, you might ask? Well, in certain cultures, certain building traditions are kept. It may be related to the materials used for a certain culturally symbolic reason or it could be the positions of certain rooms in the house. All around the world, culture influences the living habits of people, hence affecting the architectural spaces they live in too. In Uganda, because living rooms are generally known to be hosting/communal spaces, it is common to find that the living room is the largest room in a house.

There are many other factors that affect architectural space such as building policies in an area which will affect the zoning of buildings, use, height, etcetera. I hope this article series has been enough to inform and urge you to think about these different factors in your next building project whether you are the designer or the owner, or simply the end-user. All stakeholders are equally important in a building project.

Until next time, leave a comment and like, plus check out my social media pages @spacesbykea (Instagram) or @spacesbykea (Facebook) for more architectural design goodies. Thank you for passing by.

With love,

Keziah.

P.s. Feature Photo by Nicolas Poupart, got free from Canva.com

Defining Architectural Spaces

It’s a delight to bring you something architectural on this blog. Up until recently, I only wrote motivational and general life articles here. I decided to include more of my life’s work here and this is only the beginning. It is my hope that this post will be educative and interesting for anyone that reads this. To start with, I’ll share a bit of my journey with architecture. My first encounter with the subject of Architecture was in my childhood where one day out of the blue, I drew the front facade of the family house we lived in. My brother, who later saw my sketch, said to me, “You should do Architecture.” For those of you who have children, please don’t ignore their raw talents and interests. They just might lead somewhere meaningful. That was the first time I heard of Architecture. If you want to read more about that particular story, I’ll share a link to that post, at the end of this one.

Later in life, I actually went to Architecture School and got my Bachelors’ degree in Architecture. Aside from this formal education, I have working experience of about six years and I am very much in love with good spaces. I innately love to teach and I have a part-time lecturing job with the International University of East Africa. I believe that we should all live in good spaces regardless of our economic statuses. The reality though is that good spaces are not free and so many factors apart from finances affect the final product of space. I will share these factors in my next post, next week on Thursday. Today though, I think it’s important to define in general terms the three categories of spaces that every building has, regardless of its function or design.

  1. Interior Spaces

These are spaces on the inside walls of buildings. They are the spaces where people spend most of their time. The interior spaces are designed with the consideration of the external environment and other project-specific factors such as the client’s tastes and preferences. To properly design interior spaces, you have to think about them in a 3-dimensional sense by considering the wall, ceilling and floor. With relation to these three main elements, you also need to think about the furniture, fittings, fixtures and accessories. Before this gets too technical, let me move on to the next type of space every building has. I’ll return to interior spaces in further detail in a future post.

2. Facades and Other Building Faces

The word facade originates from French and it refers mainly to the front face of a building facing a street. It’s basically the side of the building that is seen first when approaching the building. Usually a lot more design goes into the front facade than into any other building face. Building faces therefore, are the external wall surfaces of a building. The number of building faces and their nature depend on the design of the building. It should also not be taken for granted that only the front face/facade of a building needs to be designed well. All sides matter, especially if the building is approached from a face other than its front face. The building faces create space in front of them and serve the purpose of inviting people to the building. Surface finishing materials as well as the general outline/shape of the building should be considered.

3. Landscapes and Other Exterior Spaces

Landscaping is a general term for the design that happens in the rest of the space on a building plot outside of the building structures themselves. Within this category we have things such as gardens, backyards, front yards, external parking sheds, gazebos, among others. We generally categorize these into two – hard and soft landscape, where the hard landscape refers to things such as paved areas while the soft landscape refers to greenery. In addition to this, we have special features such as swimming pools, fountains, sculptures and so much more.

I hope I made this simple and yet still as detailed as possible for the basics. I’d truly love your feedback on this piece. Let me know if you have any questions and if you’d like to read more content like this. I assure you that once we get past the basics, we can delve more into the fun stuff. Consider this your mini crash course on Architectural Spaces. So, comment, like, share as much as possible and subscribe to my blog.

We can also connect on other platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube where you’ll find me under the same name Keziah Elaine Ayikoru. You can also follow my space design business by simply clicking the following names @spacesbykea (Instagram) or @spacesbykea (Facebook) for architectural design.

To read that childhood post I spoke of, click here.

Thank you for reading to the end.

With lots of love,

Keziah.

Ps.

  1. All articles on this blog are copyrighted by me as I draw from my experience and knowledge gained over time. Respect that please and don’t reproduce this content in any form without permission. Thank you.
  2. All images are free images from canva.com