A Design Process And Its Steps

A design process for a facility includes steps in making a facility where the design meets the requirement of the people requesting for it. It will also satisfy the need and the desire of the people requesting the facility. The decision making of the facility design will include participation of many parties including engineers, designers and architects. All of their specialty is needed in building a facility where all of them can give their opinion and ideas. All of these ideas and opinions can produce a facility not only designed safely but also structurally strong and also visually appealing as well. Before designing a facility, the design process should take in consideration the objective, logic, reasoning and assessment of the facility to optimize the full use of the facility. It is also essential to include the problems the facility might bring in like economical constraints , safety , and ethical and social impacts.

In this case study, we will look into the Petronas twin tower. The name of the building is PETRONAS towers. The main architect of the building will be Cesar Pelli & Associates Architects and the local architects who assisted in the project will be Adamson Associates International and RSP Architects Planners & Engineers Private Limited. The year of completion of the project will be 1998 . The records the the twin towers hold are. It was the world's tallest buildings, before being surpassed by the Taipei 101. However, the towers are still the tallest twin buildings and office building in the world.

The design process of this project can generally be broken down into a 6 step process. First, the project type must be researched. The person who is making the facility, be it the architect or the engineer, should actively engage with the person requiring the facility to know their needs and desire. They should also gather as much information as possible to further ease the building of the facility. Information to gather should include the building space, the space criteria, relationships between the spaces ans its functions, cost per space, site requirements, regional issues that affect the data of the project and also the technical, mechanical, electrical, security, or other issues unique to the project type. As for the twin tower, it was an office building being incorporated with hotel and also a shopping mall with also ample of parking spaces to accommodate the visitors. It is important for the facilities to have a relationship with each other so it can compliment each other perfectly.

The second step will be establishing goals and objectives of the facility. The builders should know the the goals of the owner and what they require from the facility. This way the builders can plot what are the construction requirements. For example, if the owners would like the facility to be more green and energy efficient, then the architects will look for building materials which are more fitting for the theme. If the owners would like the facility to be more visually appealing, then the designers and architects will look into more appealing and modern design. These things should be taken into consideration during the designing itself to save more time and energy and also reduce wastage of material. In this case, the builders of Petronas twin tower want the building to respond its climate and formal characteristics to Malaysia's dominant Islamic culture. The towers are figurative and symmetrical and creates a figurative space between each other. The towers are tapered and set back five times in its ascent. The 88‐floor towers are constructed largely of reinforced concrete, with a steel and glass façade designed to resemble motives which are largely found in Islamic art.

The third step will be to gather relevant information of the construction of the building. The builders must have the full research done before the building of the facility such as the information of the facility like the users of the facility , the type of activities to be done at the facility. The equipments to be used at the facility should also be known before so the designers can decide the location of the equipments when designing the facility. This will also will lead to the knowledge of the space criteria where the amount of space to be used can be known. For the towers, stainless steel extrusions with laminated green glass were used for the exterior. 33000 panels were used for its panels. The concrete has a greater damping than steel which reduces sway,improves occupant comfort in windy conditions and allows members to be smaller and lighter which is an advantage in very tall buildings.

The fourth step will be to identify the strategies. This step will help you to know the opportunities and the constraints in the design. This will allow architecture factors to play its role. Whenever there is a constraint, the architect can think out of the box to solve the problem. For example, if the area where the facility is being built is prone to landslides, then he could make retaining or piling walls to prevent landslides. And if there is a opportunity like the area where the facility being built is a highland, then they can include games into the facility like roller coasters or cable cars to attract more visitors. The strategies can also include the flexibility of the facility,the flow of services in the facility, levels of access to the facility and also priority of the spaces in the facility. For the twin towers, the constrain will be its very tall structure. The architects of the project had to do their research for a very long period carefully and thoroughly as many lives were at stake if anything were to happen.