Guiding principles

The saying ‘the hardest place to start is with a blank sheet of paper’ describes a scenario familiar to many designers. Experienced practitioners will usually have developed their own set of technical knowledge and philosophical tenets to which they can refer when embarking upon the design process. Some of this knowledge and philosophy is fundamental and widely shared, some relates to general methods used through the design process, and some is particular to the individuals involved in defining the design.

In the construction sector, solutions are frequently based on what has been done ‘successfully’ in the past, although over what period success should be measured and how it should be evaluated is rarely considered. Minimal back-analysis is carried out afterwards in the design and construction sectors to ascertain whether the as-built solutions represented the best outcomes possible.