ARCHITECTURAL CONCEPTS: PROGRAMME
This article is part of our series on key Architectural Concepts. You can check out the rest of the series here, and if you have any questions or comments about your experience with programme, leave a comment below!
What is Programme?
Programme, put simply, is what happens on or within a building, site, or wider area.
It's the activities and functions of the building - from the everyday public activities to the periodic maintenance requirements. In practice, programme often refers more specifically to how the elements, zones and spaces are organised.
In this article, I will look at what programme is, and how you can use, test, and have fun with it in design. I will also explain some basic ways of thinking about programme on your project, and different techniques architects often use to explore and explain programme.
A quick note before we get started:
Just to be confusing, we also use the word 'programme' when talking about time and how the stages of the architecture project will play out. That's not the meaning of programme I'm going to discuss here.
Isn't the programme just the same as the brief, then?
This is a sticky point, and if you search google or wikipedia you're bound to find yourself in a muddle between these two, wondering if programme and brief are just different words for the same thing.
There is some suggestion that 'program' is an american term, where the rest of the world prefers 'brief'. But in my opinion, while the programme and the brief have some overlaps, they aren't just synonyms for the same thing.
It gets even more confusing because a project brief will typically include a proposed programme. In larger, more complex projects, this is often provided in the form of a Schedule of Accomodation.
But a good, thorough brief usually extends beyond the programme, providing a wider range of aspirations and requirements beyond the physical requirements of space and activity. These might include:
cultural response,
building longevity,
aesthetic drivers,
sustainability,
materials and finishes,
or even more broadly, a goal for how to project relates to the wider context.
And a very good brief will allow some flexibility around the programme, enabling the architect to put forward their own agenda through design, to consider alternative arrangements, overlaps, and flexible spaces, or to extend the programme from the purely private into the public realm.
Understanding programme
“A program is never neutral [...] The first thing an architect needs to do is to dismantle that program and redirect it.”
Depending on the project, the programme can often be highly complex, involving many different elements that have different spatial requirements.
Even a seemingly simple programme such as a house can become complex when you begin to consider how the programme might shift over time, or how public and private aspects of the programme might intersect.
programmatic elements
There are many different techniques for thinking through these complexities. One of the simplest places to start is to understand the programme by breaking it into elements.
From a relatively simple starting point, you essentially 'unpack' the programme as you delve deeper into the project, and as you build up more complex understandings of the requirements.
Element Level 1:
Key Use
E.g. Stadium.
The top level - Key Use - gives a general understanding of the building use - this is the term we might use to describe the building to a friend. It might be a gallery, a house, a bank or a restaurant.
This broad terms encompasses and roughly sets out the range of activities that take place, and the users you need to consider.
Defining the key use often overlaps with a sister architectural concept: typology.
Element Level 2:
Key Zones
E.g. Public & Private.
The second level - Key Zones - allows you to begin to understand the general relationships and spatial requirements of the building or site, and to develop an overall strategy for how these fit together.
Here you might consider: The 'drawcard' element, which is usually most closely aligned to Level 1 (In the Stadium example, it might be the field or pitch), Front of House, Back of House, Amenities, Entry and Exit.
Element Level 3:
Individual Spaces
E.g. Ticket Booth, Seating Aisles, Bathrooms.
The third level is where the programme is finally broken down into each individual space - but with the benefit of Level 2 allowing you to understand interrelationships.
Here you want to be sure you account for all the requirements, and understand any flexibilities. You might also realise you need to do some rethinking of you Level 2 groupings, or that even through spaces such as bathrooms might be thematically grouped, they need to be spatially distributed throughout the project.
DESIGNING FOR programme
1. USING THE 5 'F'S to design for programme
Once you have all your key programmatic elements figured out, you can begin thinking through what your design needs, wants, or could do to the programme through design. Usually, I use the 5 Fs to understand the key items I need to be aware of and make decisions about when designing for programme.
FUNCTION
Can each required activity take place? Do the spaces operate adequately?
FIT
Can you adequately accomodate the spatial requirements for each activity?
FLOW
Is the sequence between activities that make up the programme correct? Is there a clear, designed relationship between spaces? Can people move from one activity to the next in a logical way?
FORM
How does the arrangement of spaces generate or relate to a form? Is the relationship between programme and form reciprocal, indifferent, conflicting?
FURNISHING
Furnishing is often an afterthought. But we design space for activities, and to be inhabited, so thinking about furnishing is fundamental to making the programme work. Showing furnishing can also be an easy way of communicating the programme of a space - e.g. a bedroom - in a drawing without relying on using text.
2. Understand the relationship between
the programme and the overall design concept.
The ideas around programme and concept can be developed together, alongside the form and massing of the building. In some cases, one may precede the other - making you have to work hard to achieve ‘fit’ - or to otherwise deal with other difficulties or lack of efficiency that comes from not quite fitting.
The key thing here is to have an agenda!
Know what you stand for, take a side, promote change: it's up to you. Programme is never neutral - how you decide to arrange your spaces will always affect the way the building is understood, and have potentially political implications.
You can be quite tactical in your approach, and having a defined agenda means you'll be much better able to make decisions about programme, and explain them convincingly to others. And with a clear agenda, you'll by able to test ideas, alternatives and possibilities beyond the known and expected.
Concept Programme Tests & Tactics:
Invert the programme!
Think about what is expected - toilets at the back, practice rooms in the middle, staff offices up higher, public spaces on the group - and invert it! Playing with expectations can allow you to make bold new statements about how we live, relate to others, and even understand what goes on inside a building.
For example, you might make people walk past practice rooms and offices to get to an exhibition space, or place the normally hidden practice or production areas in full view - so people on the street can see orchestras practising or bread being kneaded - not just the final product!Cross-programme!
Another way of playing with expectation is to add, mix, or intersect different programmes that we wouldn't usually expect to go together. The idea of 'live-work' spaces, where people's houses are also their offices or studios is becoming more common, but can you take this to a new level? Can a supermarket also be a childcare centre? A gym be an art gallery? A butchery be a library?
3. developing your own design methods
for thinking about programme
Because programme is usually considered very early on in the design process, and is often a complex beast, you'll quickly find that diagrams are your programming best friend.
Test out:
Bubble Diagrams (understand how zones or areas of different activities might relate or overlap)
Cluster Diagrams (consider which programmatic zones relate to others - what do you need adjacent to or supporting a space, or how can you be efficient about plumbing, for example?
Sectional Zone Diagrams (Remember - it's not just about the plan! How do spaces relate vertically? How do you move between them? For ideas about circulation, check out our post on Architectural Concepts: Circulation here).
3d Massing or Stacking Diagrams (once you understand the volumes and areas, how can you mass, stack, relate these? Remember this is a diagram, not necessarily the final aesthetic design!)
Cross-programming Diagrams
Inversion Diagrams
Of course, diagrams aren't the only way - but they can be a great starting point, and can be as useful in a rough-and-ready initial sketch as they are in a refined presentation.