A Schematic Design Project

I started a design studio in Shanghai in 2010. China was fast growing at the time. I was trying to catch the tail of the building boom. Since I am a US citizen, my studio can only take schematic/conceptual design jobs. We had to associate with a local design institute(LDI) and let them carry the project through the design development and construction drawing phase. There were many foreign firms like mine in Shanghai. Large or small, we all have to bond with an LDI.

The schematic design phase is the most creative and fun part of the entire architectural design process. You get to make up something out of the thin air. You study the function requirements, the site, the client, the culture, and a hundred other related and unrelated facts to build up a theme and a vision becomes clear. Then you massage the space to fit the technical and code criteria. You STAGE the visual interest along the flow of traffic to create the high-and-lows, fast-and-slows of a space in time. Good architecture not only meets the functional needs but also lifts the spirit and touches souls. The staged vision makes a building architecture.

The following images entail the schematic phase of a large project we did in 2012. Guillermo Bosque was the lead architect.