The Only 5 Ways to Organize a Building [Form, Space, and Order]

This episode of Architecture with Stewart explores the only five ways of organizing the plan of a building, at least they are the only ones according to Francis Ching as listed in the canonical text Form, Space, and Order. Each of the five: central, linear, radial, clustered, and grid, offer unique benefits and opportunities to architects, clients, or visitors. Some of the strategies are reserved for formal ceremonial buildings, while others are better for providing less rigid and more organic exploration by occupants. Some yield complete and autonomous forms while others can shrink or grow at ease. However, every single building is, in some way, a combination of these five basic strategies. Using paper cutout shapes, plastic human figures, and representative examples from history and recent constructions, Stewart demonstrates the value and possibilities of each organizational strategy.
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University of Illinois at Chicago School of Architecture: arch.uic.edu/
#architecture #architecturedesign #formspaceorder

[@stewarthicks]

What's your favorite organizational type?

[@procrastinartist2825]

a mix between linear and central for me ✋😌

[@khorps4756]

Margaret and Harold

[@cloisterene]

I like all except radials and clusters, both of which would make me feel dizzy and disoriented.

[@shawnvanbakel1750]

The grid since I love the order inherent in Georgian architecture. You spoke a little here about the the importance of the consistency of composition of a style or a period and also about this in your video on curb appeal. I would love a video on elements that make up styles (ie expected symmetry, proportions, features, etc) and how you can use them to creat harmony. But also how you can show contrast. I’m always blown away by being able to restore an old building yet add on a futuristic addition/glass box/metal clad structure and have to two spaces sit so well together. Coming to mind would be the ROM in Toronto. I’m not an architect so I’ll settle for a referral to another channel where I can learn about that while waiting for your next video to come out :)

[@TbrtanT]

The sixth one.

[@Archimarathon]

Design fundamentals!! Glad that you are doing that.

[@alaskanuni]

I would be down for an entire series on Form Space and Order. Love that book.

[@dagwould]

Agreed, it gives real starting point to how we think about buildings as venues for social meaning, places in cities and rural environments, and made objects.

[@christopherbenzenberg]

Arguably, there are only three ways to organise a building. Radiant structures arise by combining central and linear organisations and clusters occur on a grid. One might then align the three remaining structures - central, linear, grid - with three basic geometric notions: points, lines, and planes. This conceptual scheme strikes me as even more fundamental.

[@twelvethousandths1698]

That is very interesting. Is there a way to represent the 4th dimension and higher in an architectural medium, I wonder？

[@Xthis1s4youX]

@@twelvethousandths1698 I'd say you can, as the 4th dimension is usually associated with time, there are various ways you may play with the passing(/illusion of passing) of time For example in you materials choices you could opt for corten steel, by itself it would already make your building seem weathered out by time, like the Horizon House by RCR Arquitectes. Another choice could maybe be exposed concrete which give the building a sort of timeless feel, an example I enjoy a lot is Saya Park by Álvaro Siza/Carlos Castanheira. The same can probably be said by lots of different materials Some alternatives might be literal moving elements like in the Bund Finance Center, by Foster and Heatherwick. The last suggestion I could make would be projecting while taking seasons into account, like the amount of rain you may get in a season/lack of rain in another. An example i'd like to suggest is Porto Faculty of Architecture, by Álvaro Siza, where there is a tree right next to the main outdoors plaza which is deciduous, meaning it will create shade to protect an office's window from too much sunlight during summer, but shed its leaves and allow the sun to warm up the office during the winter. I don't think these examples quite work for the representation of organization which this video is about, but I believe these are quite viable and interesting methods of planning that play around with the 4th dimension

[@lindsaywebb1904]

@@twelvethousandths1698 the Yokohama masterplan by OMA famously attempted to qualify time, and Ben van Berkel obsession with the potential of the temporal conditions of the Klein bottle 20 years ago is another example…but I think we’ve struggled to really deal with the issue. The fact that there are many temporal cycles in inside cycles, make it difficult to negotiate.

[@frankjacobus3515]

I agree - three ways to organize. Point, line, network. They all fit into that nice category.

[@inpursuitofhappiness4873]

They all could be fit on a grid of fine enough gage.

[@koi1762]

it's crazy how this channel is underappreciated,

[@stewarthicks]

Well, it’s still new. Bring your friends!!

[@christalwong70]

Right? Just discovered and I'm loving it!!!!

[@dagwould]

@@stewarthicks Stewart, great work. I wish you all the best with this channel.

[@bamxuberant]

Very informative! As someone who is going to be a first year archi student this was awesome! I'm 28 going to pursue architecture. Going to be a long road but I know I can and will do it.

[@CyntheraTaylor]

Hope you're still going hard at it a year later🙌 Do well!

[@remigiochilaule1961]

I'm soooo turning this into a lesson for my first year students!! 😍😍😍 spectacular. Also i've loved Ching's masterpiece for many years now but this added yet another layer of meaning to the book. Profound universal knowledge. Many thanks

[@stewarthicks]

Thank you so much for the kind words! I’m very happy you think this is useful.

[@DoNotGoGentle-Studio]

Loved seeing the examples of each layout type. Great video. Thank you

[@AbDullAHMoHAAmeD]

As an architecture student I love what you present eventhough I don't understand most of your talk because of the complex terms or words that use and because English is a second language to me but I love what you do please keep going and thank you 😊

[@benkadie512]

I love the way you communicate!

[@muhammadmashhood1947]

Great explanation I really need this information to make my assignment. Thanks!

[@nadstunes77]

What a great channel I am amazed I've never found you before today...very interesting and clearly explained in an extremely easy to understand manner...thank you for sharing 👏👏

[@nicholasaukan2755]

I’m really enjoying this content, Inspiring stuff😊

[@ashleyparker4650]

I am debating what my current /studio project is...Thank you and super helpful!

[@sarikachawla1]

very well explained. my favorite is clustered.

[@danielelopez2223]

Loved the video, really helped me today :)

[@gabybordino6024]

Hey, nice video! Super clear! The mention of Francis Ching´s "Form, Space, and Order" was a total recall of my Uni time, It was considered a sort of Bible back then

[@husamali9345]

That was amazing thank you..

[@JSlackArt]

Great video, and like the model I built recently is a cluster, I really like the radial tho, and that grid building where they offset the grid, sick! Designing my model of a home, I used two separate structures, almost like you cut a house in half, my goal is to suggest lines that then tie the two structures back together, so clustered it is.

[@Josh-yr7gd]

The Sawgrass Mills Mall near Miami Florida has a radial setup in one area. During my only time visiting there, I went down one corridor, came back and planned to return from where I came, but I inadvertently continued towards a different corridor. After I realized I was in the wrong location, I returned, only to be confuse again! Maybe that's partly why the radial form isn't as popular. It can cause disorientation. I also experienced getting turned around in an apartment bldg with 3 wings that converged in the center.

[@inpursuitofhappiness4873]

"Oh, it's a circle. I know where the middle is." I genuinely blurt giggled. Great line, well delivered, useful :) Great vid, thx, fundamental concepts that go a really long way for this layman.

[@jimmypiff2799]

I am a wannabe architect with no formal training or background in architecture. “Form, Space, and Order” was the first architecture book I ever read 🤯. Biblical to say the least 🙌

[@revolvency]

what a nice video to refresh my dusty architectural knowledge

[@chidi21]

Great video! Not an Architect but just bought Ching's book to help me with 3D modeling.

[@sakurave]

Thank you!

[@amertipaulos6677]

Thank you. This was very usefu

[@stewarthicks]

Glad it was helpful!

[@yanjunguo7748]

As a student, this video is such a life saver !! If you can, can you do a video explaining and telling the difference between the different types of parti/concept diagrams? For example, form vs flow hiararchy? Also when it is the best time to use a certain one? Anyways thanks so much. :)

[@stewarthicks]

Great suggestion!

[@GhostedStories]

Thanks!

[@rk.r2439]

this channel is a gold mine i cant believe im only seeing this now AFTER my first semester ended 😭

[@fernandoe.chavezfinol2490]

Gracias

[@dagwould]

Wonderful synopsis; and Ching's work is a real milestone in modern architecture IMO. I wonder about an organisation based on 'network'. Perhaps this is merely a compilation of members of the Ching 5, but it may also be a separate form. When I trained, the great challenge of architecture having no real theory (I mean a theory of making meaningful spaces for people, not an 'art' theory) was profound. It was all hit or miss and even Ching had not then published. Therfore our training was 'craft' based, not intellectually based. But now there's no excuse; training can well start with exercises to analyze the 5. I'm also interested in the mathematics of these forms. The field of topology really does intersect with architecture and would lend a real both rigorous and dynamic theory of how spaces are arranged, linked, create successions and dynamic relationships for the range of uses of buildings.

[@Isaac-ph5co]

first semester concepts explained as a master

[@bonnyd.5334]

Could you talk about your own work? I really like Porch Parade. I think it would make a fun design for a Christmas Village, a third space / arts work space with a coffeehouse--it looks like a space I would love to come back to, time and time again. (As a textile designer, I actually like working in public--but I want to have control over how I interact with the public (there are times I don't want to talk or be interrupted--and if I had a porch, I would want shutters or curtains, so that I could easily change how I define and use space). I also really like Talent Pool... how it takes inspiration from swimming pool / locker room design, but turns it on its head. I like how it defines space and draws your eye towards the work inside. I love Independence Library, because it has a lot of the features of cohousing--including nice Third Spaces (public, semi-public, private), encouraging residents, patrons of the library and others to interact but not forcing them to interact. I think it's important to do it in a way that welcomes the community at large to interact with the residents and vice versa. I just got a new apartment. My landlord is renovating the building. By choice, I got to work with the architect... which was fun. He was in and out of my apartment... He turned the alcove next to my apartment into a meeting room. So, I did have a say in what my new apartment looked like, how it worked... and I'm happy. I understood what trade-offs he made and why. I have an apartment that really does work. He said that I would be very happy with my new apartment and he was right. My landlord gave me the opportunity to move to another building, but after talking to the architect, I decided to stay put.

[@ReasonableRadio]

Music is mixed too loud Love this channel 💖

[@filipemecenas]

Awesome , im starting to create 3d archicteture , soo i need more info on real archi..,thanks

[@spencermoore2267]

Could you do a video that elaborates on circulation? Such as approach, entry, and circulation? I've always had trouble wrapping my mind between those things and organization strategies.

[@alaskanuni]

Combining approach/entry/circulation and organization structure into one is deep magic.

[@dagwould]

You've spotted the hidden secret of architecture as theatre/habitation/domicile/everything. This is hardly discussed in my view, with any rigour and is a whole study itself. Maths of networks could offer some pragmatic insights theoretically and in terms of route mapping, destination nodes and their relationships for functional or operational connections between.

[@dibri]

could you do an in-depth video highlighting examples of each? or could you refer me to articles or resources?

[@Youthure]

The building of the European Commission is also radial, similar to the UNESCO headquarters

[@danivl8286]

I liked radial, such a shame it isn't more popular

[@hungryanimal5112]

Nice video. Hope your channel succeeds.

[@stewarthicks]

Thank you, me too!

[@ulysseslee9541]

Also: Follow the site boundary as the base plan of the architecture, such as Wast 57 by BIG Group, using the site boundary and make a distorted pyramid.

[@tahaks]

Professor Hicks, what would you consider a mobius building? Would this be a 3 dimensional linear building? Or is it also centralized?

[@stewarthicks]

Probably both!

[@noahryzewicz1165]

I’m in my fourth year and am realizing I haven’t even been taught these fundamentals of design. Any good books you recommend to really educate myself ?

[@lawrencejob]

Is a plaza arrangement with shops, houses and leisure around the outside linear (but in a ring) or centralised? My instinct is the latter but by definition, it’s purpose is to homogenise and add context to the actual attractions - the buildings

[@dagwould]

In taxonomic terms it would be centralized, I think. The point of the arrangement is the plaza as focus and access hub for the surrounding destinations/venues. If the plaza was part of a connection of routes in an urban setting (which it probably would be), then the peripheral buildings might be subject to their own formal type.

[@aaronsherkow1389]

Great content. Organized well and I liked how visual everything was presented with the cutouts However------The swimming focus in the camera is nauseating

[@stewarthicks]

Yes Aaron, it was frustrating to me too. I'm learning to control everything and will do my best not to let it happen again. My GH5 is notoriously bad at autofocusing.

[@jairoramirez7486]

I thought it was my phone LOL

[@crescent9972]

can it still be called clustered organization even if there is only one shape present?

[@IanZainea1990]

I only have one thing to say: Offices for everyone. Thank you.

[@wunderwaffedg3jzify]

This is why I love Japanese architecture, they can be creative because everything they design have an expiration date of 25 years or so I think

[@quentinnewark2745]

Hmmm. In Omotesando, right next to the Prada building by Herzog & de Meuron, is a wooden temple, built in wood so as to survive earthquakes, that is regularly rebuilt in exactly the same form (like Bruges was rebuilt after WWI). It is 700 years old. In the same street are 1920s ceramic-tile clad buildings and 1970s brutalist buildings. Not sure they heard about your 25 year limit.

[@domesticcat1725]

That's a sad way to think about architecture, and a sad way to build. It doesn't even do much for architecture since most housing is prefabricated. That's like saying khrushchevki were the peak of architectural creativity. What it does do is prop up a bloated construction industry stuck in the 1980s while releasing hundreds of kilotons of unnecessary greenhouse gases

[@kakyoin3856]

​@@domesticcat1725 is that the term for the pre-built soviet houseblocks? If so Im suprised about the writing of it. Im undergoing as a design assistant (or so I think) and I had my fair share of architectural history and I am still shocked that my teachers don't know them. Especially if you consider how cheap an easy to build one such housing block was. Imho it is a procedure we could learn from. Its basically mass produced affordable housing for a large population in a short time. Big negative is it is boring af - But isn't that the part we could improve the old idea?

[@dlwatib]

I can actually think of other ways of organizing a building. For instance, five off the top of my head: bilateral symmetry, circulatory loop, concentric rings, spiral or modular. They share some things in common with the five you mentioned, but their organizing principles are distinct.

[@justsaying9456]

Can all 5 ways be scaled up or down infinitely?

[@stewarthicks]

Well, until other restrictions kick in, like egress for fire, etc.

[@cloe412]

8:45 what does bi-directional mean?

[@stewarthicks]

two ways

[@plangineer1375]

I would postulate that cities are typically organized in the same five methods.

[@dukeradwardthe5th843]

why is the 3 in "Scene 3" backwards ;-;

[@douglasfur3808]

FDK Ching's design drawing book came out around the time Microsoft was getting started. Is comic sans serif a knock off of his lettering?

[@ArkMaDuke]

oh wait I was here too

[@BunnyBrew-tv5el]

What about tesilation

[@Istalrivaldr]

Watching this video with 2 Ching books holding up my monitor. Sacrilegious?

[@johnalley8561]

Mine is chaos

[@roberthoople]

It's almost surprising that organizational types are so 2 dimensional, considering the profession works in 3D as a principle. However, the lack of z-axis organizational principles may help explain why cities are such a 2 dimensional clustermug at ground level.

[@philipk4475]

The organizational types, while presented in 2D, all translate rather seamlessly to 3D, with the exception of linear. However, the nature of human experience is far more appropriately considered as a 'stack' of 2D experiences rather than a true 3D experience. This is due to gravity, which limits our natural movement into the third dimension, things such as our field of view which extends further in the horizontal than the vertical, but also our brain, which struggles far more in conceptualizing 3D spaces than 2D.

[@charlesbarrow803]

@@philipk4475 I think linear can work in 3d if you accept a spiral as a valid way of crating corners and that mentally that the two sides of a internal wall are the same as two windowless walls going outside. But that just me think about how the flat I live in works and this video.

[@lindsaywebb1904]

Really? To me this is just years of post renaissance doctrine and Euclidean technique… a way to break down, categorise and define complex phenomena. Think of how you relate to everything in your current environment- the chair, cup, your shirt, etc. - how does one relate to those things? It’s difficult to interact with, or to even conceive of these things in the context of a 2D interaction.

[@peglor]

When the schematics for new buildings go to the actual construction people, they are still handled on site as 2D paper drawings, and this forces a lot of 3D designs to be broken into 2D ones for the sake of communicating the data for construction. This is why the 3D elements of buildings tend to be limited to things like roof slopes, prefabricated curves/arches and things like having a missing section of ceiling in one area to give a double height space to distinguish it from the rest of the building. 3D printed buildings could be the first designs to be able to completely break away from having to describe everything in terms of 2D drawings to get the construction running - the 3D printing process uses the computer to slice the 3D model into layers that are printed on top of each other, so the ground plane is still a thing though.

[@Isaac-ph5co]

braavo

[@jonwatte4293]

Good overview! Now if you could turn off that autofocus... :-)

[@stewarthicks]

Yes, very frustrating.

[@tlockerk]

Senseless grid theory sounds like new Wokespeak...spaces subjected to opressive tyranny of squares.

[@Charlz1980tv]

There is a sixth way to organize a building; the Mickey Mouse - one big circular unit with two smaller circular annexes attached to it...😉😎( Yeah, i know, thats actually a variation on the radial type, but hey...i had to make this joke, otherwise i would have exploded😉)

[@hoskinsresearch]

Your show should be on ABC instead of the Bachelor.

[@keiraferrari7764]

The video would be so much better without the background music. Couldn't even finish watching it due to the music, particularly the volume constantly going up and down.

[@stewarthicks]

Sorry about that. I’m learning. Thanks for giving it a shot.

[@imacat839]

is it my eyes or the camera that keeps going out of focus

[@herc64fe]

Great video with this exception: When you pause speaking, your music becomes annoyingly loud. Please adjust. Thank you.

[@turtleyoutubeaccount]

this man makes an uncomfortable amount of eye contact

[@49hamburger]

Can you please not have super quiet vocals and loud as hell musical interstitials? It makes listening a bit of a pain. Also, not to rail on ya, love the vids. But I suggest turning off the auto-focus and just setting a high field of depth. Your hand-movements make your face go out of focus like every couple of seconds.

[@stewarthicks]

Thanks for your suggestions. It's a learning process for sure...

[@49hamburger]

@@stewarthicks Look forward to seeing it! Your vids have massively improved my thought process when it comes to city planning.

[@brisonmondry712]

So if practically no buildings fall cleanly into these categories, and at the end of this presentation you outright state that there are infinite ways to mix match and combine, so what use are these categories anyways? You said some guy laid out these five categories, but why cant there be more? Why cant they be decomposed into room/hall shapes? This seems like useless jargon, and I cant really see the utility in even entertaining these categories as useful guidelines, because they all seem to be described in terms of "central locations" which are self explanatory and "important points" which are obvious by a floorplan. If these are actually useful in any way, I would love to know how.

[@jdjon]

Libeskind's Jewish Museum is by the far the worst building I've ever been in. I've heard that's the point, so thanks Mr. Libeskind I hate it.

[@yanjunguo7748]

Maybe this will change once i visit but i personally love the Jewish Museum as i feel like every detail in the design was well thought out and has some kind of symbolism or metaphor.