Maybe to get a feel of how i think I’ve included a list of ‘principles’ I try to stick to in most of what I do. Some are general and some specific to how i work. Hopefully they may resonate for you
Complex is lots of Simple
Always boil or break an issue down to it’s simplest resolution
Simple, but no Simpler – Einstein I think
Always look for the simplest solution but DO NOT compromise the requirement
Make it Right, then make it faster! All too often we bastardise a solution to meet a short term or tactical gain which we know will require rework at a later date – which never bloody happens. We live with the pain of this perpetually. Don’t compromise on what is right.
Simplicity
, Elegance and Truth
All design should exhibit these qualities – the opposite doesn’t bear thinking about – Complex, Ineleganceand Falseness
Just because you can doesn’t mean you should
Do I need to explain this?
Stepping into a work building is like stepping through a Magic Doorway
Why do so many people seem to forget their common sense when they get to work?
There are no prizes for re-inventing the wheel – or at least there shouldn’t be!
NOTE: All the above should be taken with doses of JFDI, JFGI, RTFM and GOYA 🙂
Specific to Architecture and Design:
All decisions Must align to an agreed Abstract Model
To free designers to be creative without compromising the intent of the architecture, the Design Principles MUST be abstract, but the abstraction should clearly define the responsibilities for architects and designers:
“The purpose of abstracting is not to be vague, but to create a new semantic level in which one can be absolutely precise.”
[Edsger W Dijkstra, The Humble Programmer, Comms of the ACM 15(10), October 1972]
“The most successful designs are not those that try to fully model the domain in which they operate, but those that are “in alignment” with the fundamental structure of that domain, and that allow for modification and evolution to generate new structural coupling. “
Don’t blame the architecture – blame yourself
On the architecture of buildings:
“Architecture may well possess moral messages; it simply cannot enforce them. It offers suggestions instead of making laws. It invites, rather than orders, us to emulate its spirit and cannot prevent its own abuse.
We should be kind enough not to blame buildings for our own failure to honour the advice they can only subtly proffer.”
Alain de Botton, The Architecture of Happiness, ISBN-10: 0141015004; ISBN-13: 978-0141015002
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d'urmytology 