When in California recently, I dropped by a fantastic architecture and design bookstore called William Stout. I ended-up picking up Matthew Frederick’s 101 Things I learned in Architecture School, among other things. It’s basically a bathroom book for the architecture and design crowd, with short little bits of information that take about 30 seconds to read.

Here’s #18:

Any design decision should be justified in at least two ways.

A stair’s primary purpose is to permit passage from floor to floor, but if well designed it can also serve as a congregation space, a sculptural element, and an orienting device in the building interior. A window can frame a view, bathe a wall in light, orient a building user to the exterior landscape, express the thickness of the wall, describe the structural system of the building, and acknowledge an axial relationship with another architectural element. . .

Opportunities for multiple design justifications can be found in almost every element of the buillding. The more justifications you can find or create for any element, the better.

There are 100 more of those in the book. Much of it, like this example, can be applied to virtually any type of design or creative work.

Tags: Architecture, Design