Architectural project briefing: a study of discovery, innovation and architectural problem statement

The briefing of architectural projects is acknowledged to be a pressing problem for the construction industry and the development of successful techniques in this field is considered to be an important professional objective. Considerations which are likely to extend our knowledge of the local and psychological background to this process are important to the development of appropriate models for action.

Much of what is reported here is dependent on theories developed by three writers- Karl Popper, Herbert Simon and Noam Chomsky. All three provide important insights into the nature of knowledge acquisition and problem solving - concepts which are central to the activities involved in architectural briefing. In a general sense, Popper's views on the logic and psychology of scientific discovery and its evolutionary nature are reflected here as is the pioneering work of Simon in mapping the boundaries of design, a world which is logically distinct from but which, nonetheless, draws upon the worlds of both the arts and the sciences. Certain concepts developed by Chomsky are followed broadly. These concern his arguments for deep and surface structures in our understanding of how we acquire knowledge. This approach, it is argued, is likely to provide potentially beneficial clues to the kinds of research which will lead to an understanding of why we approach problems as we do and how we might develop more successful theoretical constructs.

It is argued here that briefing is an activity which cannot be separated from designing. It is the initial phase of the continuing and evolutionary process of architectural designing and the specific problems with which it is concerned are those which evolve from a process of careful and critical discovery of the elements which make up the design problem space. These searches are generally undertaken in conditions of imperfect knowledge and it is this which makes them potentially rich and diverse.