A convention center : a typological approach to the design of an institutional building

Abstract

If the analysis of an architectural design problem suggests the use of references and historical precedents, how should these be selected? Once selected, how can similarities or contradictions between the references and the problem at hand be evaluated? Simply put, how can a body of references be assembled and then made part of the design process? As a concept, type provides a part of the answer to these questions. Since there is no consensus on the meaning and viability of this idea within a design process, the first part of this study is a discussion intended to define and clarify the term. The second part of the study is a design exploration that takes up some of the issues raised in this discussion. Since the project is a convention center, a form of building for which no precedents are widely agreed upon, the question of how to conceptualize a new building type is posed. One of the oldest institutional building types, the monastery, is assessed as a possible prototype. The assumption is not that the Cistercian monastery was a convention center all along, but that the basic morphology of its plan suggests planning principles with a wider institutional application. This hypothesis is tested by using these principles to evaluate the plans of several twentieth-century buildings.