Design
Design tests your ability to turn a brief and site into a coherent, buildable, and humane proposal. SLIA Part I design questions reward clear parti, correct dimensions, environmental logic, circulation, servicing, accessibility, fire safety, and coordinated structure. A beautiful sketch without dimensions or service space loses marks; so does an overcomplicated plan that ignores the brief.
Core rules and concepts
- Start with briefing: users, activities, adjacencies, areas, time, budget, and statutory constraints.
- Site analysis covers orientation, sun, wind, rain, noise, access, levels, drainage, vegetation, and neighbours.
- Organise plan by zones: public/private, noisy/quiet, served/servant, wet/dry, and vertical/horizontal circulation.
- Show structure and services early: columns, cores, shafts, toilets, plant, refuse, and fire escape.
- Accessibility is more than a ramp: approach, level change, door clear width, turning space, and sanitary provision.
Worked example
A narrow urban plot has west sun and road noise. Place bedrooms and quiet spaces away from the road; use a court or lightwell for daylight and cross-ventilation; put the service core and bathrooms on the hot west edge as a buffer; screen the street with a deep verandah or louvres. Check that the court is wide enough for light, that columns do not block parking, and that fire escape and drainage are shown. The reasoning links each move to a constraint, not decoration.
Traps
- Drawing furniture before establishing grid and structure.
- Forgetting service shafts, refuse, and plant space.
- Using a courtyard that is too small to ventilate or light rooms.
- Treating accessibility as a single ramp detail.