Architectural Design and Site Planning
The process matters as much as the product
Expect items on the design sequence: pre-design (site and program analysis), schematic design, design development, contract documents, bidding, construction, post-occupancy. Know the tools of each: the program, the adjacency matrix (which spaces must be near or apart), the bubble diagram, the zoning/blocking diagram, and the parti. Questions ask you to choose the correct tool for a stated task - an adjacency matrix, not a bubble diagram, resolves "which rooms must be adjacent."
Site analysis in a Philippine setting
At roughly 5–20°N, the worst solar gain is the low west afternoon sun, so orient the long axis east–west and shade the west face. Prevailing winds are the amihan (NE, November–February) and the habagat (SW, June–October, with rain). Read topography from contours: spacing tells slope, and the interval tells vertical rise. Prefer siting on the flatter portion, keep cuts and fills balanced, drain away from buildings, and preserve existing drainage patterns. Minimum grades are about 1–2% on paved surfaces and never flat against a wall.
Traps and a rule of thumb
Trap: a question describes a steeply sloping lot and offers "cut and fill balance" as a distractor when the real answer is terracing or stilted construction. Another trap mixes design-development deliverables with contract documents. Rule of thumb: shadow length = object height ÷ tan(solar altitude). At noon on the equinox in Manila the sun is about 75° high, so a 3 m wall casts only about 0.8 m of shadow - a useful check when someone claims a 1 m eave shades a whole facade.