Thinking and designing with the idea of network in architecture

A spatial setup is designed considering the network of interrelations between its constituent units. This is a network significant for architectural discourse as it maps the interactions and social relations between users, defines the functional and latent routes, and indicates spatial proximities. Although design is subjective, design tools and methods provide objective criteria to interpret and iterate. Common tools of network thinking allow us to invoke scenarios that will lead us to visualize and exchange ideas about architecture, extrapolate up to date functional ratios, define ranges of proximities to bring forth spatial and potentialities of architectural program and test them within criteria. This study focuses on the idea of networks in architectural design and discusses the use of graph theory based tools in the design process. It presents the possibilities of systematic mapping of relations among spatial elements through their neighboring and attracting qualities in the initial phase whereby the relational network is still dynamic and non-hierarchical. The topic will be expressed by presenting two examples, one from an academic setting, the other elicited from practice. The first describes a workshop on systems thinking demonstrated with a game called “İkidebir”. The second is an iterative hospital campus design scheme in which functional and site specific relationships are modeled and animated with network modeling and assessment tools. Network-based thinking, graphs measurements, and the diagrammatic assessment of relationships between spatial organizations as a design exercise are valuable both for those who are in practice and in the education of architectural design.