Architectural Programming: The Process, the Product, and the Method of Data Collection

Architectural programing, an applied research and a process of decision making, is an important phase of architectural design process. Thus it must be regarded as “the basic activity” in architectural schools as well as   architectural consulting firms. Success in the design phase: preparing correct selection of spaces with accurate floor areas, appropriate organization of facility sources, defined relationships between the closed and open spaces, as well as suitable companion of the whole project with its texture, depends on how the programming   phase had been developed. To fulfill this attitude, the architect/programmer must be aware of the knowledge of architectural programming and have adequate professional experience in this field.      The architectural programming literature usually consist of many subjects which gives the information about the history of this knowledge, the basic definitions, the literature, the scholars, the process of research, the methods of data collection, the content of the product, the other types of research in architectural activity, the programming - design interaction in the design process, the way to teach programming in architecture schools or firms, etc. In this article, the author tries to define three important subjects:” the process of programming”, “the outline of the program” and “the method of gathering and analyzing data”.       In the first subject, the article defines eight steps which the programmer should take from the first meeting with the project’s client till providing the program’s final report and approval. At the primary steps, preparing a defined program for the whole process is important while getting the client’s approval in every step is another vise decision which insures the outcome of programming task.       The second subject presents the outline of the program which is the most important subject in the programming process. To achieve this outline, the function of program in the design activity must be clarified.  For this reason, the author presents his previous research about the property of the design product and indicates ten basic specifications of buildings, such as its relationships with the texture or the organization of spaces.      The third subject discusses the types of questions, the types of sources, and the method of data  collection in this applied research. In the way to provide this article as part of articles in architectural programming, the author has studied the universal literature of this field and has discussed this knowledge in his architectural programming / design process courses and design workshops at architectural schools, as well as in his professional architectural projects. The main scope of all these activities has been to achieve a simple and practical language in architectural programming, far from complications and misunderstandings, easy to be utilized in academy and practice.