RESOURCES
Architectural Design Prompts
Architectural design of space and structures is about creating a physical, mental and emotional experience for people. Here’s some prompts to explore that experience…
Architectural structures and space are ultimately designed as a human experience, so it is important to be conscious of what we are creating. We sense or perceive the external world through:
- Physical – Sensations from the five physical senses(touch, taste, smell, sound, sight)
We experience the external world internally through a response to the external world in the form of the more intangible:
- Mental – Thoughts, memories and beliefs.
- Emotions – A collection of internal physical sensations that we give common names to.
When designing, we need to consider the internal experience we desire our user to have, and then consider the characteristics or qualities of the external environment that will create that.
Characteristics or qualities are words used to describe different aspects of a person or thing.
- Quality – A distinct or unique characteristic possessed by someone or something.
- Characteristic – A feature belonging to a place or thing and serving to identify and tell it apart as unique.
- Physical – Things perceived through the senses (touch, taste, smell, sound, sight) as opposed to the mind (thoughts, beliefs, memories, words) and emotions.
These words are just a prompt as you start to think about the experience of your user and then generate your concept and aspects of this concept. You could use thesaurus.com to refine and further develop your ideas.
- Appearance
- Colours
- Patterns
- Size
- Location
- Shape
- Quantity
- Texture
- Sound
- Smell
- Time
- Movement
- Human Characteristics
- Emotions
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Ablaze Bland Blurry Carve/ Carved Clean Clear Cloudy Contrast/ Contrasting Crack/ Cracked Crooked Crushed |
Dense Dirty Eerie Gilded Glassy Gleaming Glimmer/ Glimmering Gloss/ Glossy Glowing Grotesque Heavy |
Hidden Lacework Light Luminous Minimal Moody Mould/ Moulded Movement Opaque Reflective Ruddy |
Shadowy Shiny Sparkle/ Sparking Striped Strong Transparent Translucent Warm/ Warmth Watery Wiry
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Aqua Black Blue Bright Brown Colourful Crimson |
Dark Drab Dull Gold Green Indigo Lavender |
Magenta Multi-coloured Orange Pink Red Rosy Scarlet |
Silver Turquoise Violet White Yellow
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Criss-cross Crossing Delicate Filigree Frame/ Framed |
Geometric Grid Irregular Organic Ornamental |
Panel/ Panelled Regular Repeated/ Repetition Twisted Uneven |
Wavy Woven
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Abundant Big Compact Confine/ Confined Giant Great |
High Huge Little Long Majestic
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Over-sized Petite Short Small Tall
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Teeny Thin Thick Tiny Vast
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Asymmetrical Adjacent Above Band/ Banded Below |
Close/ Closed Enclosed/ Enclosure Expose/ Exposed Interlocking Interlaced |
Join/s Joint/s Laminated Layer/ Layered Loose |
Open/ Opening/ Openness Overlap Overlay Symmetrical
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Blob/ Blobby Broad Circle/ Circular Crooked Curve/ Curved/ Curvy Cylinder/ Cylindrical Deep Distorted |
Flat Fold/ Folded Globular Hexagon/ Hexagonal Hollow Low Mass Narrow |
Oval Planar Pyramid Rectangle/ Rectangular Rotund Round Skinny Solid |
Sphere/ Spherical Square Steep Straight Tall Triangular Wide
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Angular All Ample Considerable Countless |
Enough Every Few Full Hundreds |
Large Light Limited Many Multiple |
Myriad Numerous Several Some Sparse |
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Bendy/ Bendable Bouncy Bumpy Cool Cold Crumpled Crumbly/ Crumbling Crystalline Dry Elastic/ Elasticity |
Encrust/ Encrusted Firm/ Firmness Flexible Furry Fuzzy Greasy Hard Icy Metal/ Metallic Permeable |
Plastic/ Plasticity Pliable Prickly Rough Scrunched Shaggy Sharp Sheer Silky Slick |
Slippery Smooth Soft Sponge/ Spongy Stiff/ Stiffness Supple Squishy Viscous/ Viscosity Wet
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Blaring Deafening Faint Hoarse High-pitched Hissing Hushed |
Hushed Husky Loud Muffled Mute Noisy
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Purr/ Purring Quiet Raspy Resonant Screech/ Screeching Shrill
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Silent Soft Squeal/ Squealing Squeak/ Squeaking Thunder Whisper/ Whispering
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Airy Acrid Aromatic Delicate Delicious Delightful Dewy Exotic Exquisite Faint Familiar Favorite Floral Fresh |
Gentle Heavenly Heavy Light Lovely Mild Musky Musty Natural Overpowering Overwhelming Peculiar Pleasant Pleasing |
Powerful Precious Pungent Pure Putrid Rancid Refreshing Rich Scent Sickening Sweet Soft Smoky Smoldering |
Stale Strange Strong Subtle Suffocating Toxic Unique Warm Wild Wispy Zesty
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Ancient Annual Biannual Brief/ Briefly Daily Early Eternal |
Fast First Future Futuristic Historical Irregular Late |
Long Modern Old Quick Rapid Regular Short |
Slow Speed/ Speedy Swift Wait Young
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Dainty Drama/ Dramatically Fast Fluid Force/ Forceful |
Gentle/ Gently Graceful Gradual/ Gradually Quick/ Quickly
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Rapid/ Rapidly Sharp Slight Slow/ Slowly
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Smooth/ Smoothly Steady Sudden/ Suddenly Supple
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Accessible Active Adaptable Admirable Adventurous Agreeable Alert Allocentric Amiable Anticipative Appreciative Articulate Aspiring Athletic Attractive Authoritarian Balanced Benevolent Bold Brilliant Calm Capable Captivating Caring Challenging Charismatic Charming Cheerful Clean Clear-headed Clever Colorful Companionly Committed Compassionate Conciliatory Confident Conscientious Considerate Constant Contemplative Cooperative Courageous Courteous Creative Cultured Curious Daring Debonair Decent Decisive Dedicated Deep Dignified Directed Disciplined Discreet Disruptive Dramatic Dutiful Dynamic Earnest Ebullient Educated Efficient |
Elegant Eloquent Empathetic Energetic Enthusiastic Esthetic Exciting Extraordinary Fair Faithful Farsighted Felicific Fighter Firm Flexible Focused Forceful Forgiving Forthright Freethinking Friendly Fun-loving Gallant Generous Gentle Genuine Good-natured Gracious Hardworking Healthy Hearty Helpful Heroic High-minded Honest Honorable Humble Humorous Idealistic Imaginative Impressive Incisive Incorruptible Independent Individualistic Innovative Inoffensive Insightful Insouciant Intelligent Intuitive Invulnerable Joking Just Kind Knowledge Leaderly Leisurely Liberal Logical Lovable Loyal Loud Lyrical Magical |
Magnanimous Many-sided Masculine (Manly) Mature Methodical Meticulous Moderate Modest Multi-leveled Mysterious Mystical Neat Nonauthoritarian Objective Observant Open Optimistic Orderly Organized Original Outrageous Painstaking Passionate Patient Patriotic Peaceful Perceptive Perfectionist Personable Persuasive Planful Playful Polished Popular Powerful Practical Precise Principled Profound Protean Protective Providential Prudent Punctual Purposeful Radical Rational Realistic Rebellious Reflective Regal Relaxed Reliable Resourceful Respectful Responsible Responsive Reverential Ridiculous Romantic Royal Rule-breaker Rustic Sage Sane |
Scholarly Scrupulous Secure Selfless Self-critical Self-defacing Self-denying Self-reliant Self-sufficient Sensitive Sentimental Seraphic Serious Sexy Sharing Shrewd Shocking Silly Simple Skillful Sober Sociable Solid Sophisticated Spontaneous Sporting Stable Steadfast Steady Stoic Strong Studious Suave Subtle Sweet Sympathetic Systematic Tasteful Teacherly Thorough Tidy Tolerant Tractable Trusting Uncomplaining Understanding Undogmatic Unfoolable Unusual Upright Urbane Venturesome Visionary Vivacious Warm Well-bred Well-read Well-rounded Winning Wise Witty Youthful
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Positive Emotions Amazed/ Amazing Anticipation Bliss/ Blissful Calm Comfortable Content/ Contentment Delighted/ Delightful Eager Ecstatic/ Ecstasy Elated/ Elations Energetic/ Energy Empathy/ Empathetic Excited/ Excitement |
Positive Emotions Happy/ Happiness Hopeful/ Hope Inspired/ Inspiring Joy/ Joyful Loving/ Love Motivated Peaceful/ Peace Relieved/ Relief Reverence/ Reverent Satisfied/ Satisfaction Surprise/ Surprised Thrilled/ Thrilling Trust/ Trusting |
Negative Emotions Concern/ Concerned Fear/ Fearful Sad/ Sadness Worry/ Worried Unhappy/ Unhappiness Lonely/ Loneliness
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