![]() ![]() In short, the parti is the overall and comprehensive schema, idea, or concept giving order, meaning, and rationale to a building. You have now an operative system for critiquing, developing, realizing your architecture. However, once you select this or that parti, then you are definitely moving toward this and not that direction. This choice may be random, pre-assigned, chosen for good reasons (analysis, site, precedent, etc.). Let’s say you pick a ‘juxtaposition’ parti. Of course, you start your effort by seeking a parti and once found, you steer the design process toward creating a building that materializes such character. In a way, the essence, nature, or basic condition of the architectural being cannot be ‘figured out’ but rather needs to be ‘seen’ or ‘felt’. In fact, intellectualization often obscures or confuses what is in front of you. But such undertaking is more an act of observation than of thinking. Naturally it takes a sharp and agile mind to clarify the essence of a work of architecture. It manifests its very essence and therefore cannot be just intellectual. For a parti permeates every single aspect of architecture… its formal manifestation, its tectonics and details, its engagement of program and site, its experience… Despite seeming to be ‘intellectual’, the parti is far from being intellectual – the parti is the true nature of the design, its soul if you wish. So, what is it? You see, if you answer this question then you resolve all the questions, hence its importance and its difficulty. Hence you can have the same parti being applied by Peter Zumthor, Jean Nouvel, Zaha Hadid or Michael Graves… Of course, certain types of languages or positioning may preclude the selection of certain partis, very much like certain cultures may not accept or choose certain kinds of political or economic ideologies. In a way it comes foremost and first, before any language is applied. The parti is the widest yet most profound description possible of your act of making. ![]() It demands professing… professing a belief. So selecting a parti demands your declaration of affiliation, the commitment to a major idea of architecture that resolves a given set of architectural challenges… In Spanish arriving at a parti requires “toma de partido”, literally to “take a position”. Very much like what a political party does in the midst of the many political ideologies, it could embrace or address the state of affairs of a country, people, crisis, economy… After all, parti comes from the French word similar to the Spanish word, “partido”. It’s the position your design takes in front of the world of infinite architectural possibilities. It is the scheme, main concept, or idea that explains better than anything else the character and appearance of your design. So, what is a parti? Simply put, it’s the most basic organizational principle that expresses your architectural design. Going home, finding your whereabouts, your direction – that’s what it means to become aware of your parti. Well, you can go many ways, but you are truly lost. ![]() What is an Architectural Design Parti? Better yet, what is the architectural design parti of your proposal? If you can’t answer this question, then you can’t really go anywhere. I hope that my effort casts light on the matter without killing the magic and even esoteric quality of what the ‘parti’ stands for. I wrote it after having to respond to students’ frequent requests for an explanation of what-it-is throughout my many years of teaching design studios. Preliminary Note: This short text presents meditations on the nature and function of the “parti” in architectural design. On the Architectural Design Parti Julio Bermudez, PhD ![]()
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