Using TRIZ Functionality In Architectural Design Process

Designing has always been an important challenge for humans to overcome to dominate the environment. Meanwhile in some domains design has found a special position and turned into a professional work. Architecture, which is a combination of engineering and art, is one of these domains. The complexity of design problems and the science behind it is increasing. Therefore, to carry out an effective and efficient design, it is necessary to utilize design techniques. Design techniques are divided into two groups: discipline-dependent techniques and knowledge such as hydraulics, thermodynamics, aesthetics and static and discipline-independent techniques that relate directly to design activities and can be applied to any product or technology such as tools for performing analysis, synthesis and decision- making. This paper focuses on the techniques and methods of creativity and innovation in the latter category. One of the latest and comprehensive techniques in this area is TRIZ theory. TRIZ theory development in the architecture field is growing nowadays. However, the question of how to use TRIZ theory in design process remains unanswered. The aim of this article is to address this gap by exploring a method that can potentially help architecture use TRIZ in the architectural design process. For this purpose, we studied the related texts and analysed the relation between them. Both TRIZ and architectural design process comprise of many different elements. TRIZ includes several elements including pillars, models, and tools. We focused on pillars of TRIZ, which is one of the fundamental parts of it. TRIZ pillars are included Functionality, Ideality, Contradiction, and Resource. Most of the times we fail to solve a problem because of solving a wrong problem until a wrong answer to a correct problem; so knowing the problems and its root is very important. On the other hand, according to the assortment of Lawson four function of architecture are the radical constraint, practical constraint, formal constraint and symbolic constraint. TRIZ Functionality could help the architecture designer in formulating skill and improve their performance in the radical constraint of design by helping them in achieving the foundation of the problem. The method is implemented and tested through a quasi-experimental pre-test – post-test control group design. The design method is the independent variable, and students’ design ability in radical constraint is the dependent variable of our research. The experiment was conducted during the academic year in the Architectural Design Studio 2 in the undergraduate program of architecture in Najafabad University. The dependent variable was measured by students’ design performance. Towards that goal, a panel of judges composed of educators of architecture ranked qualities of students’ design based on the goal of the research. Data analysis was carried out by means of Variance test to see if a statistically significant difference existed between the two groups. The findings show that the design performance of the test group is better than the control group in radical constraint, and the difference is statistically significant. Consequently, using TRIZ Functionality in architectural design could help the designer in formulating skill and have a positive effect on student’s design ability.