Needs

According to Ching, there are three basic aspects an architect has to take into consideration when designing a building: the needs of the people that will be using the building, the structural needs of the building itself, and the context where the building will be placed.

The needs of the people can be dividen into three categories: psycological, physiological and sociological. The first one includes aspects such as comfort (adequate temperature and ventilation), and the happiness or dislike of the people that will use the building. The physiological needs refer to the height, weight, waste disposal and so on. The sociological needs must be fulfilled by having a balance between private and public spaces.

The structural needs oif the building are that, first of all, the building can stand on its own, and must be able to overcome earthquakes, rain, windy weather and sun radiation without suffering any damage. Likewise, the building must protect the people inside from any kind of weather. Plus, the building must be able to hold a certain amount of weight, its inner spaces must be comfortable and it has to have enough entrances and exits strategically located in order to maintain the flow. Also the distribution of energy, information and other things inside the building must work perfectly.

Aside from the internal dynamic of the building, the architect has to make sure that his/her design will be suitable in teh context that will surround it. The architect must take into account the economical activity of the area, the cultural characteristics of the environment, and has to make his/her design with some flexibility so that if the purpose or the people that use it change, the building will still be functional. The architect also has to make sure that the building has all the connections to electricity, water and other external resources.

An architect must know that all this needs have the same relevance, and that if one of this aspects is given more importance in the desing, he/she must be careful not to leave aside other things that may be important too. And last but not least, the architect must consider that the context, the people and/or the function of the building may change, so his/her design must be flexible enough to cope will all this change.