Let an element do more than one thing and belong to more than one order at once: a wall that is both inside and outside, a column that is both structure and sign.
Rules · Cities · Use · Façades
A code by building type
Do not design the buildings; write a code. Give each lot a building type, and for each type fix on one sheet where the building stands, how high it rises, where its porch and outbuilding go, whether it may have a tower and where cars are parked; then let any architect design within it.
The code is small enough to fit on a poster. Its types run from the arcaded, several-storey buildings round the central square, through workshops and lodgings, to the detached houses that make up most of the town. Because the code fixes the relation of building to street rather than style, the result is a coherent street picture built by dozens of different designers.
Related rules
A building can carry meaning in two ways: as a duck, whose whole form is shaped into a symbol, or as a decorated shed, a plain, efficient shelter with symbols applied to it. Prefer the shed.
Where a building is seen from a moving car across a car park, communication depends on large signs placed at the road, and the building behind them can be a simple shed.
Speak two languages at once: the technical language of modern construction for the profession, and a language of familiar, historical or popular signs for everyone else.
Treat a tall office building as base, shaft and top: an open, accessible ground storey for shops and entrances; an indefinite stack of identical office floors expressed as one; and a distinct attic that closes the composition.
base (1–2 storeys) + shaft (n identical storeys) + attic
Bring every house forward to the street with a front porch, and mark the lot line with a white picket fence, each house with a different pattern of fence; build in wood with pitched metal roofs, and allow a small tower where the code permits.
Cite this page Chris Paton, “A code by building type”, The Textbook of Architecture, https://textbookofarchitecture.com/rule/seaside-code-chart. Text, drawings and models licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.