A Grid Model for the Design, Coordination and Dimensional Optimization in Architecture.
Résumé :
Our article treats layout grids in architecture and their use by the architects for the purposes not only of
design but also of dimensional coordination and optimization. It initially proposes to define an
architectural grid model as well as a set of operations to construct them. Then, it discusses this model and
its capacity to assist the designers in their everyday work of (re)dimensioning 3 .
The architectural grid, as an instrument of design, is omnipresent in the work of architects whatever the
times or the societies we may take into consideration. Today, it is generally the starting point of a number
of projects (residences, offices, hospitals, etc.). As a geometrical artifact, its power of abstraction enables
it to convey architectural elements such as spaces (an urban network for example), works (structural
walls) or products (tiles)(Zeitoun 1977), (Pelliteri 1997).
This universality of the architectural grid is explained by two essential functions. Its quality of graphic
reference allows the dimensioning and the positioning of architectural objects. These are its metrological
and topological functions. As a principle of composition, the architectural grid allows the whole and the
element to be reconciled and to integrate a finite set of dimensions into a single and hierarchical system.
That is its coordination function. The model of architectural grid that we propose preserves these two
principal functions.