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Organization

Architects design interior spaces both to be aesthetically pleasing and to express a building’s function. There are five basic ways to organize interior spaces: 1) “Centralized” which has a central, dominant space about which a number of other spaces are grouped; 2) “Linear” which offers a sequence of repetitive spaces of equal importance; 3) “Radial” which has linear organizations of space extending from a dominant central space; 4) “Clustered” which uses proximity to relate various spaces to each other, and 5) “Grid” which arranges spaces within a 3-dimensional grid.

Designing interior spaces requires careful consideration of the use of space. These varied approaches to organization show the importance of order to architectural design.
 

Choose one of the five types of spatial organization and look at the examples provided. In the Build It section, add a cube by clicking on the picture of the cube on the left. You can select and move the cubes as well as rotate and scale them. Remember, there is more than one way to arrange each type.