DESIGN METAPHORS ARE IMPORTANT IN ALL KIND OF DESIGN

A “house” can be regarded as a Design Metaphor in architecture. It supplies a model and invokes assumptions. Indeed, many architects struggle to get rid of the assumptions carried with “house” and may try other metaphors, like “space”, “box” or “personal sphere”. For instance many architects designing galleries or art museums may struggle to get away form the assumption that these building should contain “white cubes” as exhibition places. All these metaphors supply different models and carry different assumptions. It’s even more frequent for architects to challenge the idea assumptions carried in metaphor “room”.

So even if we don’t think of “house” as a metaphor, because we are so used to house being concrete, in the design situation it becomes a metaphor, with its model and assumptions.