The Use of Metaphors as Design Communication Tools in an Architectural Team

Abstract

Metaphors play a key role in architectural practice. These tools are seen as critical heuristics supporting cognitive and communicative necessities in design problem solving. By structuring the way architects think about problems, reasoning by metaphor enables to approach design situations from unorthodox perspectives, and to produce innovative ideas. This paper investigates empirically the use of metaphors during the early stages of the architectural design process.