ArchiTakes instructs that Rule 3 is to design from a diagram:
Design from a diagram. Begin with the spaces and functions the house must contain, and an analysis of its site. Rather than starting with individual rooms, think in terms of a few ordered zones of spaces related by size and function, and array them to exploit the site characteristics and serve an overriding design direction. A comprehensive diagram for a small house can be very simple, but will yield a purposeful design made up of simultaneously conceived spaces that are all deliberate and whole. The resulting clarity of plan will not only be economical to build, but will minimize the material and psychological clutter that a house can place between its dwellers and their simple enjoyment of lfe [sic].
See also:
Rule 1: Build a Small and Simple Shell, Rule 2: Combine Living Spaces
This is, of course, reminiscent of Jeff Veen’s “doorknob approach,” and therefore has extensibility well beyond architecture to any discipline concerned with purposeful design for the enjoyment of its dwellers, no matter what their duration in a space.
