A Conceptual Framework for Analogy-Based Design-Concept Generation in Architectural Design Pedagogy: The Identification– Abstraction–Translation Model and a Domain-Consistency Test for Biomimicry

doi:10.56201/ijemt.vol.12.no8.2026.pg55.69

A Conceptual Framework for Analogy-Based Design-Concept Generation in Architectural Design Pedagogy: The Identification– Abstraction–Translation Model and a Domain-Consistency Test for Biomimicry

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Abstract

ion–Translation Model and a Domain-Consistency Test for Biomimicry Ukanwa, Obinna Emmanuel Department of Architecture of Architecture, Imo State University, Owerri, Nigeria. [email protected] https://doi.org/10.56201/ijemt..pg55.69 Abstract This paper advances a conceptual framework for teaching design-concept generation in architectural design studios, in which analogy functions as the principal cognitive mechanism by which students move from an inchoate design intention to a communicable spatial idea. Rather than offering a systematic review of the field, the paper draws selectively on design-cognition literature — Broadbent's taxonomy of design modes, Casakin and Goldschmidt's experimental studies of visual analogy, Nazidizaji and colleagues' work on analogical reasoning ability, and Gero's function–behaviour–structure ontology — to warrant an original three-stage model, Identification–Abstraction–Translation (I–A–T), that operationalises analogical design thinking as a teachable studio procedure. From this model the paper derives three formal, empirically testable propositions: that a valid design concept requires the identified analogy to remain traceable across the layout, spatial-relationship, and form concept registers (P1); that biomimicry constitutes a valid design driver only where it satisfies a proposed domain- consistency test between the architectural problem's logic and the biological system's logic (P2); and that analogical design competence is trainable through explicit, staged instruction rather than left to intuition (P3). The paper closes by translating these propositions into implications for studio curriculum sequencing, critique protocols, and assessment criteria, and by outlining a programme of controlled studio-based research to test them.

Keywords

design-concept generation; analogical reasoning; form abstraction; biomimicry; architectural design pedagogy; spatial concept

References

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A Conceptual Framework for Analogy-Based Design-Concept Generation in Architectural Design Pedagogy: The Identification– Abstraction–Translation Model and a Domain-Consistency Test for Biomimicry

Abstract

Keywords

References

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