Design Entry

The entrance is drawn as a door and it is a sequence: seen from the street, approached, arrived at, entered, and then a second moment inside where somebody either knows where to go or does not. Every part of it is a decision and the door is the least of them.

Workflow

Step 1. Establish who arrives and from where

Ask, in one message:

1. Who arrives: on foot, by car, by bike, dropped off, by transit, by delivery? From which direction does each come? Point at site-access-study.
2. Is anyone expecting them? A staffed reception, a doorbell, a code, or nobody.
3. What is the weather doing on arrival: prevailing wind, driving rain, snow that has to be cleared, sun in the eyes?
4. Is this the only entrance? Where do staff, deliveries and refuse go, and is the accessible entrance the same one as everybody else's?
5. What is inside the door, and what decision does the arriver have to make there?
6. What is fixed: a level, a boundary, an existing opening, a required frontage?

Question 4 has one right answer and it is often not taken. An accessible entrance separate from the main one is compliant and is not equivalent, and if it is separate it should be a decision with a reason rather than what the levels produced.

Step 2. Work the approach: found, then reached

Two different problems and both are usually skipped:

Found. From where the building is first seen, is it obvious where the entrance is? Say what makes it obvious: a change in the massing, a canopy, a light, a path, a change in the ground. If the answer is a sign, note it — a sign is what gets used when the building did not say it.

Reached. The route from where somebody arrives to the door:

• Is it the shortest route, or is the shortest route somewhere else? People take the short one and wear a path across whatever is in the way.
• Does it work for someone with a stroller, a suitcase, a wheelchair, or a delivery trolley?
• Is it lit, and overlooked?
• Where does the accessible route run, and does it join the main one before the door or at it? Joining at the door is better than arriving separately.
• Where does somebody wait if they are early, and where do they stand while looking for a key?

Step 3. Name the four demands at the threshold and say which wins

They meet at one line and they cannot all be optimised:

Demand	Wants	Conflicts with
Level access	No upstand at all	Weather, which wants a threshold
Weather	To keep rain and wind out	Level access
Energy	A closed, sealed, possibly double door	Ease of use, and openness
Security	A controlled, closed door	Welcome, and being found

State which one this project lets win, and what the others get instead: a drainage channel, a canopy or recess, a vestibule, a revolving or automatic door, a mat well, a wind lobby.

A recess or a canopy buys most of the weather argument without an upstand, and it also gives somebody a place to stand while they find a key. Say so where it applies.

Then check the threshold against the quoted accessible provision, and against what the drainage does. Point at design-window-perimeter for the perimeter detail and civil-drawing-review for the grading right outside.

Step 4. Work the vestibule, if there is one

• Is one required? Quote the energy provision if so.
• Is it deep enough that the second door can be opened before the first closes, by somebody with their hands full or in a wheelchair? Two doors in a shallow lobby is the most common accessibility failure at an entrance.
• Both doors' swings and their manoeuvring clearances, against each other.
• Where the mat is, how long it has to be to work, and how it is cleaned.
• Where snow and water go, and whether the floor is safe wet.
• What it does to the acoustics and the draught.

Step 5. Work the first moment inside

The entry is not over at the door:

• Where does the arriver's eye go, and is that where they should go?
• Is the destination visible: a desk, a lift, a stair, a corridor? If not, what tells them?
• How many choices do they have to make, and is one of them wrong?
• Where does somebody stand and wait, and is that in the door swing or in the route?
• Where do coats, bags, buggies and umbrellas go?
• Where does the person at the desk look, if there is one, and can they see the door? Point at security-design-review.

Step 6. Report

• The sequence, point by point, with each weak moment marked.
• What makes the entrance findable, and whether it is a sign.
• Which of the four demands wins at the threshold, and what the others got.
• Whether the accessible route arrives with everyone else or separately.
• Every dimension still open, with the provision to quote.
• What has to be checked elsewhere: the grading outside, the accessible clearances, the security position.

Then ask whether to write it to a file and where.

Rules

• Work found and reached as two separate problems.
• Name which of the four demands wins at the threshold, every run.
• Say when findability depends on a sign.
• Ask whether the accessible entrance is the same one as everybody else's, and say so plainly when it is not.
• Check the vestibule for someone with their hands full.
• Never supply a threshold limit, a clearance, or a door force.
• Carry the sequence past the door to the first decision inside.

Anti-patterns

• Designing the door and calling it the entrance.
• A separate accessible entrance arrived at by default rather than by decision.
• A level threshold with no drainage, or a drainage upstand with no level route.
• A vestibule too shallow to use with a suitcase.
• Relying on a sign to say where the front door is.
• Ignoring the route people will actually take, which is the short one.
• Ending the sequence at the door.
• No place to stand while finding a key, in the rain.

Resources

None. This skill is one file. Output is written directly at the path you choose.