How Language Choices Influence Design Success

Architects talk endlessly about materials, form, and light. But one of the most underrated tools in design is language.

The words we use (in meetings, drawings, and reports) don’t just describe design. They shape how people understand it, trust it, and decide whether to build it.

A phrase can change everything. In one office project, our concept board originally described an “open workspace.” The client pushed back, too noisy, too corporate. We reframed it as “connected workspace.” Same layout, same model, different reaction. The word connected aligned with their culture and values. The design was not changed. The language did.

The Invisible Layer of Design

Language quietly sets the frame for interpretation. A façade described as minimalist feels different from one called stripped back. A layout labelled flexible signals opportunity; non-specific sounds careless.

Every word carries bias. Choose without intention, and you risk designing misunderstanding into the process.

That’s why two architects can present similar concepts, and one leaves the room with approval, the other with confusion. The difference is in the narrative coherence.

The Architect’s Translation Problem

Architecture sits between technical precision and emotional resonance. The same project might be explained to an engineer, a client board, and the public, three audiences with five languages.

• A coordination meeting might need tolerances, egress, and datum lines.

• A public consultation needs shade, street edge, and human scale.

• A developer pitch focuses on yield, value, and brand alignment.

The best architects are translators, not simplifiers. They re-encode ideas in the vocabulary their audience already trusts. Using the wrong register for the wrong group is like sending drawings at the wrong scale, technically correct, functionally useless.

Why Clarity Is Design Empathy

Cognitive scientist Steven Pinker describes the “curse of knowledge”: once we understand something, we forget what it’s like not to. Architecture is full of this.

Every drawing set assumes a reader who already knows the code. Clients often don’t. Neither do many decision-makers now sitting on development boards.

Clarity, then, becomes more about empathy rather than dumbing things down. We need to use our ability to make complex ideas legible without diluting them. A clear idea communicates better while also traveling faster through the decision chain.

How to Design with Language

Over the past year, I’ve started treating words like any other design material (testable, intentional, iterative).

1. Start with intent.

Ask: What do I want this line, paragraph, or presentation to make someone feel or do? The vocabulary follows that.

2. Use the simplest language that still feels true.

If “window” works better than “fenestration,” use “window.” Precision is about complexity and the correctness of the communicated for the audience.

3. Match tone to medium.

The voice that works in a report might fail in a room. A planning submission needs authority, a client update needs narrative flow.

4. Listen for what’s repeated back.

The phrases clients echo tell you what landed. If they misquote you, your language doesen't carry your intent.

5. Build a shared glossary.

Agree on how your team names recurring elements — “atrium,” “threshold,” “breakout.” Consistency builds clarity, and clarity builds trust.

The Mistakes We Keep Making

Most of us slip into predictable traps:

• Overcomplicating language. Dense phrasing is a killer of mood, joy and clarity. It does nothing else but to signals insecurity. Most politicians communicate at an 8 grader level, and the people understand and align with their views. Why don't we do the same?

  
  

• Tone mismatch. A public consultation written like a specification alienates. A report written like a press release sounds unserious. And I had a steep learning curve during my public consultation days. I would recommend this to a lot of architects to try. Go do public consultation and learn from that as much as you can.

  
  

• Cultural blindness. Words shift meaning by audience and geography. “Neutral palette” reads as calm in London and sterile in Dubai.

  
  

• Neglecting feedback. We test daylight factors but rarely test comprehension.

These are design errors, not linguistic ones.

When Language Shapes Outcomes

A small shift in phrasing can alter outcomes entirely.

Two teams pitch for the same housing site.

• Team A describes “cost-efficient modular housing.”

• Team B presents “adaptable housing for evolving communities.”

Same system. Different story. One frames economy, the other frames empathy.

A 2023 Building Design survey found that “clarity of communication” ranked higher than portfolio depth in client decision-making. That’s language outperforming reputation.

The tech world learned this decades ago. Apple doesn’t advertise “advanced processors”; it promises products that “just work.” Architects can do the same: a building that “gives back more than it takes” says more than “achieves carbon negativity.”

Both are accurate. Only one is memorable.

The Strategic Edge of Clarity

In behavioural economics, processing fluency describes how easily something is understood and how that ease increases trust. When our proposals read clearly, clients perceive them as more feasible.

A 2019 Journal of Business Research study showed that clarity in service design documentation boosted stakeholder confidence by 37%. The same logic applies to architecture. Clear communication reduces perceived risk, which is exactly what every client, developer, and funder wants.

Clarity, in other words, compounds value.

Turning Words into Practice Infrastructure

Most practices treat writing as a final polish. The better ones design with it from the start.

• Collaborate with writers early. They’re not there to decorate; they’re there to structure thought.

• Build a language library. Keep phrases that worked with past clients; reuse them as calibration tools.

• Test wording. “Community hub” vs “neighbourhood commons” can change engagement levels.

• Train linguistic empathy. During reviews, ask: Would someone outside the studio understand this sentence?

Language is structure.

The Subtle Power of Saying It Right

Every project tells a story. The only question is whether we’re telling it consciously or by accident.

Language is the medium that connects the idea in the architect’s head to the image in someone else’s mind. It’s what turns geometry into conviction.

And when done well, it’s what gets the project built.