WHERE SHOULD I START?

THE THINKING PROCESS

Where should I start? Faced with the two incompatible plans to be married for our first assignment, I have no clue of how to approach it. I started to lay them over using traces and sketches, and then here is the question:

Do I find formal similarities/relationships between the two plans that I can latch on to?
Do I construct a tectonic system (grid/any kind of reference) that is somewhat relevant to the logic embedded in the existing plans/buildings?
Do I seek an apparatus suitable for the idea/concept given?
Do I find an overarching idea/quality/thesis in the work and the derive everything from it?
And many other options. I am trying to accumulate the design modes that I have encountered, and I think all these approaches have their merits.

I guess there is no panacea in desing as in everything else, then it just comes down to choose the most appropriate method to solve the design problem, as the problem is in itself seeking the key that matches perfectly. Louis Sullivan has said that "A proper building grows naturally, logically, and poetically out of all its conditions." Thus understanding one's project in a serendipitous way is essential in finding the most suitable design solution.

Whenever you do not know what to do, just dig deeper into the project to reveal what is in its genetic code and the poetry lies within it. Of course it is subjected to individualistic interpretations, but that's how design/architecture works - architecture is the projection of the architects themselves in both actuality and fantasy.

So, to understand my problem to a finer degree,  I would love to speculate about the followings:

The divided spaces suggested by the floor plan, and what might be hidden
The symmetry
The typology of rooms/spaces
The geometry/formal relationships
The connections/similarities

What else?

Also, See Hong said that trying to formulate a story and construct a hierarchy is a good way to move forward.

Stay tuned. I love to speculate about the design process!