Maquettes in Architecture: The Forgotten Joys of Model-Making
Dec 22, 2020 · The instant physical exploration of ideas—with quick cutting and gluing of cardboard, paper, foamcore, and wood, spiced with plasticine clay, paint, or bits of clear plastic and metal—provided a primal joy that no screen can ever capture. Like a sculptor’s maquette, an architect’s model is simultaneously a search for and a test of ideas.
Hidden Figures: The Historic Contributions of Black Architects
Oct 5, 2020 · Designer Paul Wellington, based in Milwaukee, is the author of Black Built: History and Architecture in the Black Community, a book that documents more than 40 works of architecture around the country by Black architects that have had a direct impact on communities or color.He’s now working on a new book that will focus on Black women architects in a field dominated by white males.
Reaffirming the Essential Role of Drawing in Design
Jan 6, 2021 · Hewitt closes his book with a dozen steps that architectural educators and students would be wise to consider: (1) Go back to hand drawing as the fundamental medium for design. (2) Visit buildings and cities, and sketch them in situ. (3) study the breadth of architectural history. (4) Engage with users of buildings and how they perceive the ...
How Christopher Alexander Changed Architecture—and Much More
03.22.2022. By Duo Dickinson. Christopher Alexander, perhaps the single most effective polymath architect of his generation, has died at the age of 85. Through teaching, writing, building, inspiring technology, planning, and even delving into theology as well as pedagogy and aesthetic theory, Alexander created, over six decades of relentless ...
The Legacy of Christopher Alexander: Form Language, Pattern …
Jun 4, 2018 · A Form language consists of a set of definitions and vocabulary of building and design components that can be combined coherently. These comprise specific geometries, shape and size of pieces, particular materials, etc. To most people, this is what characterizes architectural “style.”. Evolved form languages always adapt to locality ...
In Praise of 5-Over-1 Buildings - Common Edge
Mar 1, 2022 · Although it was originally published in 2019, this essay by Randy Nishimura, lightly updated, serves as a rebuttal of sorts to Duo Dickinson’s recent Common Edge piece,“ The Architectural Pandemic of the ‘Stick Frame Over Podium’ Building.”Dickinson likens the building type to a plague; Nishimura offers a contrarian’s perspective. A recent spate of …
Robert Venturi and the Difficult Whole – Common Edge
09.26.2018. By Mark Alan Hewitt. Robert Venturi (1925-2018) was the most influential American architect of the last century, though not primarily for his built work, or because of his stature as a designer. He will never stand beside Wright, or Kahn, or even Gehry in that regard. Between 1965 and 1985 he and his collaborator, Denise Scott Brown ...
The Art of Architectural Storytelling, or How to Present a Building ...
Sep 5, 2017 · From day one in school, architect students are immersed in a patois of the Queen’s English, Latin tidbits, and made-up terms like “cinegrammatic,” “unsolid,” and “neo-ness.”. They learn to speak and write through osmosis. First-years emulate upperclassmen, who mimic faculty and invited speakers, who lecture, debate, and publish in ...
The Restoration Argument: Respecting Viollet-Le-Duc at Notre …
Apr 25, 2019 · Viollet-le-Duc (1814–1879) invented modern restoration—both theory and practice. His first laboratory was Notre-Dame de Paris, and he spent virtually his entire professional life studying the cathedral and restoring it. Indeed, everything he added, subtracted, or restored is documented in extensive records and writings.
Architecture and the Environmental Impact of Artificial Complexity
Feb 15, 2021 · The most egregious sin of artificial complexity is the environmental toll it exacts. Structural complexity—where the form of the building is manipulated to create dynamic shapes in roofs, walls, and projections that defy rational explanation—requires tons of extra materials: steel, concrete, wood, glass, and more.