Conversations with form. John Habraken, Andrés Mignucci, Jonathan Teicher : a workbook for students of architecture

"Through a progressive series of exercises - accompanied by observational studies, examples and applied theory - Conversations with Form: A Workbook for Students of Architecture improves designers' understanding, dexterity and resilience in making form. It specifically focuses on the skills needed to succeed in the everyday context in which the vast majority of architects will ultimately design and build, wherein no one designs in isolation and existing conditions never represent a tabula rasa. The text begins by familiarizing readers with utilizing step-by-step sequences of moves to steer the development of built form and rapidly moves to designs of increasing complexity. These design plays treat a wide-ranging series of topics including structures, patterns, types, systems and other kinds of shared form principles. Conversations with Form is a workbook for honing hands-on skills and tools of the architect's trade. Beautifully illustrated and focused on practical, usable information, the book provides architectural students with an accessible and useable handbook for their design practice"-- Provided by publisher "Conversations With Form leads students of architecture to discover that design apprenticeship - learning-by-doing - can ultimately be non-academic, original and stimulating. The same holds true for professors of architecture who read it - and for architects, engineers, officers and citizens whose daily practice involves transforming the built environment. Conversations With Form helps us to understand how growth and change have shaped and conferred texture to the built environment in the past ... and to what extent a built environment that is capable of successfully accommodating growth and change can be envisaged and planned, freeing itself from current functional, abstract, standardized, repetitive and interchangeable codes. A truly useful and beautiful book, it also confirms that design is a good way to decode and interpret the processes that have moulded historic cities and their contemporary expansion."--Franco Mancuso, Architect, Faculty of Architecture, Universit©¡ IUAV di Venezia, Italy Introduction Design Plays 1. Zones of Transition 2. Articulating Exterior Building Form 3. Designing in Longitudinal Section 4. Designing in Cross-Section 5. Visualization and Resilience 6. Working with a Primary Architectural System 7. Combining Systems and Controlling Complexity Afterword Additional Background Index