تئوری اسکیس: گفتمان در طراحی معماری

by Kendra Schank Smith, مریم طلایی (translator), هادی متولی حقیقی (translator)

Concepts from architects minds evolve through sketches and as a mode of transference are conveyed to the finished building. This book compares qualities of sketches to reveal unique approaches to the instruments of thinking in which all architects engage. It provides new insight into the relationship between architectural sketches and the process of creative manipulation. Sketches comprise a thinking mechanism, and through the qualities of ambiguity, quickness and change, they initiate a dialogue for architects. As a medium to facilitate communication, recording, discovery and evaluation, their pertinence lies in their ability to exhibit both the precise and the imprecise. Exploring four related theoretical approaches, play, memory-imagination-fantasy, caricature and the grotesque, the book shows how imprecision stimulates imagination to conceive new forms in the dialogue of architectural sketches.

Genres: Architecture

189 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Terri · Rating 4 out of 5]

All images convey something and this book seeks to show you through the various architects' drawings about the role of sketches in the design process.

This is not a "how to" book about creating architecture but rather a book about looking at the sketches of an architect to get a grasp of the architect's conception. It is about looking at the marks, the scribbles, the shading and discerning where the architect is going with the design.

It is a terrific conversation on architecture and their sketches which will appeal to the serious student and serious study of architecture beginning with the original concept in drawings and sketches.

Putting pencil to paper allows an architect to make a judgement about a preconceived idea; it allows an architect to explore solutions by quickly evaluating the idea through a visual form. This spontaneity can be seen in I.M.Pei's very loose sketch of the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art Washington D.C.

This book demonstrates how an architect's sketches can begin to "elucidate complex concepts."

Sketches in architecture are helpful:

* to understand complex structures through discovery in drawing it out
* to facilitate communication between colleagues, and clients
* to assist memory as a visual record
* to test a concept
* to let imagination explore ideas as seen in Mayumi Miyawaki's design sketch for the Yokoo residence.

The book is packed with excellent quality photos of the sketches to which Kendra Schank Smith refers and that really brings the whole concept to life.

[Bojan Tunguz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got this book because I like architecture and enjoy looking at well designed and visually stimulating buildings. While I did not expect to see many of actual full-blown designs in this book, I did expect to see many more interesting sketches of buildings or at least illustrations that are impressive in their own right. However, this turned out to be a more textual than visual work and the few sketches and illustrations that are presented are probably not that interesting to the architectural outsiders. The book itself is hard to appreciate for anyone who is not heavily invested in architectural criticism. It is largely an academic work, not intended to appeal to broader readership. Even so, the writing style is particularly dry, clichéd and repetitive, and I can't imagine that even the students of architecture would benefit much from reading it. It is written in a style of many "studies" departments that have come to dominate today's academic landscape, and would be more at home in humanities than in a technical field. Overall, there is very little that would commend this book to anyone except some die-hard "criticism" junkies.