Volume 28: Analysis of Precedent (1979)

Volume 28: Analysis of Precedent (1979)

Analysis Of Precedent (Download PDF) Analysis Of Precedent is a collection of diagrams which systematically analyze the works of eight architects. For each architect four representative buildings have been documented . The architects were purposefully selected from various periods of time to represent seemingly different approaches to architecture. Diagrams have been utilized to capture the essence of particular issues for each building. The issues stud ied are divided into three categories: elements, relationships, and ordering ideas. Physical attributes which can be compared independent of building type or function have been addressed in the diagrams. The analysis is not all inclusive in that it is limited to characteristics which can be diagrammed; thus, material palette is one obvious omission. Our analysis and interpretation has been of built form and therefore may not necessarily coincide with the architects intentions or the interpretation of others. In order to make the diagrams memorable, they ha ve been intentionally simplified . Likewise the accompanying text has been abbreviated...
Read More
Volume 27: Great Models (1978)

Volume 27: Great Models (1978)

Great Models: Digressions On The Architectural Model (Download PDF) Architectural models offer a record of architecture older than the profession itself; a record which expresses all the varying spirit and meanings which both architects and their public give to buildings. It is an enchanting journey through entombments and religious devotions, through records left in fresco and mosaic, through the hands of workmen, architects and clients, and the eyes of the perpetually fascinated public. The earliest existing models were funerary objects placed in the tomb of the architect or donor of the edifice to surround him with the familiar, and as attributes of his work or generosity; such are the tiny Roman temple from Vulci (cover), and the Egyptian house replete with miniature leafy garden. Although the Romans occasionally accorded the architect such recognitions, the association of the model with the donor (the early client was frequently a wealthy patron building a church or temple, thus a "donor") rather than the architect is prevalent until...
Read More
The Hand and the Mind

The Hand and the Mind

by Juhani Pallasmaa {abstract} Juhani Pallasmaa is an architect and visiting Professor of Architecture at Washington University in St. Louis, U.S. as well as the current Plym Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign inChampaign, Illinois. Also a former professor of architecture at the Helsinki University of Technology and a former Director of the Museum of Finnish Architecture, he is the author of numerous books, including Archipelago. Essays on Architecture, The Eyes of the Skin – Architecture and the Senses and The Thinking Hand, the last of which is required reading for all architecture students in the College of Design at NC State. Pallasmaa is the current director of an architecture studio, Arkkitehtitoimisto Juhani Pallasmaa – in Helsink, Pallasmaa Pallasmaa’s article is a variation of the preface to The Thinking Hand, written for the Student Publication. In the article, Palasmaa considers the interrelationship of technology, handwork and how we think. “During the past century and half”, Palasmaa argues, “the mechanized and automated...
Read More
The Shifting Role of Architecture

The Shifting Role of Architecture

by: Erin White {abstract} Erin White is a graduate of the Master of Architecture Program at North Carolina State University. He has a BA from Bowdoin College in Maine and studied at the Boston Architectural Center in Boston. White has been a chef, a carpenter, a statistician, and novelist before returning to North Carolina to finalize his career in Architecture. This explains the merging of many motivations in White’s work, which envisions new applications of architectural thinking and shifts in the role of the architect in planning, design and community development and connectivity. White’s article will focus on this shifting role of the architect in helping build healthy community food systems to extend well beyond the conventional role of the architect as building designer. “By working at multiple scales and allowing design data to move fluidly, the skills and training of the architect may find important contributions to the complex problems of which buildings play only a small role. Any efforts...
Read More
Transforming Design Education

Transforming Design Education

By Deb Littlejohn, PhD {abstract} Deborah Littlejohn is a design researcher and educator. Her research is guided by questions that address the field of relations among networked technology, new information environments and design pedagogy, and the ability of people to learn, adapt and change. Her dissertation was a grounded theory study on the outcomes of relationships among curriculum, faculty beliefs, and the particular circumstances of the learning environment in innovative U.S. design programs. Littlejohn has taught design at several U.S. programs in the areas of interaction design, motion graphics, typography and graphic design. From 2001–2006, she was a Resident Design Fellow at the University of Minnesota Design Institute where she led an investigation of leading practice in type design that resulted in the internationally-distributed publication Metro Letters: A Typeface for the Twin Cities (2003). A desire to promote the value of research in design education and contribute to the field's ongoing dialogue has been extended through Littlejohn’s participation in design conferences, invited lectures, student...
Read More