The essential design companion-now in an up-to-date new edition For architects, drawing is more than a convenient way to communicate ideas; it is an integral part of the creative process that has a profound impact on thinking and problem-solving. In Graphic Thinking for Architects and Designers, Third Edition, Paul Laseau demonstrates that more versatile and facile sketching leads to more flexible, creative approaches to design challenges. To encourage this flexibility and stimulate graphic thinking, he introduces numerous graphic techniques that can be applied in a variety of situations. He also helps readers acquire a solid grasp of basic freehand drawing, representational drawing construction, graphic note-taking, and diagramming. Important features of this new edition include: * Easy-to-understand discussions supported by freehand illustrations * A new format with superior representation of techniques and concepts * Dozens of new and updated illustrations * Extensive coverage of new technologies related to the graphic thinking process For architects and students who want to maximize their creativity, Graphic Thinking for Architects and Designers is a valuable tool in the pursuit of architectural solutions to contemporary design problems.

Recording your ideas and observations primarily in pictures instead of words can help you become more creative and constructive on the job, no matter what your level of artistic ability. This show-by-example sourcebook clearly illustrates proven methods and procedures for keeping a highly useful visual notebook. Visual Notes for Architects and Designers demonstrates how to make rapid, notational sketches that serve as visual records for future reference, as well as improve understanding and facilitate the development of ideas. It shows you how to expand your knowledge of a subject beyond what is gained through observation or verbal representation alone. You gain access to simple techniques for collecting, analyzing, and applying information. Crowe and Laseau examine the relationship between note-taking, visualization, and creativity. They give practical guidance on how to develop: Visual acuity—the ability to see more in what you experience Visual literacy—expressing yourself clearly and accurately with sketches Graphic analysis—using sketches to analyze observations Numerous examples demonstrate some of the many uses of visual notes. They help you develop a keener awareness of environments, solve design problems, and even get more out of lectures and presentations. The authors also discuss types of notebooks suitable for taking visual notes. If you want to develop your perceptual and creative skills to their utmost, you will want to follow the strategies outlined in Visual Notes for Architects and Designers. It is a valuable guide for architects, landscape architects, designers, and anyone interested in recording experience in sketch form.

Graphic Design for Architects is a handbook of techniques, explanations and examples of graphic design most relevant to architects. The book covers a variety of scales of graphic design, everything from portfolio design and competition boards, to signage and building super-graphics – to address every phase of architectural production. This book combines and expands on information typically found in graphic design, information design, and architectural graphics books. As architectural communication increases to include more territory and components of a project, it is important for designers to be knowledgeable about the various ways in which to communicate visually. For instance, signage should be designed as part of the process – not something added at the end of a project; and the portfolio is a manifestation of how the designer works, not just an application to sell a design sensibility. In thinking about architecture as a systematic and visual project, the graphic design techniques outlined in this book will help architects process, organize and structure their work through the lens of visual communication. Each chapter is titled and organized by common architectural modes of communication and production. The chapters speak to architects by directly addressing projects and topics relevant to their work, while the information inside each chapter presents graphic design methods to achieve the architects’ work. In this way, readers don’t have to search through graphic design books to figure out what’s relevant to them – this book provides a complete reference of graphic techniques and methods most useful to architects in getting their work done.

"In one complete volume, you'll find a representation of the dimensions of architecture through a rich array of conventions and techniques from the conceptual to the perceptual, the concrete to the abstract, the personal to the public, the subjective to the objective. You'll also discover an extensive set of illustrations, organized in relation to the design activities of seeing, thinking, and communication - a "vocabulary" of architectural drawing."--BOOK JACKET.

Over the last few decades, a rich and increasingly diverse practice has emerged in the art world that invites the public to touch, enter, and experience the work, whether it is in a gallery, on city streets, or in the landscape. Like architecture, many of these temporary artworks aspire to alter viewers' experience of the environment. An installation is usually the end product for an artist, but for architects it can also be a preliminary step in an ongoing design process. Like paper projects designed in the absence of "real" architecture, installations offer architects another way to engage in issues critical to their practice. Direct experimentation with architecture's material and social dimensions engages the public around issues in the built environment that concern them and expands the ways that architecture can participate in and impact people's everyday lives. The first survey of its kind, Installations by Architects features fifty of the most significant projects from the last twenty-five years by today's most exciting architects, including Anderson Anderson, Philip Beesley, Diller + Scofidio, John Hejduk, Dan Hoffman, and Kuth/Ranieri Architects. Projects are grouped in critical areas of discussion under the themes of tectonics, body, nature, memory, and public space. Each project is supplemented by interviews with the project architects and the discussions of critics and theorists situated within a larger intellectual context. There is no doubt that installations will continue to play a critical role in the practice of architecture. Installations by Architects aims to contribute to the role of installations in sharpening our understanding of the built environment.

Graphics for Architecture Kevin Forseth with David Vaughan A thorough understanding of design drawing enhances the designer's ability to reason out difficult graphic constructions and to select or create appropriate means for depicting buildings and environments. This fully illustrated guide presents the most effective methods for mechanically constructing architectural plans, elevations, sections, paralines, perspectives, and shadows. All methods are described in basic principles of perspective geometry. Throughout the volume many pictorial drawings illuminate the connection between step-by-step procedures for constructing design drawings and the abstract concepts underlying orthographic, oblique, and perspective projections. For formulating graphics work-book problems around paraline construction the guide includes a notation system for describing an unlimited range of paraline-oblique drawings. A shortcut method for casting shadows in plan and elevation is useful for modeling shadows in architectural site plans and for obtaining fast design results. In addition there are eight different step-by-step procedures for setting up and constructing one and two-point perspective. Common-method perspectives are presented in the context of a drafting-board surface, and perspectives without plan are discussed as interiors, exteriors, and sections. Combining carefully organized learning sequences with the quick reference qualities of a handbook, this volume is an excellent reference source for the architectural office or studio as well as an easy-to-follow manual for students.

*Winner of the 2021 TAA Textbook Excellence Award* Honorable Mention of the 2021 BTES Book Award Structures by Design: Thinking, Making, Breaking is a new type of structures textbook for architects who prefer to learn using the hands-on, creative problem-solving techniques typically found in a design studio. Instead of presenting structures as abstract concepts defined by formulas and diagrams, this book uses a project-based approach to demonstrate how a range of efficient, effective, and expressive architectural solutions can be generated, tested, and revised. Each section of the book is focused on a particular manner by which structural resistance is provided: Form (Arches and Cables), Sections (Beams, Slabs, and Columns), Vectors (Trusses and Space Frames), Surfaces (Shells and Plates), and Frames (Connections and High-Rises). The design exercises featured in each chapter use the Think, Make, Break method of reiterative design to develop and evaluate different structural options. A variety of structural design tools will be used, including the human body, physical models, historical precedents, static diagrams, traditional formulae, and advanced digital analysis. The book can be incorporated into various course curricula and studio exercises because of the flexibility of the format and range of expertise required for these explorations. More than 500 original illustrations and photos provide example solutions and inspiration for further design exploration.