101 Things I Learned in Architecture School was obviously written by someone who not only went through "the program" but also managed to pay attention to their own students to realize just what wasn't easily getting across.
The small pocket book (which fits perfect in the inner breast pocket of a decent coat or jacket) begins with an author's forward which could have simply read "There are no certainties in architecture except that you won't get it all right, all the time and every rule has enough exceptions to be really annoying".
Each of the 101 points (or lessons) is coupled with a sketch illustrating or commenting on the idea in question. It simplifies the confusing, makes sure of the questionable and seems to offer a rather simple way to explain to others why you spent 6 years of your life learning how to do something you cannot explain simply. I plan to test this book on the MarJ if she amuse me, and see if it clears anything up.
Some of the lessons are specific to school (#42: Those tedious first-year studio exercises in "spots and dots" and "lumps and bumps" really do have something to do with architecture) while others can also relate to the practice (#58: The proportions of a building are an aesthetic statement of how it was built) and some I already want to spray paint on certain new buildings located by the office in which I work (#62, #91).
Where the book excels is in its simplicity. It takes all of 10 minutes to thoroughly read/peruse (more if you are sitting in an architecture office laughing about school and buildings in general), it is completely accessible (we will test that later), it is cheap, compact and relevant from first year of design studio to post post graduation.
AIA Cleveland should be buying this thing in bulk to send to its members and it should be required reading for any first year architecture student. It was a great deal at $10 and I look forward to being able to have enough memorized to immediately see a project or presentation and give it the proper lesson code number to reference later.
The small pocket book (which fits perfect in the inner breast pocket of a decent coat or jacket) begins with an author's forward which could have simply read "There are no certainties in architecture except that you won't get it all right, all the time and every rule has enough exceptions to be really annoying".
Each of the 101 points (or lessons) is coupled with a sketch illustrating or commenting on the idea in question. It simplifies the confusing, makes sure of the questionable and seems to offer a rather simple way to explain to others why you spent 6 years of your life learning how to do something you cannot explain simply. I plan to test this book on the MarJ if she amuse me, and see if it clears anything up.
Some of the lessons are specific to school (#42: Those tedious first-year studio exercises in "spots and dots" and "lumps and bumps" really do have something to do with architecture) while others can also relate to the practice (#58: The proportions of a building are an aesthetic statement of how it was built) and some I already want to spray paint on certain new buildings located by the office in which I work (#62, #91).
Where the book excels is in its simplicity. It takes all of 10 minutes to thoroughly read/peruse (more if you are sitting in an architecture office laughing about school and buildings in general), it is completely accessible (we will test that later), it is cheap, compact and relevant from first year of design studio to post post graduation.
AIA Cleveland should be buying this thing in bulk to send to its members and it should be required reading for any first year architecture student. It was a great deal at $10 and I look forward to being able to have enough memorized to immediately see a project or presentation and give it the proper lesson code number to reference later.
No comments:
Post a Comment