Introduction to Architectural Design was written for courses introducing students to architectural design. The author and other contributors present the material described for application in your future studio design projects.
The publication is not meant to be a glossary, dictionary, or encyclopedia. It was written and designed to evoke curiosity about a field and an art form that has had many strains of thought over the centuries and created many different outcomes. This book uses examples from a variety of historical periods and geographic areas to underscore fundamental concepts shared by most architecture.
Architecture, first and foremost, is a medium that needs to be experienced: not just through a screen or in the pages of a book-but in real life and in three dimensions. Because of this, interactive links in the text that are placed take the reader to a destination, video, or webpage that helps further explain the a subject or a concept. It is the intention of the author that students experience curiosity and get lost during their exploration of the resources.
Robert Alexander is an assistant professor of architecture in Cal Poly Pomona’s College of Environmental Design. He is also a principal of the environmental design collaborative bobCAT.,which he founded along with his wife and partner Catherine Burce in 2007, to explore the intersections between landscape and buildings through research and practice.
Currently Professor Alexander is one of the coordinator’s of the Department of Architecture's First Year Design Studio and has taught at Cal Poly Pomona since 2007. He is the past recipient of the 2013 Rotch Traveling Scholarship as well as the 2008 Cavin Traveling Fellowship with which he studied architecture and urbanism in Latin America. In 2011, Alexander was appointed as the Interim Director of the Neutra VDL Research House in Los Angeles where he served a one year term organizing public events, leading tours and overseeing the student docent program.
His design work has received awards in the The Shinkenchiku Residential Design Competition and the AIA-Atlanta's Young Architect's Forum Urban Design Competition and has been exhibited in Silves, Portugal, as a part of 2005’s "Casa Granturismo" residential housing exhibition. In addition to this his work has been featured in a variety of publications including Japan Architect, the Boston Globe, Evolo Magazine, and the Journal of Architecture Education.
Professor Alexander received his Masters degree in Architecture from Harvard Graduate School of Design and his Bachelor of Architecture from Cal Poly Pomona where he was awarded the Department of Architecture's Dean's Medal for outstanding graduating design students. Before joining Cal Poly Pomona, Alexander worked in the offices of Rafael Vinoly Architects, Daly Genik Architects, and for the firm Behnisch Architekten where he worked on a number of civic, institutional, and residential projects.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
CHAPTER 1: Design, Order, and Composition
CHAPTER 2: Making Space
CHAPTER 3: The Character of Spaces, Moving Between Them, and the Drawings That Describe Them
CHAPTER 4: Scale
CHAPTER 5: Organization and Arrangement—Part 1
CHAPTER 6: Organization and Arrangement—Part 2
CHAPTER 7: Context—Part 1
CHAPTER 8: CONTEXT—PART 2
CHAPTER 9: REPRESENTING IDEAS—METHODS AND MEANING