Inspiration: Contemporary Design Methods in Architecture

Inspiration provides a comprehensive overview of new design methods and techniques that are emerging in the field of architecture. Many of these design methods make use of digital media and computer algorithms. Some already existed for a long time, but are reinvented in new ways, like design by folding paper materials. These new methodologies have changed the way architects and students design.

The book showcases hundreds of examples, models, sketches, and renderings of architectural designs within dozens of different methodologies, including:

Designing with basic elements (lines, circles, squares, planes, dots)Pattern development (texture, axes, grids, symmetry)Spacial patterns (structure, matrix, modules)Typography as a design tool (psychological phenomena, composition theory, color design)Nonspatial and spatial transformations (figure ground relations, additive spatial design, spatial effects)Basic spatial design, complex spatial design, and parametric design

Mark Mückenheim is founder and principal of FRAMA Architects BDA in Duesseldorf, Germany, and a visiting professor for architectural design at the Technical University Munich. He has lectured and acted as a guest critic at numerous institutions in Germany and abroad. Among other schools, he taught for more than six years at the distinguished RWTH Aachen before being appointed as a visiting professor at the TU Munich in 2009. Educated in Germany, the United States, and England, sponsored by a Fulbright scholarship and a DAAD grand, Mückenheim received his Master of Architecture from Parsons School of Design, New York, and his Graduate Diploma in Architecture at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London.

Juliane Demel is an assistant professor and research assistant at the Architecture department, chair for principles of architectural design at the Technical University Munich. Before her teaching engagement at the TUM, she worked at CAUPD in Beijing, where she conducted a research on Chinas sustainable development for the reconstruction of the earthquake effected area Beichuan under sustainable aspects. After studying in Germany and at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, she received her Diploma in Architecture and Urban Design from the University Braunschweig, Germany.