Transformation: Basic Principles and Methodology of Design

Bar, surface, body, and space are the fundamental elements of the design process. Every form, however complex, may be understood as a variation of them. And underlying every concrete design is a design methodology that can be analyzed, taught, and learned as a transformation of these four categories.

In this sense, Transformation represents a foundational work for architects, designers, and lay people with an interest in cultural history: the unrivaled grammar of design. With a systematic aim and progressively increasing complexity, it unfolds the creative potential of these categories with succinct texts, uniform drawings, and a broad array of examples from architecture, design, and art.

But Transformation also occupies an exceptional position as a physical book: the layout makes it especially easy to compare and combine different design steps, and the separate binding of individual groups of pages makes doing so even easier. The result is a kind of construction set that invites the reader to play as well as research. By generating new “links”, he or she is able to use a limited set of fundamental elements to discover an unlimited and ever-changing array of new design possibilities.

Roland Knauer is a professor at the Hochschule für Gestaltung (University of Design) in Schwäbisch Gmünd and successful author of the standard work Entwerfen und Darstellen: Die Zeichnung als Mittel des architektonischen Entwurfs (Design and Depiction: The Drawing as a Tool of Architectural Design, Ernst & Sohn), now in its second edition. Transformation represents a summation of his teaching and research in the field of design.