Design Through Making

Most architects who build do not make buildings; they make information that makes buildings. Making buildings requires acquiring knowledge not only of the world of information exchange, but also of the world of making things. It is an expertise that goes beyond the architectural drawing and an expertise that many designers cannot claim to fully possess or practice.

Design through Making is not only directed at architects, but engineers, educators, fabricators, machine operators, and anyone with an interest in the manifestation of ideas. It seeks to challenge outmoded notions that building production is preceded by design, and making is merely the cooking of the raw, or the end game where no further design ideas are explored. Here, a hybrid mode is recognised where the investigation of ideas is fully engaged with the tactile, physical nature of architecture and building processes. It is an issue that celebrates the re-emergence of making, not merely as an immense resource for ideas, experimentation and customisation, but as a critical resource that will redefine architectural practices.

This title includes the work of Block Architecture, Mark Burry, Thomas Heatherwick Studios and Walter Pichler; there is also a special feature on Japanese traditions in architecture. Contributors include: Iain Borden, Sarah Chaplin, David Dunster, Jonathan Hill and Mark Prizeman.

Bob Sheil is a lecturer, researcher and practising architect based in London, UK. He runs diploma unit 23 at The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, where he also teaches material-forming techniques and is Director of web information systems. He has been a guest lecturer at Edinburgh University Faculty of Architecture, University of Cambridge School of Architecture, Slade School of Art and Tulane University, New Orleans, USA. He is also a founding partner in sixteen*(makers), a workshop-based architectural practice.