The Language of Architecture: 26 Principles Every Architect Should Know - Softcover

Simitch, Andrea; Warke, Val

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1592538584 ISBN 13: 9781592538584

Publisher: Rockport Publishers, 2014

Synopsis

In order to master the foundation of architecture, you must first master the basic building blocks of its language; the definitions, function, and usage. The Language of Architecture provides students and professional architects with the basic elements of architectural design, divided into twenty-six easy-to-comprehend chapters. This visual reference includes an introduction to architecture design, historical view of the elements, as well as an overview of how these elements can and have been used across multiple design disciplines. Whether you're new to the field or have been an architect for years, you'll want to flip through the pages of this book and use it as your go-to reference for inspiration and ideas. This comprehensive learning tool is the one book you'll want as a staple in your library.

About this title

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Environmental Context

One of the most important and pressing aspects of the design of a structure is its environmental context, a context that can either affect the building positively (as provide warmth or shade) or extremely negatively (as in erosion or collapse). Most characteristic of this context is that it is continuously transforming, either in predictable or unanticipated ways. And the building in turn has a responsibility toward that context: perhaps at worst it will coexist, but at best it will enhance it.

Extreme Variability

Architecture has a responsibility to anticipate that the environment in which it is situated will change, and often in quite unpredictable ways. Extreme weather—floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, and avalanches—introduce design parameters that situate a work in a specific environmental context. A building erected in a flood plain might be raised on stilts while one in a frequent avalanche zone might be wedge shaped and embedded into the mountainside.

Weather

Rates of environmental change can be more predictable, from a twenty-four-hour cycle to seasonal variations. A building’s anticipation of the behaviors of basic yet constantly changing environmental elements of sun, rain, and wind cannot only be traced in the placement and dimension of apertures, the slopes of roofs, and the materials used, but in the more fundamental placement of a building within its actual physical site.

About the Author:

Val Warke is an associate professor at Cornell University's Department of Architecture, where he has been a department chair, a director of graduate studies, and the coordinator of the first year B.Arch. program. In addition to architecture, he is also a member of the graduate field of Fabric Science and Apparel Design at Cornell. Previously, he was an assistant professor at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. He has authored numerous essays on architectural design, criticism, and theory, which have appeared in journals such as Assemblage, A+U, Cornell Journal of Architecture, and Harvard Design Magazine, as well as in many monographs; and he has collaborated with Thom Mayne in writing the book Morphosis. Recently, his research has focused on genre theory, including issues of fashion, formalism, populism, reception, and various associations to literary theory and ctiticism, especially as related to the work of Mikhail Bakhtin. As a partner in Simitch + Warke, he has collaborated on the design of numerous projects and competitions from the scale of the house to that of the city. He received his B.Arch. from Cornell University and his M.Arch. from Harvard University.

Andrea Simitch is an educator and an architect. She is the Director of the Bachelor of Architecture Program in the Department of Architecture at Cornell University, and an associate professor with tenure. She has also served as Associate Dean of Cornell's College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, and as Director of Undergraduate Studies. She studied architecture at the Ecole Special d'Architecture in Paris and received her B.Arch. degree from Cornell University in 1979. She began her teaching career at Cornell in 1983 and was the first female architect to be granted tenure in the Department of Architecture there. She teaches courses in architectural design as well as architectural representation and furniture design, with works by her students having been exhibited at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York. She has taught extensively for Cornell in numerous international venuees that include Europe, Central America, and South America. She has been a panelist on the New York State Council on the Arts and a visiting professor at numerous universities including the University of Toronto, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Tunghai University, and The University of Minnesota. She is also a principal of Simith + Warke Architects, a collaborative practice with work that includes residential, commercial, and speculative projects. Her collages have been included in Joao Alvaro Rocha's monograph Architectures, and she has contributed several essays to the Cornell Journal of Architecture, most recently "Re-Collage" in number 8.

About this edition

• Publisher: Rockport Publishers
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1592538584
• ISBN 13: 9781592538584
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224