The Diagrams of Architecture: AD Reader

About this book

Since the 1980s the diagram has become a preferred method for researching communicating theorising and making architectural designs ideas and projects. Thus the rise of the diagram as opposed to the model or the drawing is the one of the most significant new developments in the process of design in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Diagrams of Architecture is the first anthology to represent - through texts and diagrams - the histories theories and futures of architecture through the diagram. Spanning the Pre-historic to the Parametric Diagrams of Architecture illustrates over 250 diagrams and brings together 26 previously published and newly commissioned essays from leading international academics architects theorists and professional experts. These combine to define the past and future of the diagrams discourse. Prefaced with a critical introduction by Mark Garcia each text investigates a central concept or dimension of the diagram ranging from socio-cultural studies science philosophy technology CAD/CAM computing and cyberspace and virtual/digital design to methodology environment/sustainability and phenomenological poetic and art architecture; as well as interior urban engineering interactive and landscape design. The first critical multidisciplinary book on the history theory and futures of the architectural diagram. Includes seminal articles on the diagram from the history and theory of architecture such as those by Peter Eisenman Sanford Kwinter MVRDV Neil Spiller Lars Spuybroek UN Studio and Anthony Vidler. Features 16 newly commissioned articles by leading architects and theorists including Will Alsop Charles Jencks Hanif Kara Patrik Schumacher Bernard Tschumi Leon van Schaik and Alejandro Zaera-Polo. Includes a full-colour critical collection of over 250 of the most significant and original diagrams many of which are previously unpublished in the history of architecture from around the world.