ABSTRACT

Most architectural books written by practising architects fall into two categories: theoretical texts, or monographs that describe and illustrate the author's projects. This book combines both, as it explores and illustrates the methodological journey required to translate a concept to a drawing and a drawing to a building. While the term 'methodological' might imply an Aristotelian logic, there is no attempt here to rationalise the process of conception, but instead an acknowledgement of an experimental approach that presupposes a subtle knowledge of the projects. It shows the architect's fascination with the 'opaque' and the 'not said' and illustrates how architecture works through agreement and contradiction (e.g. the built and the un-built, material and immaterial). Organised into three essays Urban Collage, Ground Surface, Shadows and Lines, the book examines how conceptual threads begin to compose a specific architectural design 'language' and how they interweave from one direction to another. Importantly, the projects that illustrate the text also demonstrate how imperative or marginal the original ideas become and, to an extent they demonstrate the design process: its successes, illogicality and failures. The essays also discuss the importance of iteration through time where ideas may occasionally be developed as a linear process, but more often emerge through a series of creative digressions. Although the essays and the projects have dominant themes, these should not be regarded as autonomous, as throughout the development of both drawings and buildings, ideas inevitably segue from one domain to another. Ideas have both fluidity and the ability to transform.

part |18 pages

Urban Collage

chapter 1|16 pages

Peckham House

chapter 2|4 pages

TKTS

chapter 3|8 pages

Palos Verdes Art Center, California

part |38 pages

Ground Surface

chapter 4|12 pages

Gifu Reconstruction Project

chapter 5|4 pages

Pfaffenberg Museum, Austria

chapter 6|8 pages

Aalborg Aquatic Centre

chapter 7|8 pages

Pangyo Housing, Korea

chapter 8|4 pages

Shanghai Redevelopment Plan

chapter 9|6 pages

Osaka Station, North Osaka

chapter 10|10 pages

Hakka Cultural Centre, Heyung City

chapter 11|2 pages

Hamburg Docks Redevelopment

chapter 12|2 pages

Rome Congress Centre

chapter 13|2 pages

EMVS Housing, Madrid

chapter 14|6 pages

Mocape Cultural Centre, Shenzhen

part |22 pages

Shadows and Lines

chapter 15|4 pages

The Kantine, Frankfurt

chapter 16|8 pages

Berlin Social Housing

chapter 17|4 pages

Osaka Pavilion

chapter 18|2 pages

Hamburg Offices

chapter 19|2 pages

Yatai

chapter 20|2 pages

The Blue House

chapter 21|2 pages

Meshed Ground

chapter 22|10 pages

Whitehaven

chapter 23|4 pages

Porchester Baths

chapter 24|14 pages

The Shadow House