What do courses on architectural theory do for students beyond prepare them to philosophically bemuse themselves, maybe just space out, in a charmingly escapist manner during un- or under-employment? Cynical? A bit, but I’m posing the question also fuelled with genuine curiosity. Behind that question lurks a far more sweeping query: what constitutes actionable architectural knowledge? And how can future architects learn how to create a profitable practice using such knowledge?

 

The literature comprising architectural theory continues to blossom at a rate far exceeding architectural job opportunities because theories, unlike opportunities, propagate with the speed of computer viruses. And ideas, those building blocks constructing theories, grow likewise. My blue-collar Old Man’s credo was terse about such matters: “Ideas are cheap” was his retort when his usual mantra of “Talk is cheap” seemed too light a touch. So the recent publication of The Designer’s Guide to Doing Research: Applying Knowledge to Inform Design (Wiley, 2012) didn’t initially set my pulse racing. Written by Dr. Sally Augustin, an environmental psychologist, and Cindy Coleman, a design strategist with Gensler, I anticipated some irrelevant academic tract detached from architecture’s real-world economic woes, and the occupation’s current and prolix identity crisis. Research? How can small to mid-size firms even entertain the idea of research when the daily reality involves how to pay the bills?

 

But Augustin and Coleman are savvy in all matters, except for goofing on the dull title of their lively tome. How can you not love authors standing behind so pedestrian an academic book title that opens with:

 

Research alone is not all that important ... does not acquire real power until it is integrated with conscious and unconscious knowledge. Knowledge combines professional experience, abstract knowledge, common sense, and inspiration. Knowledge becomes intensely valuable when it can lead to an insight that inspires the resolution of an unanswered question.

 

So research, whether programmed within an architecture school or activated within an established professional practice, acts as a grand solidifier of an ever-evolving knowledge foundation. Note how simply and succinctly they present architectural knowledge as a four-layer cake composed of know-how derived from actual experience on the job, abstract (theory-laced) knowledge, good sense, and epiphany. So a deep and wide working knowledge of architectural theory matters – as long as theory is well integrated simultaneously with the three other layers of design knowledge, all layers of knowledge coming into active and focused play as project-specific questions arise in daily practice.

 

Given this model of architectural research and knowledge, the authors do an invigorating job of offering illustrative real-world cases when forceful and ingeniously conceptualized research was completely essential to a complex project’s success. The book offers a tremendous assortment of research tools, ranging from finely-tuned versions of familiar client survey preference forms to plans for innovative on-site charrettes and keenly focused post-occupancy evaluations. This book transfigures totally the notion of architectural research as a mildly cogent add-on to daily practice, illuminating it to be crucial to creative design. Augustin and Coleman reinstate a cogent idea of the philosopher Alfred North Whitehead who wrote long ago: “Education is the acquisition of the art of the utilization of knowledge.” This is a bravura and long-overdue publication about architectural research as an art you can’t afford to bypass.

 

At first glance, Richard Weston’s 100 Ideas That Changed Architecture (Laurence King Publishers, 2011) looks like one of a dozen introductions to architecture for common folk, unique simply because it tackles its titanic subject through key transformative ideas rather than through the usual timeline-bound parade of key architects and their designs. But Weston’s book is far more intellectually substantial, as well as entertaining, than that. His introduction tosses out a provocative curve ball:

 

It will be readily apparent from the index that this is not a contribution to the burgeoning genre of architectural theory. Surprisingly few of the ideas are philosophical or theoretical in character; indeed, some readers may wonder whether some of them – like Fireplace with which the book begins, and Wall and Brick which quickly follow – are ideas at all ... It takes only a few moments’ reflection to realize that many of the most potent ideas that have changed architecture are of this seemingly prosaic character.

 

By offering 100 foundational architectural ideas – stepping back from how ideas work in complicated theoretical frameworks – Weston opens 100 doors into tackling the various forms of research Augustin and Coleman propose as essential for imaginative design. Between projects and looking for an exercise to keep your designing mind nimble? Open Weston’s book at random, and you’re connected to a powerful idea worth researching in-depth. And any of his key ideas possess hefty real world consequences.

 

This is a catalogue of actionable architectural ideas on a continuum from the abstract (“Postmodernism”) to the most concrete (“Window”). Surrounding his terse yet never oversimplified commentaries analyzing these key ideas are stunning graphics illustrating how these ideas have been materialized. Every idea in Weston’s large-format text enticingly invites design research on multiple levels, with images of iconic projects reminding us of the magical process of what ensues when potent ideas are put into high-velocity transit and translated through construction into brilliantly designed, materialized miracles enriching our days.

 

Norman Weinstein writes about architecture and design for Architectural Record, and is the author of “Words That Build” – an exclusive 21-part series published by ArchNewsNow.com – that focuses on the overlooked foundations of architecture: oral and written communication. He consults with architects and engineers interested in communicating more profitably; his webinars are available from ExecSense. He can be reached at nweinstein@q.com.

 

More by Weinstein:

 

A Meditation on the Beauty of Zaha Hadid's Door Handle

Hadid's design issues a challenge: define beauty by lyrically playing with illusion.

 

Why "Greatest Hits" Lists by Architecture's Stars Should Be Mocked 
Transferring the musical or cinematic "greatest hits" list mind-set to architecture is deleterious, and here's why.

 

Celebratory Meditations on SANAA Winning the Pritzker Prize

 

Op-Ed: Life After Ada: Reassessing the Utility of Architectural Criticism 
Ada Louise Huxtable deserves mucho thanks and praise - but other questions moving us to a new flavor of criticism have to be asked.

 

Book Review: How to be a Useful Architectural Critic: Alexandra Lange's Perspicacious Primer Points the Way
"Writing about Architecture: Mastering the Language of Buildings and Cities" - use it often and you'll never think of the word "critic" pejoratively again.

 

Michael Sorkin: Architectural Critic as Scam Scanner and Urban(e) Design Sage
Sorkin's "All Over the Map," a sprawling miscellany of recent essays on buildings and cities, a triumph of enlightened nay-saying and affirmation.

 

Best Architecture Books of 2011
10 Books Sparking Creative Inspiration Plus Escapist Fare for Financially Fickle Times

 

Book Review: Pencils that Refuse to Die: Meditations about New Books on Architectural Drawing 
Three recent books dealing with architectural drawing by pencil you need to read: "Eleven Exercises in the Art of Architectural Drawing: Slow Food for the Architect's Imagination" by Marco Frascari; "The Architect's Sketchbook" by Will Jones; and "Robbie Cornelissen: The Capacious Memory" by Lex ter Braak and Edwin Jacobs

 

Book Review: "One Million Acres & No Zoning": Lars Lerup's Outrageous Encomium to Houston Instructs and Infuriates 
This isn't some dryly academic reconfiguration of trendy urban planning theory. I recommend it for the intrepid.

 

Book Review: Talkin' 'Bout (Not) My Generation: Uplifting Gen X Architects Showcase Pragmatic Optimism 
In "New York Dozen: Gen X Architects" by architect Michael J. Crosbie, the framing of each architectural firm is extraordinary.

 

"Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum": Bravura Example of an Architectural Documentary - Wright's Guggenheim Done Right 
A look at great architecture as the product of the dance of the designer's intellect in an architectural film that doesn't miss a beat.

 

Book Review: A Shout Out for Leers Weinzapfel Associates: "Made to Measure" - Some Meditations on Rejuvenating Campus Architecture

 

Book Review: Diving into Architecture from Every New Angle: Reading Guillevic's "Geometries" 
Why an obscure book of French poetry in a flashy translation goes to the heart of every architectural practice.

 

Book Review: "Immaterial World: Transparency in Architecture": Marc Kristal crystallizes increasingly complex notions of transparency with a light touch. 
Although most of the 25 projects discussed are well-known, they take on additional meaning in this sensitively curated selection. 

 

Book Review: "Visual Planning and the Picuresque" by Nikolaus Pevsner. Edited by Mathew Aitchison 
A rediscovered manuscript unveils a portrait of the famed architectural historian as neglected urban designer. His commitment to the picturesque aesthetic for buildings and towns is as urgently needed as ever.

 

Book Review: How New Urbanism's Case Triumphs Best Through "The Language of Towns & Cities: A Visual Dictionary" by Dhiru A. Thadani 
Thadani's oversized reference charms, infuriates, and enlightens.

 

Best Architecture Books of 2010 
Ten books pointing the way to larger professional horizons

 

Book Review: "Architecture and Beauty: Conversations with Architects about a Troubled Relationship": Yael Reisner exuberantly interviews architects about beauty 
Any of you architects seen Mr. Keats Lately?

 

Book Review: Shedding Light on Concrete: Tadao Ando: Complete Works 1975-2010 by Philip Jodidio 
Photographic presentation of a poet of light and concrete triumphs over lackluster commentary.

 

Book Review: Sage Architectural Reflections from Architecture's "Athena": Denise Scott Brown's "Having Words" distills a lifetime of theorizing and practice into practical and succinct guidance for thriving through difficult times 
Brown's occasional papers trace a trenchant trajectory of learning from Las Vegas to learning from everything.

 

Book Review: Keeping the Architectural Profession Professional: "Architecture from the Outside In: Selected Essays by Robert Gutman" celebrates Gutman's legacy as invaluable outsider
Selected essays by a penetrating sociologist of architecture pose the kinds of tough-minded questions needed now to keep architectural professional on-track.

 

Book Review: "Design through Dialogue: A Guide for Clients and Architects," by Karen A. Franck and Teresa von Sommaruga Howard 
A helpful communications primer offers case studies of winning collaborations between clients and architects, but as useful as this book proves, it leaves some uncomfortable questions about communication unaddressed.

 

Twilight Visions: Vintage Surrealist Photography Sheds New Light on Architecture 
An exhibition and book of photographs of Paris between the wars might just be the necessary correctives to the virtual sterility of digital imagery

 

Best Architecture Books of 2009 
10 crucial volumes from the classic to the iconoclastic

 

Book Review: "Gunnar Birkerts: Metaphoric Modernist" by Sven Birkerts and Martin Schwartz

A major architect in the history of Modernism finally receives recognition – and sundry asides about why Modernism never exited.

 

Book Review: "Urban Design for an Urban Century: Placemaking for People," by Lance Jay Brown, David Dixon, and Oliver Gillham 
To the credit of the erudite authors, their sketch of urban design brings levels of political, sociological, and architectural analysis together in a readable synthesis.

 

Book Review: "Everything Must Move: 15 Years at Rice School of Architecture 1994-2009" 
There’s a Texas flood of architectural ideas that gives ample evidence of an architecture school that unsettles pat assumptions. Who could ask for anything more?

 

Book Review: A Subversive Book Every Architect Needs: "Architect's Essentials of Negotiation" by Ava J. Abramowitz 
Supposedly architects don't need negotiating skills along with other communication skills because great design "sells itself." How lovely that an AIA legal counsel created this definitive book to shatter that thin myth.

 

Book Review: A Perspective from One Elevation: "Conversations With Frank Gehry" by Barbara Isenberg

Gehry's conversations offer portraits of an astute listener as well as talker, an architect as aware of his flaws and limitations as of his virtues.

 

Best Architecture Books of 2008 
10 tomes from the superior to the indispensable

 

Book Review: You've Got to Draw the Line Somewhere

A review of Drafting Culture: a Social History of Architectural Graphic Standards by George Barnett Johnston

 

Book Review: "NeoHooDoo: Art for a Forgotten Faith," edited by Franklin Sirmans

Sharpen your pencils - and get ready to do a NeoHooDoo shimmy.