How to think spatially. I remember as a first-year student during my studies at the Ecole Polytechnique Féderale de Lausanne (EPFL), having a number of questions that kept me awake countless nights, leaving me often without tangible answers.

John Hejduk and Cooper Union. Ask any architect, faculty member, student, or layperson to define architecture, and you will get countless individual responses. I am always astonished by the diversity of the answers, in particular with laypeople who have strong impressions often based on personal memories and stories about family members who are architects. However diverse all these conversations are, I have come to appreciate each of the answers. Collectively, they renew my love of architecture.

Model Sketching, Part 1. In a digital world, sketching as a process of iteration is too often relegated to the past. Coordinating the mind, hand and pencil was once an activity essential to the education of an architect and remained important in order to represent ideas rapidly and concisely. I teach in an architecture school where we still impart these skills because we collectively believe in the act of sketching as a foundation prior to introducing students to the many 3D Modeling Software programs.

Kahn’s poetry between wall and column. As a young architecture student, I remember being awestruck the first time a faculty member introduced me to Kahn’s question: “You say to a brick, ‘What do you want, brick?’ And brick says to you, ‘I like an arch.’ And you say to brick, ‘Look, I want one, too, but arches are expensive and I can use a concrete lintel.’ And then you say: ‘What do you think of that, brick?’ Brick says: ‘I like an arch.’”

The Dieter Kienast project. I believe that a sound site strategy is responsible for ninety percent of the success of any architectural project. Of course, beyond the initial principle of settlement, keeping an eye on how the project unfolds through multiple design phases —urban, architectural and human scales— and making constant adjustments to the site strategy is an important barometer of the health of the project.

I am often reminded of the experience of eating, and choosing the day’s specials, at restaurants around the world (Michelin starred or not). The inventiveness, the perfectly cooked subtle and innovative flavors, and the beautifully presented dishes are part of showing off the chef’s skill.

About sketching -an iterative process, Part 2. I believe that for any design process to be successful, there is a need for iterative sketching to accompany the production and testing of architectural ideas. To be able to compare and contrast between sketches is critical and allows decisions to be measured on the strength and legitimacy of one’s conceptual ideas.

Design versus project. There is much to say about how curricula are developed and their importance in defining the content of any rigorous academic program; in our case an architectural education. Traditionally, classes within the discipline of architecture are taught according to required and elective professional courses, while additional opportunities provide students with a personalized liberal-arts education.

Thoughts on architectural education, Part 1. While studying architecture in Switzerland, I remember struggling with the many competing and conflicting voices regarding what architecture meant, and most importantly, what my future role as an architect might hold.

Study sketch to drafted sketch. Sketching might be for some a natural gift, but for most of us it is about the patient—and often painful—practice of setting one’s pencil on a white sheet of paper and letting ideas leave their mark.