Architectural Education: about conceptual diagraming. I cannot count the number times I’ve listened to colleagues and former professors of mine promote the idea that learning about architecture begins by confronting Architecture (yes, with a capital A) with one’s prejudices about what constitutes a building.  While I often question this pedagogical approach, especially as a way to initiate students to architecture—possibly denying their “suburban” autobiography—I favor that any learning about architecture (yes, with a lower-case a) should be, first and foremost, about finding a strong ethic, method of self-reflection, and empathy toward creating an art form based on space making.

What does the choice of furniture have to do with architecture? In recent years, I have proposed a loft renovation project for my second-year architecture studio students, with an emphasis on interior design principles that extend to the selection of furniture and the detailing of cabinetwork.

Cultural appreciation versus appropriation —borrowing, copying, and being influenced. I believe that there is no architecture without a careful understanding of precedent. Being Swiss, I was early-on made aware that one of the country’s strengths was that the concept of originality lays in the practice of reinventing rather than inventing new ideas.

Question of section, Part 1. Swiss born architect Le Corbusier (1887-1965) wrote in his book Vers Une Architecture (Towards A New Architecture, 1929) in the chapter titled Three reminders to architects [mass, surface, and plan], that: