What does built-in cabinetry have to do with architecture?.There is always a practical answer to the program of a room so that “one’s sense of well-being takes priority over any theoretical concerns.” One way to investigate this is to learn how to design furniture and built-in cabinetwork to enhance the program. For many students, this exercise is eye opening, especially in the early years of their architecture studies.
Category Archives: Architectural Education
Why Model Sketching? Part 2
Why Model Sketching? Part 2. As a student attending Cooper Union, I vividly remember the first time I saw one of my peers “sketch” in model form. While I was well versed in sketching through drawing, and was particularly fond of diagraming concepts to develop ideas, I was surprised by this new method of allowing ideas to emerge like in a sketch, but within a three-dimensional context. There was something seamless between idea and representation, between thinking, seeing, and how the hand dances while crafting the model. I was hooked and wanted to explore this new process.
Architectural Education: about conceptual diagraming
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.
Continue reading Architectural Education: about conceptual diagramingWhat does the choice of furniture have to do with architecture?

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.
Continue reading What does the choice of furniture have to do with architecture?Peter Zumthor, the lemniscate, Part 2
Peter Zumthor, the lemniscate, Part 2. While one finds many free-standing architectural masterpieces that utilize a single geometrical shape, few buildings have had an impact on me more than Peter Zumthor’s (1943-) Caplutta Sogn Benedetg near Sumvtig, Switzerland (1985-1988). The chapel, its siting and usage of materials, and the all-encompassing interior space are pure poetry.
Continue reading Peter Zumthor, the lemniscate, Part 2Peter Zumthor, the chapel at Sumvtig, Part 1
Peter Zumthor, the chapel at Sumvtig, Part 1. Whether you are a student or an architect, you will remember visiting a famous architectural work for the first time. Confronting one’s ‘academic’ knowledge with an in-situ (often through sketching) experience often results in moments of epiphany followed by long lasting memories. Architecture has a tremendous physical power in orchestrating the five senses, eliciting different emotions, and often leaving us speechless in front of the grandeur of a masterpiece.
Continue reading Peter Zumthor, the chapel at Sumvtig, Part 1Herzog et de Meuron Tavole House

Herzog et de Meuron Tavole House. Within the plethora of contemporary domestic houses, I continually return to study the Tavole House (Stone House) designed by Swiss architects and 2001 Pritzker Prize Laureates Jacques Herzog (1950-) and Pierre de Meuron (1950-)—the first Pritzker Prize given simultaneously to two architects.
Continue reading Herzog et de Meuron Tavole HouseCultural appreciation versus appropriation —borrowing, copying, and being influenced

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.
Continue reading Cultural appreciation versus appropriation —borrowing, copying, and being influencedQuestion of section, Part 1

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:
Continue reading Question of section, Part 1The nature of being: Shaker architecture

The nature of being: Shaker architecture. Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill is located near Harrodsburg, Kentucky, and remains on a list of my fondest places in America. Prior to moving from New York City to Kentucky, I remember a phone interview with the architecture dean at that time.
Continue reading The nature of being: Shaker architecture