Jeffrey Balmer and Michael SwisherDiagramming the Big Idea: Methods for Architectural Composition

Routledge, 2012

by Kimberly Zarecor on May 9, 2013

View on Amazon

In their new book Diagramming the Big Idea (Routledge, 2012), Jeffrey Balmer and Michael Swisher offer some new insights into the eternal problem of how creativity works. As you will hear in our interview, they are beginning design instructors and colleagues at University of North Carolina in Charlotte where they teach architecture students how to communicate their ideas and concepts through diagramming. The material for this book developed out of their teaching and a realization that students and professionals needed more resources to nurture their design thinking skills and methods. Of interest to both architects and anyone who wants to know more about the design process, this book explains how and why diagrams work, provides examples of successful diagramming strategies, and offers step-by-step instructions on how to make your own diagrams in two and three dimensions. The interview offers many insights into this fascinating and understudied topic.

Interview with Jeffrey Balmer and Michael Swisher [ 1:07:03 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
submit to hubski

{ 0 comments }

Igor MarjanovićMarina City: Bertrand Goldberg’s Urban Vision

June 24, 2012

Anyone who has visited downtown Chicago will remember seeing the dazzling round towers of Bertrand Goldberg’s Marina City on the north bank of the river. Often photographed, always a curiosity, these iconic buildings have been featured in numerous magazines, postcards, album covers, and films, but until now have received surprisingly little scholarly attention. In their [...]

Interview with Igor Marjanović [ 1:00:59 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Read the full article →

John HarwoodThe Interface: IBM and the Transformation of Corporate Design, 1945-1976

June 24, 2012

In his new book, The Interface: IBM and the Transformation of Corporate Design, 1945-1976 (University of Minnesota Press, 2011), architectural historian John Harwood writes the first history of IBM’s corporate Design Program and, at the same time, totally rewrites our understanding of the modern corporation and its cultural and material practices. Originally conceived as a [...]

Interview with John Harwood [ 1:06:18 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Read the full article →

Kimberly ZarecorManufacturing a Socialist Modernity: Housing in Czechoslovakia, 1945-1960

May 31, 2012

[Cross-posted from New Books in History] When I first went to the Soviet Union (in all my ignorance), I was amazed that everyone in Moscow lived in what I called “housing projects.” The Russians called them “houses” (doma), but they weren’t houses as I understood them at all. They were huge, multi-story, cookie-cutter apartment blocks, one [...]

Interview with Kimberly Zarecor [ 1:02:22 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Read the full article →

Greg CastilloCold War on the Home Front: The Soft Power of Midcentury Design

March 9, 2011

[Crossposted from New Books in History] If you grew up in the 1960s or 1970s in suburbia, you probably lived in a smallish ranch house that looked like this. That house probably had an “ultra modern” kitchen that probably looked like this. I grew up in such a house and it had such a kitchen. [...]

Interview with Greg Castillo [ 1:06:29 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Read the full article →