San Antonio College Library

This introductory presentation describes and analyzes the theories, strategies, and tools of creative design for the purposes of practical work.

"Open Building is an internationally recognized approach to the design of buildings and building complexes with roots in the way the ordinary built environment grows and regenerates. The Open Building approach recognizes that both stability and change are realities in the contemporary built environment. Buildings - and the neighborhoods they occupy - are not static during the most stable times or during times of rapid social and technical change....

"Through hundreds of images and numerous contemporary case studies, the book shows that where structure is thoroughly integrated into the making of architecture, it adds layers of richness to a design and enhances the realization of architectural design concepts. New insights into the role of structure arise by focusing upon the intersection where the technical and the aesthetic meet to create the discipline of 'architecture'."--Jacket.

What is style in architecture? "Style is like a feather in a woman's hat, nothing more," said Le Corbusier, expressing most modern architects' low regard for the subject. But Witold Rybczynski disagrees, and in The Look of Architecture, he makes a compelling case for the importance of style to the mother of the arts. This is a book brimming with sharp observations--that form does not follow function; that the best architecture is not timeless but...

Helps beginning designers think sculpturally by examining the elements of three-dimensional design and the use of simple planes and lines in geometric construction.