Exercises in Architecture: Learning to Think as an Architect

by Simon Unwin

Architecture is a doing word. You can learn a great deal about the workings of architecture through analysing examples but a fuller understanding of its powers and potential comes through practice, by trying to do it... This book offers student architects a series of exercises that will develop their capacity for doing architecture. Exercises in Architecture builds on and supplements the methodology for architectural analysis presented in the author’s previous book Analysing Architecture (third edition, Routledge, 2009) and demonstrated in his Twenty Buildings Every Architect Should Understand (Routledge, 2010). The three books taken together deal with the three aspects of description, analysis of examples, and practice. The book offers twelve exercises, each divided into a short series of tasks aimed at developing a particular theme or area of architectural capacity. The exercises deal with themes such as place-making, learning through drawing, framing, light, , uses of geometry, stage setting, eliciting emotional responses, the genetics of detail and so forth.

Genres: Architecture

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Simon Unwin is a freelance writer and lecturer based in Cardiff, UK. He is a registered architect but concentrates on writing about architecture and teaching architectural analysis and design. His publications include six books: Analysing Architecture (Routledge, London, 1997, 2003, 2009 and 2014); An Architecture Notebook: Wall (Routledge, 2000); Doorway (Routledge, 2007); Twenty-Five Buildings Every Architect Should Understand (Routledge, 2010 and 2015); Exercises in Architecture (Routledge, 2012); and The Ten Most Influential Buildings in History: Architecture's Archetypes (Routledge, 2016). These books are used in schools of architecture around the world. Analysing Architecture has been translated into Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Arabic. Recently, Unwin has instigated a series of Analysing Architecture Notebooks, which currently include Metaphor (Routledge, 2019), Children as Place-Makers (Routledge, 2019), Curve (Routledge, 2019) and Shadow (Routledge, 2020).

Simon Unwin is Emeritus Professor of Architecture at the University of Dundee, Scotland, where he was Professor from 2004 to 2009. Previously he was Senior Lecturer at the Welsh School of Architecture in Cardiff University, Wales. He has lived in Australia as well as the UK and taught or lectured in Israel, the USA, China, Malaysia, India, Sweden, Turkey and at other schools of architecture in the UK and Europe.

Contact: info@simonunwin.com

Reviews

[Mihaela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great both as an introduction to the profesion and a summary of the fundamentals for both students and profesionals.
I wish I had read it earlier when I had the time to explore more as I wasn't that overhelmed with responsobillities yet, and only was thinking about architecture as my future. Would be great to implement the exercises in a whole summer school for architecture students or something like that.

[mahatmanto · Rating 3 out of 5]

ini buku untuk mahasiswa.
prinsip-prinsip dasar pemaknaan ruang dan elemen-elemen pembentuknya.
bagi saya, lebih asyik buku dia sebelumnya Analysing Architecture karena itu momen ketika saya perlu belajar cara bagaimana [metoda] menilai karya arsitektur.