Product Description

2008 Silver Award Winner, Architecture Category, Independent Publisher Book Awards. and Winning entry, General Trade Illustrated Category, in the 2008 New England Book Show sponsored by Bookbuilders of Boston.

This is a book that students of architecture will want to keep in the studio and in their backpacks. It is also a book they may want to keep out of view of their professors, for it expresses in clear and simple language things that tend to be murky and abstruse in the classroom. These 101 concise lessons in design, drawing, the creative process, and presentation--from the basics of "How to Draw a Line" to the complexities of color theory--provide a much-needed primer in architectural literacy, making concrete what too often is left nebulous or open-ended in the architecture curriculum. Each lesson utilizes a two-page format, with a brief explanation and an illustration that can range from diagrammatic to whimsical. The lesson on "How to Draw a Line" is illustrated by examples of good and bad lines; a lesson on the dangers of awkward floor level changes shows the television actor Dick Van Dyke in the midst of a pratfall; a discussion of the proportional differences between traditional and modern buildings features a drawing of a building split neatly in half between the two. Written by an architect and instructor who remembers well the fog of his own student days, 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School provides valuable guideposts for navigating the design studio and other classes in the architecture curriculum. Architecture graduates--from young designers to experienced practitioners--will turn to the book as well, for inspiration and a guide back to basics when solving a complex design problem.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2748 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 128 pages

Review
"101 Things de-mythologizes the jargon that obscures the real meanings of what is taught in design schools. Designers too often write in obtuse terms that make relatively simple concepts difficult to comprehend. But understanding how we perceive, experience, and interpret the spaces we inhabit should not make us feel dumb, or left out. This readable and graphically clear book is a great introduction to design terms, principles, and concepts. Anyone interested in design will learn much from this terrific book."
--Theodore C. Landsmark, President, Boston Architectural College, President 2006-07, the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture

"How to draw a line, the meaning of figure-ground theory, hand-lettering and the fact that windows look dark in the daytime--each item has resonance beyond architecture. Books like this are brief tutorials in the art of seeing, a skill useful in every aspect of life on the planet."
-- Susan Salter Reynolds, latimes.com

"Matthew Frederick offers a wide-ranging assortment of architectural pearls of wisdom that every architecture student should understand, consider and embrace--or perhaps reject--when first learning the daunting process of design. Encompassing both theory and practice, and illustrated with often witty drawings, 101 Things is an eclectic itemization of architectural philosophies, compositional strategies and tactics, design conventions, drawing and presentation techniques, and even tips about how to behave as an architect."
--Roger K. Lewis, Professor Emeritus of Architecture, University of Maryland, author of Architect? A Candid Guide to the Profession

About the Author
Matthew Frederick is an architect and urban designer in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has taught at a number of colleges and universities, including Boston Architectural College and Wentworth Institute of Technology.

Customer Reviews

Missing the point, pretentious, scanty, waste of money
The book is cute but small, large type, with few words and lots of empty spaces. Even pages include drawings, most of them useless (believe me; you don't need a sketch of a triangle, a rectangle and so, to know that those are "figures"; or a guy sitting on a desk to imagine he is an architect) being there for the sole purpose of pumping the book up to reach a minimal number of pages.
One page contains just this: "Architecture is the thoughtful making of space.", opposite to a sketchy profile portrait of Louis Kahn. Amazing. But for short, the record goes to page 62: "Less is a bore" (A too known already epigram from Arch. Robert Venturi)
Several pages are dedicated to the cool-sounding and totally vague idea of the "parti" [par-TEE] which, freed from verbal garbage, means a sketch of the general concept of a building. (Take note of this buzz word to impress laypersons). Lots of other pseudo philosophical mumbo-jumbo: zeitgeist, holistic, a little Chinese... The usual Kung-Fu gobbledygook wisdom, coming from a book introduced as presenting "in clear and simple language things that tend to be mystified in the classroom".
Simple often is. To the point of being crass: Roll your plans face outward so they will stay put on the table when you unroll them. (Remember: this you learn in Architecture School; a deep discipline, I gather). One page takes 85 words to say this: Make 3D models.
Another can be condensed into: Exert pressure at the beginning and the end of a line. More: "When lettering, slant your horizontals slightly upwards". (Both advises as if everybody is drawing with a pencil these days) ...
Other: When elements or spaces are not explicit but are apparent, they are said to be implied (Wow!. But how I am going to practically use this invaluable breakthrough of information?). More practical info: "Sense of place. Genius loci literally means genius of place. It is used to describe places that are deeply memorable for their architectural and experiential qualities." (Go ahead, use it in your next project). More immediately applicable data on page 35, which just quotes Gertrude Stain: "I like my view but I like to sit with my back turned to it". (Now that I know it, I cannot stop myself from start designing houses). I would say that on an even keel, all quotations here are useless.
I suspect that those individuals giving 5 stars to the book are friends of Frederick, helping him to sell his little (ultimately pathetic) book to fools such as me.
If this is what Mr. Frederick learned in Architecture School, he wasted his time. And mine.

A delicious book!
Little book which can be read in a few hours but that left you a lot of food for thought. A great reading for all kind of designers, not only architects.

More than a book for architects
I've owned this book for two months now, and after skimming through it a few times early on, I've come to where I'm reading it regularly, and with expanded purpose and meaning. Although I'm not an architect, I do work with them, and find architects to be fascinating people. This book brings to life many of the under-pinnings of how architects think and see the world. These foundational aspects of the profession are also quite useful and stimulating to life in general, and therein lies the beauty of this book. #81 is striking to me: "Properly gaining control of the design process tends to feel like one is losing control of the design process." Often, designing our lives requires just such a sense of losing control before the clarity has arrived.

Since we all inhabit designed spaces and visit them daily, this book can offer a tremendous amount of perpsective to enrich that otherwise typically mundane or ignored opportunity of simply noticing how an architect has thought about greeting us. Let "101 Things..." wash over you, and I think you'll find it joyful and meaningful.