Visual Thinking for Architects and Designers: Visualizing Context in Design

Visual Thinking for Architects and Designers Visualizing Context in Design Ron Kasprisin and James Pettinari Here at last is a book that will help architects and designers avoid the pitfall of creating buildings that battle aesthetically with everything within a three-block radius. In Visual Thinking for Architects and Designers, Ron Kasprisin and James Pettinari unveil a solution to designing for the complex urban landscape: visual thinking. A concept twenty-five years in the making, this integrative approach will help harried professionals prevent environmental disasters. The authors present three-dimensional drawing (visual thinking) as a communication and decision-making tool to be used during the design and planning process. Because architects, landscape architects, and urban designers often work independently, on different scales, and at different interludes, no one can truly envision the completed project. Visual thinking is a way of getting input from every member of the team. Here, you’ll learn how to use graphics, whether hand-drawn or computer-generated, as a language to express complex systems, interrelationships, and environments. Using over 300 high quality drawings that are connected at many different scales—from aerial perspectives of entire regions to individual rooms and buildings—this groundbreaking book lays out an urban design process and methodology in a sequential and easily understood manner. The book is illustrated by the authors’ own work, which has been recognized in national design competitions, and by the AIA, APA, and NEA. The authors masterfully cover the use of drawing to analyze and create spaces, drawing technique, and communicating complex information to the public. Case studies convincingly illustrate the authors’ approach. Just a few of the areas covered include:

• Short-cut skill development for professionals and students
• Transit-related development
• Visioning methods in public involvement
• Time and space patterning in context

More than a book on drawing, this urban design guidebook is a tool for communicating and creating. Whether you’re an architect, landscape architect, urban designer, or city planner, once you’ve read Visual Thinking for Architects and Designers, you’ll wonder why people haven’t been working this way all along.