The Architecture of Form

Originally published in 1976, The Architecture of Form is a collection of fourteen contributions by ten authors towards a quantitative approach to architectural design. The volume opens with an extended editorial introduction on the logic of design and the question of value, which places the papers into a decision-theoretic framework of descriptions, predictions and evaluations, and these are taken as the headings of the three parts of the volume. This book should be of wide interest to architects, building scientists, systems designers, operational research workers and computer scientists.

Foreword; Introduction: the logic of design and the question of value Lionel March; Part I. Description: 1. A boolean description of a class of built forms Lionel March; 2. Geometric representation of outline design Michael Derbyshire; 3. Graph-theoretic representation of architectural arrangement Philip Steadman; 4. Computer description of built forms Dean Hawkes and Richard Stibbs; 5. Transformations and matrices in modern descriptive geometry Robin Forrest; Part II. Prediction: 6. Modelling the environmental performance of built forms Dean Hawkes; 7. Prediction of surface luninances in architectural space Richard Stibbs; 8. Predicting the environmental effects of urban motorways Paul Richens; 9. Analysing communication patterns Philip Tabor; 10. Analysing route patterns Philip Tabor; Part III. Evaluation: 11. Searching for a good design solution Tom Willoughby; 12. Balancing architectural objectives - the relevance of decision theory Michael Derbyshire; 13. Architectural design and the problem of evaluation Patricia Apps; 14. Types, norms and habit in environmental design Dean Hawkes; Bibliography; Contributors.

Originally published in 1976, The Architecture of Form is a collection of fourteen contributions by ten authors towards a quantitative approach to architectural design. This book should be of wide interest to architects, building scientists, systems designers, operational research workers and computer scientists.