Delft Lectures On Architectural Design

The full professors, associate professors and researchers of TU Delft's Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment address in the texts that are collected in this reader key contemporary topics, investigating historical models and theoretical arguments while discussing the latest architecture projects as well prototypical cases. Moreover, diverse contributions present contemporary positions in architectural practice and theory against the background of the modern era (1750-today) as characterised by the conditions of the historical avant-garde, (post)modernity, and its various moments of crisis and critique. Through the series of articles presented here a broad range of questions and themes thus is addressed and explored.

This book is a collection of articles written in recent years and used in lectures for students at the Faculty of Architecture at Delft and at Nottingham University. The lectures and articles are based on a mixture of innovations in academia and industry. They elucidate the relationship between architecture and building technology, as well as high technology, transfer of technology, innovative design, development and research in the Chair of Product Development at TU Delft. With his experience in both industry and academia, Eekhout’s goal is to bridge the gap between the two worlds and to stimulate them both, to prepare students to be inventive, innovative and daring enough to materialize their own dreams in practice. The lecture articles are based on the adventures and experiences in Mick Eekhout’s design & build experimental laboratory cum factory, which works on projects all over the world, and for many interesting clients. Eekhout was able to develop an innovative technical vocabulary for lightweight structures and claddings in architecture and encourages students to attempt the same.

How can we develop a scientific basis for architectural, urban and technical design? When can a design be labelled as scientific output, comparable with a scientific report? What are the similarities and dis-similarities between design and empirical research, and between design research, typological research, design study and study by design? Is there a need for a particular methodology for design driven study and research? With these questions in mind, more than forty members of the Faculty of Architecture of the Delft University of Technology have described their ways of study and research. Each chapter shows the objectives, the methodology and its implementation in search for a deeper knowledge of design processes and an optimal quality of the design itself. The authors - among them architects, urban planners, social scientists, lawyers, technicians and information scientists – have widely differing backgrounds. Nevertheless, they share a great deal. The central focus is a better understanding of design processes, design tools and the effects of design interventions on issues such as utility, aesthetics meaning, sustainability and feasibility.

This unique book discusses programming, design and building evaluation providing a ‘joined up’ approach to building design. By linking the functional and architectonic qualities of a building, the authors show the practical implications of the utility value of buildings. Starting by looking at how the relationship between form and function has been dealt with by different approaches to architecture from a historical perspective, it goes on to discuss how the desired functional quality and utility value of a building can be expressed in a brief and given a physical form by the architect. Finally, it advises on how to carry out post-occupancy evaluation and provides the architect with methods and techniques for testing whether the intended utility value of a building has been achieved.

The Prototype Laboratory initiated and maintained by the Chair of Product Development at the Faculty of Architecture, TU Delft, has set an example in architectural education for hands-on ‘learning-by-making’ for students. According to the authors of this book, in the current curriculums time spent on practical work is not rewarded and students are educated in an abstract concept of architecture, not getting a proper feeling for materialization. A semester of designing, engineering, producing and building a prototype with their own hands after their own design often gives students a boost in their education. The Delft Prototype laboratory was the base of around 1,000 students, now professionals. Some architect’s offices make prototypes regularly as their designs are quite experimental and require more insight for the designing architect, before the realization of his building. Prototypes of technical components are often developed parallel to the building process. The Prototype Laboratory at the Faculty of Architecture was supervised for almost 18 years by Peter van Swieten. He describes his experiences in this book, in collaboration with the initiator, professor Mick Eekhout. Marcel Bilow took over the Bucky Lab, as it is called, from 2012 onwards.

Giancarlo Mazzanti was invited this year by the Wouter Mikmak Foundation to lecture in the Designers of the Future series because of the exceptionally engaged character of his architectural practice, wherein he demonstrates that it is also possible to situate social values at the core of architectural design. He aims to empower transformations and build community, focusing on adapting architecture to make it capable of changing behaviour. It is Mazzanti's belief that architecture's worth is based not only on itself but also on what it produces, on its capacity to perform rather than on its capacity to represent. Topical perspectives are illustrated with exemplary case studies.

The success of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, designed and engineered by Frank O. Gehry and inaugurated in 1997, opened the eyes of the world to the plastic possibilities of Free Form Design. That is, on the side of architects and their admiring clients. Some architects draw up complicated but surprising and attractive Free Form Designs and win design competitions. The next step is to involve the manufacturing industry and the contractors in realizing these dreams. According to the author(s), the desire and logic for an adapted Free Form Technology will become became apparent after more designs. At Mick Eekhout's design & build company Octatube the first experiences with Free Form Designs either failed, were aborted, were a disaster or led to unfortunate events such as the bankruptcy of competing firms who took on the projects without major Free Form Design experience. But Free Form design has matured nowadays. Many lessons can be learned from these early experiments, which is the main reason to share these experiences with readers of this book.