Beginning Design Technology introduces how design technologies work together, including tools, materials, and software, such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Autodesk AutoCAD, and others. It teaches you how to think about each design tool, whether a software program or physical modelmaking, so that you will select one for its strengths for a specific task and know when and how to combine it with other tools.
Topics include working with building information, texturing digital and physical artifacts, translating information from one form or file format to another, constructing at full-scale, and making digital and physical models. Chapter Summaries, exercises, discussion questions, a glossary, an appendix of common software commands, and an annotated bibliography will help you find what you need quickly and put the information into practice.
Preface Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Selection: Learning About Remote Buildings Through Media 2. Grain: Understanding the Inherent Texture of Digital and Physical Objects 3. Translation: Moving Between and Among Architectural Media 4. Operation: The Impact of Scale on Representation 5. Gravity: Testing the Limits of Simulation and Representation 6. Reflection Appendix A Appendix B Glossary Bibliography Image Credits Index
Biography
Mike Christenson, AIA, is a registered architect and a tenured Associate Professor of Architecture at North Dakota State University. He teaches graduate and undergraduate design studios, and theories and practices of architectural representation. Christenson’s research examines questions of architectural epistemology: how knowledge about architecture is structured, organized, and disseminated.
Mike Christenson has done an invaluable service with this book, explaining in clear and concise ways the complete and sometimes confusing array of technologies that beginning design students face in college. He doesn’t just describe these technologies and explain how they work; he also guides the reader in how to think about them and when to use – or not use – them, depending upon the situation. This is a must-have book for every design student just starting out. - Thomas Fisher, University of Minnesota
Beginning Design Technology makes a timely addition to any architecture school library. Unlike the typical 'how-to' introductory textbook, this publication helps architecture students to ask important 'why-to' questions about the use of various digital and analog design tools. - Andrzej Piotrowski, School of Architecture, University of Minnesota
