Interpreting Site

Book excerpt: Interpreting Site explains the basic methods architects use to translate what you perceive to represent the complex conditions that physically and mentally "construe" a site, helping to shape the ultimate design. Within each of the four themes---defining site, experiencing site, spatializing site, and systematizing site--- theoretical, conceptual, and analytic methods and representational tools are introduced to give you a foundation to develop your own approach to the conditions of a site. Author Genevieve S. Baudoin examines longstanding representation methods in relation to emerging and experimental methods, offering an idiosyncratic and provocative look at different approaches. Four highly illustrated full colour case studies of key contemporary projects in Spain, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Norway demonstrate how architects have used conditions discovered on a site in their final design.