101 Things I Learned in Architecture School Hardcover – August 31, 2007

The quintessential coffee table book that if I had read it before, perhaps I could've saved myself the cost of a college education. (just kidding) The book offers a stylish review of the core concepts of spacial perception, visual communication and the stuff architects are made of. I love to read it as a refresher and to reminiscence to those beloved college days.

Bought this as a gift for my 11 year old granddaughter. It comes shrink wrapped and I want to leave it for her to open. I reviewed the pages on Amazon that were available and thought the book might be something she would find interesting. I look for books with diverse fields of STEM careers. She breezes through Lego constructions, even those for 18+. She's never been interested in coloring books but draws free hand. And her craft creations are fascinating when she explains her thought processes. I think this book will add new avenues for her imagination.

I am enjoying this window into the training and process of an architect, and excited that many of these concepts apply to the practice of landscape architecture as well (I am a 20+ year landscape architect). I consider this book to be a fun gift idea for architects and landscape architects, students through seasoned professionals.

Truly great architecture, when realized, is the stuff of dreams. The kind of dreams that captivate us and leave us inspired to wake up and do the hard work to make life as it should be. This association between architectural design and life is interwoven. Architecture creates the spaces that life happens in.We are all possessed with a renewed relationship with our sense of space, thanks to a thrust upon us familiarity with it over the year. Some of us have been hard pressed to find balance, purpose, and renewal in the same space over the year. A study of architectural and design principles is just what one needs to fully grasp how to make familiar places into more dynamic and human centered experiences.Books like this one and “A Pattern Language” our essential for understanding how the spaces we live and work in everyday can detract or add to our lives. This knowledge could be immediately employed to refresh where you already are to better serve you or be the baseline for building something timeless in the future.

I purchased this as my first architecture book and it was a great decision. While reading 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School I was surprised by how many details have to be considered in designing a structure. Matthew Frederick does a wonderful job of using clear and simple language easy for anyone to understand but yet still rich in knowledge. The book includes many helpful pieces of information ranging from designing structures to inspirational quotes. One of my favorite quotes in the book is “Architecture is the thoughtful making of space” (by Louis Khan) because it makes me think about architecture as an abstract concept rather than physical pieces. Within the design tips, there are straightforward do’s and don’ts, such as always emphasize the start and end of a line. Furthermore, Frederick also includes more interpretive tips like “The most effective, most creative problem solvers engage in a process of metathinking, or ‘thinking about the thinking.”’ I feel it would be even more helpful if there were some tips for his tips. Frederick writes down the goal that one should try to achieve but doesn’t necessarily mention the steps to get there. For instance, he states that “a good building reveals different things about itself when viewed from different distances,” providing no additional information. However, this could be done intentionally as a strategy to get the reader to think more because there are various ways to solve a problem in architecture. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in or curious about architecture.

I leafed through this book. It looks like it will be helpful for my granddaughter.

It could have been a standard issue 1inch, 200 page book with plenty of filler and still been good. Instead, the author says boils the contents to a succinct reduction that is a wonderful, 30 minute meal for the mind.

highly recommend if you are starting architecture school. reading it back then and now it is so good because there's so many terms and whatnot only architects use and this goes over it in a manner where I don't have to read so much