Asking, Looking, Playing, Making: A Nature-focused Design Process -9781915722591

描述

Design is a process requiring both rigour and freedom; focus and expansion. Yet how does the concept – the ‘intention’ – become a built project?

This accessible book acts as a storytelling toolkit, taking designers through a tried-and-tested process for taking an architectural project from thought to built project. Based around four main sections – Asking, Looking, Playing and Making – the authors show how a design process can generate beautiful buildings which are rooted in a sense of place. Further examples include a range of project types and scales to demonstrate the versatility of this toolkit.

‘A rare glimpse into the process of creating truly empathetic architecture. Anna Liu and Mike Tonkin show us that design is at its most powerful when there’s deep respect for the public, and a commitment to creating buildings and places that are more generous and joyful for everyone’.

Thomas Heatherwick

‘In observing the London architectural scene, I cannot deny Anna and Mike’s intelligent avoidance of the prosaic and salute their courage in doing so. Characterised by delicacy and inventiveness, their work has resulted in the remarkable record of 23 RIBA Awards in 22 years. Consistently stemming from a consequential inspiration from nature, it involves a process that they analyse as an interwoven sequence of ‘ASKING’, ‘LOOKING’, PLAYING’ and ‘MAKING’. (I particularly like the ‘Playing’ bit, of course). The results – such as the biomimetic flue tower in Manchester are now reaching a civic and iconic dimension, without pretension but are somehow heroic at the same time’.

Peter Cook

‘The functions, operations, materials, and phenomena, which were once fragmented, are now linked by words like a string of beads, opening up the process and hinting at new possibilities for design in the age of AI.

Kengo Kuma

Tonkin Liu is a practice that embraces a Romantic perspective, focusing on a poetic interpretation of place and a belief in the transformative power of nature. They dream of a synthesis between the natural world and technology, aiming to integrate these elements. Digital tools may be utilized to create complex forms of order, reflecting the diversity found in natural selection. Their working method incorporates storytelling and gaming themes, using elements such as riddles, fables, quests, and transformations to convey the attentive and prospective aspects of the design process. This book provides a lively and well-structured explanation of their ideas.

Niall McLaughlin

I love it because there is only one of these in the world. It is audacious, it’s bold. We live in an ex-mining village with a rich history. It was very easy for us to have ended up with something about the past. The Dancing Flowers of Doe Lea looks backwards and forwards in time, it covers the whole. People are surprised when they get to the point where they see the name in the lines. And what I love most about it is that, even when the wildflowers are not in bloom, it really looks as though it is coming out of the land, as if the earth has given birth to this sign.’

William Lane, long-time Doe Lea local resident