Rating: 
Summary: On-line Research
Review: A lovely little book. The pros are excellent. The diagrams really interesting. Each chapter so well thought out and planned. I was fascinated in the projects from start to finish.
Rating:
Summary: Well done
Review: A lovely little book. The pros are excellent. The diagrams really interesting. Each chapter so well thought out and planned. I was fascinated in the projects from start to finish.
Rating:
Summary: On-line Research
Review: As a student I was carrying out research on the web and in particular on the extension to the Victoria and Albert Museum. I discovered the many sites with reference to the work of Balmond and Daniel Libeskind. My interest grew as I examined their wide range of projects all over the world. It was on one of these sites that I first heard of the Informal and eagerly awaited its publication. I was not disappointed. I was interested to read about how these projects came to materialise and was amazed at the graphical images. I think it was a very well put together book and one which should appeal to architectural and engineering students. I have since shown my tutor and he has highly recommended it. This was a first for me. I beat him to this remarkable book.
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Summary: spiral light
Review: besides being incredibly beautiful, the book has a coherence and depth that is unlike any other - it requires reading quickly and then slowly, forward and backward and over and over...its importance is clear
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Summary: Balmond Student
Review: Cecil Balmond is passionate and inspirational. When working with him, you know there is something amazing happening. I had the pleasure of having him as a studio instructor at Yale University, School of Architecture. Cecil believes in the possibilities of architecture and engineering working together in ways that enhance and grace both fields. This book brings his insight and passions together. I highly recommend it to engineers and architects alike.
Rating:
Summary: Balmond Student
Review: Cecil Balmond is passionate and inspirational. When working with him, you know there is something amazing happening. I had the pleasure of having him as a studio instructor at Yale University, School of Architecture. Cecil believes in the possibilities of architecture and engineering working together in ways that enhance and grace both fields. This book brings his insight and passions together. I highly recommend it to engineers and architects alike.
Rating:
Summary: A fantastic find
Review: I have always always been interested in buildings and designs. It has been fantastic to find this book which goes into the heart of the processes of how a design is made and how these well known works came to happen. I enjoyed reading of the great works of Koolhaas and Libeskind and on Balmond's fine new geometry. It raises great expectations for the future!
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Summary: A dialogue
Review: Informal is a terrific read; it places me right at the table as the author engages with his architect collaborators pursuing innovative building designs. The range is fascinating, from a box shape in the Villa Bordeaux to a curvilinear form in the Arnhem Interchange to the serene and effortless canopy in Lisbon. In each project the author establishes simple initial moves which lead ultimately to new configurations and importantly develops throughout the book a rigorous basis for exploring the non linear. This is welcome in an age when so much architectural form making is whimsical. As an architect I was fascinated how this book also brings out the lyrical and poetic inherent in structure. Best of all perhaps is the 27 sectioned speculation at the end on the anatomy of form, and an insight into the structure of organisation itself. In conjunction with his intriguing earlier book Number 9 Balmond sets out a new agenda for designers everywhere, including architects and engineers.
Rating: 
Summary: A behind the scenes of great architecture
Review: It was quite interesting to get a look at the somewhat unusual engineering process of Cecil Balmond. And to discover his inputs behind some famous building, from Koolhas, Libeskind to Siza. The book is quite easy to read and don`t think you are going to get a structural crash course from Balmond (I must admit, I was bit disapointed of not finding that) but you do get the kind of passionate and heartily discussions you would get if you had the chance of drinking down a few drinks with Balmond and ending up with his famous sketches he drew on the bar's napkins. Expect a book with graphics and layout of Koolhas' SMLXL / Big fonts, dual-tone pictures. GOod read, good essay, not for someone looking for glossy pictures
Rating:
Summary: A fantastic find
Review: Peruse this book it extensively before you buy it. As an engineer, I feel it is long on graphics and musings but short on insight. I think his intended audience is architects more than fellow engineers. I think he wants to show them how engineers are also innovative and multidimensional designers, that we aren't just number-crunchers. A worthy goal, to be sure. But I was hoping to be wowed with project-specific responses to architectural challenges. I wasn't, but I don't consider basic overturning resistance and load transfer to be sheer brilliance. On major backflips of his designs, he holds his cards close. Also, Balmond correlates his work extensively to nature, frontier conceptual science and the arts in the tradition of great thinkers. But the correlations are rarely logical, nor do they show a consistent consciousness or developing method across his oeuvre. Were this not the case, I would be more inclined to believe these epiphanies occurred during actual design as opposed to monograph-writing. Also, it sure is a tiny book for $.... In his defense and perhaps my own, a disclaimer: in no way is this review intended to diminish Balmond's significance to the world of architectural structures. We as engineers aren't known for writing flourishes. And has anyone ever read a design monograph free of ego? I would recommend What is a Bridge? by Pollalis or An Engineer Imagines by Peter Rice over this book. Both clearly convey the real experience and potential brilliance of the modern structural designer.
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