Points + Lines: Diagrams and Projects for the City

Rating:
Summary: Misses the Point
Review: I got this book since I was attendding my first semester in graduate school. The book helps me find ways to communicate thoughts and ideas in architecture. I did research parallel to the architectural design process. Diagrams and text from the book was articulately showing a possibility to use the information for exchange. Diagrams and drawing techniques help me to weave the complex thoughts, information and propose further the other potential dimensions.

Rating:
Summary: Misses the Point
Review: Stan Allen is one of the self-styled theorists who see architecture and urbanism as an abstract set of geometries, Allen fails to understand that most cities are living organisms and that relationships and form are pointless without comprehending the viltal, human function. Anyone who has experienced the great urban spaces of Italy or Paris will know that urban design is not a graphic exercise. Allen's lacks the mental facility to adress this component of design and his diagrams are more ignorant that one can imagine. This book is rubbish of the very worst sort. - Recommend you read Jane Jacobs 'Life and Death of Great American Cities' instead.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoying in Singapore
Review: Stan Allenfs gPoints and Linesh explores architectural design methods after post modern and deconstruction. His architectural and urban design in the book clearly show the contemporary problems and his unique approach to the problems. Although many of the theoretical issues are implicated, they are expressed through his design process. In addition, his comprehensive research out of architecture gives us fresh viewpoints. Therefore I think, the book is useful not only for architects and students, but also for people who are interested in cultural issues generally. Even in Singapore whose culture is different from the US, many architects and students are enjoying this book.

Rating:
Summary: Forcing Form/Forming Force
Review: This book addresses a universal question in regards to understanding and, more importantly, presenting an abstract, yet more comprehensible reference between architecture and other contextual elements. Stan Allen proposes that they are all fractions of a common system, the most complex order of 'the city' in this case. He has eloquently woven various aspects of these manifold connections through his writings, and validated them in extremely stimulating diagrams. The results are projects that are filters for seeing figures of architecture in exchange with the background of the city. Architecture is complicated; not by itself, but because it is a component in a complicated network. This condition in the city can be manipulated by (and through) architecture--in the form (and force) of a point, other times of a line, but most of the time both.