Résumé

Architecture can be as full of suspense as a graphic novel. Similar to comic strips or graphic novels, diagrams are a visual medium of communication. This makes them easy to understand even across linguistic and cultural boundaries and an ideal method of communicating ideas to clients. Today, architectural diagrams are no longer mere aids to explaining a design or reducing an idea to a simple outline, but have emerged as an art form of their own among the creative skills related to planning and building. The title Architectural and Program Diagrams in the series Construction and Design Manual brings together more than 400 pages from a predominantly international avant-garde and offers an overview of the state of the art in architectural representation across a spectrum extending from simple arrow diagrams to sober graphs and highly elaborate, often somewhat surreal collages and computer animations which trigger a wide range of intellectual and emotional responses. Diagrams tell stories. Those able to read them can follow the process by which ideas and thoughts take visual shape, find aesthetic form and, if all goes well, become part of the built environment.