Design through Dialogue: A Guide for Architects and Clients

Completed projects receive more public attention than the process of their creation and so the myth that architects design buildings alone lives on. In fact, architects work with a great many others and the relationships that develop, particularly with clients, have a significant impact on design. Design through Dialogue explores the relationship between client and architect through the lens of four overlapping activities that occur during any project: relating, talking, exploring and transforming. Cases of design and collaboration range from smaller scale retail, residential and educational projects in the US, Sweden, the UK and the Pacific Rim to large institutions, including Seattle’s Central Library, the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC, the Supreme Court in Jerusalem and the Museum of New Zealand. Material is taken from interviews with clients and architects and research in psychotherapy, group dynamics and design studies. Throughout the book aspects of process are linked to design outcomes to illustrate how architects and clients collaborate creatively.

Chapter 1 Introduction. A Dialogue between Client and Architect. A Relational Approach. Our Dialogue. Thank You. Chapter 2 In Dialogue. Client Architect. Briefing and Designing. The Brief and the Design. Use and Form. Inner Worlds and Outer Worlds. Chapter 3 Relating Beginning the Relationship. Creating a ‘Good Enough’ Relationship. Maintaining a Facilitating Environment. Chapter 4 Talking. Creating Meaning Together. Talking in Groups. Attending to Silence. The Words Matter. Chapter 5 Exploring. Exploring as an Attitude. Exploring as Actions. Deciding What to Explore. Chapter 6 Transforming. Transforming at the Human Scale. Looking Beneath the Surface. Treating Type as a Question. Scrutinizing Form and Use. Transforming through Dialogue. Architects and Clients. Bibliography. Index. Image Credits.

Karen A. Franck is a professor in the College of Architecture and Design and the College of Science and Liberal Arts at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Previous books include Architecture from the Inside Out written with Bianca Lepori and Loose Space edited with Quentin Stevens. Teresa von Sommaruga Howard is a practising architect, an organizational consultant and a group analytic psychotherapist with a specialty in conducting dialogue groups. She lectures and writes about the dynamics of large groups, culture and change and involving people in the design of their environments.

"A thorough guide to getting the client–architect relationship right." ( Grand Designs , March 2010) "...courageous explorers of what architectural educators often ignore: the psychological and aesthetic dynamics implicit in client–architect dialogues." ( ArchNewsNow.com , March 2010)