By Jean-Pierre Chupin

Now in paperback, this book provides an in-depth exploration of the rich and persistent use of analogical thinking in the built environment. Since the turn of the 21st century, “design thinking” has permeated many fields outside of the design disciplines. It is expected to succeed whenever disciplinary boundaries need to be transcended in order to think “outside the box.” This book argues that these qualities have long been supported by “analogical thinking”-an agile way of reasoning in which one can think the unknown through the familiar. Comparing views on the role of analogies and metaphors by prominent voices in architecture and related disciplines from the 17th century to the present, the book shows how the “analogical world of the project” is revealed as a wide-open field of creative and cognitive interactions. These visual and textual operations are explained through 36 analogical plates which can be read as an inter-text demonstrating how analogy has the power to reconcile design and theories.