(Un)Common Precedents in Architectural Design

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Edited by Federica Goffi, Isabel Potworowski, Kristin Washco

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Publisher: Routledge December 2025

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(Un)Common Precedents questions the notion of precedent in architectural design, calling for an attentive examination of the (un)common that inspires architectural creativity, making the common uncommon and the uncommon common. Precedents can be drawn from within or without architecture, sometimes knowingly, but more often unknowingly. Precedents and their origins can be idiosyncratic – so it is not surprising that they often lead to unpredictable or unexpected outcomes. (Un)common intentions are often paired with (un)common frames of reference, calling for a re-examination of both common and marginalized precedents explored through the architecture discipline as well as traditional, conventional and (un)conventional representational media.Transdisciplinary sources of inspiration from poetic language, fiction and literature, artistic imagery, graphic novel, film and animation, acoustic, music and aurality, gastronomy, dance and performance, action-research and politics, derived as they are from different geographic, cultural and disciplinary contexts can be activated as (un)common precedents through unconventional readings of the design process.

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This book examines the role of the (un)common as an undervalued, unregulated, informal, and understudied approach to precedents, acknowledging a radical imagination in architectural design that goes beyond a visual and typological one. Most of all, (un)common precedents underline the non-conformity and inordinance of precedents and the necessity of their divergence, drawing attention to more inclusive practices of architecture making – thus speaking to different socio-political contexts, which resist, reject, and replace the canonization of precedents based on ocular centric approaches, with localized, experiential, transdisciplinary and (un)common ones, moving away from the compulsion to normalize, universalize, repeat, restate, and re-enact, transforming the documentation of far removed precedents through first-person experiences.

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REVIEWS

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“Inclusive and playful, meticulous and thoughtful, the essays of this long-needed book liberate designers in their pursuit of architectural inspiration. Gems lurking in unexpected places—dismissed for years—are brought brilliantly to the fore by an impressive group of contributing authors. (Un)common Precedents will fast become a classic.”​ - Dr. Angeliki Sioli, Associate Professor, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, TU Delft

 

“Architectural imagination is an open search. This collection navigates new paths of inquiry, leading architects to an expanded repertoire of knowledge and inspiration. From fields of music, literature, gastronomy and Indigenous engagement, uncommon precedents appear as cunning protagonists in an architectural story ever unfolding. Be prepared to rethink the exemplary.” - Dr. Lisa Landrum, Professor and Chair, Department of Architectural Science, TMU. Co-editor, Theatres of Architectural Imagination.

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“What inspires architectural ideas and designs?  This resourceful book provides many ingenious answers, valuable for students, practitioners, and scholars alike. Reaching far beyond traditional typology like J.N.L. Durand’s imposition of a grid to regularize all architectural history, (Un)common Precedents explores alternative contemporary and historical approaches that open and examine possibilities in media, materials, spatial justice, environmentalism and much more across the arts to inform the architectural imagination.” - Dr. Paul Emmons, Patrick and Nancy Lathrop Professor of Architecture, Virginia Tech.

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Contributors:

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Wanda Dalla Costa I Jodi La Coe I Berrin Terim I Claudio Sgarbi I Talia Training I Marc Neveu I Maria João Moreira Soares I João Miquel Couto Duarte I Jhono Bennett I Yvette Putra I Paola Zellner I Ashley Mason I Aurélie Dupuis I Donald Kunze I Izumi Kuroishi I Yoonchun Jung I Nina Vollenbroker I Naomi Gibson I Anca Matyiku I Jonathan Tyrell I Thi Phuong-Trâm Nguyen I Bruno Silvestre I Camila Mancila Vera I Janine Debanne I Pari Riahi I Klaske Havik I Suzanne Harris-Brandts I Ken Albala I Sheryl Boyle I Jesse Stewart 

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