It may sound banal, yet it is a fundamental fact in architectural design: All ideas are based on previous ideas, their imitation, inversion, rejection, or adaptation; or on their reinterpretation or ignoration. The same applies to our visual perception and how it influences our thinking and world of ideas. It is actually true for any kind of creation and design.

Portraits: Architectural Parables traces these questions through a wealth of images from art history and everyday culture, as well as through analytical and classifying texts. With this book, François Charbonnet and Patrick Heiz, the founding partners of the highly acclaimed Swiss design firm Made in, reveal the approaches they take in their design methodology as well as in their teaching at ETH Zurich’s Department of Architecture and Accademia di architettura in Mendrisio. The distinctive feature lies in the linking and collaging of mutually illuminating, yet apparently antagonistic, programs. Made in’s method does not claim historical accuracy, as sources and facts are intentionally collaged to serve a reductive purpose. The focus is on the potential they see in the cross-fertilisation of different images and ideas rather than on a single, all-embracing model of thought.