LibGuides: ARCH 1598: Building Utopia: Citing and Writing

Citing in Architecture

Citation Basics

Because citations direct your reader back to the work of scholarship you are using in your research, they will differ slightly depending on the type of research material you are working with. For example, an article in a book will include information about the publisher of the book, while an article in a journal will include the name of the journal and its volume and issue number. It is best to include as much information about the resources you are working with as possible so anyone who wishes to look at those resources will be able to find them.

Typically, citations in architecture are done using the Chicago Manual of Style. Here is the bibliographic citation and note for a book compiled by more than one editor in Chicago:

Bibliographic citation:

Frichot, Hélène, Catherina Gabrielsson, and Helen Runting, eds. Architecture and Feminisms: Ecologies, Economies, Technologies. New York: Routledge, 2018.

Note:

Hélène Frichot, et. al., Architecture and Feminisms: Ecologies, Economies, Technologies, (New York: Routledge, 2018), 22 - 24.

Online Citation Style Guides

Purdue Online Research Lab (OWL)
Purdue OWL is a very comprehensive resource for looking up citation formats for various resources. Select Chicago 17th edition from the side navigation to begin.

Chicago Manual of Style Online
The Chicago Manual of Style Online is the venerable, time-tested guide to style, usage, and grammar in an accessible online format. It is the indispensable reference for writers, editors, proofreaders, indexers, copywriters, designers, and publishers, informing the editorial canon with sound, definitive advice.

Making Image Captions

Image captions should include both the location of the work of art itself, as well as the location of where you found the image. Below is an example of an image from the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection and how you would cite it depending on where you found the image.

Elements of a Caption

Title or Description of Image: La Ville Verté 1000

Creator of Image: Le Corbusier

Date of Image's Creation: 1933

Medium: Illustration

Where the Image is Located (If an original work): Not Applicable in this case

Where you acquired the Image: The Radiant City: Elements of a Doctrine of Urbanism to be Used as the Basis of our Machine-Age Civilization

[Detail] Le Corbusier, La Ville Verté 1000, 1933. Illustration. The Radiant City: Elements of a Doctrine of Urbanism to be Used as the Basis of our Machine-Age Civilization by Le Corbusier. New York: Orion Press, 1967, p. 163.

Caption (artwork viewed in person):

Fig. 1. Le Corbusier, La Ville Verté 1000, 1933. Illustration. Museum of Modern Art.

Caption (online):

Fig. 1. Le Corbusier, La Ville Verté 1000, 1933. Illustration. Fondation Le Corbusier. http://www.fondationlecorbusier.fr.

Caption (in print):

Fig. 1. Le Corbusier, La Ville Verté 1000, 1933. Illustration. The Radiant City: Elements of a Doctrine of Urbanism to be Used as the Basis of our Machine-Age Civilization by Le Corbusier. New York: Orion Press, 1967, p. 163.

Books about Researching and Writing in Architecture

Writing about Architecture by Alexandra Lange; Jeremy M. Lange (Photographer)
Call Number: NA2599.5 .L36 2012 (Avery and ebook)
ISBN: 9781616890537
Publication Date: 2012-02-29
Writing About Architecture: Mastering the Language of Buildings and Cities, the latest addition to the Architecture Briefs series, is a handbook on how to write effectively and critically about the contemporary city. The book offers works by some of the best architecture critics of the twentieth century including Ada Louise Huxtable, Lewis Mumford, Herbert Muschamp, Michael Sorkin, Charles Moore, Frederick Law Olmsted, and Jane Jacobs to explains some of the most successful methods with which to approach architectural criticism. Each chapter opens with a reprintof a historically significant essay (and organized by typology such as the skyscraper, the museum, and parks) discussing a specific building or urban project. The author, Alexandra Lange, then offers a close reading of that essay, as well as her own analysis through contemporary examples, to further enlighten the reader about how to write an effective piece of architectural criticism. This book, based on lessons learned from the author's courses at New York University and the School of Visual Arts, could serve as the primary text for a course on criticism for undergraduates or architecture and design majors. Architects covered include Marcel Breuer, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Field Operations, Norman Foster, Frank Gehry, Frederick Law Olmsted, SOM, Louis Sullivan, and Frank Lloyd Wright.
Writing Architecture by Carter Wiseman
Call Number: NA2540.W67 2014 (Barnard and ebook)
ISBN: 9781595341495
Publication Date: 2014-08-26
Architects expect to design buildings. But persuading clients to carry those designs into tangible form almost always involves writing as well as designing. Yet architects, and those who write about architecture, are often more comfortable with images than words. Presenting their visions in an articulate, accessible, and convincing written form can be difficult, and professionally hazardous. InWriting Architecture, Carter Wiseman provides an invaluable guide for students and practitioners on how to convey the importance of architecture to those who commission it, build it, and benefit from it. Drawing on a wide range of sources and citing examples from such authors as Frank Lloyd Wright, Ada Louise Huxtable, Vincent Scully, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and today's leading designers, Wiseman analyzes basic principles of compositional structure to illustrate the most effective forms of architectural writing. Free of professional and theoretical jargon,Writing Architecture considers the process, methods, and value of architecture writing based on Wiseman's 30 years of experience in writing, editing, and teaching young architects how to write. It integrates historical references with current practice to help students and practitioners reach their professional goals.
Thinking about Architecture by Colin Davies
Call Number: NA2500 .D38 2011g (Avery and ebook)
ISBN: 9781856697552
Publication Date: 2011-10-19
In order to understand architecture in all its cultural complexity it is necessary to grasp certain basic concepts such as representation, form and space. The aim of this book is to provide designers, teachers, students, and interested laypersons with a set of ideas that will enrich their conversation, their writing, and above all their thinking about architecture. Written in a conversational style, it introduces difficult concepts gradually, step-by-step. Architectural theorists and philosophers are mentioned in passing and their works are listed in the bibliography, but they are not the subject of the book. Architecture, rather than philosophy, is at the centre of the picture. The aim is to enable the reader to understand architecture in all its aspects, rather than to learn the names of particular theorists. The book is divided into eight chapters, each covering a particular aspect of architecture. Thinking about Architecture will be an invaluable standard introduction to architectural theory for architecture students, practising architects and interested general readers.