Learning to construct is the objective of the architecture student, who seeks to bring sketches, sophisticated visualizations, material and component choices, and detailed plans and diagrams together in a single grand composition.

Plans and Images offers insight into how architects are trained by examining the teaching and research approach of the Laboratory of Elementary Architecture and Studies of Types (EAST), a satellite studio of the EPFL School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC) in Lausanne. Going beyond the traditional notion of functionally determined typologies, Laboratory EAST is concerned more broadly with the principles of typology in architecture. Richly illustrated with drawings and plans by Laboratory EAST’s students, the book also includes essays by Antje Bittorf, Tiago P. Borges, Anja Fröhlich, Martin Fröhlich, Rafael Moneo, and Marie Theres Stauffer. An interview with Rafael Moneo, discussing the research topics pursued at Laboratory EAST, and a photo essay by Swiss photographer Joël Tettamanti round out the book.

In cooperation with Laboratory EAST, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.