Twenty-Six Design Concepts, Illustrated

dialogue As in writing, dialogue in architecture can be thought of as a conversation. This conversation can be between one style and another, the old and the new, this idea and that idea. An architect facilitates this dialogue by presenting the conversational elements in their design. James Stirling contributes a postmodern dialogue in incorporating elements from Egyptian and Roman designs, as well as submarines and even nearby buildings. Although earlier, Nicholas Hawksmoor similarly employs neoclassical forms in a subversive manner in many of his church designs.

And Philip Trammel Schutze fuses both English and Italian elements with more modern forms and conveniences in Atlanta's 1924 Swan house, prompting a dialogue characteristic of the tastes of upper-class southerners in the early twentieth century.