decomposition

When a piece of rotting fruit or a dead animal is said to decompose, it is broken down one element at a time until its original form no longer remains. Likewise, architectural decomposition applies a similar principle to a building; it is broken down into several categories of elements, and then deconstructed further until only individual, isolated components remain. The act of decomposition is important because it allows an architect to read a building more carefully, to find out why it presents itself in the way it does. Decomposition may reveal a guiding organizational system, allowing the architect to better understand how to conceptualize work. It can also reveal interetsing material usages or formal ideas; all of this can be recombined and synthesized in future designs, and learning from precedents via decomposition facilitates it all.