Time, Space and Material: The Mechanics of Layering in Architecture

This book examines the application of the principle of layering in architecture, its mechanics, possible application and meaning. Layering is widely used in the discussions of the 20th and 21st century architecture but rarely defined or examined. Layering bridges the tectonics of structure and skin, offers a system for the creation of different architectural spaces over time and functions as a design principle without hierarchy. Three types of layering are identified: a chronological sedimentation of planes materializing changes over time (temporal layering), the additive sequence of spaces (spatial layering), and the stratification of individual planes (material layering).

Anne-Catrin Schultz studied architecture in Stuttgart, Germany and Florence, Italy, and earned a Ph.D. from the University of Stuttgart. For several years she worked with Turnbull Griffin Haesloop (TGH) and Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM). She has taught architecture history and theory as well as design studios at the University of California in Berkeley, the California College of the Arts (CCA) and the Academy of Arts University in San Francisco. In the fall 2013 she joined the Department of Architecture at the Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston.