Eight and counting: Architecture professor releases new book on drawing
Friday, Sept. 27, 2013
When it comes to writing, Kansas State University's Peter Magyar knows how to "draw" on success.
The College of Architecture, Planning & Design professor has just released his eighth book -- and his third this year -- that, like most of his other books, focuses on his favorite topic: drawing.
"The Soft Boiled Egg Scribbles: Architectural Ideas of Students," recently printed by Kansas State University's University Printing, is a collection of architectural ideas of students as recorded by Magyar. In the book, Magyar promotes the ability of quick freehand sketching, a method irreplaceable in the profession of architecture.
Magyar has written -- and drawn -- four books since joining the university in 2007 as head of the department of architecture, serving in the post until 2011. An award-winning professor of architecture, he has received several honors for his work, including the Pro Architectura Hungarica medal for lifetime achievement from the Chamber and Association of Hungarian Architects, for which he was the first recipient. He also is a member of the Royal British Institute of Architects.
Magyar's sixth book, "Urban Innuendoes," was published in January 2013 by Trafford Publishing. Like his other books, it contains his own ink drawings and displays the simultaneous development of the projects both in urban and building scales. Essays written by acknowledged scholars of the art of architectural drawings accompany the book, similar to his fifth book, "Thinkink," which was published in 2010 by Kendall Hunt.
The professor's seventh book, "Seven Lessons on Architectural Morphogenesis," published by Trafford in March 2013, has the motto: "Drawings speak on many tongue, they form the text of this book." It contains the full design processes of seven large international urban and architectural design projects.
Eight books won't be enough for this author, who already has two books in the works. "Topological Phenomenology of Space = Architecture as Roots of Infinity" intends to publicize -- or reveal to the public -- that every architectural element is indivisible part of the cosmos. The method of illustration uses applied topology, one of Magyar's research interests, dating back to his academic position in Nigeria, Africa.
His other new book will be "Spatial Fable," which is for children.
Since 1989, Magyar has served at three universities as head of their architecture programs, including as the founding director of the School of Architecture at Florida Atlantic University and as the head of the department of architecture at Pennsylvania State University. Magyar earned his master's in architecture and urban design and doctorate in architecture, all from the Technical University of Budapest.
