Tools of the Imagination

"Architecture is a strange animal. It's equal parts art, science, and business," says Susan Piedmont-Palladino, a curator at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., and editor of the forthcoming book Tools of the Imagination: Drawing Tools and Technologies from the Eighteenth Century to the Present (Princeton Architectural Press). "I was interested in the many stories of invention, how architects are creative tinkerers who borrow tools from other fields—say, astronomy or land surveying in the past to computer programs used to design cars."

The book weaves a narrative of architects' adventures in adopting new tools and techniques, from the folding compass used by Jefferson to Frank Gehry's use of CATIA software, used previously in the automotive industry—and beyond.