6
Introduction
SUPPORT: Design Studies for Architects is a slice through recent 
architectural design as seen through the lens of building envelope 
technology. This collection includes 270 sketches by the author 
from over 80 projects designed by 47 architectural firms including 
11 Pritzger Prize winners. It also offers a glimpse of the technical 
design explorations that are required while a building evolves into 
its final form.
The projects range from the ground-breaking design of the Centre 
Pompidou in Paris by Piano and Rogers through collaborations with 
the pioneering architect and engineer Frei Otto of Germany and the 
renown structural engineer Peter Rice in London, up until the present 
day with sketch studies for Diller Scofidio and Renfro, SHOP, B.I.G. 
and many others.
The drawings are all free-hand and explore structure, envelope and 
energy as determinants of a building’s final form, but also reveal 
a dialog with the architect’s design intent.  Architecture is about 
process as well as outcome and the drawings provide a series of 
snapshots of this exploration.
William Logan is a graduate of the Princeton School of Architecture 
and the Harvard Graduate School of Design.  He spent seven years 
in Europe working for Piano and Rogers and Ove Arup and Partners 
before moving back to New York to work as a consultant with Israel 
Berger and Associates and, currently, Vidaris where he is a Senior 
Principal.

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