As a new design student, you need to learn to think like a designer. In Diagramming the Big Idea, Jeffrey Balmer and Michael T. Swisher show you how architects create diagrams so that you can clarify your understanding of both particular projects and general principles and ideas. With simple, step-by-step exercises using diagrams, drawings, and virtual models, in addition to the instructions, the authors clearly and consistently explain how to compose meaningful and useful diagrams. Once you've followed the development of the four projects drawn from the authors' teaching, you'll be familiar with architectural composition concepts, such as proportion, site, form, hierarchy, and spatial construction. This book will be an excellent studio resource whether at 3:00 AM during an all-nighter, or while you're waiting for your desk crit, or any other time that your instructor can't show you how to solve your design problem.