The Philosophy of Dumbness

Historical examples in science, art, and architecture ground "dumbness" as a means to convey a trajectory to practice "smarter." Instead of a singular authoritative vision, over fifty contributors answer the question, "What is the dumbest, but smartest thing you've done?" These unique responses provide a vivid lens into the culture of contemporary architecture and the rigor behind it.

With contributions by:
-- Jonah Ross-Marrs
-- Carl Lostritto
-- Jürgen Mayer H.
-- Robert Silance
-- Ted Krueger
-- Joseph Choma
-- Mark West
-- M. Wesam Al Asali
-- Coy Howard
-- Catie Newell
-- Siobhan Rockcastle
-- Joyce Hwang
-- Fabio Gramazio
-- Brandon Clifford
-- Michael Ramage
-- Julia Watson
-- Philippe Rahm
-- Rahul Mehrotra
-- Curtis Roth
-- Stefan Behnisch
-- Winy Maas
-- Marc Manack
-- Herb Greene
-- Jae Kyung Kim
-- Nader Tehrani
-- Ben van Berkel
-- Patrick Harrop
-- Patrik Schumacher
-- Mark Foster Gage
-- Gilles Retsin
-- Masoud Akbarzadeh
-- Cecil Balmond
-- Chris Williams
-- Joseph Tanney
-- David Riebe
-- Allison Dring
-- Bruce Danziger
-- Hitoshi Abe
-- Marlon Blackwell
-- Sean Godsell
-- Brian MacKay-Lyons
-- Roberto de Leon
-- Ross Primmer
-- Michael Boucher
-- William O'Brien Jr.
-- Michelle Chang
-- Hilary Sample
-- Michael Meredith
-- Caroline O'Donnell
-- Anthony Ames
-- Jeannette Kuo
-- Kivi Sotamaa
-- Dominique Jakob
-- Brendan MacFarlane
-- Steven Holl
-- Dimitra Tsachrelia
-- Florian Idenburg
-- Jing Liu

Joseph Choma is the Founder of the Design Topology Lab and an associate professor of architecture at Clemson University. He is the author of Morphing: A Guide to Mathematical Transformations for Architects and Designers (Laurence King Publishing, 2015) and Études for Architects (Routledge, 2018).