Examples are presented that give a rough outline of the importance of messages symbolized in civic public buildings. Such messages can invite people into a building or help hold them out; speak about a local government being democratic or bureaucratic; suggest that one city thinks education is important or that another city uses schools for…

A series of planning-like studios are described that are both interdisciplinary and strongly structured to introduce architects to the nonarchitectural subject matter of urban design and planning. The Las Vegas and Levittown studios produced descriptions of the places studied and analyses of the physical and symbolic requirements they fulfilled.…

Because of the complexity of large-scale projects, teams of experts have become the new designers of the built environment, with clients, decision makers, and buildings' users demanding inclusion in these teams. The Grand Frame Game is described as a technique for including people in decision making. (MLW)

Architecture as social action is discussed with the challenge being to find ways to make skills sensitive and responsive to local contexts and permit architecture to assume its appropriate form. Some techniques discussed are: storefront offices, architectural clinics, planning councils, mapping and gaming. (MLW)

Gaming-simulation in professional practice, education, and research is discussed. Simulation assists in exploring and resolving incongruent values and interests of clients, users, and architects; conveys complex interactive systems students are trying to understand; and elicits responses to alternative actions and contributes to theory development…

Operational gaming techniques that are permeating the architectural profession are used to: elicit user needs, represent architectural realities in the classroom, understand the rationale behind complex design decisions, and model decision environments at many levels with coarse or refined data. (MLW)

Playing simulation games is seen as having obvious educational value with players learning through personal involvement. Several games are described, including Communication Networks, Heating and Air-Conditioning (HAC), Construction Management Game, Semiotics, Awards, Blocks, Would You Like to Be an Architect?, POLIGRIP, and PASS. (MLW)