In their teaching, Astrid Staufer and Thomas Hasler proceed from an attitude that considers profound knowledge of the history of architecture and building construction to be the first prerequisite for the activity of designing. Accordingly, the students concentrate in their lectures and exercises at the beginning of their studies on the critical examination of reference buildings: the icons of architecture. The didactic strategy includes an approach to constructive design through the steps of perception, grasping, interpreting and formulating, whereby hand drawings and model making are central tools. Ikonen shows student works created on this basis, which testify to the preoccupation with buildings by Andrea Palladio and Auguste Perret, Luis Barragán and Álvaro Siza, as well as vernacular types of architecture. In the texts, the methodological approach is presented and reflected from different perspectives. The central part of the book is a declination of selected architectural icons, documenting the act of translation work necessary for one's own design.