The Perspective Hinge

response to Architectural Representation and the Perspective Hinge: Prelude- Mapping the Question by Alberto Perez-Gomez and Louise Pelletier

Translation vs. Transcription

What is the hinge between intent and interpretation? This is the question I thought of as reading the beginning of this prelude. The answer I got from Gomez and Pelletier: the drawings that architects produce. We rely on projections as formal deliverables that serve as the set of instructions to pass along to have our ideas become reality. I guess the authors are questioning whether the entirety of archtiects' intentions in fact are translated through standard architectural drawings, or are they merely transcribed? Or if there is perhaps a better way to communicate our thinking (perhaps through digital means)?

hinged section- Travis Rozich

 I didn't really get a sense that the authors wanted to challenge this question as the remainder of the prelude boiled down to a history of representation.

Architectural Meaning and the Tools of the Architect

Where I thought a discussion in contemporary tools, those used for projections versus digital tools would take place, I instead found a history, beginning with Medival and Renaissance construction methods. I thought the architects/builders of the past were not given due credit by the authors. The builders of the Gothic time are referred to as "bands of stone masons" and those from the Renaissance are mentioned as "magician-architects". In an age where representational standards did not exist, these expert master builders and architects relied on their knowledge of construction to create masterpieces.  

Chartres Cathedral

Vision and Light

Looking at a history of vision Gomez and Pelletier begin with the Ancient Greeks, with Euclid and "The Optics". It is interesting how one idea can begin to embed so many meanings throughout time. The study of vision began with the Greeks who saw it as an understanding of mathematics, yet as it was translated (or transcribed) to the Middle Ages, its focus was shifted to theology. The light of God is then translated to built forms that allow people to not only understand the light of God spiritually but experience it physically (or at least heighten their spirituality). Gomez and Pelletier here make mention to Hagia Sophia and Chatres Cathedral to illustrate how it was not the structure that was important to the builders of these magnificent buildings, but the way in which they used light to create spaces of heightened spirituality. Light can be dramatic, it can be playful, it can be serious, and poetic. It is all up to the way that the architecture of a space captures it.

playful light in Sagrada Familia