Please read the abstract in the section, 12abstract, of this document / Dissertation (MArch)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Architecture / unrestricted

Thesis. 1979. M.C.P.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Bibliography: leaves 75-77. / M.C.P.

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building. / Documentation within architecture refers to working drawings that are produced to envisage an imagined building. These drawings are a tangible representation of an object that has no tangible existence. Conventional documentation regards the act of drawing as that process upon which the object is wholly dependent for its coming into existence: they assist in ‘getting to’ the building. However, the definition of the word ‘document’ refers to a record of events, that is, post factum evidence. Within architecture, drawing as a record is not the dominant practice. Instead, representation that is a visualisation of the non-existent dominates. Hence, the realm of post factum documentation is under-examined. Due to the predominance of drawing within architecture, models are seen as an adjunct to drawings and so their role and potential has been examined in far less depth than that of architectural drawings. This thesis explores the notion of the model as three-dimensional post factum documentation of architecture. Through the theory of drawing, case studies of models of various scales are examined. These case studies are the Panorama model of New York City, the reconstruction of Mies van der Rohe’s German Pavilion, and the exhibition of architecture as post factum model, in particular the work of Peter Eisenman, Herzog and de Meuron, El Lissitzky, Allan Wexler and Diller and Scofidio. This examination repositions models within an expanded notion of the design process, which displaces the built object as the endpoint of this process, and investigates the critical facility of models.

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University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building. / Documentation within architecture refers to working drawings that are produced to envisage an imagined building. These drawings are a tangible representation of an object that has no tangible existence. Conventional documentation regards the act of drawing as that process upon which the object is wholly dependent for its coming into existence: they assist in ‘getting to’ the building. However, the definition of the word ‘document’ refers to a record of events, that is, post factum evidence. Within architecture, drawing as a record is not the dominant practice. Instead, representation that is a visualisation of the non-existent dominates. Hence, the realm of post factum documentation is under-examined. Due to the predominance of drawing within architecture, models are seen as an adjunct to drawings and so their role and potential has been examined in far less depth than that of architectural drawings. This thesis explores the notion of the model as three-dimensional post factum documentation of architecture. Through the theory of drawing, case studies of models of various scales are examined. These case studies are the Panorama model of New York City, the reconstruction of Mies van der Rohe’s German Pavilion, and the exhibition of architecture as post factum model, in particular the work of Peter Eisenman, Herzog and de Meuron, El Lissitzky, Allan Wexler and Diller and Scofidio. This examination repositions models within an expanded notion of the design process, which displaces the built object as the endpoint of this process, and investigates the critical facility of models.

Thesis (MArch) -- University of Pretoria, 2001.

Design drawings mediate between the world of ideas and the world of things, spanning the intangible and tangible.  However, contemporary technical architectural drawings, in establishing a direct relationship between the drawing and its object, tend to base this relationship on a visual paradigm that authenticates the visible physical world over the conceptual invisible world, including that of the designer's imagination. The result is that the drawing may become a reduced utilitarian tool for documentation, devoid of any meaningful value in terms of a kind of knowledge that could potentially link the visible and invisible. The imaginal drawing, assuming mundus imaginalis, is an ontological third world mediating between the invisible and visible worlds.  As such, it offers an alternative view of the architectural drawing. Inhabitants of this domain are subtle bodies that hold physical attributes (e.g. form, proportion, color), highly evocative, yet with no matter. Representing a world of similitudes, the imaginal is fundamental to the field of architectural representation, as it introduces a perspective in which the architectural drawing finds an ontological home, wherein the drawing becomes a true in-between territory, mediating between the invisible and visible. In this realm, the drawing becomes a subtle architecture in itself. Prevalent Islamic geometric architectural drawings, namely girih, which lend themselves to the imaginal, provide clues by which the drawing is recognized as an in-between. The geometric interlocking patterns they feature, the girih mode, represent a creative agent by which the built transcends the physical world and penetrates realm of spirituality. An examination the girih mode in its intellectual, imaginative, and physical contexts re-identifies these geometric drawings as a productive realm of consciousness. As an aperture to the imaginal, these architectural drawings open the door to a world of its own, wherein the drawing has a true subtle existence. In this view, the drawing starts from the domain of human imagination with the possibility of ascending to the realm of the intellect, while at the same time descending to the realm of the senses to guide the architect toward a built object. Seen this way, the imaginal drawing can offer an in-between state of being and becoming, a subtle matter, lighter than the building and denser than the idea"essentially representing a mode of consciousness involving the conscious imagination. / Ph. D.

This dissertation proposes a theory of architectural representation based on a close examination of Carlo Scarpa's drawing practices at the Brion cemetery located in San Vito d'Altivole, Italy. Informed by the literary practice of magic-realism and Massimo Bontempelli's thoughts on the ontology of the real, it projects Scarpa's drawing practices into larger questions of theory that parallel and intersect Giambattista Vico's philosophy of knowledge as making. Architectural drawing is understood herein as a practice that belongs in the realm of magic. In theorizing on the intersection between magic and architectural representation, this dissertation focuses in the twentieth century, where magic in its original sense had seemingly become an obsolete tradition. Magic-realism acts as the contemporary theoretical framework to investigate the question. Such a framework is relevant because the movement acknowledged the perennial gap between how reality is defined and what reality really is. The movement intensified the notion that reality is not given but must be constructed, and its point of departure in the modern world is not something extraordinary, but that which circumvolves everyday life. Structured in nine chapters that investigate a very specific set of drawings, Scarpa's way of working emerges through a very close reading of minimal events that become the locus for the theory proposed here. Architectural drawing understood as place of ambiguous realities offers a unique approach to architects' imagination. Such realities, however, are not a product of aleatory allegories, but they emerge within an immersive and witty approach to the work and the world. / Ph. D.

This thesis investigates the use of colour in the interior decorations of the Royal Pavilion, Brighton. The building was created between 1785 and c.1823 by the Prince of Wales (1762 – 1830), later Prince Regent and George IV. The main aims of the thesis are firstly, to analyse the intense colour scheme of the building and set it in the historical context of colour theory and pigment production, and secondly, to establish to what extent personal tastes and fashion influenced these designs. Chapter 1 brings together nineteenth century descriptions of and reactions to the building from early guidebooks and visitors' accounts, followed by brief outlines of restoration work carried out since 1850 and observations on how the building is experienced by visitors today. The aim of Chapter 2 is to provide an overview of colour theory and literature in Europe between c.1765 and c.1845, in order to highlight the cultural, social and scientific background to the use of colour in art and interior design. Chapter 3 outlines the role of key figures involved in the creation of the building. It first discusses the Prince's tastes in art and considers to what extent he may have drawn inspiration from other members of the Royal Family and earlier Oriental buildings and interiors. The chapter then discusses the artists and designers John and Frederick Crace, Robert Jones and Humphry Repton. Chapter 4 describes the colour schemes and chromatic layout of the interior of the building in its various stages from the 1780 to the 1820s. The chapter includes a case study of the conspicuous and varied use of silver as a colour in the building, discussed in the context of the use of silver in other European interiors. Three appendices provide detailed information of colour terms found in contemporary account books, pigments identified in the Royal Pavilion so far, their historical context and where they are found in the interiors. The thesis thus analyses the multi-sensory experience of an interior in relation to new ideas about colour as a crucial element of interior design.