ABSTRACT

For as long as architects have drawn, they have relied on the principle of orthographic projection. This, the primary form of architectural representation, places the observer perpendicular to the entire surface of an imaginary picture plane. As shapes and tones arranged on a sheet of paper or a computer screen, drawings occupy an infinitely thin surface. Orthographic drawings, in addition to their material flatness, depict a flattened universe, devoid of any semblance of depth. The relationship between two-dimensional drawing and three-dimensional reality is so intimate that people often forget that they are not the same. This is not merely a question of media, it also represents a perceptual and intellectual reality. The relationship between plan and section is conceptually orthogonal. It reflects the left-right, up-down, front-back nature of the embodied experience of reality. Drawing is referential to an intrinsically understood framework.