ABSTRACT
Analysing Giovani Battista Piranesi’s drawings (1720–1778) and Gordon Matta-Clark’s photographs and drawings (1943–1978), we found out a constructive possibility. That is, their works are a direct addition to a possible real construction of their imaginary.
Through these works, we observe the constructive capacities showing the high flexibility of the authors regarding contemporary architectural features: the influence of the former on interior spatiality and the influence of the second in urban rehabilitation.
We consider that Piranesi and Matta-Clark’s architectural training may have contributed to the physical knowledge present in the gravitational idealisation of their productions and in how they developed an architectural analysis linked to artistic practice.
The apparent illusion existing in both gives rise to an effective construction based on a rigorous methodology in which all of their drawings have a common part that is advantageous for the learning of architecture.
Piranesi and Matta-Clark’s studies demonstrate this methodology in the study of ruin and demolition, thus providing architecture with new data.
The two architects and artists were associated in this paper since, in both, the ruin and demolition become an imaginary construction.
This analysis seeks a consolidated and beneficial culture in which the relevant references are essential for the teaching of architecture.
