ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how incomplete, imperfect, and impermanent architecture entices people to use their imagination. The competition held for the British Houses of Parliament after the 1834 fire and that for the Chicago Tribune in 1922 are only two of many that required from each entrant a perspective drawing looking at the proposed building from a specific location. Comparison between Etienne-Louis Boullee's perspective drawing of his proposed Theater Place du Carrousel and the comparable drawing by Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand. Camilo Jose Vergara, one of the 2012 National Humanities Medal recipients, has incorporated the time factor in representing urban environments. Evans's photograph depicts the engaging qualities of the incomplete, imperfect, and impermanent piece of architecture. Raphael has given us a demonstration of the technique in his famous interior sketch of the Pantheon. Bernardo Bertolcci's The Last Emperor portrays the life of Puyi, the last emperor of the Qing dynasty, which ended the long chain of Chinese dynasties.
