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Journal of Architectural Education


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Architecture as Drawing
Alberto Perez-Gomez
Published online: 08 Jan 2014.

To cite this article: Alberto Perez-Gomez (1982) Architecture as Drawing, Journal of Architectural Education, 36:2, 2-7, DOI:
10.1080/10464883.1982.10758306

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10464883.1982.10758306

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II ARCHITECTURE AS DRAWING

Alberto Perez-Gomez studied architecture in During the Renaissance, architecture became a


Mexico and received a Ph.D. in History and liberal art because it was perceived to be an
Theory from the University ofEssex, England. activity of the intellect, akin togeometry and
He is currently an Associate Professor of mathematics. Disegno was a "graceful pre-
Architecture atthe University ofHouston. His ordering of the lines and angles, conceived in
book Architecture and the Crisis of Modern the mind:'6 "Image" entailed imitation (mimesis),
Science (MIT Press) will appear in July, 1983. thought, and conception, and was usually asso-
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• c
ciated with the newly discovered powers of man
The distance between architectural drawing as amagus.? The "image" was the architec-
• and building has always been opaque and tural idea (from the root la, to see) in the

·0·
D

ambiguous. Indeed, much of the confusion strict etymological sense, implying "look,"
faced by contemporary architects and educators "semblance," and "form." The "image" was
• seems to be linked to a misunderstanding of also analogous in derivation and original sense
drawing as atool of reduction. This article is an to "species" (from spec-ere, to behold), which
alludes to the original perception of the apriori
• attempt to cast some light upon this problem,
examining historical evidence that will lead to order of reality. Thus the architect used images
.. a discussion of prevalent prejudices which
hamper our perception of modern architecture's
to embody atranscendental, abstract (geomet-
rical) order, in accordance with the traditional
true potential. Aristotelian hierarchy of places.
• Vitruvius understood drawing, at best, as a While the traditional builder, a primeaval poet
minor part of the practice of architecture, while (from the Greek ooees. to make), made his
" "theory" explained "the productions of archi-
tecture on the principles of prcportton." Alberti,
as we know, was the first to distinguish between
thoughts into building through the implementa-
tion of an operational geometry (in the original
sense of giving human dimensions to external
a TheinMontorio,
plan of Bramante's Tempietto inthe courtyard ofS. Pietro
design and structure as the two constituent reality), the Renaissance architect articulated
Rome. Serlio reproduced this original "idea" inhis parts of archltectue." The opening pages of the necessarily "abstract language" of walls,
treatise Architettura et Prospettiva (1519), in spite ofthe fact De Re Aedificatoria contend that design con- openings, and columns in architectural drawing,
that only the central structure (El was actually built. sists "in a right and exact adapting and joining by means of plans (ichnographia), elevations
together the lines and angles which compose (orthographia), and profiles or sections. In
and form the face of the building:'3 The role defining the urban context and its institutions
of design was "to appoint tothe edifice and all through "images," the architect enhanced the
its parts their proper places, determinate traditional sense of place, adding meanings
number, just proportion and beautiful order." that spoke to man about himself, about a new
Design, however, was in Alberti's mind "insep- understanding of life as valuable experience,
arable from matter", so that drawing was per- beyond medieval determinism, but that was
ceived as the embodiment of architectural ideas, never in contradiction to, or defied, the order
distinct from perspectives that represented (in of Creation.
painting), the reality of a building. 5
Renaissance architectural drawing was per-
ceived as a symbolic intention to be fulfilled
in the building, while remaining an autonomous
realm of expression. Hence, the building, i.e.,
meaning given in the immediacy of embodied
perception, was always accepted as primary.
Instead of dictating a set of instructions that
were to be actualized by implementing neutral
technological processes, the architect, still
primarily a builder, knew that the "distance"
between idea and matter, between design and
construction, would be reconciled through his
own involvement in building. In Hlarete's
1 I • II 0 I . C 0 '( D O.
II H

Trattato, for example, Platonic overtones as a neutral collection of information for its
notwithstanding, the architect was well aware construction. The road was certainly open for
that the building would change in the course of the transformation of the builder into an effi-
construction, and that it could be enriched and cient designer, capable of controlling practice
even improved. s The primacy of synesthetic, through prescriptive methods and precise draw-
embodied perception was recognized. Nothing ings. But the transformation did not happen
can replace the meaning of experiencing a overnight. Perhaps more importantly, this
building, regardless of how sophisticated the historical evidence shows that the perception
reduction of a building into other mediums of theory as method, and of drawing as its tool
might appear. Phenomenological psychology of reduction, should not be taken for granted.
teaches us that such embodied experience is Only modern architects after Durand have
the ground for all other perception of meaning. assumed such a role of drawing as primary
and unquestionable.
In La Pratica della Perspettiva (1569), Daniele
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Barbaro, the philosopher and mathematician, Toward the end of the 18th century Gaspard
friend and patron of Palladio, made some inter- Monge developed his descriptive geometry,
esting comments about Vitruvius's architectural which became a basic discipline of Durand's
"ideas." Barbaro emphatically disagreed with school, the Ecole Polytechnique. The problem
the claim that linear perspective (perspectiva of describing an object through its projections
artificialis), along with plan (ichnographia) and on three planes had been aconcern of archi-
elevation (orthographia), was one of the archi- tects before Monge, but the invention of
tectural ideas referred to by Vitruvius in the descriptive geometry was more than a systema-
second chapter of his Book One. 9 The inter- tization of known methods. Descriptive geometry
pretation of Vitruvius's sciographia remains opened the way for afunctionalization of the
problematic, and the most sensible commenta- "lived world," l.e., for the inception of non-
tors and translators of the text have always Euclidean geometries. It became an effective (ir..

struggled with the passaae." It is clear that instrument of power, and an absolutely essential
Vitruvius was not referring to linear perspective, tool of precision during the IAdustrial Revolu- II Serlin's illustration for a perspective construction. His treatise,
but rather toa perception of the building's tion. The original architectural ideas were Architeltura et Prospettiva (1519), was the firstbook on archi-
totality in depth, aview which reconciled the transformed into universal projections that tectural theory to include a chapter on perspective.
internal and external orders, the plan and the could then, and only then, be perceived as
elevation. Vitruvius had posited his three reductions of buildings, creating the illusion of
'ideas" as the means of expression of archi- drawing as a neutral tool that communicates
tectural order or disposition, and Barbaro unambiguous information, like scientific prose,
contended that sciographia should not be Don't we even today see architectural educators
misunderstood as scenographia, or stage stand in front of projects in a review and ignore
design, which was the true province of perspec- architectural ideas, pretending instead to
tive. Instead, he proposed adding the section or criticize "bUildings," assuming that it is pos-
profile to the plan and to the elevation that sible to predict their objective meaning?14
had been recommended by Vitruvius.
Although seemjngly reacting against the "engi-
For the most part, 17th century architects neers" of the Ecole Pplytechnique, professors
continued to distinguish between architecture, and students at the Ecole des Beaux Arts
which depended upon geometrical operations regarded drawing as an implicit manifestation
and combinations, and perspective, which acted of descriptive geometry. This understanding
as atool of illusionism. 11 Perhaps only in the has always been taken for granted and makes
early 18th century treatise of Ferdinando Galli- for acrucial and extremely complex problem.
Bibiena was the task of the architect identified The depth and extension of its ramifications
with that of the stage designer. 12The ambiguity can be grasped by remarking its connection
concerning the use of perspective as a means to what Edmund Husserl described as the
to embody an architectural intention is ex- crisis of European science," and to the incep-
tremely revealing. During the Renaissance tion of non-Euclidean geometries in the early
drawing could be more or less precise, making 19th century.
sometimes use of tools like grids or scales." . . Cylindrical anamorphosis of S. Francis, from F. Niceron's
Curious Perspective (1638), showing the use of geometrical
but the drawing was evidently not perceived as perspective as a tool of illusionism.
a "picture" of the building, as its reduction, or
II
Euclidean geometry, as both Ortega y Gasset
and Cassirer have pointed out, rests upon
intuition. 16 It is "precise" because its origins
are imprecise, because its laws reside in the
realm of experience. The substitution of a
purely optical reality for the primary synesthetic
reality of our being in the world (i.e., the substi-
tution of perspectiva naturalis, the Euclidean
laws of optics, for perspectiva artificialis) may
have started during the Renaissance, but was
not fully accomplished until Victor Poncelet,
drawing on Monge's work, wrote his treatise on
projective geometry in 1822. For Euclid each
"figure" had its own properties and was per-
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ceived as irreducible. Geometry worked pre-


cisely because parallel lines never met."
Even during the "Age of Reason," the embodied,
tactile perception of atranscendental Nature
had primacy over Visual reduction or perspec-
tivism as asource of truth and meaning.

When perspective had lost its symbolic content


to become the "truth of reality," the architects
of the Enlightenment abandoned it as an "idea:"
the Baroque vista gave way tothe English
garden. Almost acentury later, Poncelet used
perspective theory to refute the postulate of
parallel lines and give geometry the "generality
of algebra."18 Poncelet declared that
systems of parallel and converging lines were
identical, and that the lived world was homolo-
gous with the infinite geometrical universe of
homogeneous space." Thus all Euclidean
figures lost their specificity and the world (le.,
its geometry) was reduced to aformal system
of transformations.
The modern belief that drawing is simply a
reduction of abuilding has, therefore, enormous
implications. Descriptive geometry made build-
ing science possible. For the first time the
architect was able to dictate to a mason or
carpenter a series of operations through work-
a Section of Guarini's church of S. Lorenzo inTurin, from his
treatise Archiletlura Civile (1737). Guarini's architecture
ing drawings or precise detail designs, without
having to be involved in the "craft" of "building"
depended on the combination ofEuclidean ligures for its beauty itself. 20 This is, of course, a precondition of
and its stability. contemporary methods of production in architec-
ture and civil engineering. But this modern
prejudice isalso shared by most architects
who regard design as obliquely related to art.

Durand was the first to advocate the methods


of descriptive geometry in architectural design.
In his lectures at the Ecole Polytechnique, he
declared that no building could fail to please
as long as it fulfilled in an efficient and eco-
II
nomic manner the pragmatic requrements for The rejection of reductionism in architecture
shelter. This amounted to a denial of symbolic must bring about arecognition of the value of
order as the crux of architecture. For Durand, theoretical projects as drawing (or model):
the building had to provide maximum pleasure projects which, by definition, Question the
with minimum means. In his Pr~cis, myth and possibility of their execution in aprosaic world.
metaphysical concerns were excluded from Prior to Piranesi, Boullee and Ledoux, this
architectural theory, and architecture became a notion of atheoretical project would not have
game of formal combinations facilitated by the made sense. During the 18th century, reason
grid of his "mechanism of composition."21 became powerful but never excluded myth. The
Thus, design was, in essence, a logic devoid of natural philosophy of Newton, prototype of all
absolute meaning, in which only the syntax of knowledge, was ultimately motivated by the
style could be controlled by reason. possibility of the revelation of God through a
better understanding of His works. 23 Art, poetry,
Modern "professional architects" have taken and science therefore, were not contradictory.
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for granted Durand's understanding of "design" All disciplines were envisioned agailist the
as reduction. ConseQuently, they continue to same epistemological horizon dependent on a
create mute and uninteresting functional build- belief in aharmonious, rational cosmos, re- .... - ....
ings. One follows from the other: the means are vealed to man through the perception of Nature.
not neutral. What is inessential, in fact, is
._~

-,
whether the material skin of a building isgothic, After Durand, the reconciliation between form
classical, a m~/ange of styles, or a denial of
styles. The Beaux Arts tradition was as rooted
and content became the paradigmatic problem
for architects concerned with meaning. Abso-
I I - '-

in functionalism as the Bauhaus, if one under-


stands functionalism as areductionistic
lute validity of anyone style was Questioned
and architecture was reduced to its pragmatic L--
I
attitude, whereby architecture is the function function, that is, the making of material
of a combination of variables, l.e.,the mathe- commodities. The architect was thus forced to II Atypical plate from A. Desgodetz's Les Edifices AntiQues de
matization of human needs and values.22 This choose between art and science, between the Rome (1682) illustrating the fullarchitectural "idea" of a
issue is more profound than "post-modern" false extreme of an absolute objectivity Roman building.
architects seem to suspect. And although the (universal mathematical reason) or that of an
belief in a one-to-one correspondence between absolute subjectivity (personal poetic myth).
the drawing and the building is ludicrous, con- The history of Western architecture in the last
fus ion has prevailed. two hundred years is thus a description of how
architects have tried to come to terms with
The true architect's concern for meaning cannot this issue. Clearly, an architecture gnawed down
be properly embodied in a draWing whose to its bones, one that speaks only about tech-
explicit or implicit role is the reduction or nological process and not about human values
"picture" ofa building. Drawing must serve as has often been deemed unacceptable, by both
the expression of a symbolic intention in the architects and society at large. True, architects
form of architectural ideas. Because very few have often added "referential" ornament to
architects in the last two hundred years have their buildings, trying to make their utilitarian
made their own buildings, the importance of and deterministic structures more "human,"
drawing has been emphasized. Architects have but the success of such buildings has been, at
been either unable to build a symbolic order, best, partial: witness the irreconcilable contra-
or have intentionally avoided building because dictions evident from Labrouste's BiblioteQue
a) they did not comprehend their primordial role Ste. Genevieve to post-modernism. If the solu-
as makers of a symbolic order, hence their tion is not the abstract order of technology, it is
willingness to accept the irrelevant task of also not embellishment.
filling the world with sterile and inhuman struc-
tures dictated by consumerism or economics; Meaning, we must remember, isgiven in per-
and b) because society isapparently not inter- ception; it is not a product of "association."
ested in a symbolic order. Individuals seem Phenomenological studies have shown that
capable of postponing ad infinitum their press- meaning is not primarily or solely an intellectual
ing existential problems, living instead under constnct.s- Architecture isan order that
the illusion of absolute rationality, without addresses our ambiguous, finite, human reality,
sight of objectives, and focusing only on the it is not merely avehicle for scientific "truths."
efficiency of means.
~.~.
The paradox here isthat architecture, by defini- The technological world-view can easily deny
tion, is both abstract, and a mimesis of atrans- the necessity of architecture as a symbolic
cendental reality. But modern man has generally order. But human reality is ambiguous. Irrespec-
denied myth and poetry as the primordial reve- tive of how long modern man may wish to post-
lation of reality. We have become insensitive pone coming to terms with Being, with the
FJO.1.21c FIO.1.2.td
and blind, preferring the logical explanation of meaning of his existence, and regardless of
science simply because it is the source of tech- how long he may wish to conceal emptiness
nological power. Durand, for one, ridiculed the with the illusion of progress, he must ultimately
traditional concept of the column as the body of confront his limits: the dilemma of his finite
man, pointing out that it was nothing more than life and his power to embody divinity. The
a cylinder of matter. Our modern world is super- perception of meaning remains universal, and
FIG.1.2.1e
ficially rational and deterministic, embodying man's humanity endures through the crisis.
FIG.1.2.1(
technological utopia; it constitutes no place for What then must the architect's attitude be?
humanity. Our cities represent chaos rather than
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II The orthogonal planes and Quadrants ofdescriptive geometry order, our structures restrict freedom rather Traditionally, the abstract Euclidean order put
which allow fora reduction ofthree-dimensional reality into a
system ofcoordinates and their manipulation independently than enhance it. forward by the architect possessed an inter-
from intuition, from R.G. Robertson's Descriptive Geometry subjective dimension. Today, however, abstrac-
(by courtesy of Sir Issac Pitman and Sons Ltd.), In view of all this it is crucial to recognize the tion in art is often identified with hermetic,
role of drawing as the embodiment of architec- solipsistic intentions. Although it is true that
tural ideas. In a manner of speaking, particularly even numbers (the epitome of the ideal) are
after Durand, the drawing is the architecture, necessarily "colored," and that most specific
a priviledged vehicle for expressing architec- phenomena are taken in perception within a
tural intentions: intentions that are poetic in framework of categories, in the last two hun-
aprofound traditional sense, as poesis, as dred years architects concerned with meaning
- symbol making. Such architectural drawings have had to take to the extremes. This is,
- "It '"
II J, . bl,tT;- may assume the character of poetic images indeed, a condition derived from the crisis itself,
generated by a metaphor, by a program that and carries with it the dangers implied in exces-
embodies an understanding of dwelling, like sive abstraction (art for artists, excessive
John Hejduk's projects for Venice. Or they may originality, criticism rather than poetry) or in its
criticize architectural ideas and the abstract denial (art for society, excessive referentiality,
-~ elements of architecture (e.g., plans, sections, communication rather than poetry). The tradi-
~L~I:~~-
elevations, or projections). This isthe point of tional middle ground where the ideal and the
f~ "
Daniel Libeskind's Micromegas. The perception real, the intellectual and the bodily articulations
l:::rr T:-:-:7±t of such theoretical projects as self-referential were reconciled, seems today incapable of
1::::1. J.:JS:.L:£ can only occur if the reality of architecture past being the source and origin of architectural
and present is assumed to be the banal re- symbolic intentions. Man is either too insensi-
a Plate from Durand's Precis showing the grid of his "mechanism
ofcomposition" and his method of combinations.
ductionism and pragmatic materialism that I tive or too humane.
have criticized.
The architect seems condemned to make either
The Vitruvian "ideas" cannot be implemented poetic (perhaps romantic) drawings or critical
today as if they had always been anonymous (perhaps senseless) ones. The risk is the pro-
projections in a conceptual space, as if descrip- duction of either screaming, an excessive
tive geometry and our perspective world had dependence on context (the embodied world of
always existed. Nor can the modern architect man), and an unwarranted faith in the possibility
deny the power of abstraction or ignore the end of meaning-in-the-world, or babbling, an exces-
of the traditional world. This paradoxical power sive independence from context and an unwar-
has led the modern "architect" to an effective ranted faith in the impossibility of meaningless
technological domination of building, to irrele- abstraction. When a romantic or surreal project
vant formal manipulations and to city planning. is imagined in the world, often its intended
Nonetheless, our rationality is also part of our meaning is lost. Does "collage" make sense in
humanity, as well as the paradigm of modern our contradictory urban environments? Is poetry,
art: the necessary means for revealing atruly in fact, still possible after Hiroshima? Isn't
modern architecture. metaphor anachronistic or, at best, irrelevant
now that the ultimate referential ground, the
cosmos, has been eliminated? By the same
token, a drawing about ideas runs the risk of
Notes Additional Suggested Readings

becoming a hermetic language, like much serial 1 Vitruvius Pollio (Marcus) The Ten Books on ArChitecture Bannan, John The Philosophy of Merleau-Ponty Hartcourt,
music or abstract painting, which is removed Dover Publications (New York) 1960, P.5. Brace and World (New York) 1967.
2 Alberti, Leone Battista De Re Aedificatoria Tiranti (London)
from the primary realm of experience, from the 1955, P.2. Gadamer, Hans-Georg Reason in the Age of Science MIT Press
shared world in which meaning is grounded. 3 Ibid. (Cambridge, Mass.) 1981
4 Ibid.
Regardless of such boundaries, these two alter- 5 Compare De Re Aedificatoria with Alberti's On Painting and Holt, Elizabeth A Documentary History ofArt Doubleday (New
On Sculpture (London) 1972. York) 1957, vol. 3.This volume contains translated excerpts
natives seem to be the only way of making 6 Alberti, De Re Aedificatoria, P.2. from the primary sources quoted inthe article.
architecture. Ironically, these are the very 7 See, forexample, Agrippa Cornelius De Occulta Philosophia
alternatives explored by modern art, but which (Antwerp) 153l IVins, William Artand Geometry Dover (New York) 1964.
are seldom understood by architects. By 8 Averlino, Antonio (II Filarete) Tratatto diArchitettura II
Polifilo (Milan) 1972, P. 504. Heidegger, Martin Basic Writings Harper and Row (New York)
accepting the status quo of the architectural 9 Barbaro, Daniele LaPratica della Perspettiva Arnalda Forni 1977, chapters VI, VII and VIII.
practitioner and the "reality" of drawing as a (Sala Bolognese) 1980, PP. 129-130.
Downloaded by [New York University] at 12:22 03 May 2015

referential tool, one rejects architecture's place 10 See, forexample, Fabio Calvo Ravennate's manuscript, Merleau-Ponty, Maurice The Primacy ofPerception Northwestern
as a primordial cultural institution, as the printed in Vitruvio e Raffaello Officina Edizioni (Rome) 1975, University Press (Evanston) 1964, chapters 2 and 5.
embodiment of a pre-intellectual order whose PP.78-79.
11 See Guarini, Guarino Architettura Civile II Polifilo (Milan) Merleau-Ponty, Maurice Sense and Non-Sense Northwestern
task is nothing more and nothing less than the 1968, P. 242 fl. The first edition ofthis work was published University Press (Evanston) 1964, chapters 1 and 4.
perpetuation of culture and its coherence. inTurin, 1737.
12Galli-Bibiena, Ferdinanda L'Architettura Civile Benjamin Vycinas, Vincent Greatness and Philosophy Martinus Nijhofl
(The Hague) 1966.
Our collective illusion is a reality that we take Blom (New York) 1971. First published in Parma, 1711.
for granted, a Platonic world devoid of mystical 13 This is clear in Filarete's treatise and insome ofAntonio
ca Sangallo's drawings forSt. Peter's. See Thoenes, Christof
connotations that Plato himself would have "St. Peter's: First Sketches," Daidalos 5, (September
repudiated. Can reality simply be our technolog- 1982), P. 81 .
ical non-sense? This was the Question already 14I discuss this extensively inArchitecture and the Crisis of
addressed by Piranesi, Boullee, and Ledoux Modern Science, Part IV.
15Husserl, Edmund The Crisis of European Sciences and
during the 18th century. Particularly the two Transcendental Phenomenology Northwestern University
French architects were explicit in their rejection Press (Evanston) 1970; and L'Origine de la Geometrie
of mathematical reason as the structure of Presses Universitaires de France (Paris) 1974.
architectural theory.25 Betraying an authentic 16Ortega y Gasset, Jose LaIdea de PrinCipio en Leibniz Revista
de Occidente (Madrid) 1967, vol. I and Cassirer, Ernst The
existential anguish, they struggled totransform PhJiosophy of Symbolic Forms Yale University Press (New
theory into an explicit metaphysics that ex- Haven) 1972. vol. 2, Part II.
plained the meaning of architecture through a 17 Even geometricians found it impossible to prove the limita-
poetic discourse. Their drawings constituted a tions of Euclid's postulate during the 18th century. See
set of theoretical projects that they assumed Saccheri, G. Euclides ab omni naevo. English translation
(London) 1920.
to be true architecture, in opposition to their 18The basic principle of Poncelet's projective geometry had.
actual buildings. Not surprisingly, both archi- been discovered inthe 17th century by Girard Desargues.
tects felt that architecture was deeply akin to See hisOeuvres (Paris) 1864. Desarques's work was never
painting. Thus architecture became primarily the understood by hiscontemporaries.
19Poncelet, Jean-Victor Traite des Proprietes Projectives des
making of the ilrawing (or the model), the same Figures (Paris) 1822.
poetic act that has always magically revealed 20 This is very clear in Rondelet, Jean Traite TMorique et
the truth of reality: a process similar to the Pratique dell'Artde Batir 3 vols. (Paris) 1830.
gnostic search for truth by the enlightened 21 Durand, Jacques-jncelas-tous Precis de LeGons
architect. The true architect must pursue either d'Architecture 2 vols. (Paris) 1819.
22This understanding offunctionalism as an exciusive charac-
of two parallel alternatives in the hope of find- teristic of modern architecture is discussed extensively in
ing a point of reconciliation: he must be a born my forthcoming book. Toward the mid-19th century Gottfried
gnostic or a born phenomenologist. And when Semper would actually use the analogy ofan equation to
the architecture of the modern world is built, illustrate the process of solving an architectural problem.
it will be (as it has been in exceptional cases) 23 See Gay, Peter The Enlightenment AnInterpretation 2 vols,
Wildwood House (London) 1973, vol. 2, PP. 126-166.
founded upon the convergence of these two 24 Merleau-Ponty, Maurice Phenomenology of Perception
perspectives: afuture overlapping of poetry Routledge and Kegan Paul (London) 1970, see especially
and criticism. • parts I and II.
25 Bcullee, Etienne-Louis Architecture. Essai surI'ArtMiroirs
de L'Art (Paris) 1968; and Ledoux, Claude-Nicholas
L'Architecture Consideree sous IeRapport de L'Art des
Moeurs et de la Legislation vol. I (Paris) 1804.

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