DURAND AND REPRESENTATION

I am of course not the first to question the place of representation in the depiction of architecture.  Durand, writing in the early 1800s in his Mecanisme de la composition, stated the inextricable link between architecture and engineering.  He was a French author, teacher and architect.  Given his engineering bent, he naturally questioned the overtly artistic approaches of those who practiced just before him, such as Ledoux.  What is pertinent to our study is that he disparaged the representational artistic images that were being produced.

Rather, he emphasized that architects should focus on problem solving rather than drawing pretty pictures.  He created an architectural theory in which the designs for buildings were based on the use.  And he proposed that the axonometric, rather than the perspective, was the best projection system for the design of buildings.  It is difficult to believe, but in the early 1800s, this was a radical idea.  As a proto modernist, he stated that if the architecture solves the problem, then to use his phrase, meaning would follow.  This of course is a very early version of form follows function.

I am not advocating Durand’s completely pragmatic approach.  Indeed, I am advocating a 50 / 50 mix.  As should be clear, I feel that as a profession, we are taught in a more 80 % artistic and 20% problem solving mixture.  And quite possibly if we draw transparently, we can focus on the problem solving that comes with enclosure while at the same time produce pretty pictures.