MILITARY AXONOMETRIC

The use of parallel line drawing first came into wide use for the design of military fortresses.  In light of the general invasionary tendencies in the 15th and 16th centuries, impregnability was foremost on everyone’s mind.  Great architects were involved in the design of fortresses.  But also soldiers and engineers naturally came to play an important part in the design.  For awhile many practitioners continued to use the word “perspective” to mean a drawing with parallel projection.  Another term was “common perspective.”  Axonometry was favored because  “one single view does not serve, since the whole has to be shown”

Thus, the engineers and architects of the military did not simply prepare plans and sections as would typically be provided for buildings, bridges and the like.  For fortification design, they had to understand trajectories of the cannon and other articles of war.  Deflection angles of the inter relating elements of the fortress needed to be understood holistically.  The topography of the site also had to be understood in relation to the fortress.  Even in fortress design during the sixteenth century, military designers realized that the single viewpoint linear perspective drawing was inadequate, given their need to show everything.

This showing of everything is what transparent drawing is about.  We are not artists.  We are problem solvers.  Leon Battista Alberti made this exact observation by stating, “the architect rejects shading but takes his projections from the ground plan, and without altering the lines and by maintaining the true angles, reveals the extent and shape of each elevation and side – he is one who desires his work to be judged not by deceptive appearances but according to certain calculated standards.”  To some degree, this statement says everything that needs to be said.