Analog and Digital

Addressing the continuity of architectural drawing practice in the design process

Emma Larcelet – Doctoral Research – Doc.CH SNSF

Albrecht Dürer, last page of ‘Underweysung der Messung’, 1525

The doctoral research aims to provide a critical reading of the history of computer-aided-drawing practices, questioning the possible continuity of Renaissance representational languages and techniques in the use of contemporary digital tools. It proposes a comparative analysis of computer-aided-drawing experiments in architecture school curricula between 1960 and 1990, in order to understand the evolution of the architectural drawing process. By investigating the relationships between architecture, industry and computation, the current project seeks to situate the technical history of computer-aided figuration in a broader cultural perspective.