Representational Forms and Modes of Conception; an Approach to the History of Architectural Drawing

After briefly outlining several examples from recent historical research which begin to establish the relativity of design processes during several different epochs, this paper suggests that a new synthetic approach to the study of architectural representation and its influence on thought is needed to bridge the gap between architectural history, intellectual history and design methodology. Such an approach would be based upon the concept of studying relationships between representation, conception, and perception, or more simply, between modes of conception as they appear historically, and the particular forms of representation used by designers. Drawing, when studied as a language of thought rather than simply a medium of expression, may yield clues to the intellectual history of architecture which have gone unnoticed under standard techniques of historical inquiry.