The Working Drawing

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EDITED BY
ANNETTE SPIRO AND
DAVID GANZONI
..
THE ARCHITECT'S
TOOL
.,c:;t PARK BOOKS
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THE
ORKING
DRA lNG
. .
..
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ESSAYS BY
MARIO
CAR PO
HERMANN
CZECH
TOM
EMERSON
PHILIPP
THE
ESCH
DAVID
GANZONI
UTA
ORKING
HASSLER
AKOS
MORAVANSZKY
URS
lNG
PRIMAS
KORNEL
RINGLI
STEPHAN
RUTISHAUSER
JONATHAN
SERGISON
THE ARCHITECT'S
ANNETTE
S PIRO
TOOL
DANIEL
STOCKHAMMER
PHILIP
URSPRUNG
EDITED BY
ANNETTE SPIRO AND
DAVID GANZONI
• 0
.,£:;l PARK BOOKS

CONTENTS
Annette Spiro
..
THE WORKING
DRAWING, AN ALPHABET
OF ITS OWN
P. 6
A-M
PLAN
COLLECTION
ARRANGED IN 12 CHAPTERS
TEXTS BY
ANNETTE SPIRO
A G
BUILDING MEASUREMENT
MANUAL AND
P. 8
NUMBERS
P. 144
BUILDING H
PROCESS NUMERALS
P.28
AND
SYMBOLS
c P.160
MATERIAL
P. 44
CATALOGUE
P. 178
D
BUILDING
ELEMENTS K
P. 72
DISTANCE
P. 198
HIDDEN L
STRUCTURE SPACE
P. 218
P. 102
F M
TOOLS USER
P. 126 P. 244
CONTENTS
VIII
I-XII
Uta Hassler,
ESSAYS
Daniel Stockhammer
ON THE DEVELOPMENT
OF THE BUILDING PLAN
Knowledge transfer,
demonstration of ideas,
David Ganzoni or instructions
ARCHIVE OF THE for building?
WORKING PROCESS
Automation of
Means of communi·
the drawing technique
cation between
and copy method
drawing table and
in plan production
building site
around 1900
P.264
P. 284
II
IX
Hermann Czech Urs Primas
PLAN AND IMAGE CONTEMPORARY
Possible roles in the
WITNESSES
design process
The implementation
P. 267
plans for Susten·
strasse
P. 294
Ill
Philip Ursprung
THE WORK OF THE X
ARCHITECT Kornel Ringli
Peter Zumthor's
PLANNED MYTH
working drawings
The building plans
P. 270
for Eero Saarinen's
TWA terminal as
marketing tool
IV
P.298
Tom Emerson
LINES ON PAPER
The enduring language XI
of architecture Akos Moravanszky
P. 273
THE AXONO-
METRIC PLAN
v
On the objectivity of
Jonathan Sergison the architectural

drawing
WORKING/DRAWING
P. 301
The tension between
hand and computer
drawing XII
P. 276
Philipp Esch
VIEWED FROM
VI A STEP BACK
Mario Carpo Possibilities for
representation
CRAFTSMAN TO
P. 306
DRAFTSMAN
The Albertian paradigm
and the modern invention
of construction
drawings CHRONOLOGY
P. 278 P. 310
VII APPENDIX
Stephan Rutishauser
..
P. 312
FUTURE PLANS
From visual representation
to digital code
P. 281
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FOREWORD
..
Annette
Spiro
The Working
Drawing, an Alphabet
of Its Own
One hundred working drawings are gathered Every architect knows the hour of truth, when
in this book. But even for a small structure, one the working drawing is prepared. Countless
hundred drawings would be very few. For the sketches and plans have accompanied the de
renovation of the Palacio San Telmo in Seville sign process. Step by step, decisions have been
alone, 787 working drawings were created; made and project plans redrawn and newly
among them, a garden plan, which is included drawn. The true acid test, however, is the work
in this book. With a hundred building plans, it ing drawing; the building plan. Every stroke
might be possible to build a small house. counts, every screw has to be in the right place,
If the builders of the Tower of Babel had had every specification is binding. Once the build
working drawings available back then, may ing plan is drawn, all of the hitherto sketches
be the tower would have risen to the heavens, and plans become obsolete in a single stroke.
since like language, the plan, too, is a means They are outdated, worthless, and even be
for understanding. A drawing is more univer come disruptive, as Hermann Czech describes
sal than words and letters. The "handwriting" in his contribution. Nonetheless, the working
of the working drawing has changed less over drawing's survival is often assured only until
the centuries than the style of handwriting of the end of the compulsory record-keeping pe
the alphabet. Moreover, the drawings are un riod, unlike project sketches, which wait, full
derstood across cultural and linguistic borders. of hope, for later historians. For that very rea
The carpenter working on Gion A. Caminada's son we gathered working drawings from the
house in Val Lumnezia would be able to build silent archives, from old plan cases, and the
based on the plan by Studio Mumbai in this depths of hard drives. We selected building
book, despite the Indian writing I After all, who plans, not buildings. The subject of this book
is capable of effortlessly reading a Middle High is the building plan and its depiction.
German text in old-face type? In contrast, on The working drawing is a technical tool: factual,
the basis of the oldest plan in this book we binding, and precise. It does not veil or embel
could still build the Cologne Cathedral. lish anything; it is not meant to be interpreted,
FOREWORD
but instead, clearly read. The symbolic lan nize the pinnacles and gargoyles on the facrade
guage it uses must hold to norms and conven of the Cologne Cathedral. In return, the plan
tions. And nonetheless-or perhaps for that excerpts in the capital overviews show original
very reason?- it is an unrivaled means of size pencil strokes and stroke strengths from
expression bearing the architect's handwrit every drawing. The present book removes the
ing. "A poem is composed of words, not emo plan from its usual context, even from the ob
tions," said the poet Stephana Mallarme. That ject. Every drawing stands on its own and can
also applies to architecture, and precisely this be viewed up close: Or from a distance, with
is what the working drawing reflects, more squinted eyes, as Philipp Esch describes the
clearly and beautifully than anything else. The unbiased view of the "na·ive" beholder in his
one-hundred plans in this book should suffice text.
as evidence. The practicing architects who have written for
How very much we would have liked to have this book will have drawn a sound number of
shown one of the expertly drawn building plans plans in their lives as architects and know only 7
by F. L. Wright; or Gustave Eiffel's construction too precisely the matter at hand; the architec
plan of the framework hidden inside the Statue tural historians and architects who research
of Liberty. How gladly we would have received a construction recognize the handwriting of a
building plan from the hand of Gio Ponti in draftsperson from Antonio da Sangallo's work
stead of the wonderful furnishing plan, which shop and know which colors the architect in
despite its beauty could not be smuggled in un the eighteenth century had in his watercolor
der the theme of working drawings. Our trea box. It is often difficult to follow the tracks of
sure hunts were not always crowned with suc a plan. Uta Hassler and Daniel Stockhammer
cess. Archives and foundations were closed or write in their contribution: ". . . It is extremely
not yet reopened, estates neglected or even de rare to find documentation of design efforts or
stroyed, and alleged working drawings turned a working drawing preserved in any of the fa
out to be retrospectively drawn "fakes." mous plan collections." The twelve texts in this
But on the other hand, we also stumbled upon book demonstrate -like the plan itself- that
unexpected finds, plans whose existence we the border between theory and practice, be
had hitherto not suspected, and well-known tween science and art is blurry in our profes
objects that revealed new, surprising faces in sion and the authors themselves straddle the
their working drawings. Our forays through ar disciplines.
chives turned out to be journeys through time. In contrast to the plans of days gone by, the
We chose one hundred plans and organized this most recent plans in this book are no longer
selection in twelve chapters. The order is sub so easy to read, as they are not drawn, but writ
jective. In one case, the chapter takes "purpose" ten. Will they one day be seen as special fea
as theme, in another, the depiction of the plans. tures in the history of the working drawing?
There is an intention in the order, but no com Or are the scripts harbingers of an architec
pulsion. Those who prefer things in systema tural practice without working drawings? Per
tical form will find all of the plans in propor haps we are at the end of a long history of the
tionally reduced size, chronologically arranged working drawing. Should this be the case, then
at the end of the book. We would have gladly this book might already soon be read as a nos
shown the plans in their original size, but the talgic look at a past drawing culture. But it is
book format imposes borders on the plans' too early for a swan song, and the gratification
reproductions. The largest plan in this book is of a beautiful building plan remains untar
eight times smaller than the original. The read nished: the main aim of our book is to arouse
er has to pick up a magnifying glass to recog- this pleasure.
..
Al-A7
Al
JEAN
PROUV�
P.10
P.13
A2
GLENN
MURCUTT
P.IO
P.IS
A3
BARBARA
FREI,
MARTIN
SAARINEN
P10
BUILDING
MANUAL
P.17
A.4
BUOY
JAIN,
STUDIO
MUMBAI
P.10
P.19
Al-A7
AS
UDO
THONNISSEN,
NIK
WERENFELS
P.ll
P.21
A6
BOGDAN
BOGDANOVIC
P.ll
P.23
The plan for the Simpson-Lee House by Glenn building plans by hand with a red felt-tip pen on
Murcutt is densely written. The sectional plan is graph paper. They are evidence of a different un
both a working drawing and a specification of its derstanding of building: the building site is the
A7.1
LE COR BUSIER, parts. Murcutt's working drawing is directed to architect's office. Together with the craftspeo
ALFRED ward the all-round craftsperson who must con ple, he develops the building directly on site. The
ROTH
struct an entire house in the remote wilderness. contrast to Preuve's efficient building process
P.ll
P.25 Jean Prouve also draws practical instructions could not be any greater.
for construction. "You all know how a building The working drawing for a pavilion roof in the re
site works: first of all, the project, the planning, ciprocal framework method is a proper set of
which is fragmentary ... then, the foundation; and assembly instructions. The working drawing is
A7.2
LE CORBUSIER, after that, you get together the building materi a text. One line for every roof lathe: rod number,
ALFRED al: stone, concrete, you build up slowly, and with number of the attached rods, length and division
ROTH
effort, a single-family house can be put up with of the drill holes, as these are symmetrical. No
P.ll
P.27 in a year. For that, you have to get ahold of an more is necessary. The drawing on the right side 9
amount of material that would almost make you of the plan is there only for the uninitiated, to
shudder" (Jean Prouve, 1946). His building plan form a picture of the finished structure. After
is the answer to the drain on time and material of ward, the whole thing is like a puzzle: every build
the building tradition at the time. His working ing element has a number, they simply have to be
drawings are assembly instructions as he is not put together lathe by lathe.
only interested in the end product, but also in the The more precise the building plan is, the less
building process. The sales brochure forthe pre time the architect has to spend on the building
fab vacation home announces: "within hours." site. Or at least in theory! Bogdan Bogdanovic
Prouve measures the time required for putting sees himself in the tradition of the medieval mas
up or taking down the house in hours! Time is just ter builder. His plans are not precise building
as valuable as material. It has to be fast so that instructions, but instead, hand-drawn sketches.
the exhausted worker can enjoy the weekend. That is what he takes to the building site; for him,
Even the plan depiction attests to economy and designing and building are one and the same.
efficiency. Section, scheme, perspective, axone Le Corbusier's colored drawings, too, are build
metric drawing, every part of the house is depict ing manuals. The young Alfred Roth drew the
ed as efficiently as possible; the plan has almost axonometric depictions and sent them to the
no white areas. Material is valuable, even paper master in Paris to "paint in." What came back
for the plan. The perspective drawing is practical were little color samples, mixed with gouache,
and efficient, as shown by Frei +Saarinen's draw painted on the back of wallpaper. The sample
ing for the Xenix-Bar, as well as the building note is still the best method for clearly representing
books by Studio Mumbai. Bijoy Jain draws his the color shade.
..
Al-A7
..
Al Paper format: 100 • 71cm
JEAN Draw1ng techn1que: Pencil and colored
PROUV� pencil on
P.13
tracing paper
Scale: 1:1,1:5,1:10
Plan contents: Floor plan,
sect1onal v1ews and
perspectives: details
Date: 3 July 1939
Drafted by: Jean Boutemain
Object: Holiday residence
Location: Onville, France
Time of construct1on: 1939
A2 � "'101'-J� It Paper Format: 59.4 x42cm

GLENN .156, �pe" Ul'-.l��)d Drawing technique: Ink on
MURCUTT �Oio:.. S'HC/8 l"'tt<l��
11-.J9Jl..'v\.OOL. plastic film
P.15
�NST
�!::18'16H:I '�
Scale: 1:20
f""tV'tM IN 6 oR' I'"INI� Plan contents: Cross section
Date: September 1989
Drafted by: Glenn Murcutt
Object: Simpson-Lee House
Location: Mount Wilson,
�eo Blue Mountains,
·�.,\
New South Wales,
r.u.. Australia
Time of construction: 1988-1993
-�
� IN l�IOOOM 'S OY
A:S Paper format: 42x29.7cm

BARBARA Drawing technique: Pencil on paper
FREI, Plan contents: Perspectives
MARTIN
of cabinetry
SAARINEN
works
P.17
Date: 2007
Drafted by: Martin Saarinen
Object: Xenix Bar
Location: Zurich,
Switzerland
Time oF construction: 2006-2007
A4 Paper format: 14.8 x21cm

BIJOY - ---==- -�- -�- -=- Drawing technique: Red pen on gridded
JAIN, drawing paper,
STUDIO
heading stamp
MUMBAI
Plan contents: Sectional and
P.19
'I! ll
aKonometric views:
master bathroom
I
part1t1on detail, master
bathroom detail
I
Date: 6July 2011/
I 5 February 2011
I . Drafted by: Punaram Suthar

Object: Copper House II
Locat1on: Chondi, Maharashtra,
II
India
Time of construction: 2011
- 1 I
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A1-A7
AS Paper format: 42 x 29.7cm

UDO Drawing technique: CAD
THONNISSEN, Plan contents: Assembly and mountmg
NIK
instructions
WERENFELS
Date: 11 February 2011
P.21
Drafted by: Udo Thonnissen
Object: Fulcrum bracket mount,
ETH Honggerberg
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
Time of construction: April2011
Plan author: Professor Spiro,
ETH Zurich
Design: Marc Blaser,
Pascal Hendrickx,
Christopher Rofe
A6 Paper format: 69x69cm

BOGDAN Drawing technique: Pencil on paper
BOGDANOVIC Plan contents: Layout sketches
P.23
Drafted by: Bogdan Bogdanovic
Object: Adonis altar for the
International
Sculpture Park 11
Location: Labin, Croatia
Time of construction: 1973 1974
A7.1 Paper format: 71.7x 51.3cml

A7.2 24.4 x 27.5cm
LE CORBUSIER, Drawing technique: Pencil and oil pastels
ALFRED on tracing paper,
ROTH Lettering in ink I
P.25
color pattern glued
P.27
to paper
Scale: 1:100 I no scale
Plan contents: Axonometric:
color concept I
color pattern
Drafted by: Alfred Roth,
Le Corbus1er
(not s1gned)
Object: Werkbunds1edlung
We1ssenhof
Location: Stuttgart, Germany
..
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B1-B6
••
. Bl
MAX
BILL
p 30
P.33
B2
ALFRED
FRIEDRICH
BLUNTSCHLI
P.30
P.35
B3
FABIO
GRAMAZIO,
MATTHIAS
BUILDING
PROCESS
KOHLER
p 30
p 37
Bl-86
64
GUSTAV
AMMANN
P.31
P.39
65
FRED
EICHER
P.31
P.41
Building is a sequence of individual work sta LXXXVII-XCIV from earlier drawings, should
66 ges precisely tuned with one another. The be made use of if possible ...." Also in the ma
SCHNETZER working drawing, on the contrary, records a fin sonry plan by Gramazio & Kohler, every stone
PUSKAS
INGENIEURE
ished state; it shows how the building parts layer is drawn individually. But no mason can
P.31 are put together. How can the course of time read the plan. The addressee is a machine. No
P.43 be captured on a working drawing? stone is centered, no joint set somewhat broad
The classical time plan is from Max Bill. The er, as the robot does not have a sense of pro
grid of the days and weeks is not drawn on portion. Instead, it places every stone in its
practical "graph paper," but instead, meticu place precisely to the millimeter. The working
lously brought to paper by hand with differ drawing is a "script"; the robot's "hand" and
ent stroke strengths. The indications of the "bricklayer's trowel" are controlled directly by
work genres are abbreviated to fit precisely the programming.
into the small columns.The thick, two-colored It is no coincidence that two landscape archi
strokes are not, for example, a tribute to a work tects can be found in this chapter of building 29
of Concrete art. The black strokes on the blue plans. While the course of time is decisive for
prints show the planned course of construc the construction in the building of a house, in
tion; the subsequently added red ones, the ac the garden it is ubiquitous. The garden is nev
tual course of events. The construction site of er finished and in every season it is different.
the new University of Applied Sciences and Gustav Ammann draws the same rose garden
Arts Northwestern Switzerland in Muttenz is a in three phases: tulips, pansies, and roses.
great deal larger than this little house. The He designs an individual color canon for each
preparation of the building lot alone demand flowering. In contrast to the rich gouache of
ed complex step-by-step planning to keep the Burle Marx's tropical plant world, Gustav Am
movement of earth to a minimum. mann draws his plans with delicate colored
Two masonry plans represent the same build pen strokes as though aiming to capture the
ing principle yet are hardly comparable. Alfred transiency of seasons and blossoms. The draw
Friedrich Bluntschli's stacking plan shows how ings from Fred Eicher's workshop are entirely
the church tower rises up stone for stone, layer different. The shrubs and bushes are densely
for layer. Every stone layer is depicted sepa "woven" with abstract lines: a garden in the
rately and every stone is furnished with a num thick greenery of a summer's day. In the draw
ber. How sparingly the architect was with the ing, the beholder can simply imagine the im
building material is shown by the small note in patience until the desired state is achieved
the margins: "The pieces that have become dis and the trees are fully grown.
posable through the elimination of the layers
..
Bl-86
.. Bl Paper format: 42 x 27.5cm

MAX Drawing technique: Watercolor on
BILL heliography
P.33 Plan contents: Time schedule
Date: 27 April 1933
.1 5
Drafted by: Robert Winkler
lp-�
•
�
� �
&b --. �9
Ji.l
7. I�
..
Object:
Location:
Haus Bill
Zurich, Switzerland
'l'l.. 25 Time of construction: 1932 1933
B2 ·,.. Paper format: 52.2 x 72cm
J,
ALFRED Drawong technique: Ink and colored
FRIEDRICH pencil on tracong
BLUNTSCHLI paper, lettering on
p 35
black, red, and
blue ink, stamp
XC Scale: 1:50
Plan contents: Floor plan:
stone layers
Date: 8 March 1893
Object: Protestant
Church Enge
'X<:- Location: Zurich,
1 Switzerland
B3 Drawing tcchnoque: Maya Embedded

FABIO Value • $stoneDeptht$vertGap; Language MEL
GRAMAZIO, teMod • sin($j*$pi/$waveLength)*cos( Plan contents: Production code for
MATTHIAS \2.-0) robotic production of a
KOHLER
P.37
non standard brick wall
if($j••O) Date: 15 February 2006
{ Drafted by: Silvan Oesterle,
polyCube w $stoneWidth -
Michael Knauss
rotate -r -ws 0 0 90;
Object: Curtain, wall, brick wall
move -r (-(($offset*$move
Prototype
} Location: Zurich, Switzerland
polyCube -w $stoneWidth h $stonel
Time of construction: February 2006
Gramazio & Kohler,
move -r ((2*$offset•$moveValue)+ (�
Plan author:
ETH Zuroch
rotate -r 0 0 ($rotateMax*$rotatel'
polyCube -w $stoneWidth -h $stonel

move -r ($moveValue•$j) 0 (($hori;
Bl-B6
84 Paper format: 59.4 x 37cm/

GUSTAV 63.6 x 4 0.9cm/
AMMANN 64.8 x 35.4 em
P.39
Drawing technique: Pencil and colored
pencil on sketch
paper
Scale: 1:100
Plan contents: Floor plan: colors
of the tulips,
pansies, roses
Drafted by: Gustav Ammann
(not signed)
Object: Swiss National
Exhobitoon 1939,
Rose Garden
85 Paper format: 153.8 x 82.3 em

FRED Drawing format: 148 x 76cm
EICHER
P.41
Drawing technique: Ink on sketch paper
Scale: 1:100, 1:20
Plan contents: Site plan with
longitudinal and
cross sections 31
Date: May 1994
Drafted by: Hansji:irgJauch
Object: Sport Center Tufi
Location: Adliswol,
Switzerland
86 Paper format: 147 x 60cm

SCHNETZER Drawing technique: CAD
PUSKAS Scale: 1:500
ING[NI[URE
P.43
Plan contents: Site plan:
phases of ground
management
Date: 5 April 2013
Drafted by: Patrick Hanni
Object: Fachhochschule
Nordwestschweiz
Location: Muttenz,
Switzerland
Time of constructoon: 2014- 2018
Architect: Pool Archotects
..
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Cl-Cll
.. Cl
SIGURD
LEWERENTZ
P.46
P.Sl
C2
GIO N A .
CAMINADA
P.46
P. 53
MATERIAL
C.3
SiGUER
MITSUTANI
P.46
P.55
C-4
MIRKO
BAUM
P.47
P. 57
cs
FRANZ
FUEG,
JACQUES
HENRY
P.47
P.59
C6
SEVERIANO
MARIO
PORTO
p 47
P.61
Cl-Cll
C7
O LIVER
SCHWARZ
P.48
P.63
cs
HERZOG &
DE MEURON
P.48
P.65
When Sigurd Lewerentz draws masonry work, Luigi Snozzi's working drawing, there is a simi
C9 he "builds" the walls, as it were, with pencil on lar reference: "Esigenze da rispettare. New
LUIGI paper. One can positively smell the bricks. The boards, same division, uniform panel direction."
SNOZZI
graphite traces ofthe pencil strokes anticipate Exposed concrete pardons no error. Snozzi's
P.48
P.67 the smudged mortar of the broad joints. Each drawing also exemplarily shows the most im
stone is drawn individually in the margins, at portant thing- harmonizing the dimensions
the center, a stroke is sufficient to indicate the of the shell panel and building volume. In the
bed joint. In Lewerentz's buildings there is no working drawing by engineer Siguer Mitsuta
chipped stone, every brick is whole, even in the ni, in contrast, the beholder sees the building
ascending wall finishes. The mason will take through the eyes of the engineer, reduced to
care not to place a single stone in the wrong a single construction process: the body of
place. The drawing shows the materiality of a concrete ceiling. Spatial and load-bearing
the bricks as well as the module principle with structures are one and the same in the resi
which one can build entire houses, even entire dential block by the architect Paulo Mendes 45
cities. Even the most skilled renderer must go da Rocha.
to great efforts to achieve the material radi For every building material, there is the appro
ance of a masonry plan by Lewerentz. priate drawing technique. It is no coincidence
Gion A. Caminada's house is drawn with sharp that the steel construction plans are drawn
ened pencils, in a traditional "Strickbau" or log with inks and supplemented with axonometric
house building method. Seamless chain di drawings, as used also in civil and mechanical
mensioning, tolerance for shrinkage and set engineering. Oliver Schwarz's working draw
tling; a working drawing for the carpenter! Also ing of a pavilion is one single axonometric de
ClO on Hans Leuzinger's building plan, the measur piction. The entire structure can be built with
HANS
ing lines are drawn with razor-sharp strokes, this one plan and an object list. The depiction
LEUZINGER
P.49 while the cross-sections of the wood lathes, fits with the character of steel construction.
P.69 on the contrary, are made with the broad side The forms are standardized and the drawings
of a soft lead, almost like a wood frottage. The assembly instructions. The way that the parts
organically shaped roof by Severiano Mario are joined is relevant. The interfaces are also
Cll Porto can be found in a clearing in the woods important on Franz Fueg's detail plan of the
ADAM in the middle of Amazonia. He draws the roof church fac;:ade, however, the draftsman can
CARUSO,
truss as though he would lay, with the pencil spare himselfthe repetition of the parts. Mirko
PETER
STJOHN stroke, every individual rafter on the beams. Baum's working drawing contains the history
P.49 Mario Porto's working drawing records the of steel construction with its ingenious spirit
P.71
experience of countless generations of for of invention. His steel bridge is likewise a ma
est dwellers. chine.
The concrete stairway by Herzog & de Meuron Caruso StJohn's floor plan is about stone. The
is a single unit. Here, plasticity is the theme. houses remain white, only what is found un
The stairway is made of in-situ concrete, it can der the soles of the feet is drawn on the plan.
not be easily poured from the top like a prefab The stone floorings lie next to one another like
ricated flight of stairs. One "sees" the casting roughly and finely woven carpets. In contrast
process in the building plan stroke for stroke. to Lewerentz's masonry work, each stone is
The drawing, as well as the course of construc not drawn individually. Instead, similar to "pat
tion, are demanding: The formwork should tern repeat" in the printing of textiles, the com
take place under the architect's supervision puter repeats the pattern, although the floor
according to the remark in the plan header. On er still lays each stone by hand.
..
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Cl-Cll
.. Cl Paper format: 171.3 x 74.6cm

SIGURD Draw1ng techn1que: Pencil on
LEWERENTZ trac1ng paper
p 51 Scale: 1:20
Plan contents: North fa�ade
Date: 7 August 1965,
revised
4 October 1965 and
6 February 1967
Drafted by: Sigurd Lewerentz
Object: St. Peter's Church
Location: Klippen, Sweden
Time of construct1on: 1965 1966
II II Jr:-
II II 11
1 rr-::�
C2 Paper format: 8 4.1 x 59. 4 em
I
GIONA. Drawing technique: Pencil on
1�/
CAMINADA sketch paper
P.53
Scale: 1:20
Plan contents: Cross section
::dt- / Date: 28 March 1996
- / Drafted by:
Object:
Thomas Stettler
Haus Cam1nada
/ Wellinger
Location: Vnn, Switzerland
��r
C3 Paper format: 106.4 x 60.3em

SiGUER Drawing format: 101 x 57.7cm
MITSUTANI Drawing technique: Ink on trac1ng
P. 55 paper
Scale: 1:50
Plan contents: Floor plan and
section: foundation
plate, ground floor
Date: 9 July 1962
Object: Apartment build,ng
Gua1mbe
Location: Sao Paulo, Brazil
T1me of construction: 1987
Arch1tect: Paulo Mendes
da Rocha
Cl-Cll
C4 Paper format: 122.6 • 87.6cm

MIRKO Drawong format: 118 . 4x 83.7em
BAUM
Drawing technoque: Ink on tracong paper,
P.S7
marked woth pencol,
stamp, and red
colored pencil
Scale: 1:10, 1:5
Plan contents: Point of view and
sectional views
Date: 22 J une 2003
Drafted by: Mirko Baum
Object: Transporter bridge
over the Niers River
Location: Neersen-Cioerbruch
near Monchen
gladbach, Germany
cs Paper format: 105x85cm

FRANZ Drawing technique: Ink on tracing
FUEG, paper
JACQUES
Scale: 1:1
HENRY
h::I""" c
P.S9 / Plan contents: Exterior
�
. · .
. ·. .
wall details
·.:.-:. Date: 3 March 1965 47
\ I
� 1-.
Object: Catholic Church
Location: Meggen,
I I
x
\' \t Swotzerland
(09 OIST� Time of construction: 1966
A
1\
I
1\
, _1-- L-
II
I
C6 Paper format: 86.5x 61.5cm

SEVERIANO Drawing technique: Pencil on
MARIO tracing paper
PORTO
S cale : 1:100
P.61
Plan contents: Top view: roof truss,
rafter distribution
Date: December 1985
Object: Balbina Environmental
Assurance Center
Location: Manaus, Amazonia,
Brazol
..
Cl-Cll
.. C7 Paper format: 118.9x84.1cm

OLIVER Drawing technique: CAD
SCHWARZ Scale: 1:15
P.63
Plan contents: Axonometric view
Date: 23January 2001
Drafted by: Nikola Dronjak,
Tuchschmid AG
Object: Pavilion im
Stadtpark
Hohfuren
Location: Uster,
Switzerland
--
ca Paper format: 147x 90cm

HERZOG & Drawing technique: Pencil on
DE MEURON
tracing paper
P.65
Scale: 1:20
Plan contents: Sectional views
of stair construction
Date: 26 August 1997
Drafted by: Mario Meier
Object: Museum
Kuppersmuhle,
Grothe Collection
Locat1on: DUisburg,
Germany
C9 Paper format: 84 x 60cm

LUIGI Drawing technique: Ink on
SNOZZI
tracing paper
p 67 0 0 0 0
Scale: 1:50
Plan contents: View of fa�ades
and cross section
Date: 1 September 1988
0 0 0 0
Drafted by: Gustavo Gro1sman
Object: Casa Bernasconi
Location: Carona,
Switzerland
0 0 0 0
Cl-Cll
ClO Paper format: 80.6x138cm

HANS
Drawing format: 78 135.4cm
x
LEUZINGER
Drawing technique: Pencil on sketch
P.69
paper, stamp
Scale: 1:1
Plan contents: Sect1on:
window, wall
Date: 4 October 1927
Drafted by: Hans leuzinger
(not signed)
Object: Holiday residence
Uf dr Hochi
location: Braunwald,
Sw1tzerland
Cll Paper format: 42 29.7cm

x
ADAM
Drawing technique: CAD
CARUSO,
Scale: 1:100
PETER
STJOHN Plan contents: Top view:
P. 71 floor covering
Date: 26 April 2002
Object: Spatial design 49
�� Stortorget
location: Kalmar,
Sweden
��
..
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Dl-012
01
BRUNO
HALLER,
FRITZ
HALLER
P. 74
P. 79
02
MARIO
RIDOLFI
P. 74
P.Sl
03
ALFRED
ROTH,
EMIL
BUILDING
ELEMENTS
ROTH,
MARCEL
BREUER
P. 74
P.83
04
OTTO
GLAUS,
RUEDI
LIENHARD
P. 75
P.85
05
ALVARO
SIZA
P. 75
P.87
06
ALBERT
HEINRICH
STEINER
P. 75
P.89
Dl-012
07
GOTTFRIED
SEMPER
P.76
P.91
08
HERZOG &
DE M E U RON
P. 76
P.93
Building corners, windows, walls, and concrete would not appear for quite some time- yes,
09 elements: the drawings show individual parts the dimensioning was missing. In the drawing
ANNETTE of buildings, isolated details, and the building by Alfred Roth, on the contrary, the craftsman
SPIRO,
STEPHAN
process. The plan for the corner of a building can see precisely how he should attach the
GANTENBEIN by Fritz Haller reveals its author's handwriting, large sliding window. The beholder looks at
P. 76
although the radical inventor of the steel con the selected details in the plan by Alvaro Siza
P.95
struction system was more interested in a as though through a magnifying glass. They
universal language than his own handwriting. are drawn in carefully into the circular form, a
Paulo Mendes da Rocha's working drawing great drawing effort, as there were neither se
also shows a building corner, and in this case, lection tools nor mouse clicks. Mario Ridolfi's
"corner" refers to the lower edge of the float working drawings can be considered the apex
ing volume. Like Haller's "round corner," also of all window plans. Detailing, material qual
Da Rochas's building corner can be consid ities, atmosphere, everything is united in his
ered the key detail for the entire structure. The drawing, even the perspectival view of the 73
window of the furniture shop is twenty-four diagonally-placed clay brick rosette.
meters long, the glass pane is hung on the sill Paul Bouvier also illuminated his building part
and barely touches the tapered balustrade. from all sides. Even in the plan's captions, the
This is merely indicated by a hairline stroke, pleasure in ornamentation and decor did not
literally carrying to the extreme the de-materi abate. Next to a tower extension from the belle
alization of the fayade's expression. Next to epoque is an air pipe, a mundane object. The
it, the fayade section of the Dominus Vinery plan by Spiro+ Gantenbein decisively shows
by Herzog & de Meuron seems archaic. With how even a simple building component re
010 rapid, confident strokes, Mario Meier draws the quires comprehensive planning and that the
PAULO
heavy pieces of rock in the wire-mesh gabions, plan has to be directed to tradespeople in di
MENDES
DA ROCHA the scarce water, and even the oak barrels on verse areas of building. Hidden in the air pipe
P.77 their bases: A practical plan for the building are also electric cables for the long lighting el
P.97
site, which nearly physically represents the ement. One plan is not enough, above the plan
earth, heat, light, and water. Albert Heinrich header is a reference to seven additional plans
Steiner's fayade detail is also about depiction for the same building element.
011 of the material. Artificial stone, plastering, and In the plan by the Indian engineer Mahendra
PAUL
concrete panels are applied with paint and Raj, all themes contained in this chapter are
BOUVIER
P.77 brush onto the heliographic print. An ideal united in a single drawing. It shows the building
P.99 means for showing the plastering and also a elements of a concrete structure. Rather than
suitable color sampling. what looks like a spatial framework, for exam
The fayade plan by Otto Glaus thematizes ple, concrete panels furnished with filigree ribs
012
the building material concrete and its sculptur form the covering and load-bearing structure
MAHENDRA al qualities. Glaus proceeds like a sculptor in of the sports stadium. The unusual element,
RAJ
composing his concrete surfaces. He draws however, is the geometry of the diagonally tilt
P.77
P.101 them as though flat images, encircling num ing panels, as the grid of the ribs is oriented on
bers refer to the distance of the shell to the ver the horizontal: A seemingly simple measure for
tical coordinate; the relief is visible only on the the sake of transparency and beauty. However,
completed building. The window of the obser the working drawing shows that the geometry
vatory of the ETH and the Doldertal houses of the individual parts is complex. Next to the
in Zurich are drawn at a scale of 1:1. Gottfried common horizontal view, another "normal view"
Semper drew the cross section of the wood is plotted out. And Raj's drawing, too, shows
forms without tolerances- rubber sealing the entire building concept in the finest detail.
www.Ebook777.com
Dl-012
.. 01 ' Paper format: 120.h 85.3cm

III
BRUNO �-:.:J tl Drawing format: 118.5 x83.7 em
HALLER, II
II Drawing technique: Ink on tracing
FRITZ II
paper, marked with
HALLER II
P. 79
lr,.-:� II - pencil, letterong
I
I with template
t
Ol
r!"-- ===!..• Scale: 1:1

section: building
-
---- corner
--
- - -
-
Date: 22 March 1965,
48 revised 18 August 1966
L. ---- Drafted by: Armin Riegert
Object: Hohere Technische
--------
- Lehranstalt
- Location: Brugg-Wondosch,
Swttzerland
02 Paper format: 106x107cm

MARIO Drawing technique: Pencil and
RIDOLFI
colored pencil
P.81
on tracing paper
Scale: 1:10,1:1
Plan contents: View and
sectional views:
windows
Date: 1972
Object: Cas a De Bonis
Location: Ponte aile Cave
(Ternt), Italy
Time of constructton: 1971 1974

ALFRED Drawing format: 104.8 x 87.6cm
ROTH,
Drawing technique: Pcnctl on
EMIL
tracing paper
ROTH,
MARCEL
Scale: 1:1
BREUER Plan contents: Horizontal and
P. 83 vertical sections:
living room
windows
Object: Doldertal houses
Location: Zuroch,
Switzerland
Dl-012

OTTO
Drawing technique: Penc1l, ink,
GLAUS,
stamp, label on
RUEDI
tracing paper,
LIENHARD
P.85 36 lettering by hand
and with template
Scale: 1:20
Plan contents: North fa�ade:
relief cement work
Date: 22 July 1966
I
Object: Jakobsgut II
+
Location: Zurich,
Switzerland
n
OS Paper format: 95.5 x 45.5cm
ALVARO
Drawing technique: Heliographic pnnt
SIZA } Scale: 1:50, 1:20,1:2
P.87
2 Plan contents: Sect•onal v1ews
and details
r;�;-) Date: November 1959
Drafted by: Alvaro Siza
Object: Tea House

Boa Nova
Location: Le�a da Palmcira,
Matosinhos,
Portugal
75

ALBERT
Drawing format: 125.5 x 56.8cm
HEINRICH
Drawing technique: Gouache, pencil,
STEINER '
ink on helio
P.89
graphic print
Scale: 1:10
tr)
('J Plan contents: Detail: west
fa�ade, window
Object: High rises,
Badenerstrasse-
Letzigrabcn
Location: Zurich,
l:C Switzerland
Site engineer: Casett1 und Rohrer
r;::r
Arch•tekten
_...,
..
01-012
..
07 Paper format: 96.3x 63.5 em
GOTTFRIED Drawing techni9ue:
SEMPER Ink and watercolor
P.91
on paper, marked
with pencil,
corrections in
pencil
Scale: 1:1
Plan contents: Horizontal and
vertical sectional
views: window
Drafted by: Gottfried Semper
(not signed)
Object: Observatory
of the ETH
Location: Zurich,
Switzerland
08 Paper format: 97.8x67.5 em

HERZOG & Drawing format: 91x 60cm
DE MEURON Drawing techni9ue: Pencil, graphite and fine
P.93
liner on tracing paper
Scale: 1:10
Plan contents: Detail section: wall
construction: stone
filled gabions inside
steel structure
Date: 28June 1996
Drafted by: Mario Meier
Object: Dominus Winery
Location: Yountville, California,
USA

ANNETTE I Drawing techni9ue: CAD
SPIRO, Scale: 1:20 and 1:2
�
STEPHAN
Plan contents: Views, and top view,
GANTENBEIN
P.95
'X
J( sectional views:
ventilation pipe
hanging
Date: 14 November 2006,
'><
17 November 2006
Drafted by: Peter Ozlberger
Object: Kirchgemeindehaus
Wollishofen
Location: Zurich,
Switzerland
01-012

PAULO Drawing techn1que: Ink on trac1ng
MENDES
paper
DAROCHA
Scale: 1:2,1:10
P.97
Plan contents: Vert1cal and
horizontal section:
fa�ade
Object: Furniture company
Forma
011 '\.
Paper format: 72.2 x6 4 cm,
PAUL four pieces,the
BOUVIER
lengths of wh1ch
P.99
are placed together
Drawing technique: Pencil, black and
red ink, blue ink,
��N N
watercolor,colored
pencil on paper
Scale: 1:50
(")
Plan contents: Views, sectional
views and floor plan
Drafted by: Paul Bouvier
77
(not signed)
Object: World's Fa>r 1900,
Sw1ss Exhibition
Location: Pans, France
012 Paper format: 126.3 x94.6cm

MAHENDRA
Drawing technique: Manually drawn in
RAJ
ink on tracing paper
P.101
Scale: 1:100, 1:50,1:10
Plan contents: Views and sectional
views: main structure
basic geometry
Date: 8 May 1980
Drafted by: P. N. Bose
Object: Sport Stadium
Location: Srinagar, India
Time of construct1on : 1979-1982
Architect: Morad Chowdhury
Partner Kanv1nde Ra1 &
Chowdhury
..
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El-E9
0. El
MAHENDRA
RAJ
P.104
P.109
E2
JOSEPH
SCHWARTZ
P. 104
P.111
HIDDEN
E:S
PIER LUIGI
NERVI,
ANNIBALE
VITELLOZZI
P104
STRUCTURE
p113
E4
ELIZABETH
DILLER,
RICARDO
SCOFIDIO
P.105
P.115
ES
CHRISTIAN
KEREZ
PlOS
P1. 17
E6
HANS
DEMARMELS
P105
p119
El-E9
E7
MARCEL
BREUER,
EBERHARD
EIDEN BENZ
P.l06
P.l21
ES
MARKUS
SCHIETSCH
P.106
P.123
"The form of the steel reinforcement should al and infrastructure celebrate true orgies. Ex
ways be aesthetic and give the impression of tending the demands Nervi made of engineers
being a nervous system that brings to life the to building technicians seems daring. And yet,
lethargic mass of concrete" (Pier Luigi Nervi, is there any reason that what applies to the
1955). In his own buildings, Nervi made good reinforcement, should not also apply to house
on the demand he made of engineers. Outer technology? In Hans Demarmel's plan for build
form and inner flow of energy are in such com ing technology, like an inner nervous system,
pelling agreement that the skeleton seems the sanitary and heating lines hold together
to be visible through the body. The diamond the curved wall fragments. The planning of
pattern of ribs, circles of latitude, and merid Marcel Breuer's Staehelin House in Zurich was
ians: Nervi's plan shows each individual layer a transatlantic affair. The plan for the builder
of reinforcement separately. arose on the drafting table in America. The he
Also the foundation plan for the Altes Museum liographic print crossed the Atlantic by post
in Berlin reveals a hidden structure. But in con and in the end lay on the table in the Zurich 103
trast to Nervi's reinforcement, Karl Friedrich building office, colorfully drawn over by the
Schinkel's plan is not concerned with tractive electrical designer. The fact that a modern co
forces, but instead, loads. The foundation is ordination plan for high-tech building technol
made of wood! The Altes Museum rests on ogy can also be aesthetic is shown by the roof
countless pine piles. The ground plan is not vis construction of the elephant house at the Zu
ible in the drawing, but its arrangement emerg rich zoo. The roof provides daylight and moon
es with absolute clarity in the abstract grid light, tropical humidity, and rain. The plan very
structure, like the genetic pattern of a univer pragmatically shows the wiring arrangements
E9 sal building type. and spacers for their assembly- but still, the
KARL
Light and elegant, the arches span Mahendra drawing has something "spherical" about it.
FRIEDRICH
SCHINKEL Raj's textile factory in Ghaziabad. In the de An unsuspecting beholder might even see it as
P.107 tail plan, one can imagine the strength of the the close-up of a cell.
P.125
tensed arch. The reinforcement- "a nervous On the building plan for the Leutschenbach
system that brings alive the lethargic mass School in Zurich, all that is visible are the load
of concrete." Nervi's biological metaphor puts bearing structure and building technology.
it in a nutshell. The drawing brings to mind That is enough to already envision the finished
teaching panels for biology that show the hu structure, the load-bearing concept and struc
man skeleton, circulatory system, and muscle tural idea are one unit and the framework is
strands. Flesh and skin are removed, one sees everything. This applies in an even more radical
only the insides that keep the body alive. way to the next example, too. A grid, four cross
Energy and tension are invisible dimensions; es: the plan shows only the naked infrastruc
they make only an indirect appearance. For ture. The framework here is but a faint sug
example, in Joseph Schwartz's detail plan for gestion. What does the working drawing look
the pre-stressing of a honeycomb roof. For like for a structure whose shell is composed
the na'lve beholder, the pre-stressed anchor of water and air? Or in other words: what does
may even recall high voltage power lines on the building plan for a cloud look like? A mys
poles. tery! The plan shows the machines that will
One still wants to declare Nervi's demands ultimately generate the "edifice." The white
made of concrete construction as valid. But cloud floats just above the water, beholders
what is hidden within the concrete mass today can rub their eyes as much as they want; it is
can hardly be restrained. Removed from the still there the next day. Behind the magical ap
eye of the beholder, the building technology pearance is pure technology.
..
El-E9
0. El Paper format: 97.4 x 64.4cm

MAHENDRA Drawing technique: Manually drawn 1n
RAJ 1nk on tracing paper
P.109
Scale: 1:30,1:15, 1:10
Plan contents: Sectional v1ews and
deta1ls: supply air duct,
prestress1ng deta1ls
Date: 27 April 1971
Drafted by: Devender Kumar
Chadda
Object: Textile Mill
Location: Ghaziabad
(Uttar Pradesh),
India
Architect: Morad Chowdhury
Partner Kanvinde Rai &
Chowdhury
E2 Paper format: 126x80cm

JOSEPH Drawing technique: CAD
SCHWARTZ Scale: 1:20
P.lll
Plan contents: Details: prestressing
of honeycomb
ceiling
Drafted by: Silvia Schwizer
Object: E xpansion of the
Congress Center
Location: Daves, Switzerland
Architect: Heinrich Degelo
E3 Paper format: 80 x 70cm

PIER LUIGI Drawing technique: Ink on tracing
NERVI, paper
ANNIBALE
Scale: 1:50
VITELLOZZI
Plan contents: Horizontal
P. 113
sectional views:
core grid of
the dome
Date: 21 January 1957,
29 January 1957
Object: Palazzetto
delle Sport
Location: Rome, Italy
El-E9
E4 Paper format: 40.7x26.2cm

ELIZABETH Drawing technique: CAD
DILLER,
Scale: 1:300
RICARDO
Plan contents: Floor plan
SCOFIDIO
Date: 1 June 2001
P.115
Object: Expo.02, Wolke
Loc ati on: Yverdon,
Switzerland
..� Time of construction:

Plan author:
2002
Stau bli, Kurath
�'
& Partner
Jt
ES Paper format: 147x 89.1 cm
CHRISTIAN Drawing technique: CAD
KEREZ
... Scale: 1:50
P.117
Plan contents: Section: structure
Da te: 3 December
2004
Drafted by: Andrea Casiraghi 105
Object: Schoolhouse
Leutschenbach
Location: Zurich,
Switzerland
E6 Paper format: 95.7x 62.5 em

HANS Drawing format: 92.5x 58.5cm
DEMARMELS Drawing technique: Ink on tracing paper,
P.119
lettering with
template, hatching
on plastic film glued
to backside
Scale: 1:50
Plan contents: Layout: plumbing
installation, heating
Date: June 1965
Drafted by: Hans Demarmels
Object: House Cazenave
Loca t ion: Lanneplaa, Orthez,
France
..
El-E9
0. E7 Paper format: 112x69.3cm

MARCEL Draw1ng format: 107.4 x 67.3em
BREUER, Drawing technique: Colored pencil,
EBERHARD
ballpoint pen, pencil
EIDEN BENZ
on heliographic
p 121
print, stamp
Scale: 1:50
electrical plan
Date: 30 July 1957 (floor plan),
12 February 1958 (electrics)
Drafted by: A.G. (floor plan),
Bruno Meyer
(electrics)
Object: Haus Staehelin
Location: Zurich,
Switzerland
E8 Paper format: 130x90cm

MARKUS Drawing technique: CAD
SCHIETSCH 1:100
Scale:
P.123
coordination
plan: roof
Date: 26 November 12
Drafted by: Alke Missel horn,
Clemens Klein
Object: Zoo, elephant park
Location: Zunch,
Switzerland
El-E9
E9 Paper format: 99 x 66.5cm

KARL Drawing technique: Fountain pen in black,
FRIEDRICH watercolor in yellow
SCHINKEL
and gray, marked
P.125
out with graphite pencil
and compass, hand
crafted paper
Scale: 1:100
Plan contents: Top view: threshold
plan for the foundation
Date: 1823
Object: Altes Museum
Location: Berlin, Germany
107
Fl-F7
.. Fl
KARL
MOSER
p 128
P.131
F2
VALERIO
OLGI ATI
P.l28
P.133
TOOLS
F3
GUSTAV
GULL
p 128
p 135
F4
GOTTFRIED
SEMPER
P.128
P. 137
F1-F7
FS
HANS
CONRAD
STADLER
P.129
P.139
F6
GOTTFRIED
SEMPER
P.129
P.141
With bold brush strokes, Gottfried Semper aid, but in it, one can already imagine the fin
draws the flower garland for a frieze under the ished building. Karl Moser even draws the
F7 dome of the planetarium in Zurich. One half of formwork plan for his supports at a scale of
GOTTFRIED
the plan is blank paper. The attentive beholder, 1:1. The growth rings are carefully drawn in
SEMPER
P.129 however, discovers little holes in this empty half pencil on the plan. The perfection of the prepa
P.143 of the drawing; the paper is pierced by count ration is transferred to the captions, even to
less needle pricks. Like with a sewing pattern, the graphics in the working drawing: date and
the painter can place the drawing onto the wet signature are not on the margins of the plan, as
plaster and transfer the ornament directly usual, but instead placed within it, in the frame
onto the background through the holes: Sem work of the form boards.
per's drawing is a tool at a scale of 1 :1. Gustav The plans gathered under the title "tools" range
Gull's plan is also furnished with small needle from sgraffito stencils to working drawings
pricks. And here, too, only part of the ornament for scaffolding. For the opera house in Dresden,
is drawn. Both drawings use the principle ofthe Semper even conceived an auxiliary construc 127
silhouette- which saves time, and the fold tion for the auxiliary construction: a hoisting
ing guarantees perfect symmetry. One knows crane for the construction of the scaffolding.
the technique from the craft of turning; silver He meticulously painted it in watercolors, fur
smiths also draw the plan for their goblets in a nishing it with shadows, which is evidence of
similar way. Although the drawing technique is the draftsman's desire to see the finished
the same for the two plans, they are different. work in the plan.
Semper's bold characteristic style is off the Like a wooden cloak, the scaffolding encom
cuff, while Gull, on the contrary, marked out passes Semper's opera house in Dresden. He
his ornament with fine pencil under the char draws the later structure as a barely visible
coal strokes. The difference is obvious; Gull's surface behind the scaffolding. The drawing
garlands are stiffer, but in return, he does not shows the fascinating aspect of construction
need patches like in Semper's drawing. al aids: the actual work is only alluded to, and
Hans Conrad Stadler's working drawings are disappears again as soon as the building is
based on the same folding principle. He cuts completed. Also the construction principles
out the column profiles from the paper; a are different. The filigree truss construction
practical working instrument. Older architects of the scaffolding has nothing to do with the
might recall stencils and curved rulers. Like massive stone colossus of Semper's opera
a controlling organ, they fit in between hand, house, just as little or much as the tectonic
drawing pen, and paper. wood formwork has to do with the amorphous
The formwork functions similar to the stencils. concrete mass it embraces. As different as
Those who want a precise picture of the form the scales and functions of the tools may be,
work have to create a separate working draw all of the plans have something in common:
ing for the auxiliary construction. In Valerio they provoke imagination. Like a phantom im
Olgiati's formwork plan, each individual spacer age, they allow the later work to emerge be
is exactly measured. The plan shows only an fore the eyes of the beholder.
..
Fl-F7
..
F1 Paper format: 84.4 � 86.8cm
KARL Drawing techn1que: Pencil on
/
MOSER
sketch paper
P.131
Scale: 1:1
formwork
of the supports
Object: St. Anthony
Church
Location: Basel,
Switzerland
F2 Paper format: 105x60cm

VALERIO Drawing technique: CAD
OLGIATI
Scale: 1:50
P.133
Plan contents: Views: formwork,
corridor walls
Date: 5 February 1998
+7.19 .F.BO Drafted by: Iris Datwyler
··---- �--------
Object: Schoolhouse
Location: Paspels,
Switzerland
so L so so l so so l so so 1. Time of construction: 1997 1998
1 'I 'I
1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00
F3 II ... Paper format: 107.1 � 117.5cm

'
GUSTAV • Drawing techn1que: Charcoal on trac1ng
0
GULL ..
paper, marked out
P.135
with pencil, double
.. '
• folded and perforated
. . " . .. Scale: 1:1
. "' .. •
... J
'
.. Plan contents: Perforat1on template:
' ... •
•
..
�
painted rosette
•
� G
•
'I • Drafted by: Gustav Gull
!" •
., I
.., 0 ' . (not signed)
• • • �I\
. .. ... ,. to Object: ETH Main Building,
•
' •
� Renovat1on
� and e�pans1on
$ to
Location: Zurich,
• •
; .... Switzerland
,..
'
'" ,.
�
. "
"'
.,
F4 Paper format: 109.4 � 215cm

GOTTFRIED Drawing techmque: Ink, diluted with water,
SEMPER
on paper, folded and
P.137
,
..
perforated
Scale: 1:1
' Plan contents: Perforation template:
'
fa�ade sgral!ito
1
Drafted by: Gottfried Semper
(not signed)
• Object: Observatory of
} ' >
the ETH
• '1 - Location: Zurich,
Switzerland
Fl-F7
FS Paper format: 44.6x21.3cm/

HANS 15.5 x17.6cm/
CONRAD
12.3x14cm
STADLER
Drawing technique: Paper cut to form,
P.139
marked out with pencil,
lettered with ink
Scale: 1 :1
Plan contents: Template for
stone works: console
and capital arch
Date: First half of the
19th century
(not signed)
F6 Paper format: 55.4x 69.6cm

GOTTFRIED Drawing technique: Ink and watercolor on
SEMPER
paper, stressed cable
P.141
in blue onk, reference
numbers in red ink,
marked with pencil
Scale: 1:30
Plan contents: Views and floor plan
Treadwheel crane for
wood scaffold, with
wood parts list
129
Object: Zweites Kiinigliches
Hoftheater
Location: Dresden, Germany
F7 Paper format: 64.7 x 49.6cm

GOTTFRIED Drawing technique: Ink and watercolor
SEMPER
on paper, blue ink,
P.143
lettered and marked
with pencil
Scale: 1:200
Plan contents: Longitudinal section:
scaffold
Object: Zweites Kon1gliches
Hoftheater
Location: Dresden, Germany
..
Gl-G6
·•
· Gl
PETER
ZUMTHOR
P146
P1. 49
G2
HfOLIO
OLGA
P1. 46
P1. 51
G3
UTA
HASSLER
P146
p 153
MEASURE
MENT
AND
NUMBERS
Gl-G6
G4
ERNST
GISEL
P.l47
P.l55
GS
LUDWIG
MIESVAN
DER ROHE
P1
. 47
P.157
No working drawing without measurement. Acayaba and engineer Helie Olga- a structur
Measurements and numbers define the space al masterpiece. The building site is precarious,
G6 between the building elements, their dimen the slope nearly vertical; there is no space for
ROBERT
sions, the recording of the building, and- no either the scaffolding or the building crane.
CURJEL,
KARL least- the harmony of the structure. "Scala" The house is both a tower and a bridge. Spatial
MOSER means both scale and step; this double mean and load-bearing structures are one and the
P.147
ing also applies to Peter Zumthor's bell tower same here.
P1. 59
for the Sogn Benedetg chapel. The architect Measuring tape, pencil, and paper suffice: the
reduced the tower to an elementary gesture: scale is the central instrument of the recording
what is required to raise a bell. The tower is technique. The documentation plan for Gut
a ladder! Like the ladder to heaven in Jacob's Steinhausen is drawn with painstaking preci
dream, the bell bearer rises to the heights. sion. The projection of the beams, purlins, and
But the ladder is not intended for climbing; rafters let the entire roof rise before the eye of
unevenly spaced rungs forbid its secular use. the beholder. Even the process of measuring 145
Two dimensional chains alongside the section is legible in the fine lines. The plan is a spatial
al and elevation views show the intervals be survey; the fine network of lines recalls a ce
tween the rungs and the decreasing distance lestial chart. That, too, is a recording, but of an
of the ladder's sides from the vertical axis: The entirely different dimension!
higher the tower, the narrower the ladder; and The ground plan of the Gisel House is dimen
therefore, the smaller the interval between sioned without interruption. This draftsper
rungs. From the point of view of the beholder, son has mastered the art of clearly arranged
an exaggerated perspective arises. It is the dimensioning; a great deal of practice is re
principle that Gian Lorenzo Bernini applied in quired before every dimension line sits cor
the Scala Regia in the Vatican. Karl Moser also rectly and no others get in the way.
drew a dimensional chain alongside the tower The dimensioning serves not only the builder,
of the Johanniskirche, but the joints of the but also the architect for checking mass and
stone slabs disappear under the extensive or proportion. The numerical ratio ofthe roof plan
nament. for the National Gallery in Berlin is 5-8-5:
The dimension between axes of the Residen Mass and number are nearly everything here.
cia Helie Olga in Sao Paulo measures 330 cen The space in between is what counts. Ludwig
timeters. On the working drawing, the house Mies van der Rohe built with a minimum of
looks like an engineer's structure. This impres building components. For him, mass and pro
sion is not deceptive as the wood construc portion are "building materials," like concrete
tion is a cooperative work by architect Marcos and steel.
..
Gl-G6
.. Gl Paper format: 42x 80.7cm

PETER Draw1ng techmque: Penc1l and
ZUMTHOR colored pencil
P149
on sketch paper
Scale: 1:20
Plan contents: View: bell tower
Date: May1988
Drafted by: Peter Zumthor
Object: Sogn Benedetg
Chapel
Location: Sumvitg,
Switzerland
G2 Paper format: 100x70cm

H�LIO Drawing technique: Pencil on
OLGA tracing paper
P.\51
G
_DE.·)·· Scale:
Plan contents:
1:25
Section: structure
Date: October 1988
Drafted by: HelioOiga
House HelioOlga
v�7o'!:/4- Object:
Location: Sao Paulo,
Brazil
Architect: Marcos Acayaba
G3 Paper format: 89.8 x 62.6cm

UTA Drawing technique: Pencil on paper
HASSLER Scale: 1:25
p 153
Plan contents: Site survey exercise,
floor plan: penthouse
manor
Date: 1996
Drafted by: Marco Boelsen,
Christine Harkort,
Martina Loeser
Object: Gut Steinhausen
Location: Witten near Bommern an
der Ruhr, Germany
Time of construction: 17th to 19th century
Plan author: Uta Hassler, professor for
monument preservat1on
and arch1tectural research,
I •'
t.ZWt.l 6A$.$\M u, •
Techn1cal Un1vers1ty
m�:�...
��
.. -u:��- Dortmund
Stt.\1-.,.,o...
Gl-G6
G4 Paper format: 83.4 x 88.4 em

ERNST Drawing technique: Ink on tracong paper,
GISEL
marked w1th pencol,
P.155
header and stamped
on detail references
Scale: 1:50
Plan contents: Floor plan: ground Aoor
(wrongly dated 14 October 1938),
revised 26 November 1965,
14 January, 24 January,
26April,10 May,6June,
23June and29June 1966
Object : Haus Gisel
Location: Zumikon, Switzerland
GS Paper format: 112.1x 81.2cm
�
LUDWIG Drawing technique: Gray-line print
MIESVAN
Scale: 1:100, 1:20,1:5,1:1
DER ROHE
Plan contents: Bottom view and
P1
. 57
. cross section: ceiling,
details: lights and
hanging 147
Drafted by : signed "k.A."
Object: New National Gallery
Location: Berlin, Germany
0
� Time of construction: 1965 1968
(f)
G6 Paper format: 60.8 x 99.6cm

ROBERT Drawing format: 58 x96cm
CURJEL,
Drawing techniq ue: Ink on tracing paper,
KARL
dimensional lines
MOSER
P
.1 59 in red and green ink,
marked out with
pencil
i ' Scale: 1:20

\ . \ Plan contents: View: tower
Date: November 1902
Object: Johannes Church
Location: Mannhe1m, Germany
.-
www.Ebook777.com
www.Ebook777.com
H1-H7
H5
GUILLERMO
VAZQUEZ
CONSUEGRA
P.163
P.173
H6
CARLO
SCARPA
P.163
P.175
The first impression when looking at the gar holder, the code of the contour lines is a famil
den plan drawn by Brazilian landscape archi iar one. Even when the lines run vertically, one
H7 tect Roberto Burle Marx is of an abstract paint immediately sees the impressive concrete
MEIKE
ing. A closer look, however, shows small black form from the image of the "contour lines."
HOFFMANN,
MARC numerals on the color surface: the picture gives Different yet again is the working drawing by
WIETHEGER instructions for planting! Every numeral iden the Viennese architects Hubmann and Vass.
P.163
tifies a different type of plant and shows the The ground plan shows the parking facility for
P.177
gardener where to place the seedlings. the Alhambra in Spain. The cars stand under
Numerals and symbols are the key to the plans almond trees, the entire structure is an irriga
in this chapter. Every plan has a code to be deci tion system in the tradition of Moorish garden
phered. What at first seems mysterious opens design. This plan is actually about surveying a
unanticipated insights upon closer inspection. landscape, but instead of contour lines, count
As though under a magnifying glass, clear out less height measurements decorate the plan.
lines of the characteristic building concept ap The slope must be exact to the last millimeter 161
pear in the cryptic symbols. in order for the irrigation system to work. With
Roberto Burle Marx's gouache pictures are its dots, the plan looks like a nautical chart:
characteristic: he designs his gardens with hidden in the pencil figures is a topography of
color and structure. Never is there one single the grounds.
plant, but instead, large amounts of the same Contour lines are drawn on the garden plan
sort. Bushes and flowers are the colors on his for the San Telmo palace in Seville. Although it
palette. He uses them to compose his walk-in looks like the view from below of a ceiling in a
pictures. The rooftop garden of the Ministry in baroque church, in reality, it is a plant plan. The
Rio de Janeiro is conceived as a picture: to the geometric contour lines are not intended for
delight of the officials in the neighboring high the stucco plasterer, but the gardener. They
rise when they look out the window. denote the hilly plant beds. The circular seg
In Gerhard Richter's plan for the church win ments are precisely set, Roman numerals give
dow in Cologne Cathedral, the numerals stand the number and sort of the seedlings and the
for colors. The colorful grids, on the contrary, gray dots the appropriate volumes of soil. The
identify the window levels in the cross section plan is white only in the places where there
of the tracery. Seventy-two color hues are dis are trees. The plant beds trace out the shadow
tributed on 11,263 squares. But in contrast to of the tree tops, under which the visitors stroll,
Burle Marx, Richter distributed the glass col under the parching sun of Seville.
ors randomly. The finished work of the glazier At the end of the series is a drawing by Carlo
ultimately reveals the plan. Scarpa. It, too, is encoded. The colors desig
On the roof plan for the Rolex Learning Center nate the different sorts of stones of the beige
in Lausanne, every figure identifies a panel, and colored panels. In between are practical notes:
every panel is shaped differently. The arrange "telefonare," for example, so that the master
ment of the1,400 panels is plotted on the build does not forget to call in the revisions! That
ing plan like the coordinate network on a map. is characteristic for Scarpa. None of his struc
And in fact: the library visitor strolls over the tures were ever planned to the finish. The build
modulated ceiling as though over the hills and ing site was the place where changes were
dales of a landscape. On the other hand, "struc made at all times and even at the last min
tural contour lines," like on a map, are found ute. For Scarpa, working drawings are design
on the plan by Froelich & Hsu Architekten. The sketches, and his sketches are working draw
drawing shows the concrete molding of the ings. Hidden in each and every one of his de
three diving towers. For the map-reading be- tails is the building concept as a whole.
..
Hl-H7
.. Hl Paper format: 84.1 x59.4cm

40.34 41.34 42 34 43.34 44.34
DESIGN TO Draw1ng techn1que: CAD from
PRODUCTION
3D model
P.l65
40.33 41.33 42.33 43.33 44.33 Scale: 1:250
Plan contents: Floor plan: form
work elements
40.32 41.32 42.32 43.32 44.32 45.32 46.32 Date: 23 January 2008
Drafted by: Fabian Scheurer
Object: Learning Center
40.31 41.31 42.31 4�.31 44.31 der EPFL
Location: Lausanne, Switzerland
40.30 41.30 42.30 43.30
Architect: Kazuyo Sejima,
Ryue N ishizawa
40.29 41.29 42.29
H2 Drawing format: 92.2x 46.4 em (reconstruction),

ROBERTO 198.6 x100cm (original)
BURLE
Drawing technique: Gouache on paper
MARX
Scale: ca. 1:24
CRECON
Plan contents: Top view, planting
STRUCTIONJ
p 167 plan roof garden
Date: 1937
Object: Edificio Gustavo
Capanema
Location: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Architect: Lucio Costa, Oscar Niemeyer,
Carlos Azevedo Leao,
Jorge Moreira,
Affonso Eduardo Reidy,
Ernani Vasconcelos;
Le Corbus1er (architect
consultant)
H3 Paper format: 157x65cm

ERICH Drawing technique: Pencil on
HUSMANN,
tracing paper
ANDREAS
Scale: 1:500
VASS
Plan contents: Site plan
P.169
Date: 7 December 1992
Drafted by: Andreas Vass
Object: Rearrangement
of the entrance area
to Alhambra
Location: Granada, Spa1n
H4 Paper format: 42x30cm

ADRIAN Drawing technique: CAD
FROELICH,
Scale: 1:50
MARTIN
Plan contents: Floor plan and view:
HSU
P.l71 diving towers
Drafted by: Natasa Radulovic
Object: Diving towers, outdoor
swimming pool
Location: Brugg,
Switzerland
Hl-H7
HS Paper format: 84.1x 59.4cm

GUILLERMO Drawing technique: CAD
VAZQUEZ
Scale: 1:200
CONSUEGRA
P.173
composition of
the landscape
planting
Date: July 2004
Object: Conversion of
the San Telmo
Palace
Location: Sevilla, Spain
H6 Paper format: 63.2 x 43.2 em

CARLO Drawing technique: Graphote and
SCARPA
colored pencil
P.175
on cardstock
Scale: 1:10
Plan contents: Fa�ade voew woth
noor plan:
outer covering
Drafted by: Carlo Scarpa
Object: Museum
Castelvecchio
163
Location: Verona, Italy
H7 Paper format: 59.4 x134.5cm
j
MEIKE .. " Ill "" " ..
HOFFMANN,
6k � .. .... Scale: 1:20
MARC
Plan contents: V iew, interior
WIETHEGER 18oo e3w 6k l!lo
P.177 windows: grid spacing,

Ilk ltk "' •
- '-- color assignment
Date: August 2006
Drafted by: Meike Hoffmann,
17k Ill Ill
Marc Wietheger
tool ltk - l+o Ito! Object: Cathedral
18oo a41c Ill Ilk l!lo

Location: Cologne, Germany
.. Is. lllk u• ..
Design: Gerhard Richter
.. .. tol
l-
r-
17• 141c 17• 17•
Ill , ... lol aw l6k
17• Uo ... 17
• tAo I
Jl-J8
.. Jl
H�LIO
OLGA
P.180
P183
J2
DOLF
SCHNEBLI
P.l80
P.185
CATA
J3
LE CORBUSIER,
JOHN
TORCA PEL
P.180
P.187
J4
KARL
EGENDER,
LOGUE
WILHELM
MULLER
P.180
P.189
Jl-J8
JS
ALVARO
SIZA
P.l81
P. 191
J6
HANNES
MEYER
P. 181
P. 193
In the plan by engineer Helio Olga there is an was meant to carry out the instructions on the
J7 axonometric drawing for each single wood joint assembly plan for the Clarte House was de
FRED so that the tradesperson could place every finitely put to the test. "T13 comparable with
CRAMER,
screw in the right place accurately to the milli T17, but with 0 andY in place of 01 and C1." The
WERNER
JARAY, meter. The natural harmony of the engineer's remark appears countless times and always
CLAUDE
house is based on its precision, which extends in new versions on the plan. Heavy thinking is
PAILLARD
P. 181 to the smallest detail. Dolf Schnebli's Casa demanded here!
P. 195 dei Bambini has an entirely different, rough The information on the elaborately drawn plans
character. Yet also his detail section shows elucidate the architect's eternal crux: in the
the same precision. The drawing mediates be morning, the working drawing goes to the
JS
tween the work fields, since for the final details building site, in the evening everything should
SEQUIN the concrete must be properly prepared. The be fully assembled. What was meticulously
BRONNER,
slight offset in the cast-in-situ concrete roof planned over several weeks must now be com
edge on 64/ A 36 guarantees that the concrete 179
KNOBEL
INGENIEURE pleted in just a few hours.
P. 181 front and sheet metal lining are truly flush, and Hannes Meyer's drawing is a catalogue of stan
P. 197
the recessed row of bricks on 41 I A 36 that the dardized sectional views through roof and
baseboard does not project unattractively. No floor. The stone base in the ground floor, the
detail can be missing. Schnebli's beton brut year rings in the wooden beams, cork scrap fill
strives for perfection. ing, and ceiling plaster- all of the details are
The fact that innumerable detail plans are nec drawn so clearly that the beholder hardly has
essary is shown by the examples of plans in this to read the captions. The draftsperson has
chapter. They are technical drawings without expanded the standardized crosshatching
any allure: joining details in countless versions, and textures. For every scale, the appropriate
figures and numbers refer to detail plans and measure of abstraction must be found; an
object lists. Yet these sober drawings, which important issue in plan drawing.
often even recall the pages of a building cat Cramer Jaray Paillard's plan is a typical example
alogue, are of a precise perfection and even of prefabrication. Eighty-six different connec
make it possible to recognize the architect's tions are drawn on the plan. The notice on the
handwriting. They show that the technical dis top edge of the paper refers to the plans where
cipline is also a creative one. the same details can be found, always in dif
Karl Egender's plan looks like the pages of ferent combinations. The plan also shows the
an alphabet book. The overview drawing is a problems of prefabrication. The desired effi
key plan in the building process. Alvaro Siza's ciency is not always so easy to realize, and when
catalogue of sectional views also has this func at least four elements are the same, then ar
tion. A plan like this challenges the imagination chitect and foreman can consider themselves
of the craftsperson. But the master personal lucky. The plan by Sequin-Bronner & Knobel
ly helped on the construction site and sketch looks like a true catalogue page: The steel
ed the details directly, with his unmistakable supports can be produced for every building
handwriting, on the plan. The technician who in the desired number and length.
..
Jl-J8
.. Jl Paper format: 100x70cm

HELlO Drawing technique: Pencil on
OLGA
tracing paper
P.183
Scale: 1:10 and 1:1
Plan contents: Sectional views and
axonometric view
Date: December 1988
Drafted by: Helio Olga
Object: House Helio Olga
Architect: Marcos Acayaba
J2 Paper format: 116x92cm

DOLF Drawing format: 105x83cm
SCHNEBLI
Drawing technique: Pencil on tracing
P.185
,. paper,lettering in
ink with template,
stamped heading,
n C>
visible views
•
{! copied over in ink
Scale: 1:10 and 1:5
(, Plan contents: Sectional views
and axonometric
views:floor-wall roof
Date: 15 March 1971,
revised 17 March 1971,
16 September 1971
Drafted by: signed "Me"
Object: Casa dei Bambini
Location: Locarno, Switzerland
J3 Paper format: 76.5x74.5cm

LE CORBUSIER, Drawing format: 74 x 72cm
JOHN
Drawing technique: Heliographic
TORCAPEL
print, stamp
P.187
Scale: 1:10
Plan contents: Views: types of
window frames
Date: 27 May 1931
(heliography),
29 May 1931
(stamp)
Object: Maison Clarte
Location: Geneva,
·t
Switzerland
J4 Paper format: 131.5 x 156.5cm

KARL Drawing format: 124.3 x 151.5cm
EGENDER, Drawing technique: Ink on tracing paper,
WILHELM
marked out with
MULLER
pencil,lettering with
P.189
template and by
hand
Scale: 1:100
sectional views:
supports, beams
Date: 13 January 1938
Object: Indoor stadium
www.Ebook777.com
J1-J8
JS Paper format: 78 x59cm

ALVARO Drawing techn1que: Heliographic print,
SIZA
pencil and
P.l91
ballpoint pen
Scale: 1:20
Plan contents: Views, sectional
views, floor plan and
perspectival sketches:
windows and doors
Date: November 1959
Drafted by: Alvaro Siza
Object: Tea House Boa Nova
Location: Le�a da Palmeira,
Matos•nhos, Portugal
J6
·'
Paper format: 107.2x61 .2cm
HANNES Drawing format: 105.2x59.6cm
I '
'
MEYER
�
. \. Drawing technique: Heliographic pnnt
P.193
t� I' �r:iJ4
Scale: 1:2
Plan contents: Sect1onal v1ews:
:
,,
! :I 1� ·,�
t
:1�'�16,t
JI I. '. • Ji I
Date:
Object:
ceil•ngs, floors
1 March 1938
Genossenschaftliches
Kinderheim I
... r Cooperative
children's home
,.
\ I Location: Mi.imliswil,
181
l
Switzerland
f .
-
J7 Paper format: 152.8 x67.1 em,

FRED Two p1eces put together
CRAMER,
Drawing format: 146.7 x58.9 em
WERNER
Drawing technique: Ink on tracing paper, pencil
JARAY,
hatchings on the back side,
CLAUDE
PAILLARD lettering with template
P.195 and by hand, header on
plastic film glued onto
back, paper framed with
textile tape
Scale: 1:10
Plan contents: Floor plan: details of
the parts' attachments
Drafted by: signed "EV"
Object: Wohnbebauung Gruzefeld
Location: W1nterthur, Switzerland
Time of construct•on: 1965 1968
JS Paper format: 81x139.5cm

SEQUIN Drawing format: 79.2 x137.3cm
BRONNER,
Drawing technique: Ink on tracing paper,
KNOBEL
marked out with
INGENIEURE
pencil, template
P.197
lettering
Scale: 1:10
Plan contents: Views, sectional views,
floor plan
Date: 29 December 1899
Object: Norms for cast-�ron
beams
..
Kl-KB
.. Kl
JEAN
PIERRE
DURIG
P.200
P.203
K2
MEISTER
ARNOLD
P.200
P. 205
K3
ROBERT
CURJEL,
KARL
MOSER
DISTANCE
P.200
P.207
K4
ALAIN
HERVE
P.200
P.209
K1-K8
KS
EERO
SAARINEN
P.201
P.211
K6
EUGEN
NIL
P.201
P.213
The oldest working drawing in this book is a photo lens of a tower top in the night sky. The
K7 full four meters tall and drawn with iron gall top of the Paulus Church in Basel is six meters
OTTO ink on parchment paper. If the plan were to high, the shaft under the bronze peak is only
RUDOLF
SALVISBERG,
be enlarged 36-fold, it could be laid almost two centimeters. Passersby should see only
OTTO perfectly onto the fa�ade of Cologne Cathe the cross in the heavens. Also the characters
BRECHBUHL
dral. Not only its sheer size is impressive, but written on the plan for the university in Bern
P.201
P.215 also the precision it maintains in terms of de are created for a view from afar. In the drawing
tail at a small scale. This extends from the base by Otto Rudolf Salvisberg and Otto Brechbuhl,
through to the distant roof top. Every individu everything through to the writing on the plan
al rosette, every stone embellishment is accu and the stamp is of a piece. Only the selection
K8
GIUSEPPE rately drawn, although only the birds would of the few letters poses a riddle.
MENGONI ever see the stone masons' artistic work on the Sustenstrasse, a mountain pass road in Swit
P.201
roofs. The work was not created solely for hu zerland and Eero Saarinen's TWA Terminal in
P.217
man beholders, but instead, devoted to the New York are works whose programs refer far 199
higher powers. The size of the plan already is beyond their actual dimension. The mountain
amazing. But truly unusual is that it shows the pass connects north and south; the airport, en
entire view of the huge edifice. This was possi tire continents. Both drawings are discussed in
bly the first time that a masonry workshop was detail in the essay section of this book. The
confronted with such extensive planning. train station of the Durchmesserlinie in Zurich
The working drawing by Giuseppe Mengoni is is of comparable dimensions. The density of in
5.15 meters long and shows views and section formation on Jean-Pierre Durig's plan, however,
al views of the upper stories of the Galleria is much greater and allows us to imagine what
Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan. The structural el is involved in coordinating the innumerable
ements are drawn with red ink, and every stone professionals involved in the project.
is furnished with a number. A table on the edge The most unusual working drawing in this book
of the sheet provides information about the refers to immensely huge dimensions and at
mass and volume of each individual stone. The the same time, immeasurably small ones: the
sheer length of the plan makes it impossible to building plan for the Large Hadron Collider in
entirely roll out the plan on the table, thus the Geneva. The cross section shows a machine
beholder can only view the detailed drawing in that is as large as a house, and has been in
excerpts; an experience also had by a person cluded in the present collection as the only
walking through a gallery. exception- please forgive us. The construc
The structures shown in the working drawings tion shown on the plan measures twenty-five
gathered in this series have almost no simi meters. The inquisitive beholder can zoom in
larities. The plans, on the other hand, operate for endless close-ups on the screen, through
with large scales or great distances, even when to the smallest screw. Even greater is the
the building parts are small. The blue prints by sheer extent of the space that this structure is
Curjel & Moser recall the view through a tele- meant to measure.
..
Kl-K8
I I 273 x 89cm
.. Kl --- Paper format:
I ·--
.. ..•
JEAN Drawing technique: CAD
PIERRE Scale: 1:200
DURIG
p 203
general plan
Date: 17 January 2012
Drafted by: Katharina Labhart,
Luiza Kitanishi
Object: Diameter line:
Altstetten - Zurich HB-
Oerlikon, train station -
Lowenstrasse
K2 Paper format: 166.5 x 406.5cm

MEISTER Drawing technique: Iron gall 1nk on
ARNOLD parchment
P.205
Scale: l1kely 1:36
Plan contents: View: west fa�ade
Date: 1280
Drafted by: Meister Arnold
Object: Cathedral
Location: Cologne,
Germany
K3 Paper format: 32.4 x 74.8 em

ROBERT Drawing techmque: Blue-line print
CURJEL, Scale: 1:10
KARL
Plan contents: Section:
MOSER
intersectional tower
P.207
Date: 8 May 1900
Object: St. Paul's Church
Location: Basel,
Switzerland
K4 Paper format: 118.9 x 84.1 em

ALAIN Drawing techn1que: CAD
HERVE Scale: 1:50
p 209
Plan contents: Longitudinal view of
the Compact Muon
Solenoid experiment
for LHC
Date: 2 November 2011
Drafted by: CMS Engineering &
Integration Team,
Dwithry Druzhkin
Object: Physics detector,
CERN underground
experimental area
Location: Cessy, France
Plan author: CMS collaboration
and CMS Eng•neering &
lntegrat•on Centre
www.Ebook777.com
Kl-KB
KS Paper format: 121.9 x 91.4cm

EERO Drawing technique: Pencil on vellum
SAARINEN
Scale: 1:96
P.211
upper A oor, Main
Building Center
Date: 12 July 1963
Drafted by: signed "CJWC"
Object: TWA Unit Terminal
Building
Location: New York, USA
K6 Paper format: 104 x47cm

EUGEN Drawing technique: Watercolor on
NIL
heliographic print
P.213
Scale: 1:1000
Plan contents: Site plan
Date: 1.3.1942
Object: New construction:
Sustenstrasse
Location: Gemeinde Gadmen,
Switzerland
201
K7 Paper format: 103x62.2cm

OTTO RUDOLF Drawing format: 100 x59.5cm
SALVISBERG,
Drawing technique: Pencil and colored
OTTO
pencil on tracing
BRECHBUHL
paper, stamp
P.215
Scale: 1:1
Plan contents: View and section view
Object: Institute of the
University of Bern
Location: Bern, Switzerland
Purpose: Lettering on the entrances
\
PHARMAZEUTISCHES
INSTITUT, ZOOLOGISCHES
INSTITUT, GEOLOGISCHES &
MINERALOGISCHES
___ , ____ INSTITUT
K8 Paper format: 515.3 x69.8cm

GIUSEPPE Drawing technique: Black and red ink,
MENGONI
sectional lines in
P.217
blue ink, watercolor
:z:;t. C .1
on linen paper
Scale: 1:20
Plan contents: Views, Aoor plan
and sectional views:
stone works,
parts lists
Date: 1 March 1871
Object: Galleria Vittorio
Emanuele II ..
Location: Milan, Italy
18C. Time of construction: 1865-1877
www.Ebook777.com
Ll-LlO
L7
RAFAEL
MONEO
P.222
P.237
L8
J0RN
UTZON
P.222
P.239
The cutaway has proven itself. With ground The classical means of 3-D depiction are not
plan, sectional plan and view, nearly every build always enough. The drawing, however, can
ing concept can be mediated in the working show disparate views at the same time. The
drawing. The spatial concept is orthogonal. It is fa�ade development of the New Monte Rosa
no new thing, however, for space and building Hut is drawn based on the principle of the pa
forms to burst the classical triaxial schema per cut-outs of famous monuments. It shows
of spatial depiction. Sculpturally formed build all views simultaneously and enables the archi
ing parts and spatial niches have always de tect a view of the entire geometrical body. And
manded expanded forms of depiction. In the as it does in so many cases, the working draw
plan by Antonio da Sangallo, the longitudinal ing reveals here, too, a fundamental building
section combines with the interior view of the concept: the long climb comes to a crowning
church. The central viewing point is missing, conclusion in the path along its shell.
and the draftsperson used the central per Representing complex spatial structures in a
spective, which was already known at the time, flat drawing is one of the most difficu It tasks of 219
only in fragments. The perspective-based plan drawing. With Maison Carre, Alvar Aalto
views into the side chapels help the beholder built an expressive space. The sectional plan
interpret the plan. suffices, as the dynamic form of the ceiling
Other means for heightening the spatial effect arises solely from the cutting profile. The case
are colors and shading. They give plasticity to is different with the interior space of the con
the ceiling plan of the Bundeshaus. Hermann cert hall in Sydney's Opera. J0rn Utzon's vir
Czech, on the contrary, uses forthis the projec tuoso creation of space demands everything
tion of the cutting lines. In the building plan for from the draftsman. And no less from the
L9 the cafe bar in Palais Schwarzenberg, two dot craftsman! The plan not only has to be drawn,
ALVAR
ted lines supplement the sectional drawing. it also has to be realized. View and bottom
AALTO
P.223 They already suffice to make the arch visible. view of the ceiling are shown in one. A key on
P.241 Rafael Moneo, in his working drawing for the the right margin of the plan explains the spe
National Museum for Roman art, combines sec cially developed system. However, when the
tional drawing and axonometric depiction. Our drawing is nonetheless stretched to its limits,
LlO skeptical inquiry to the architect's office as to the model helps. Mahendra Raj's roof plan for
HANS whether this plan is actually a working drawing the Hindustan Lever Pavilion is drawn only
WILHELM
was set straight: the axonometric drawing has from the model, and the measurements are to
AUER
P.223 a plan number and was explicitly drawn for use be taken from it, as is noted on the plan.
P.243 on the building site. "Eran otros tiempos," How one can capture space in one look with
the times were different, as the office of the the classical cutaway drawing alone, is shown
master says. The plan served the craftsman to by Francesco Borromini in his drawing of the
understand the complex structure. The view church tower of Sant' lvo alia Sapienza. In one
from below is unusual, it shows the develop single plan he combines ground plan, section
ment of the wall, layer for layer, and lets the be al view, and view. No correct perspective can
holder judge the load of the stones. The time possibly dupe the eye so cleverly. Like the tiles
and the force that the mason spent to lift every of a mosaic, the various cutaways settle in the
stone into place is stored for eternity in the mind of the beholder to an overall view. Mario
countless pencil lines. The crosssections of the Ridolfi uses the same means in his bay plan. He
wall in the axonometric drawing show that with masterfully blends roof view, fa�ade, sectional
it, Moneo built a genuine Roman brickwork. view, and ground plan.
•0
Ll-LlO
.. l1 Paper format: 84.3x56.2cm

ANTONIO Drawing technoque: Ink and watercolor
D A S ANGALLO
on handmade paper
THE YOUNGER
Scale: ca.1:90
P. 225
Plan contents: Longitudinal section
of the main transept
Date: Beginning of1545
Drafted by: Anonymus Destailleur
Object: San Pietro in Vaticano
\ I
L2 . . ' Paper format: 97x54cm

HERMANN
. -
i. ·: Drawing technique: Pencil and ink
CZECH 'i.
;:
on tracing paper
P. 227
Scale: 1:10
Plan contents: Interior detail:
bar room, east wall
I Drafted by: WalterGrur!
t
I •
··-· Object: Palais Schwarzenberg,
-·
;.......----�.:::..:.::±':- '--�-··-··· :..::.... - .. _(.

Restaurant floor,
refurbishment
·. -� ·:· _··
· �
Location:
Time of construction:
Voenna, Austria
1983-1984
(destroyed)
.. ,
.- ·
L3 Paper format: 37x90.8cm

FRANCESCO Drawing technique: Graphite on paper
BORROMINI
Scale: ca. 1:31
P.229
Plan contents: Combination of
section and view
Date: 1652
Drafted by: Francesco Borromini
Object: Church Sant'lvo alia
Sapienza, dome lanterns
I (cp
www.Ebook777.com
Ll-LlO
L4 Paper format: 69.Sx 120cm

MARIO
Drawing technique: Ink and pencil on
RIDOLFI
tracing paper
P.231
Scale: 1:50,1:10,1:5
Plan contents: Combination of
floor plan, section,
and view
Object: Casa Ottaviani
Location: Norcia (Terni),
Italy
L5 Paper format: 118.9 x 84.1 em

ANDREA
DEPLAZES
0 """' Scale: 1:50
P.233
Plan contents: Fa�ade development
\ Drafted by: Kai Hellat
Object: New Monte
\ , 0
..... Rosa Cabin
Location: Zermatt,
Switzerland
Plan author:
2008 2009
ETH Studio Monte Rosa,
221
ETH Zurich,
Andrea Deplazes,
Marcel Baumgartner,
Kai Hellat; Bearth &
Deplazes Architect,
Daniel Ladner
L6 Paper format: 118.9 x 84.1 em

MAHENDRA
Drawing technique: Manually drawn
RAJ
in ink on tracing paper
P. 235
Scale: 1:100
Plan contents: Top view and detail
sections: reinforcement
� Date:
concrete plates
18 August 1961
\ /\ Drafted by: Mr. Rath
/ ' _, v· Object: Pavilion for
h'\ \\t--\/
Hindustan Lever
Location: Pragato Maodan,
New Delho, India
'/ i
/ �-� \ \ /
Architect:
1961
Charles Correa
', _,/ (\
I I \ ' ..
-,..
. I I . \\ ,...... ,.\"'
- -...... •
..
Ll-LlO
.. L7 Paper format: 128 x106cm

RAFAEL
MONEO
paper
P.237
Plan contents: Sectoonal axono-
metric view
Drafted by: Enrique de Teresa
Object: National Museum
of Roman Art
Location: Merida, Spain
L8 Paper format: 128.3 • 99.3 em

JORN
Drawing technique: H eliographic
UTZON
print and blue
P. 239
colored pencil
Scale: 1:48
Plan contents: Plan and elevation
of internal contours:
ceiling, minor hall
Date: 13 July 1964
Object: Sydney Opera House
Location: Sydney, Australia
J
' • 1-' .Ct�l)�
J�
I
l ... ...., ,,1-oj ..
•,?
Ll-LlO
L9 Paper format: 120x 44cm

ALVAR Drawing technique: Pencil on
A ALTO tracing paper
P. 241
Scale: 1:20
Plan contents: Longitudinal section
Date: 13 March1958,
Object: Maison Louis Carre
Location: Bazoches-sur·
Guyonne, France
:¥�
D�i
3 -A---t
L10 Paper format: 46. 5x42.5cm

HANS Drawing technique: Watercolor and ink on
WILHELM tracing paper, marked
AUER
out with pencil
P.243
Scale: 1:50
Plan contents: Ceiling view:
Federal Assembly Hall 223
Object: Parliament building
of the Federal Palace
Location: Bern, Sw1tzerland
Time of construction: 189 4 1902
..
www.Ebook777.com
Ml-M7
.. Ml
LUX
GUYER
P.246
P.249
M2
LINA
BO BARDI,
ANDRE
VAINER,
MARCELO
FERRAZ
USER
P.246
p 251
MJ
ATELIER 5
p 246
p 253
M4
LORENZ
BAUMANN,
ALAIN
ROSERENS
P.246
P.255
Ml-M7
MS
PETER PAUL
STOCKLI,
DIETER
KIENAST,
HANS-DIETMAR
KOEPPEL
P.247
P.257
M6
BENJAMIN
RECORDON
P.247 Whether Cologne Cathedral or Jean Prouve's cleverly against one another and with little ef
P.259
weekend house-the largest and the smallest fort, the anchoring of the armrest is stable.
buildings in this book-the human is always The agreement of structure and body mass
the reference and scale figure. Furniture and absolutely mandatory for furniture- is, in prin
M7 scale figures are not part of the working draw ciple, also applicable to every other building
BRUNO
ing, but they are the invisible protagonists in element, even a garden. The human stride de
HALLER,
FRITZ this plan series. The plan for the sanitary facil fines the arrangement and dimensions of the
HALLER ities in Lux Guyer's housing complex for work step treads and ground slabs in Dieter Kie
P.247
ing women is a classical scheme drawing. The nast's garden. In the plan by Baumann Roser
P.261
copy does not reveal whether the appliances ens Architekten, the measuring figure is the
on the original are drawn with a stencil or stuck tram. Like the stencils and sticky film of Lux
on with film. The sanitation facility designer Guyer's plan, today it is a file that can be direct
had to supplement the black-and-white helio ly copied into the drawing- to the joy of the
graphic print with colored marker, color copies draftsperson when dealing with a clearly fur 245
didn't exist yet. The picture of the bathtubs nished tram wagon in which all that is missing
lined up in a row and water boiler is relevant are passengers. The plan for a tram station
only for the expert, and yet it mediates to to unites vehicle and structures, mobile and fixed
day's beholder something of the modest, but elements. The structures are small, but the
at the time comfortable pleasures in the ev program unrelenting.
eryday lives of the residents. The building plan for the USM-Werkhalle and
The apartment ground plan at a scale of 1:20 the machine laboratory at the ETH are both fur
is by Atelier 5. The brick and concrete walls nished, as both buildings are custom-built pre
are seamlessly dimensioned; at this stage of cisely for their purposes. Under the free grid
building, the builder needs no more. Only when field at USM Haller-the plan simultaneously
furnishing begins does it become clear how shows the projection of the underview of the
made-to-measure the empty spaces are, not ceiling-the production process defines the
a centimeter too large or too small for the ev arrangement of "furniture," while in the ma
eryday life of an average family. Economy de chine lab, the test devices define the space.
mands utter precision in dimensions. That also Recessions in the space and machine parts are
applies to the furniture. In LinaBo Bardi's the put to paper true-to-detail in a virtuoso spray
ater seating, the seats and seatbacks are set technology.
..
Ml-M7
.. L Paper format: 103.1 x 50.6cm

i
Ml
..,
LUX Drawing format: 102.3 x 49.8cm
I
GUYER
I Drawing technique: Heliographic print,
P.249
I I .._ colored pencil
�
��
Scale: 1:50
Plan contents: Section: plumbing
I
installation
1- '
7
Date: November 1926
[
.
Object: Frauenwohnkolonie
Lettenhof
Location: Zurich,
& .�. B Switzerland
M2 Paper format: 110.3 x 82.5cm

LIN A Drawing technique: Pencil on paper
80 BARD I, Scale: 1:50,1:5
ANDRE
VAINER,
sectional views:
MARCELO
FERRAZ theater, seats
P.251 Date: 1979
Object: SESC, Fabrica
da Pompeia
M3 Paper format: 107x 51 em

ATELIER 5 Drawing format: 10 4x48cm
P.253 Drawing technique: black ink,red colored
pencil,and black stamped
ink on tracing paper
Scale: 1:20,1:5
Plan contents: Floor plan: upper floor,
house type 380
Date: 24 February 1958,revised
on 5 November 1959
and 24 December 1959
Drafted by: Heinz Blum
Object: Siedlung Halen
Location: Herrenschwanden,
Switzerland
M4 Paper format: 118.9 x 84.1 em

LORENZ Drawing technique: CAD
BAUMANN,
Scale: 1:50
ALAIN
ROSERE N S
Date: 7 August 2007
P.255
Drafted by: Isabel Gutzwiller
Object: Tram station
Limmatplatz
Location: Zurich,
Switzerland
Ml-M7
MS Paper format:
�I
119.6 � 78.7 em
PETER PAUL
Drawing format: 107.6 �66.5cm
�!-�
STOCKLI,
DIETER
paper, head1ng
KIENAST,
HANS DIETMAR on plastic film glued
KOEPPEL
� to back side, hand-
..j
�·
P.257 I lettered
\"- Scale: 1:100,1:20,1:10
•'
Plan contents: Layout with details
�
�y
I
. Drafted by: Dieter Kienast
Object: Garten Eschler
I - ---
Location: Uitikon-Waldegg,
I -- Switzerland
-- Time of construction: 1989, 1993, 1997
--
M6 Paper format: 180 � 140cm

BENJAMIN
Drawing technique: Ink, watercolor,
RECORDON
spray technique
P.259
Scale: 1:30
Object: Machine laboratory
of the ETH 247
Location: Zurich,
Switzerland
M7 Paper format: 187.1 � 89.6cm

BRUNO
Drawing technique: Heliographic print on tracing
HALLER,
paper, ink, lettered with
FRITZ
template,colored plastic
HALLER
P.261 film and hatching on back side,
marked out with pencil
Scale: 1:50
Plan contents: Floor plan: layout plan
for production machines
Date: Heliographic print
15 November 1961, revised
until 2 2 August 196 2 ,
Date of the layout plan
not s1gned
Object: Rebu1lding of the plant
U. Scharer's Sohne Muns1ngen
Location: Muns1ngen, Sw1tzerland
www.Ebook777.com
www.Ebook777.com
I-XII
.. I
DAVID
GANZO N I
P.264
II
HERMANN
CZECH
P.267
Ill
PHILIP
ESSAYS
URSPRUNG
P.270
IV
TOM
EMERSON
P.273
v
JONATHAN
SERGISON
P.276
VI
MARIO
CAR PO
P.278
I-XII
VII
STEPHAN
RUTISHAUSER
P.281
VIII
UTA
HASSLER,
DANIEL
STOCKHAMMER
P.284
IX
URS
PRIMAS
P.294
X
KORNEL
RINGLI
P.298
XI
AKOS
MORAVANSZKY 26 3
P.301
XII
PHILIPP
ESCH
P.306
..
..
David
Ganzoni
ARCHIVE OF
THE WORKING
PROCESS
Mean s of
commun ication
between drawin g table
an d buildin g
site
264 Working drawings are depictions of an imagined structure, the space is of no importance. Most
future. They mediate how something should be working drawings in our collection are pure line
built, and thereby betray things that even after drawings. Strictly speaking, ink and pen do not
the completion of the building, one can find out draw the actual objects themselves, but instead,
only here, secrets large and small: how big is the merely outline them. In the way that a line divides
cross at the very top of the tower of the Paulus various spaces in a schematic ground plan sketch,
Church in Basel [->K3. p . 207J? How thick are the light in the working drawing, a line divides different ma
penetrable stone panels of the Pius Church in terials. The stroke separates air from stone, stone
Meggen [->C5. p . 591? And how did Gottfried Semper from wood. The borders are drawn, the matter of
generate the perfect symmetry of his bold sgraf interest lies between them. Only the crosshatch
fiti on ETH Zurich's observatory r.... F4. p. 1371? The an ings break this abstraction: they form the fillings,
swers are in the working drawings. which identify the materials themselves.
For their characterization, however, what they do Copied originals, original copies
not show is just as enlightening. That which is not I have never seen the originals of many of the plans
to be built is sacrificed to the economy of the gathered in this book. The single sheet of paper
drawing: people appear in our collection in only that the draftsperson had before them for hours
one single plan [->B5. p. 41J. While people surface on or weeks is in the archive of an architectural office,
design plans as measurement figures, this refer a university, or a museum. The owner sent us only
ence is not necessary in implementation designs. a scan of the plan. For printing, a digital copy is
Instead, there are exact numbers, independent entirely sufficient, the original is not necessary. At
and universal, unrelated to human bodies. The the same time, the identification of an original is
plans also do not show a building's environment. often not clear; instead, there is considerable blur
No neighboring structures can be seen, none riness in its relationship to the copy. In contrast to
of the existing trees or public streets- barely a an artwork, for example, a working drawing is not
hint of a city or countryside. I n some drawings, the final product of a process, but rather, an inter
the spatial context is missing entirely, as space, mediary stage with respect to a goal. The ongoing
too, is not built, but merely encompassed. This work is reflected in the plans. Subsequent correc
is illustrated by the detail collections in the "Cata tions and adaptations are thereby found not only
logue" chapter of this publication. The 1939 con on originals, but also on copies. When A lvaro Siza
struction plan for the children's home in Mumliswil, corrects and supplements door details on a he
which Hannes Meyer drew for a publication, liographic print [->J5. p . 1911, he thus increases the
shows this in a way that is particularly easy to importance of the copy-and at the same time,
grasp rr;9, 11. Like in a collage, he cut away large questions the authority of the original on which it
parts of the interior space. There is an implosion is based: those who still continue to design with
with the roof directly above the floor, a mutilated the original sheet are working with the wrong ma
wall, the drainpipe cut in the middle. An entire terial. A similar amalgamation of copy and original
house at a scale of 1:5 shrinks to the size of a can be seen in the fa<;:ade plan by Albert Heinrich
handy piece of paper-for the mediation of the Steiner [->D6. p. 89]. Painted color areas overlie a
heliographic print so that an entirely new plan chests with eight drawers each for AO formats; 8 4
emerges, the copy is part of an apparently inde hanging files with 4 drawers each for A4 formats;
pendent original. However, our collection also 1 6 6 running-meters of floor-to-ceiling shelves;
contains untouched originals whose actual desig and additionally, 2,700 plan rolls. Altogether, the
nation is as copy. An example of this is the plan by gta archives preserve the estates of 220 archi
Otto Glaus and Ruedi Lienhard [-+D4. P· 85], which tects in addition to a collection of countless indi
comprises multiple techniques. The lines of pencil, vidual documents. The search in the in-house ar
ink, and stamp arefirst aligned in the reproduction, chives was richly rewarding, for reasons other
allowing the shadow of the header-film glued on than their proximity. In contrast to other archives,
from behind to disappear. The original of the plan not only beautiful diagrams and ingenious design
by Atelier 5 r>M3. p. 253] seems nearly forged. The sketches are preserved here, but also all other
drawing was not meant to be in color; the cross documents that accrue in the work of an architect:
hatchings are drawn in red only so thatthey appear personal letters, notebooks, diaries, and also cost
in the heliographic print in the intended gray-an schedules, time plans, basic schedules, mod
actual victory of the copy over the original. From els- and working drawings.
here, it is only a short way to the computer plan
common today. The original now remains locked Recordings of conversations
in the machine; only the print-outs, copies dupli The working drawing marks the step in archi
cated as often as one likes, make it out into the tectural work from the drawing table to the build
world. ing site. It can be a personal means of expression
or, likewise, impersonal instructions. Whereas a
The handicraft of the draftsperson sketch has a clear author, it is characteristic that
Something is nonetheless missing when one has only a few of our examples, were drawn by the
a copy before them rather than the original. With architect whose name the office bears. Often, an
regard to artworks, Walter Benjamin wrote: " Even abbreviation from an unknown draftsperson is ev 265
the most perfect reproduction of a work of art is idence that the designing architect stepped back
lacking in one element: its presence in time and and allocated the mediation of a project to an em
Benj1m1n, Walter,
space." 1 That also applies to architectural draw ployee. Examples of this are the pencil drawings
Th• Work o(Art on th• ings, at least to handmade plans: who wouldn't by Mario Meier for Herzog & de Meuron r-+cs. p. 65.
Ag• of Mtchonicol
Reproduction, New
prefer an original architectural sketch to a first os. P· 93J. The more differentiated the division of
York, NY: Pnsm Key class copy? Those drawings that I have held in labor in a project, the less clear the authorship of
my hand as "original specimens," 2 have become
Press 2010, p. 13.
a plan. For example, the plan created in 2012 for
my favorites, especially in the present collection. the expansion of Zurich Main Station clearly had
Oos Herkun(tswOrter
buch. Erymolog1e
Most originate from the ETH Zurich's in-house gta more than one author[-+ K l . p. 203]: architect, civil
cJtr cJeutschen Sprocht, archive. When looking at the plans, I can see the engi neer, and building technician all had their
Mannheim, Leipzig,
V1enna, Zurich:
draftsperson at work: a pencil travels over the pa part not only in the building, but also in the work
Dudenverlag, per, an ink pen draws line after line, and a razor ing drawing. With historical plans, on the contrary,
2007 (4th revised
ed•t•on).
blade scrapes away the errors. Someone careful the author's name often remains a mystery. A
ly colored in an ink plan in the nineteenth century; header with complete information about the ar
another spent hours gluing on film after film of chitect, paper format, scale, content of the plan,
crosshatchings from behind a hundred years lat date, draftsperson, and property first appears in
er; and a third labeled the header with a stencil. our collection in drawings from the second half of
Countless work hours are stored here, the han the twentieth century. Whereas this supplemen
dicraft of the draftsperson. Long lists of revision tal information in today's plans sometimes takes
data, as well as countless holes from needles, and up a large portion of a sheet, in earlier plans often
tattered paper edges are evidence of this. I see even the scale is not identified. The gaps reflect
drawings on which, perhaps, no light has fallen for the character of the medium. The working draw
decades. Spread out in their entire length and ing is a tool, it is destined for the building site, not
breadth, they present themselves as equally eternity.
glorious and frail. The one is transparency paper,
heavy with oil and shiny smooth; the other, porous When we study plans, we are witness to a discus
and crumpled light; opaque paper, semi-board, sion. The architect speaks to the tradesperson
linen paper. I feel the worn paper, smell the dust with lines, words, and numbers; in the usual case.
and heliographic prints' slight acidity. And I sense But there are also other forms of communication:
the tension of paper rolled up for years: when un plans drawn by tradespeople, such as the metal
rolling, all that helps to counter the paper's adap worker's plan of a pavilion by Oliver Schwarz [-+C7.
tation are weights of several tens of pounds. p. 63], are instructions to themselves. A graphic cor
respondence between architect and local fore

An indefinable number of documents are distrib man is documented by the two sheets of Le Cor
uted in a half-dozen spaces on the Honggerberg busier's buildings at the Weissenhof settlement
campus as well as in three further archives in Oer [-+A7.1. p. 25. A7.2. p. 27]. As model for determining the ..
likon and in the city of Zurich. In terms of contain color, Alfred Roth drew an axonometric sketch in
ers, in the two main rooms alone I count: 96 plan Stuttgart, Le Corbusier colored it in his studio in
.. Paris and additionally, painted a separate legend . hg.l
Hann�s Meytr,
Back at the building site, the two sheets served cooperat1vt ch•ldrtn's
home '" Mumltsw•l,
the painter for remixing. Roth carefully preserved
1937 1939 S.Ctoon
the documents and forty-one years later, as he end ground plen,
foundat•on to roof.
3 wrote in his memoirs,3 the original sample was The plan cuts off
Roth, Alfred; 8rgtg·
nung m•t Ptonttrtn. used once again in the restoration of the buildings. the space: the ent1re
L• Corbus1tr, P11t house is accom
Mondrion, Ado/( Loos,
On the plans, in addition to the color determina modated on
Jost( Hoffmono, tions, also a warning can be read from the master 52 x 70cm.
Augustt Perre t, Htnry
to the still inexperienced Roth: "attention: exiger
von dt Vtldt, Basel ,
Stuttgart ; Btrkhauser, de l'ouvrier une proprete absolue: pots propres,
1973.
pinceaux propres, couleurs propresl" 4 On all types
4 of working drawings, a more general instruction
''Attent•on: absolute
cltenltntu ''demand
has become standard: "The dimensions are to be
ed of the cnfuper· checked on the building." The sentence warns
son: clean contamers,
the plan's reader of gullibility: the drawing is only
clean brush, and clean
p••nt 1" (own trtns an idea of future reality -should the future not
llt•on)
agree with the plan, then the foreman is the one
in charge.
Again and again, sender and receiver change; the

working drawing is invariably a means of commu
nication. Most intimate are the notes on the edge
of the paper. This small strip belongs to the drafts
person alone. Here, stroke samples are depicted
266 as a frenetic pattern, complementing the precise
order of the plan drawing (->J7. p.195J. But the drafts
person also leaves behind his or her traces with
telephone messages, calculations, sketches, to
do lists: silent soliloquies at the drawing board.
II
Hermann
Czech
PLAN AND
IMAG E
•
Possible roles 1n
the design
process
Good architecture can be described, it wouldn't Czech pursued the idea of the possibility of trans 267
have to be drawn. The Pantheon can be described. ferring the verbal concept into a form. -I, on the
Secession buildings can't. other hand, upheld the position that there was, ad
Adolf Loos ditionally, something like visual artistic thinking; a
way of thinking in non-verbal connections, an in
Through the use of flowered borders, labels, details, ner 'logic' of forms, of space. Of course one can
and by emphasizing the individual conception, also describe that verbally, but that would be a
even the simplest orthogonal projection can be translation in a foreign language."
transformed into a work of art worth looking at. In drawing, one attempts to pursue a thought
Otto Wagner and to test it, or more precisely: to combine sever
al thoughts, to blend, condense. But those are
Realization actually visual thoughts even when they are ac
Leos's statement can be understood in two ways: companied and founded by terms and language
first, three-dimensional concepts can be so ele beyond the drawing-sometimes jotted down
mentary that they can be expressed through verbal next to it. The thoughts - the visual as we ll as the
abstraction. (Repeated misquotations of this Loos linguistic- are located at different levels; they
passage cite the Parthenon rather than the Pan range from lines, building elements, spaces, col
theon, which naturally ruins the argumentation.) A ors, products, and models through to associations
narrow idea of industrialization also believed that and ways of behaving. They are heterogeneous.
the design could rest so entirely on a (prefabricat They are at various scales or not to scale.
ed) building system, that it could be conveyed by The sketch, the drawing as a stage of thought,
means of lists, or even, on the telephone. becomes "obsolete," valueless, and distracting as
Understood a bit more broadly, established soon as the design progresses; you can destroy it.
building conventions could also be understood as That may be much to the regret of later analysis,
regulatory, meaning that only deviations from architectural historiography (should such a thing
them have to be drawn out. In most cases, Loos exist). But aren't we our own historians? A feature
could assume that the practitioner-the trades of Konrad Wachsmann's design pedagogy was
person- was able to work largely independently that all group members used the same paper for
within a tried-and-true tradition, which has no long mat and could not throw away any sheets so that
er been the case since the mid-twentieth century, the path of all arguments from every participant
at the latest. At any rate, discussion here is of the could be traced back, and work could continue
plan whose purpose it is to communicate a design from a previously reached point.
intention, and to do so to those who are integrated And isn't the individual design of a single per
in the realization. son likewise a chronological series of decisions?
Those who design must live with previously made
Design decisions -or reverse the m, in the same way as
It is alluring to grasp architecture in language. with a conversion, what exists must be accepted ..
The architect Wolfgang Mistelbauer (1 934-2007) or sacrificed. Then you have to return to an earlier
said of our shared work in the 1 960s, "Back then, state, which is preserved in the documentation.
II
..
But these methodical sketches are unsigned, Before I entered the master class of Ernst A .
whereas a plan, which is meant to assure the im Plischke at Vienna's Academy of Fine Arts, I was of
plementation by others, bears the official signa the strict opinion that this is not only impossible,
ture of the author or the office. Why should I sign but also reprehensible as an attempt; one de
a sketch? I know my own name, it's superfluous. ceives people by presenting images of something
The only sensible information would be a date that does not yet exist.
thus providing the position in the chronology of Plischke taught me to produce such perspec
the design process. A genuine, original design tives, to even turn them into a methodological tool.
sketch never bears the name of the architect. But I still refuse to insert people in them; instead,
Of course, drawings can also be exhibited, but the beholder should feel drawn into the space.
only in connection with the developed concept, as In terms of current computer simulations, I
part of the process that leads to the structure. The likewise tend toward a systematic approach. I do
beauty of a drawing is misleading. The attraction not show any more than I know-which is natural
of a sketch is its transcending character; it refers ly a handicap, especially in competitions. Only in a
beyond itself as medium of a message or as pre very late stage of a design can a rendering depict
paratory study for something else. Like "design," it a building or a space in a realistic way.
is only understandable with reference to some
thing else, which it should first serve. Drawing and Persuasion and seduction
design become mendacious and ludicrous when Or is it possible, to predict the result in the idea
viewed as finished products, dismissing their tran and express it as image? The beginning quote by
scending aspects. Otto-Wagner aims at a plan that is meant to com
municate a design intention-though, to those
Detail making decisions about realization.
The word "detail" was once commonly used for Wagner speaks of the drawing as an artwork.
268 something that was less important in comparison For him, "art" has two contexts of meaning, which
with the whole, and would be dealt with later. Al are found at different levels. On the one hand, it
though it is common knowledge that god and the often means the effort at sculptural invention,
devil are in the details- not only because that's which- also on the building- can be metered out
where the water will get in, but also because the according to need. However, on the other hand,
details repeat and produce the context of the art means the architectural thought itself; the idea
structure. that is gained from the synopsis of the material:
The computer favors a less-hierarchical view "A good, great thought is to be grasped before
of decisions. Although the plan on the computer the pen is set in action, and carefully pondered."
screen never shows the particulars and the over Heinrich Kulka also said about Loos: "Loos saw
view simultaneously (at best, they have to be print all results with his inner eye, even the most com
ed out and viewed the same way as hand-drawn plex spatial arrangements, like someone walking
ones in full size), it does force one to define every through the building, before he took a pencil in
detail, at least to the extent necessary for it to take hand."
its position in the overview; a fleeting, not-to-scale Can the finished design emanate from the
sketch of partial problems would negate the effort mind? The experience of having seen what one
saved by using the computer. (When, however, the has planned as built reality, a process that always
thought is not as precise as the machine, the plan takes years, might cumulatively prevent one from
is far from disclosing its errors.) being surprised by outcomes. But the amount and
Yet every detail is simultaneously a whole, and heterogeneity of the matters to be decided upon
vice versa. There is no ranking of scales. "Detail" and of the participants make the design a process.
is the particular decision field under observation Its respective state is, thus, defined; but should
at a time; the scales intertwine. The term simply always be justifiable. The tragic ensnarement of
steers attention to something else at a given mo architecture competitions is that what is judged
ment. Christopher Alexander's theory of the gen are supposed results, but in truth, they are only ini
eration of form rests on this perspective: its pat tial approaches. The tragic aspect is that there is
terns are relations between various elements, but no awareness of this fact. Still, organizers and ju
these elements are, themselves, patterns. rors believe to be selecting finished dishes, where
There is, of course, architecture that is unaf in truth, available are merely parts of recipes.
fected by the outsourcing of working drawings Nonetheless, like with modern cookbooks,
and detail planning, because even then, it will look there are also deceptive illustrations. In fact, the
peculiar. image, not the thoughts, carry the medial repre
sentation of the architecture. Images buzz around,
"Atmospheres" in which one sees everything; except for what will
What can a draft show before it is built? During the be made.
process of creating a design, one would like to
have an anticipatory idea and control of its effect. Assumptions
Is it possible to visualize a building or an interior, Since the early twentieth century, classical iso
"the way it will be"? metric projection -that is, the undistorted ground
II
plan set obliquely and with true-length verti

cals- has confronted a perspective-based con
cept of space with the idea of a field and delivered /leinz Frank A L L E 5 MACHEN
an "objective" image of a design that is not only

three-dimensional, but also measurable. Joining
in, in the "postmodern" era, was also the view of eeit es das problem gibt, dr�ngt dar mensch. auch dna
volk dr�ngt, wail eo wKchst. ea braucht den raum unbe

the open ground plan from below, that is, looking
dingt zwn beque�nen entfalten. dar anspruch nach wohn
upward into the space, which facilitated the imag lichkeit echieBt in die hohe und drUokt etetig auf die
ination of (usually historical, or historicizing) vaults. wiasensohaft. dae problem liegt dann auf der hand. �
It is precisely these depictions that are not possi � jetzt iet der alleemaoher da, handlich, und maoht
ble with commercially available CAD programs. ee wahreoheinlich ohomiech. er macht ee dort und ordent
lich, wo der mensch ea will und herrecht 1m raume.

One can do a lot on the screen that cannot be
wir haben ihn zur hochzeit bekommen, sagt dae junge paar,
done with a pencil on paper; such as correct a
und sind sehr glUoklich. es geht kinderleicht, wir etau
curve without having to erase it first, approaching
nen nur. wir nehmen allesmacher und mechen alles wie wir
what is ultimately intended through hatching, but ee una immer gewUnscht haben, geatern dae bett und mor
then filtering out only that. gen daa Ubrige. wir fUllen den raum mit allesmaoher, und
To be able to work further on something al dar raum wird wohnlich und schon. wir freuen una riesig,
daB es klappt. wenn es nicht eitzt, verwenden wir den

ready achieved, to selectively represent different
sogenannten alleeloscher, dar alles loscht, und baginnen
contexts through different layers, could lead from von vorne. auch waldi hat seine freude und waut. dank
the teamwork of specialist areas to an uncompli allesmacher 1st er seit einer woche dar etolze herr einer
cated teamwork of design proper. In generating hUtte. &C 1st einfach prima und tunktioniert picobello,
form, computer programs can go beyond the seit wir ibn haben, gibt as fUr una kein problem. wir,
unaere nachbarn, uneere treunde und bekannten und all•

designer's spatial concept; and the designer,
alle alle bauen allea allee mit alleemacher und mechen
for his or her part, can expand the area of experi 1m falle eines fallea mit allesmacher alles ....
><1-t�!loloeof ,
ence with this resource, so that an enriched spa 269
tial awareness can be expected. Unfortunately,
these expansions do not lead- as hoped for by
some-to a new philosophy of space, but often,
in contrast, to trivial ornamentation.
And ultimately, one can print out three hg.l
From Proto/co/It,
dimensionally, which brings Heinz Frank's utopia
a sem•·annual publi
from 1 9 71 a bit closer [ng.lJ. My generation and cation on literature,
fine &fts, and mus1c,
the following one did not learn to draw on the ed. Otto Breicha1
computer. (Fritz Kurrent, who is even a bit older, V1enna Mumch
(Jugend und Volk),
said: "What do you want from me, I am a twentieth
2/1971, p.l44.
century architect.") In the most intense moments
of design, we are dependent on relating our ideas
to staff members, as we watch, and are usually un
able to understand the steps required, and in or
der to perceive the results, must ask that they stop
zapping between scales.
But those who do not reject new technologies
The article on principle, are able to image what might be pos
contain'i rewofked
pant�ges from
sible, and even complain about what is not yet
earl1er wnt•ngs. possible.
..
Ill
..
Philip
Ursprung
THE WORK
OF THE
ARCHITECT
Peter Zumthor's
workin g
drawin gs
270 One of my favorite architecture books is the cata status of architects was defined more by what
logue Partituren und Bilder (Scores and Images) they hadn't built than what they had. Due to a lack
Part•turen und Bilder.
by Peter Zumthor.1 Depicted in it are three projects of commissions, many architects turned their
Ardlltektonische that led to his international breakthrough: The Ca energy to the production of images, models, and
Arbfiten ous dem
Ateher Peter Zumthor,
plutta Sogn Benedetg in Sumvitg 1..Gl. s.l49J, the texts. The architectural biennale in Venice, called
1985 1988, (ox. cat. Atelier Zumthor in Haldenstein near Chur, and the to life in 1 980, was the most important platform
Archttekturgalerie
Luzern, 2-23 Octo·
protective structure over the Roman excavation in for exchange. And a specialized trade in architec
ber 1988, Haus der Chur. The catalogue was published on the occa tural representations, led by the gallery of Max
Archttektur, Graz,
77 July 18 August
sion of the eponymous exhibition at the architec Protetch in New York, which had specialized in ar
1989), Lucerne: ture gallery in Lucerne in October 1 988. Along chitectural drawings since 1978, moved architec
Architekturgalerie
Luzern, 1989.
with texts by Martin Steinmann and Peter Zumthor, tural drawing into the light of the booming art
it contains a series of blueprints or working draw market.
2
cr. Ursprung,
ings and black-and-white photographs by Hans Because architecture is slow, it was only able
Phil1p, "Env•s•ontng Dan user, which shaped the reception of Zumthor's to profit with delay from the economic boom, 3
the lnvtsiblt!: Hans
cr. Horzog & d•
Danuser end
architecture in the years that followed. The book which followed the recession of the 1 9 70s. It Meuron, Archttelctur
Denkform: Eme
Peter Zumthor: A interests me not only because those photographs wasn't until the early 1 990s that progressive ar
Revtsions/' in Danus
Ausstelfung 1m Ar
er, Hans, Ganten
were published in it for the first time, and they chitects of the middle generation were confront chlttkturmustum
vom I. Oktob�r 1us 20.
bein, KObi, Ursprung, meanwhile represent a milestone in the history of ed with an increasing number of commissions. It
Novtmbtt 1988,
Phohp, See•ng
Zumthor: Images
architectural photography.' I am also interest is well known that this trend culminated in the Bssel, Stuttgart:
W1ese Verlag, 1988.
by Hans Donusl!'r, ed in it because of the depth of meticulous work phenomenon of signature architecture and the
Peter Zumthor re
Zurtc h : Ed.uon
Hochparterre
ing drawings, which allow the beholder to retro star architects around the turn to the twenty-first membe rs hav1ng seen
the exh1b1t1on 1n
be• Schetdegger & spectively glance over the architect's shoulder, century. Zumthor's exhibition, which opened in
Basel. Peter Zumthor,
Spoess, 2009,
pp.61 78.
as it were. And ultimately, the book is significant early October 1988 in Lucerne- by the way, just talk with the author,
Zu6ch, May 2012;
because a series of lines of development that are one day after the exhibition Architektur Denkform
Jacques Herzog
seminal in the history of visual culture overlap by Herzog & de Meuron at the Architecture Muse cannot remember
havmg seen the e>e·
therein. The publication marks that brief moment um in Basel- was at the intersection of these
hibitlon by Zum-
in the late 1980s of reshuffling the cards of archi changes and bore witness to the explosiveness of thor. Jacques Herzog.
talk with the author,
tectural representation. the issue of architecture's representation at the
Basel, January
At the time of the exhibition, Zumthor was in his time.3 2012.
mid-forties. He had run his own office since 1979 It is i l l uminating that Zumthor strove vehe
and could already look back on a respectable ca mently against the fixation (and reduction) of the
reer and various visiting professorships. However, architectural drawing to an art object. At the mo
he had clearly presented more designs in lectures ment when architecture and the fine arts seemed
and published form than he had actually built. This to move most closely together, he insisted on their
career path, marked by a long phase in which only clear separation. His plea for the "reality" of archi
a few structures are realized, was characteristic tecture was quite clear in this respect:
for the entire generation of young architects at the
time. In fact, it is difficult to imagine from today's "When Realism and artificiality become too great
perspective that during the 1970s and 1980s, the in an architectural representation, when the re-
Ill
presentation no longer contains any 'open places' "This exhibition shows architectural scores. And it
that we can let our imagination penetrate, and shows images of works performed on the basis of
allow for the formation of curiosity about the re these scores. The language of the images is the
ality of the depicted, then the representation it artistic language of photographer Hans Danuser.
self becomes the coveted object. The desire for He uses this language to speak about our perfor
the real object pales. Little or nothing refers to mances." 9 9
!bod., p.IO.
the reality that is meant that lies outside of the
representation. The representation no longer Danuser's photos decisively shaped the recep
contains a promise. It refers to itself. These types tion of Zumthor's buildings in the 1 990s. As the
of representations- architectural drawings as in architect himself remarked, the working drawings
dependent art products-have no significance in were, on the contrary, intended mainly for special
4
Zumthor, Ptttr,
my work."" ists. Yet nonetheless, their presentation in the
.. Ptrttturtn und exhibition is worth contemplating as is their char
Btldt r," m Portttur�n
und B.ld<r <•••
Without naming any names, Zumthor distinguish acterization by the architect as "scores." After all,
note I), p. 9. es himself from colleagues such as Herzog & de for quite some time, no other architect had so
Meuron, Daniel Libeskind, Zaha Hadid, Steven clearly formulated the hypothesis that the exhibi
Stt•nm•nn, Marttn, Holl, Aldo Rossi, and others who were predomi tion should not focus on the building itself as a fin
"Techne; Zur
Arbttl von Peter
nant in the area of architectural representation ished product (or the reference to this product),
Zumthor," t n ibtd., in this era and were represented in a number of but instead, what is found between the intention
pp.6 8, hero
p. 8.
exhibitions by sketches and drawings, which and the reality, what is first capable of setting the
functioned and were treated like autonomous process of realization in motion, namely, the work
6 artworks. However, Zumthor was not interested ing drawing. When Zumthor, as quoted above,
Zumthor, Peter,
11Part•turen und in criticizing specific positions, that is, in doing refers to the "human labor that is in the things,"
Btlder," '" tbtd.,
p.9.
what Martin Steinmann, for example, did in the then he alludes to a theme that architecture
same catalogue with the reference to "postmod had largely repressed in the nineteenth and twen 271
Ibod.
ern buildings."51nstead, or at least according to tieth centuries, namely, the alienation of people
my theory, he was interested in quite explicitly from the products of their labor as diagnosed
8
Thts and followtng
choosing one medium for the exhibition, and omit by Karl Marx. The operation of representation,
quott$, ibtd., ting others for conceptual reasons, even when he characteristic of the entire visual culture of the
p.IO.
gladly used them otherwise. That becomes clear nineteenth and twentieth centuries, that is, the
in the next section of his text when he emphasizes translation of a reality into another medium cor
that the exhibition is also not about presenting responds with the capitalist economy because
design drawings. Although the "drawings and it masks this alienation. In a representational
sketches that emerge when designing," which as economy revolving around art's self-referentiality,
"traces of architectural discovery" offer evidence which has been dominated by what has been
of "successes and errors," belong among his in identified as "l'art pour l'art" (art for art's sake)
struments of design and would have undoubtedly since the mid-ni neteenth century, there is no
pleased the visitors to the exhibition. 6 "Project place for the working subject.
plans" were equally out of place in the exhibition,
in that they are a "comprehensive, but preliminary In his exhibition, Zumthor wanted to again bring
representation of an idea," which it aimed at "cli into play the repressed figure of the working per
ents, authorities, and prize judges." 7 son. Here is the key to his skepticism with regard
to all forms of abstraction, and his persistent insis
Zumthor relied on the "working drawings" or "build tence on the singular, the concrete, and real. That
ing plans." 8 He wanted to show these in the exhi is also the base for his rejection of the sketch,
bition because, as he writes, they have "the char in which the design process is abbreviated, as
acter of anatomical drawings." They show, as he it were - and made heroic as an artistic or "in
believed, "something of the mystery and inner ten genious" act. He was not concerned with staging
sion that the completely assembled architectural the plan as fetish, that is, as replacement for the
volume no longer divulges: the art of assembly, whole, but rather, as manifestation of a complicat
hidden geometries, the friction of the materials, ed, protracted process without which, architec
the inner energy of load-bearing and holding, ture would not be possible. According to my thesis,
the human work that is in the things." Even more the architect's labor is present in the form of the
emphatic than the metaphor of the anatomical working drawing. This explains why the working
drawing is the comparison with the musical score. drawings were not-as common in architectural
He viewed it as a "compulsory base" for "perfor publications- reworked and "corrected" for the
mance" and emphasizes that only that which it audience. Zumthor printed them in the form of
does not contain is left to "performance practice, documentary photos, so that it was possible to fol
and interpretation by the performers." The final low the multiple individual lines of the fac;ades
section of the text attests to the great extent that constructed from slats, so that the specifications
..
architecture was in the hands of other media at and information, as well as the plan headers were
the time, and how open the gates of the genres legible, and it might be possible to reconstruct the
were at the moment: building on the basis of the available data. He does
Ill
..
not thereby negate the repetitive-at times, in the
production, also monotonous-character of the
design depictions, that is, the slats drawn neatly
next to one another, the meticulously outlined
stones, the details of the construction. The simple
lines-still drawn by hand at the time, nearly a de
cade before the introduction of the computer-si
multaneously show the labor, as well as pleasure
in the work. The beholder could imagine how long
it took to produce the drawing and could identify
for a moment with the architect, the draftsman,
the artisan. At the moment that the reader opens
the catalogue, for a brief moment, like music, the
architecture is present, and at the same time, un
fathomable in its built form.
272
IV
Tom
Emerson
LINES ON
PAPER
The en durin g
lan guage
of architecture
It is often said how profoundly the production of guage rather than professional technique, a sys 273
architecture has changed in the wake of the digital tem unlinked to the phenomena it represents with
revolution. It is less often noted how architecture its own rules and codes. The architectural draw
has resisted the seductive flourishes of digital ing is a means of creation, production, reproduc
production and maintained a dogged continuity tion, and execution, which like musical notation,
with social and historical space. Bricks remain is created and read by the initiated, a semi-open
bricky even when laid by a robot borrowed from code of ideas and instructions specifying exact
the car factory. Timber remains fibrous despite execution or inviting interpretation. The architec
the scorched traces of the laser cutter and these tural drawing is one of very few means of produc
remain the rare marriages of new technologies tion to endure despite changes in culture and
with ancient tectonics. More often than not, archi technique over five centuries from steel point and
tecture continues to evolve within the present, quills, to graphite to mechanical ink pens and even
dragging a past into the future full of conflicted as CAD replaced the hand in the closing decade of
meanings and associations. Occasionally archi the twentieth century.
tecture is also revolutionary, rupturing with the I entered an architectural office for the first
past to establish the unencumbered new. Paper time in 1 989 for a summer job before starting
architecture has long been a by-word for the architectural studies. The office of around forty
avant-garde, for un-built and the un-buildable ar people was quiet and busy with architects either
chitectural rhetoric. Yet even in revolution, the standing or sitting on tall stools hunched over
representation of architecture uses the same ab drawing boards arranged at assorted angles to
stract notation of orthographic plans, sections, suit their users. My first task was to change single
and elevations established in the Renaissance. fire exit doors on a plan to doubles. A simple if rath
As with all architectural (r)evolutions, the primary er banal task for a young would-be architect. I was
battleground has been in drawings and, dare I shown to my board and handed my first Rotring
say it, on paper. The architectural drawing sits pen, scale ruler, blue clutch pencil, and, crucially, a
ambiguously with both revolution and tradition. small packet of razor blades to erase the offend
Architects still examine the plan to understand ing doors scattered across the AO tracing paper
the underlying spatial and conceptual ideas. The drawing.
common language bridging the architectural Like all skills required of a good draftsman,
imagination with a constructed reality is in the scraping away a very thin layer of ink without dam
conventions of technical drawing. In many ways it aging the paper requires practice. I clumsily
is surprising that these conventions have survived gouged away with the razor into the paper's sur
the changes in architectural production and soci face removing more paper than ink and eventually
ety at large. The past three centuries have seen a cutting through my finger, too. The rest of the day
complete transformation in industrial production was occupied with removing dried blood from the
and society and, in the last twenty years, commu complex field of fine black lines that was the pri
•0
nication has done the same. The survival of the ar mary ground floor plan, the general arrangement
chitectural drawing, the plan, while everything has drawing or GA for short. Needless to say that I de
changed places it into the realm of a quasi-ian- veloped the art of erasure ahead of the full range
IV
.. of drafting skills but for the record, i n time, these (1989) published in the Architectural Review in
also improved. 1990 were particularly memorable for the com
Over the following five years at architecture bination of precision and atmosphere ,..Gl. s.149J.
school and in offices, we would draw for several These were not black lines on white, they were
hours a day, developing speed and precision shades of grey lines on grey background. I had not
alongside a growing awareness of the nuances of seen the building (and still haven't to this day) but
architectural drawings. Ink on trace was the mo I've also believed that the qualities of those draw
dus operandi of a British architectural office but ings would be found in the building, regular but
occasionally, one would use film, a heavy-duty sensual, austere without being cold. Like many
translucent plastic sheet that looks like tracing students, I had fairly promiscuous architectural
paper but behaves completely differently. Film is taste and studied Frank Ghery's early work with
tough stuff. lt was used for long-term drawing that equal enthusiasm. One doesn't need to travel
would be updated over years, say the ground plan from Switzerland to LA to find the difference be
of a major building. But the film does not absorb tween Zumthor's and Gehry's timber buildings. Al
ink, it stays liquid on the surface for what seemed though working predominantly with softwood
like an eternity when facing a deadline and of frames, their construction traditions and inven
course it can be erased with a special rubber (or tions couldn't be further apart and their working
eraser, probably electric, as our American col drawing technique draws out the difference. Both
leagues would have them). At the other end of the working in pencil, Zumthor's drawings are above
scale, in smaller architectural offices, one would all complete works in their own right. The mise
use pencil on detail paper, thin and soft, a cousin en-page perfectly places the subject on the page.
of tissue paper favored for presenting luxury The layers of overlapping lines; from barely visible
goods. With pencil and detail paper (mounted over grid lines to the heaviness of elements cut by the
a cartridge paper backing to soften the stroke), imagined section to the regularity of the hatching,
274 the work of the draftsman felt more personal, speaks of patience, resilience. Nothing is left to
more subtle. One could do the whole process with chance. Tolerance has certainly been considered,
one tool. Light construction lines ghosting out the but this is dimensional tolerance, technical tol
drawing followed by a firmer stroke especially at erance where it is required by the material that
the start and end of each line while rotating the masks another kind of intolerance. Every element
mechanical to keep the point sharp. With pencil, in the architecture has been considered and
not only was drawing faster, but the sheet of paper honed. Mistakes do not form part of Zumthor's ar
acquired a texture and would reflect the hand of chitecture. In LA, however, all of Gehry's lines are
the author more directly. One could tell the draw broadly equivalent, democratic, even careless.
ings by the manic, rushed architect chasing con The drawing shows what is necessary and no
struction site deadlines from the subtle marks left more. There is no time for hatching. This is not a
by the reflective architect. These were the tools of meditation over reduction and craftsmanship, it is
our trade. fast, intuitive riffing on well-known commercial
It is worth defining what kind of plans we are vernacular. The notation and construction is eco
looking at. In German, plans refers to all the tech nomic, even expedient. The results, refreshingly
nical drawings leading to construction whether d i rect. There is plenty of tolerance both dimen
horizontal or vertical. In English, the plan refers sionally and also morally, allowing the carpenter to
specifically to a horizontal section while the whole complete the task according to prevailing rules of
set of construction documents, including plans, commercial construction. Gehry's working draw
sections, elevations, and construction details are ings are loose and opportunistic. But one shouldn't
commonly referred to as working drawings. Add be deceived into believing that these drawings
ing the verb working lends a particular kind of suggest lesser importance to construction. On
technical and ethical purpose. These are not ob the contrary, both show a deep knowledge of con
jects of contemplation, of aesthetic quality of their struction, materials, and a wider socio-economic
own; they are work and they represent more work context. Gehry's apparently laconic plans embody
to be done. They may be seen as a means to an end the tradition of American timber framed construc
and nothing more. But of course this has never tion just as profoundly as Zumthor's drawings
been entirely true. The architect has always invest suggest the craftsmanship for which he and the
ed in the working drawing with more than pure in Swiss are so famous. The drawing is not only a
formation and data to share with builders. Either means to an end, it also suggests the means.
deliberately or inadvertently, the working draw When I completed my studies in 1997, long
ing is laced with conceptual and ethical values un after these buildings were completed, the craft
Perec, Georges:
derpinning the architecture. The architect's plan of architectural draftsmanship seemed as use Spoc01s of Spocrs
combined both everything that is common to the ful as calligraphy. Georges Perec opens Species ond Orhtr P1tcts,
London: Pengu•n
language of architecture, its traditions and con of Spaces with "This is how space begins . . . signs Cl•ssu;s, 1998,
ventions with what is personal and unique like a traced on the blank page"\ but today such direct, p.l3
form of handwriting. unmediated creation is no longer possible. To

As a student, Peter Zumthor's drawings of day, paper is the final resting place for the line
Saint Benedict Chapel in Sumvitg Switzerland after a life of digital gymnastics. Layers, classes,
IV
2
NURBS: Non·
attributes, nurbs 2 ; s o many decisions before
Un.rorm R1t•on1l space can begin. The stroke of the pencil or pen
B·Splone.
has been replaced by the click of the mouse, the
rectangular expanse of the drawing board by the
infinite zoom of the screen yet the orthographic
projection of the plan remains the lingua franca
of architecture. The plan is the thinking and the
letting go, the conception and the communica
tion with the maker, taking the architectural imag
ination into the world line by line. Although it is no
longer drawn, in the original meaning of the word,
to pull a pencil across a surface, the plan retains a
uniquely autonomous position in architecture be
tween the architect and the built architecture. The
great conceit of the plan, to imagine the work of
architecture sliced horizontally or vertically to re
veal simultaneously its solids and voids, its surfac
es and nodes is an improbable but powerful ab
straction. After the point, the line is the most basic
Cartesian form, yet it is capable of representing, in
the context of the plan, a multitude of constructed
spatial ideas. The line may represent the physical
and the abstract; it may suggest a surface, a ges
ture like the spread of a trowel or an invisible legal
boundary. The line can suggest changes in the 275
states of matter between mass and void or be
tween a liquid and its container. The lines coming
together to make the working drawing may be yet
more mysterious containing a temporal dimen
sion representing both the pre-existing, part of an
ancient structure and also the as-yet unrealized
anticipated future. The drawing contains a latent
architectural order; densely layered or monolithic,
dotted to float above or thickened to suggest the
imaginary slice through plaster, steel, or concrete.
The plan is the making of the architecture. It is the
instrument by which the architect records what is
found and proposes what will come. The plan is
the means of conception and communication. In
the end, the plan is not so much musical notation
or handwriting as it is the fingerprints of the archi
tect, both universal and unique. More than the
sketch, which communicates intuition and first
thoughts, the working drawing bears the imprint
of the whole process, through to every decision
whether invented or i m posed from the outside.
The working drawing contains the sum total of the
architect's thinking, time spent, compromises,
imagination, and skill synthesized and distilled in
lines on paper.
..
v
..
Jonathan
Sergison
WORKING /
DRAW ING
The ten sion
between han d
an d computer
drawin g
276 As architects, any drawing we produce serves as on tracing paper or film and drew with ink pens.
a means to explore and communicate ideas. In our These drawings were the product of a lot of work
studio, drawings are generated to explain con and we have kept them safely. While computer
cepts, to transfer thoughts onto paper in a more drawing has changed the way the office produces
tangible form. Later, sketches are used to support information, Stephen and I still draw by hand.
conversations in which initial ideas are subjected I notice that our assistants treat our pencil draw
to critical dialogue. Invariably, through discussion, ings with a degree of ambivalence, simply be
drawings are modified and adapted. Often the cause they are so conditioned by the possibilities
best drawings are those generated in an attempt of digital reprinting. They are aware that each
to explain or clarify something in the course of hand drawing is unique, but do not fully appreciate
such conversations. The process of proposing that it can never be reproduced exactly, unlike dig
and revising extends throughout the life of a ital drawings, of which it is possible to print infinite
project, and beyond the moment when it is in copies.
habited. Drawings are sometimes strictly two Drawing by hand offers certain possibilities
dimensional - plans, sections, or elevations- but that do not exist in digital drawing. A hand draw
most of them work with depth, trying to repre ing contains a sense of doubt and represents an
sent a form or a space. While this type of project attempt to work things out, that which we value
development is an established working method, highly. It contains a level of inaccuracy that is clos
the most consistent form of production for us is er to the reality of building. A computer drawing
a plastic one. We produce models in order to de has the capacity to represent a level of precision
velop and understand projects. At a certain point that is rarely possible in construction. With a hand
drawings are used to communicate a project to a drawing, every element has to be scaled. A repeat
client, and later to statutory organizations. Later ed element has to be drawn again and again and,
still we formalize the way we draw to comply with like the modules that are actually built, it is, in real
conventions. In this way, drawings communicate ity, never the same.
our intentions to those who need to interpret In 1 996 our first employee Mark Tuff joined our
them. We do not produce working drawings for practice, and later became our partner in 2008.
our clients, although they service their needs, but Among the many skills Mark brought to the studio
for the many people who contribute to the building was an ability to draw on the computer. Today ev
process. eryone in the studio draws by computer, with the
When we opened our architectural studio in exception of the senior partners. In the late 1990s
1996, Stephen Bates and I worked alone and drew the three of us would produce the working draw
everything ourselves. At the time we could not ings for our buildings by being "specialists" in spe
draw on the computer and, incidentally, we still cific kinds of drawings. Mark would typically pro
cannot. We had learned the conventions of draw duce the general arrangement drawings at either
ing in the offices we had previously worked in, and 1 : 1 00 or 1:50 scale. We understood these as strat
when we started on our own we agreed on a way egy drawings that explained the overall inten
of drawing as a reaction to this shared experience. tion for a building. These were the drawings that
At the time, we produced construction drawings enabled a building to be set out and measured.
v
Stephen tended to concentrate on the detail where a high level of control is necessary, over
drawings, at a scale of either 1:1 or 1:5, which ex others where it is not so important - or indeed ap
plain how the strategy for a building is to be real propriate.
ized in detail. I would generally concentrate on This must be taken into account when adding di
drawings that sit somewhere between strategy mensional information to a drawing. We need to
and detail, and these would often be 1:20 or 1:25 think carefully about the level of accuracy stated
sections through a building. As they were drawn and ensure that it is reasonable, or even possible.
by hand, this scale would allow for enough under Sometimes we need to remind our assistants that
standing of the layers of construction and the ele the computer determines a level of accuracy that
ments of a building. These drawings would also is not possible on site. No two bricks are ever ex
indicate the position of key details within the over actly the same and therefore the setting out of a
all design. brick wall needs to take this into account. We also
On reflection, this was a very efficient and tightly avoid dimensioning all the increments of a plan if
coordinated way of working. We always knew the overall dimension is given, as this often leads
what everyone else was doing, and the develop to errors. It is better to leave at least one increment
ment of a project involved a constant process of out and rely on the people responsible on site to
discussion and refinement. What I am describing work things out.
was by no means original at that time (the late Tolerance as a concept has a greater signifi
1 990s), but it was representative of a particular at cance than focusing on accuracy in construction.
titude to developing a project that made sense to It is consistent with openness to historical legacy
us. This method became established as a way of and receptiveness to the lessons old buildings
working that we still use in our studios today. The embody. While they cannot meet the demands
introduction of digital technology has undoubted and needs of contemporary architecture, we are
ly brought changes, but many of the conventions increasingly turning to pre-modern examples for
of our working drawings originate in the manner in inspiration. The more we build, the more we ap 277
which we used to draw by hand. preciate the humbling achievements of masons
Today I realize that the way we draw in the stu and architects, known and unknown, from differ
dio is particular to the manner in which we choose ent eras.
to communicate information. All architectural A final, but important point: working with toler
practices reveal something of their own culture ance does not come at the expense of quality.
and position in the way they produce working A drawing considers and accepts tolerance, but
drawings. Ours are not necessarily produced in it still needs to be a good drawing. This small
the most expedient way, and we even take some but crucial component represents the architect's
pride in the way they are made. Drawings are hope to excel, within a realistic reading of the op
on display in the studio, particularly at the stage portunities a project might offer: it is a judgment
when a project is developed prior to going on site. that must be made case by case.
Over many years we have devoted a considerable
amount of time to refining and making our draw
ings more legible. By trial and error we have test
ed the legibility of drawings at different scales,
experimenting with different line weights, tech
niques for hatching the elements of a section, and
trying to convey material qualities. The graphic
designers Cartlidge Levene have also contributed
to this process, and we developed our title block
and graphic identity in collaboration with them.
One aspect of drawing that particularly con
cerns us is the management of dimensional infor
mation. The numbers we put on a drawing have
great contractual and legal significance, but they
are also linked to an issue that interests us great
ly, namely, notions of tolerance in building. As ar
chitects we have learned over time the i mpor
tance of being able to judge the demands of the
construction process. This needs to be consid
ered in relation to program, budget, contractual
framework, geography, and local building cul
ture. Put simply, it would be illogical to demand a
high level of craftsmanship for a low cost housing
project with a Design Build contract in a remote
location. This is not a straightforward issue, be ..
cause whatever the circumstances, numerous

judgements need to be made that prioritize areas
VI
..
Mario
Carpo
CRAFTSMAN
TO DRAFTSMAN
The Al bertian
paradigm an d the
modern invention of
con struction
drawin gs
278 At some point in the early 1 9 60s the American that they can hardly be built entirely from nota
philosopher Nelson Goodman came to the con tions, or allographically -thus suggesting that,
clusion that not all arts are equal, and a crucial dif when building, so many things can happen and so
ference exists between autographic arts, where many choices must be made that no drawing,
artists make their own works, and a/lographic arts, however rich or complex, can hope to include or
where artists script works that must then be per anticipate them all.1 No architect who ever tried to Nelson Goodman,
formed or executed by others. Allography is in build will disagree. Indeed, throughout most of its Longuogts ofArt: An
Approach lo o Thtory
some cases a practical necessity: as no musician history, architecture was not a notational art at all:
of Symbols (lnd;ana·
can play one hundred instruments at the same in antiquity and in the Middle Ages buildings were pol1s: Bobbt Mernll,
1968; 2nd od., 1976),
time, a symphony must be scripted so a whole or made by craftsmen-and in the Middle Ages, by
122, pp. 218 · 221.
chestra can perform it. The composer may still di free craftsmen, or guildsmen - who, like artisans
rect it, but the musical score is supposed to func of all times, were expected to think and invent,
tion even in the absence of its author-for example, solving problems and finding solutions often
after her or his death. The main purpose of such on the fly, within the ambit of a loosely defined
scripts or notations, as Goodman called them, is building program. In the fourteenth century, no
to convey the same instructions to all, at all times, gothic vault could have been built from draw
and without ambiguity, so the executed work of art ings-first, because no construction drawing of
will be just what the artist had in mind, even when the time could have explained how to cut stone
the artist is not there to illustrate or explain it, as in 3-D; second, because, not surprisingly, medie
sisting and instructing each performer in person. val stonecutters did not use scaled drawings to
Notational arts famously require a great amount learn or practice stereotomy. Even though excep
of learned skills from all parties involved. Everyone tions must be made for Greek and Roman clas
today is more or less familiar with the thousand sical building (where some identical shapes, pro
minute signs that populate a musical score, but files, and moldings were reproduced on site
many who did not study ballet at school are often from full-scale templates or 3-D mock-ups), most
surprised to learn that the infinite seamless move pre-modern architectural drawings were used to
ments of a solo dancer, or of a whole corps de communicate some visual aspects of a building to
ballet, can be almost as precisely recorded and en clients, commissioners, or to the general public,
acted from script-using either the Laban nota not to convey technical aspects of the buildings to
tion that Goodman was familiar with, or others. the workers who would build it. Indeed, today's
Goodman appears to have been less interest construction drawings, a notational tool for the
ed in architecture than in other arts- his wife was conveyance of technical information from design
a painter, and he himself was mostly interested in ers to makers, are a modern cultural technology
the performing arts, as well as being a noted and (Kulturtechnik) invented by Leon Battista Alberti in
quirky art collector. In his book on the theory of art his treatise On Building (De Re Aedificatoria), com
languages, first published in 1968, he briefly re posed around 1452.
marks that although modern architecture is most For it is around that time that Italian humanists
ly executed from blueprints and other construc of the early Renaissance thought that buildings
tion drawings, modern buildings are so complex should no longer be made by artisan builders, but
VI
b y a new kind of artist and thinker, of which Alber sentee designer. That was simply not the way of
ti saw himself as the prototype. Unlike the medie building at the end of the Middle Ages, when work
val master builder, the Albertian architect does ers mostly did what they were told to do by some
not make buildings; he just makes drawings of one who oversaw them on site and in person. To
buildings- in Goodman's terms, notations. When that end, oral instructions and viva voce argument
the drawings are finished, they are sent to the was all that was needed -supplemented by con
workers. They do the actual work -they cut stone, tracts in writing when monies were at stake.
lay bricks, and saw timber. In Alberti's famous defi It took a few centuries, as we know, for Alber
nition (De Re Aed., 1,1,2), architecture is conceived ti's paradigm to be fully accepted, both technical
in the mind, expressed through drawings and ly and socially. 2 Today, Alberti's paradigm is the Mario Carpo, Tht
models, then executed - but executed by others. basis of the architectural profession around the Alphabet ond rht Algo
flthm (Cambndge,
As a corollary to this principle, the architect's world: It defines architecture as a global art of de MA' MIT Prou, 2011),
drawings must be complete and exhaustive, and sign, and is enshrined in the laws and customs of pp.15 20, 71 79
Germ�n tr•nsl., Alpha·
must contain nothing more and nothing less than almost all countries- including many that never
btor und Algortthmus
the physical building in its entirety. went through a Humanist revolution. With it, the w� Jos OlgUolt dlf
Ar-ch,trktur htrous•
Alberti's novel way of making is in many ways a original paradox conspicuously inherent and em (ordtrt. Tronol. Joorg
foundational paradigm of modernity: unlike the bedded in Alberti's theory has equally pervaded Gle•ter, Jan Bovelet
(Boolofold: Tron•
medieval craftsman, who was a maker and thinker the theory and practice of all modern arts of script Vorlog, 2012).
in one, the modern thinker is not allowed to make, design. For it is evident-as it must have been to
and the modern makers are not allowed to think. Alberti himself, and as it still was to Nelson Good
Design, not making, carries all the intellectual man half a century ago - that no construction
added value in the modern world: thus a car is an drawing, no matter how rich, can ever hope to en
act of design, and it is owned, intellectually, by the capsulate all aspects of a physical object yet to
designers who invented it, not by the workers, and be built.
increasingly by the robots, that manufacture it. Alberti was a visionary, and his theory was 279
Today, not only pharmaceutical drugs, but even the expression of an overarching intellectual am
soft drinks and cookies are acts of design-they bition. As such, it has changed the history of build
exist first and foremost as formulas, or notations, ing in the West- and more. But if we translate that
irrespective of the factories around the world intellectual agenda into legal chapter and verse,
where Aspirin, Coca-Cola, or Butterkeks are mass and into the nuts and bolts of an actual design as
produced, paying royalties to their respective signment, odd things start to happen. If a build
authors and intellectual owners. In architecture, i n g -any building that was built by design, and
construction drawings are the keystone of this designed by notation, in the Albertian, Western
new way of building, and the indispensable vehi way-must be the faithful copy and execution of
cle and tool for its implementation. For the Alber its author's drawings, that means that every atom
tian paradigm presupposes that the entire build of that building must have been notated by its de
ing, as built, should be the identical materialization signer. Every atom? And if that does not seem
of an act of design that must have been fully and practical, where should the designer stop? Should
entirely expressed by the author's original nota the designer choose the door knobs, the Venetian
tions. If something went amiss or was added be blinds, the glass of the window panes, the color
yond the author's original script, then the building of the carpets, the model and make of the electri
is no longer the result of that design, and the de cal outlets? And if not the designer, who else?
signer is no longer the author of that building. In A designer could argue (and some have) that if
short, let only one discrepancy occur between the you change the specifications of the glass in the
author's idea and the building as built, and the windowpanes of a curtain wall fa<;ade, the build
whole system breaks down. ing will no longer be the one she or he designed.
Alberti knew that his whole theory of design But which kind of construction drawing can indi
was dependent upon functioning notations cate the architectural qualities of a certain make
drawings that designers could safely use to com of tempered glass? For that, other instruments
municate with builders, and which builders could should be used, as indeed today they often are. In
understand and would abide by. He also knew that short, the ontological gap between design inten
no such drawings existed at this time, hence he tions, their notation through construction draw
insisted that designers should only use a particu ings, and their material implementation leaves
lar kind of picture, which today we would call or an inevitable grey area of undecidability, argu
thographic: scaled drawings in plan, elevation, ment, frustration, litigation, and liability where all
and side views (De Re Aed., 11,1 ,4). Unfortunately kinds of ad-hoc personal interventions, approxi
parallel (Mongeian) projections did not yet exist at mations, improvisation, bullying, persuasion, im
the time, hence Alberti could not provide a simple plorations, machinations, and subterfuge take the
geometrical definition for his new format of archi place of construction drawings and specifications,
tectural notations. Moreover, Alberti soon found and haggling becomes the design instrument of
•0
out, to his detriment, that no construction worker choice.
of his time would build by notation - i.e., following Some star architects can, famously, control
the drawn instructions sent in by a remote and ab- even the most minute aspects of a building - Mies
VI
.. van der Rohe was a case in point. In the case of the

Seagram building, one feels that Mies's office (in
that instance, through the complicity of Phyllis
Lambert, Mies's inspired patroness) might as well
have designed the haircut of each uniformed
doorman standing at the entry. Most practicing
architects, however, do not have such power, and
they can only maintain some hold over the endless
minutia of actual building at the cost of a never
ending, titanic daily effort, which evidently contra
dicts both the spirit and the letter of the Albertian
program: if all aspects of a building can and must
be inscribed in a set of construction drawings,
then, when the drawings are sealed and sent, the
game should be over. Yet as we all know, that
game is never over. Construction drawings are
testimony to this paradox and conflict, and their
opacities and ambiguities are the living proof of
the original sin, so to speak, of the Albertian pro
ject, and of its indelible legacy: we make drawings
to design things we know no drawing can and will
ever control.
In recent times, this Albertian paradox has mi
grated from paper to electronic media, and one of
280 today's most powerful tools for computer-aided
design, known underthe generic name of Building
Information Modeling, or BIM, was developed spe
cifically to facilitate the exchange of information
between designers and makers. The spirit of BIM
posits that designers, builders, and theoretically
other agents as well, such as customers or clients
or users, should participate in the collaborative
making of the digital model of a future building,
and that contractors, in particular, thanks to this
new, interactive digital platform, may step in the
design process from the very start, thus bridging
the gap between design intentions and their exe
cution. Phillip Bernstein of Autodesk has recently
suggested that this new participatory way of
building invites a new business model as well as a
new legal framework for project delivery, where
authorship may no longer be the privilege and mo
nopoly of traditional designers. 3 3
Phill1p Bernste1n,
Given the unprecedented power of digital "A Way Forward?
Integrated Project
simulations, one may surmise that at some point Delivery," Harvard
virtual models may become perfect duplicates Oes,gn Mogozme 32
(2010), pp. 74-n.
of, and substitutes for, the buildings they repre Peggy Deamer and
sent-embodying and enacting all and every as Phillip G. Bernstein,
eds., Buifding (in)
pect of them. Their designers could then make a
The Future: Rtcostmg
digital model just as builders would once have Labor m ArdHtteture
(New York: Princeton
made an actual building, and the final translation
Arch•tectural Pren,
from model to building would entail no intellectual 2010). See esp.
Bernstein's essay,
(or informational) added value whatsoever. As "Models for Pract•ce:
in Borges's famous paradox of the map that be Past, Present,
Future." pp. 191 -198.
comes identical to the territory it portrays, this fi
nal culmination of the Albertian notational para
digm appears ontologically problematic. Time will
tell. Meanwhile, regardless of the notational tools
we use, physical or digital, the Albertian paradox
will most likely live on for a while -and with it,
all the messiness, uncertainty, and drama that
the notational way of building has engendered
throughout the history of the design professions.
www.Ebook777.com
VII
Stephan
Rutishauser
F U TU R E
PLANS
From visual
representation
to digital
code
The building plan for the "Large Hadron Collider The current status of the building plan arose over 281
(LHC)" r.. K4. p. 209], printed on a common paper the course of a development lasting centuries.
format, looks like a depiction of a microscopic par The first stone drawings that could be interpreted
ticle. In reality, however, it is a drawing of an enor as possible building plans are from the era round
mous machine that is part of the particle accelerator 2,500 BC, when drawings of a building site were
at the CERN in Geneva. Various research groups chiseled in statues in Lag ash (Mesopotamia). They
use the LHC to measure reactions in the decom depict a building projected onto a surface in con
position of atoms that are being shot at one anoth junction with a graduated scale and a reference
er at nearly the speed of light. This is meant to tape. 1 The cornerstone for the state of today's Budford, James, "The
enable the decoding of answers to the remaining building plans was laid in the sixteenth century, Historical Develop
ment of Archrtectura l
open questions in the long-term standard model when the job of the architect began to diverge Drawing to the End of
for elementary particle physics. While a building from that of the master builder. Knowledge at the the Eighteenth Cen
tury/' in Archltecturol
plan usually shows how to realize an architectural building site was no longer passed on orally, on Review (July 1923).
idea in built matter, the plan for the LHC is a special site, but instead, by means of drawn documents
case. This experiment aims, for its part, to decode for construction, which the architect prepared off MoJon, Luc, Sornf ·
another building plan: that of the universe, which site. 2 From this moment on, it was necessary to Jean dt Ctrlitr - Bei
troge zum Bouw�stn
according to the popular big-bang theory is meant develop documentary aids to realize an architec des Mittelolters, Bern:
to have arisen in a fraction of a second. tural idea at the construction site. Such docu Staatlicher Lehrmit
telverlag, 1986.
The common building plan is the connecting ments are for the negotiations between architect
link in the communication between the architect and implementing tradesperson, and provide, to
and the tradespeople implementing a project. In a greater or lesser degree of detail: dimension,
the tender drawing, the architect defines the de proportion, material, and the joining of the ele
sign intentions for the materialization and detail ments at a constructional level. This basic tech
ing of the structure and individual building compo nique has been continually further developed
nents. The firm ortradesperson draws the working until the present day. Scale was consequently in
drawing based on these parameters that are then troduced for various stages of detailing, and de
checked and cleared for realization by the archi tail drawings were developed for various catego
tect. Until into the early twentieth century, within ries of buildings. Dimensioning and legends are
the individual trades, nearly all ofthe construction now standard for every building plan, and in re
details could be realized in the workshop based on cent decades, also legal text content has become
the architect's idea. With the development of the standard.
assembly system in the twentieth century, the This layering of complex information in a visual
construction of buildings based on the architect's depiction has led to plans of an extremely high
prototypical plans came to a creeping halt. Today, aesthetic quality. The examples in the building
the issue is the selection of the system used by a plan collection selected here are mainly from the
firm, which must guarantee the firm loss-free ex twentieth century, from a time before the prag
ecution. The architect can only more or less pain matic change to computer technology took place. ·-
stakingly control the planning of details, which is For the bell tower of the chapel in Sogn Benedetg,
carried out by the construction firm. Peter Zumthor created a colored-pen drawing
VII
.. I-+G1. p. 149), which i s both

an art drawing and a tech file will change and the drawing architect will again
4
nical drawing. The chain dimensioning describes become a designing engineer. 4 She•l, Bob, ..fran'
the precise proportions of the cross-beams of I n certain areas of the building industry, digital gr•nton from drawtng
to mak.ng, .. tn orq, vol,
his tower. Glenn Murcutt's section ,.. A2. s. 151 for the prefabrication and production of buildings and
9, no. I (2005).
Simpson-Lee House brings together in a single building elements has already generated appli
5
drawing nearly all information that is necessary cable technologies. This development is furthest
CNC Computor
for the creation of the building. The descriptive advanced in timber construction. Here, the appli Numeric Controlled.
text becomes a crucial element of the plan. One cation of CNC machines has largely become stan
6
could even claim that here, the text format is dard.5 Entire building elements are prefabricated CAAD o Computer
A1ded Archttectural
accorded the same status as the graphic ele in the workshop by means of CNC beam facilities
Des•gn.
ment. Beginning in the 1970s, the technique of and installations are already built in at the factory.
hand drawing came to an abrupt end. Within just Nonetheless, the so-called "digital chain" still
CAM � Computor
a few years, the computer nearly totally replaced rests on the standards of conventional planning Atded Manufactunng.
the drawing board. However, in most cases, the processes. The building plan is produced by the 8
digital plan still rested on a graphic base, even architect and tenders are invited for the works. CNC = Computer
Numettc Controlled.
though computer technology offered entirely dif Only after the awarding of the contract are the
ferent possibilities when data could be tabulated building parts re-plotted based on the firm's soft 9
BIM � Buoldong lnfor·
in text form and made interdependent. ware and programmed for production. The digital metton Mod�l.
Digitized and industrial architectural produc chain thus operates within the producing firm.
tion began already in the 1950s. Post-war struc It is used to denote the activities within digital pro 10
ICF Industry Foun·
tures were designed to be built in individual ele duction: the elements to be produced are drawn dat1on Classes.
ments in factories and compiled on the building on a CAAD program. 6 Afterward, they are trans
site. At the same time, these concepts also al lated into the software language of the produc
lowed for simple renewability in that building com ing machines via CAM-Software7 and produced
282 ponents could be easily exchanged when they be through these so-called CNC-machines. 8
came obsolete. Also the first computer programs In a visionary building process, the machine
for architects originate from this era: At the Mas code would already be written by architects/ proj
sachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Ivan ect authors, and the data processed d irectly
Sutherland developed the first interactive graph by the producing machine. However, for these
ics program for the representation of architectur procedures, the required technology standards
al drawings in 1963. currently do not exist. The firms that operate large
The post-war era buildings failed in their con CNC production sites in Switzerland, for example,
ception and must now be demolished or painstak can be counted on one hand and they all have in
ingly reconstructed as icons. Nonetheless, they dividual processes of work preparation and tech
mark the starting point of a development in con nical realization. The project author therefore has
struction history that saw the questioning of clas no chance to generate production codes before
sical building processes. Nowadays, "digital fab the awarding of the contract, especially since the
rication" is being explored at a new level. Various individual firms rely on certain production secrets.
approaches with building robots and the first While the standardization of CAM and CNC
attempts at constructions built by means of flying technology still lies in the distant future, for quite
objects have led to construction technology in some time the planning world has been making
which an architect's digital information, that is, a efforts to create a general interface for integral
3
Gr•m•z•o & Kohler,
digital code, directly 3 controls the performing ma building models (BIM 9). The so-called "ICF-For
O•g•tol Mot•r•ol•ty m chines. In this, data and material, programming mat" 1 0 has been more or less acknowledged as
Arcluttc:turt, Bfd•n:
lors Muller Publ,.h •
and construction, become one whole. a standard for a while now. This format makes it
ors, 2008. The fundamental idea of constructing by possible to program the i nformation about archi
means of elements and their joining corresponds tecture, statics, and building technology and
with a digital way of thinking. In the future this will exchange it between different types of software.
enable the integration of engineering concepts With this, three-dimensional geometric data are
and principles in the early stages of the architec not only depicted, but simultaneously linked with
tural (design-)work. tabulated secondary information about the in
Thinking ahead in terms of this development, dividual elements and the relationship of the el
the building plan as a means of communication be ements to one another. In the end, this enables
tween architect and tradesperson will become an control of the currently very complex factors of
obsolete instrument, since mediation between the a building at every phase of its design. Produc
two professions will no longer be necessary when tion costs, maintenance costs, and, for example,
the transformation to matter is carried out by a ma technical specifications for fire-protection, can
chine and the machine's transformation code is be controlled and optimized at all times.
written directly by the architect. On the other hand, Of course, any architect who stakes a claim to
the person who is programming (the architect) creativity dismisses this idea. But it could possi
will have to understand a great deal more about bly present a future scenario that is capable of
the material and technology of construction. Thus, answering technical questions more efficiently,
more than the production technology, the job pro- thereby generating more time for creative issues.
VII
The lengthy history of the development of stand

ards for the building plan in effect today shows
the complexity that is found in these documents
and that must first be developed for digital pro
cesses and manufacture. Furthermore, it has
been shown that in light of the high complexity
of the material in this area, specialists are not
promoting the goal of integral digital building
production.1 1 Everyone does research in their 11
Hovestadt, Ludger,
own individual area. Although the goal may seem Jenserts des Rasters
Ardutektur und Infor·
unreachable, development is nonetheless leading motionstechnologie,
to the automation of as many planning and com Anwendung emer
digitolen Architektonik,
pletion processes as possible. Perhaps things will Basel: Birkh;iuser,
proceed somewhat like the research conducted 2010.
at CERN on the Higgs bosson, which was most

12
probably discovered during experiments in the Gast, Robert, "'Ein
LHC in 201 2: 1 2 Also with this discovery, the sci

sehr hart erkampfter
Etappensieg," in Neue
entists involved in the basic research are still Zurcher Zertung om
Sonntag, July 8,
unable to designate a specific use for humanity, 2012.
even though here, talk is of the discovery of the
century in theoretical particle physics.
283
..
VIII
..
Uta
Hassler,
Daniel
Stock
hammer ON THE
D EVELOPMENT
OF THE
B U I L D ING
PLAN
Kn owledge tran sfer,
demon stration of
284
ideas, or in struction s
for buildin g?
The architectural drawing-as handed down to us final product); the elevation; the ground plan;
through Vitruvius's descriptions, but also earlier, and the section (drawn to scale, and regularly
actually surviving examples-is always an attempt orthogonal); and the working plan (drawn to scale
at abstraction and representation: it mediates an for the building site and showing details and
architectural concept, provides building instruc the construction methods of different structural
"Choregraph1t ou
tions, or documents an already built reality. An ar elements). At the beginning, these architectural
l'•rt d'ecme l1 d1nse.''
chitectural drawing always simplifies the building representations were used equally by mechanical m Otderot, Den•s
tnd d'Aiembert,
concept; it reduces and idealizes, aims at effec engineers, civil engineers, and architects. Based
Jean Bapt•ste le Rond
tiveness through both projection and reduction in on descriptive geometry, these representatives (eds.), Rocuotl
dt plonches, .sur t.s
size, creates comprehensibility through codifi of the polytechnical tradition developed a uniform,
sc11nus, Its orts
cations of materials and geometric principles binding, and in part also three-dimensionally libirou•, et les arts
mfchon,quts, ov« �ur
(sections, ground plans, scale), and transmits the legible language of representation. Even time
txpltcor•on,3rd ech·
complex and inventive realities of historical archi specifications were defined in what may be called t•on, lrvourne: lm•
pnmene des Ed1teur�,
tecture across time. "plan scripts," as shown in Diderot's and d'Aiem
1772, p.l01, ponol ll
The challenge of an architectural drawing is bert's Encyclopedie1 of 1772, containing instruc (pllle volume for
Encydo�cJ,, ou
to combine density, clarity, and complex informa tions for fencing and dance, which establish
o,cr•onno•rt Ro,sonnf
tion with utmost "objectivity," or rather, an inde movements in space as temporal concepts [h9.tJ. des Sc•ences, des
Arts et dts Mt"t�trs,
pendent representation. All this enables legibility Early on, cartographers thematized problems of
Ponsl751 1780].
across time and cultural context. As a virtual arti precision and abstraction, as Borges's wonder
fact, an architectural drawing is, admittedly, never ful narration on the "Exactitude in Science" 2 im
Borges, Jorge Luis,
independent from the production process; and pressively demonstrates (Borges developed the Unt!ltrsolgtsc:h�ehtt
dtr N,tdertrocht,
the ideal drawing would not conceal this. Rather, it idea of a factually precise and therefore impracti
Munich: Cafl Hanser,
would reveal its aesthetic program while provid cal map at a scale of 1 : 1 ; see fig. 2). Soon, mechan 1970 (Argenttntln
ong•nal ed1t1on
ing leeway for interpretation and the implementa ical and civil engineers began to use additional
1935).
tion of details. formulas and abstract terminologies for the re
During the seventeenth century, several forms presentation of material qualities and movements.
of architectural representation became canonic: In architecture, the old principle of orthogonal
the sketch (not to scale, and not necessarily or graphic representation (site plan, elevation,
thogonal, thus not always conveying the idea of a section, ground plan, constructional details)
VIII
survived until the mid-twentieth century: the plan The primary obstacles for the transmission of
was self-explanatory and it was intended for other building plans are:
professiona l s - therefore, it required only few the ephemeral character of architectural
supplemental text labels. drawings in the building process (and the
fact that the built product makes the plans
The difficult survival of plans obsolete),
The history of building has left us with an impres the limited durability of the plan artifact
sive corpus of architectural drawings-ancient (from papyrus to parchment to paper plans),
working plans for the realization of columnar en and finally, wear and tear of the plan during
tasis (outward bulging), for example, were found the building process.
3
carved in the walls and floors of structures.3 Clay
Ht�selberger, Lo tht�r,
"Antike Planzeich· panels with plans survived from the Assyrian era, Everyone who has ever tried to understand ar
nungen am Apollon
tempel von 01dyma,"
papyri from the Egyptian, and architectural mod chives of historical plans is aware of the heteroge
m Spektrum dtr Wis els from Roman times. The precision of actually neity of the material. Obviously, early plans are
senschofr (1985),
surviving structures makes it evident that specific relatively rare, and before the paper era, the avail
Ap61, pp. 70 83.
graphical and mathematical analytical tools were able formats were limited. It is also evident that
4
Ktenast, Hermt�nn,
used for their construction process (for example, both the forms of representation and the drawing
"Untersuchungen structures that were built according to the posi instruments have changed over time. Nonethe
am Turm der Winde.''
tion of the sun; or structures featuring spatially less, it is striking that certain types of plans are
in ArchOologischer
Antttger (1993), complex architectural members, such as the Tow overrepresented in our records while others re
pp. 271 275.
er of the Winds in Athens).4 Both the designs for main very difficult to find. Archives frequently con
the Romanesque monastery in St. Gall, and Goth tain preparatory studies and presentation plans
Boker, Josef, Ar
ic drawings for churchess have survived on animal for i m portant projects, but working plans that
chitektur der Gotik.
Ulm und Donou skins. However, new systematic concepts for de were actually used at the construction site remain
roum. Ein Be
signing, engineering, and controlling the con rare finds. During the late eighteenth and early 285
stondskotolog der
m1tte/o/terhchen struction process were not developed again until nineteenth century -an eminently important pe
Archlttkturltich
nungtn ous Ulm,
the Renaissance, with the systematic re-analysis riod of architectural history-the possibilities for
Schwoben und dem and the re-documentation of ancient structures. copying and reproduction, which we know from
Donougebttt,
Theories replaced the handing down of implicit the twentieth century, were not yet available.
Solzburg: Mury
Sal1mann, 2011. craft and construction knowledge. Land survey Therefore, the material from this period is limited
ing, the encyclopedic collection and mediation of mainly to representative sheets [fig.4l, samples,
6
On thts, see, for new "building disciplines," as well as their anchor prints from plate collections, and (later) hand
example, Monge,
ing in science and historical development, led to books. However, it is extremely rare to find docu
Gaspar, Gtomttrie
descripttvt. Leyons the creation of resilient principles of abstract geo mentation of design efforts or a working drawing
8
donn!es oux !coles
normo/es, Paris:
metrical representation6 while advancing the de preserved in any of the famous plan collections. See, for 8l<8mple,
Baudoum, 1799. velopment of older codes for architectural plans. the catalogue on
Balthasar Neumann
Diderot's and d'Aiembert's Encyclopedie docu The period of the unique copy and its and Johann Conrad
Cf. BoettJcher, Karl, ments the mechanical arts and cultural achieve technical limitations: paper formats, Sc:hlaun: Bolthosor
Out Telctomk cltr Neumann '" Soden·
ments in systematic illustrations; construction is writing instruments, colorants WUrtrtmbtrg,
Helltntn. Dit Lthrt
der telctonischen included in this body of knowledge, but it is under It is a long-standing tradition of both building re (ek. cat. Staatsgaler•e
Kunstformen. Do· Stuttgart), Stuttgart
stood primarily in its historical dimension, as a search and art history to publish historical plans 197Si Boer, Hans
rischt, ionisclll und
kormthtsche 8ou collection of potential artifacts. Indeed, architec with indications of paper format and scale. The Peter, Lechtape,
weise, vol. 1, Berlin: Andreas and Buske,
tural handbooks -and with them the theoretical dimensions provided in the catalogues of eigh
Verlag von Ernst & Stefan (eds.), J. C.
Korn, 1874; Mauch, principles of both architectural drawings and or teenth century-plan inventories shows us how Schloun: Stm Ltbtn,
Joh�tnn Matth�tus von sttne lett, sem
et al., Dit Arch1ttk·
thogonal representation of three-dimensional ar the availability of handmade paper also influ Wtr�, MUnster:
ronischt Ordnung tifacts- present a rather indirect trace of histori enced the possibilities for plan views. 8 Most Aschondorff, 1995.
der Gnechen und
cal transmission. Ancient writings were preserved sheets measure around 30 em, and it is rare to
ROmtr, Berlin: 9
W. Ernst & Sohn, and transcribed in monastic libraries only in ex find formats larger than 50 x 60 em. The dimen Schloss Bruchsal,
1875. H1stoncal Plan Col
ceptional cases; and most ancient drawings did sions of individual sheets vary considerably and lection, Generalland
not survive the transfer from papyrus to parch some sheets are glued together and lined on the esarchiv Karlsruhe,
"&"· GLA 2004 19K,
ment codices. back with linen cloth. An instructive example i s sign. Grundbestand
Only few historical building plans have come Schloss Bruchsal's9 early plan collection, which 424b K.
down to us, and therefore, built objects become documents the planning activity of a prince
our primary source for reconstructing their mate bishop's building office during the eighteenth
rial nature, as well as the intellectual concepts century. While the collection preserves only one
and construction principles that stand behind single (folded) working plan with traces from its
them. Since the end of the eighteenth century, use on the construction site [fig.5l, it contains a
architects have been researching and document great number of design sheets [fig. 61, and plans
ing our built history. In this way, they expand our that document both the design process and the
knowledge of construction and its underlying mediation of the project [Rg. 7 J. Before the devel
methods, make new architectural discoveries, opment of oil paper, which made the copying of ..
and find a variety of new models for architectural architectural drawings somewhat easier, build
grammars7 and categories of documentation [�9. 31. ing plans were original drawings or elaborate
VIII
.. copies, which were first transferred from the Scarcity of means and limitations of reproduction
original by means of a measuring compass and In transferring information, the architect of the
then newly drawn. Sometimes, one can find un nineteenth and early twentieth centuries relied on
der the ink lines on handmade paper, the prepa variety- he collected and reworked templates
ratory graphite and pencil drawings, which some from printed works, made sketches of buildings,
times show earlier stages of the planning process. and kept travel diaries [h9.sJ; the information col
Often, the eighteenth-century plan was also col lected in these diaries flowed into his design- and
ored by applying a wash to indicate sections of working drawings; and, as in the eighteenth cen
wall surfaces i n gray and p i n k hues; the archi tury, measuring and documentation were at the
tect's box of watercolors contained mainly red beginning of a project; they were the point of de
varnish, vermillion, lead red, yellow, red, ochre, parture for all further building considerations. In
10 massicot, gamboge, g ray,' 0 and umbra, along the nineteenth century, fold-out sheets with alter
For bl1ck huet.: antmll
carbon, v•ne block, with Prussian blue, indigo, ultramarine, litmus, native detail solutions were frequently glued onto
vegetable bl1ck m1xed
and mountain blue." larger, often colored sheets, which contained de
w•th white chalk tnd
whtte lead. As of yet, a systematic examination of the sign variations and explained preliminary plan
master builder's painting and drawing utensils ning stages [hg.9J. Unique drawings and plan
11
Brugge, Gerherd, has been established for only very few historical copies were used to communicate planning deci
lllumm1�r odtr
plan collections. In 2 0 1 2 , the exhibition "Karl sions, and printing techniques conveyed stand
Erltuchltrty·KunSI,
cxltr dtr rnhtt Gtb Friedrich Schinkel. History and Poetry"'2 featured ard solutions to a larger audience. Beginning
rouch dtr Wosst'r
(orb<n, Hamburg
a remarkable showcase entitled Schinkel 's Pa with the works of the Berlin architectural painter
Joh1nn Riumlnn pers - a phenomenal documentation of the new Wilhelm Zahn,15 lithographs reproduced ancient 15
Zahn, Wtlhelm, Ntu
and Georg Wolffton,
technical developments during the early nine finds and new architectural pieces in color; 16 in entclecktt Wondge
16n, pp.3 4;
Bowles, Canngton, teenth century: for example, visitors became ac Schinkel's work,1 7 lithographed color plates ap molde! '" Pomp•)'·
Munoch [ca. 1828)
Kunst m1t Wosstr
(orbtn zu moltn,
quainted with the then newly introduced blue wa peared i n the 1 840s, Semper added color plates (subsequent publica·
286 Letpl'fir s.nner, tercolor paper and learned about the attempts to to his Style in the Technical and Tectonic Arts' 8 in ttons untrl the
1850s).
1798, pp. 3 5.
develop smooth and uniform paper for watercol the 1 860s; and there are also scattered color il
12 ors; different inks for plan drawings and labelings lustrations in the Handbuch der Architektur, for 16
Before that, color
Schulze Altcappen
berg, Hetnr�ch
were shown (and how they aged), as well as draw example, in Josef Durm's volumes.'9 plotos hod to bo
colorod by hond. It
Theodor, Joh1nnsen, ing pens and steel pens, colorants, and tech A peak and simultaneously a crisis in the art Wll color lithography
Rolf H. and Lana•.
niques of paper production. Much more so than of plan drawing occurred towards the end of the that F;rn enabled
Ch risttane (eds.),
the dtstnbutton of
Kar l Pnednch Sch.nktl during the late eighteenth century, the Schinkel nineteenth century: the forms of representation color plotos beyond
Gesch1chre und
PMSifl, Muntch:
era was concerned with the painterly-visual inte as well as the techniques and methods of con an exclusive reader
ship.
Hrmer, 2012 gration of architectural representations into struction had been mastered superbly, and many
vedute and the large image: the interfaces be new construction inventions were available. lt was 17
13 Schonkol, Korl Frood
Nerd.nger, W�nfrt.d, tween three-dimensional illusion and perspectiv now possible to integrate technical aggregates nch, Wtrh der
Ote Ardurdrur·
U1chnung, Mun.ch:
al drawing were newly explored in panoramas and into buildings, such as steam heating, sanitary fa hohtrtn Boukunsr,
Prostol, 1986. theatrical stage paintings.1 3 Since the mid-nine cilities, and lifts, which required specialist know Pohdam: Verlag von
J=erdtnend R•egel,
teenth century, competitions provided new chal ledge. The scope and variety of building tasks, 1840.
14
Stulrt, James and lenges for the architects' skills in visual represen perfectionism, and professionalism necessitated
Revetl, N•c:holas,
18
The Ant•qultltS of
tation. Far more than during the eighteenth the production of elaborate plans and architec Semper, Gottfned,
Dtr Sttl ln den tech
Athens ond other Mon· century, the Schinkel era produced richly detailed tural representations. At the same time, profes mschtn und rtk
uments of Gre-eu,
and colorful proposals for decor and furnishing; sional interfaces with engineering and other spe tomschrn KunUtn,
London: Chtrles T1h,
odtr prokt1scht ��
1837 now, the image of the surface stepped to the fore cializations became more challenging. thtrtk, Frtnkfurt
ground of an ambitious drawing. Architects' offices (which, at the time, became o.M.: Vorlog fur
Kunst und W•nen
Of course, the Bauforscher-architect of the more and more private companies, and for the schoft, 1860. Srylt
early nineteenth century also always drew the first time independent from the state as client) .n the Ttchrucol
and Tcrcton�e Arts,
overall situation along with the columnar orders: responded to the changing situation with a variety Getty Research
the sheets (for example, the garden at the Lysi of strategies: lnstttute, 2004
crates-monument, as drawn by Stuart und Re Attempts were made to accelerate and 1
9
vett14) always showed, in addition to instructions automate the process of creating plans For later t1111mples,
see: Durm, Josef, Ore
on the structural relationship of individual archi and drawings; Boukunsr dtr Cr,tchtn,
tectural members (partly abstracted through pro Simple printing techniques were tested for Oarmst1dt 1881
(Hondbuch dtr
portional relationships), the overall idea of the the duplication of important plans; Ardurekrur, part 2,
building and a representation of the context; in And ultimately, a system for the reproduc 'tiOI. 1). Ourm, Josef,
O�t Soukunu dtr
other words, these reconstructions combined the tion of construction drawings was Etruslctr und ROmtr,
documentation of historical reality with a sug developed, using blueprint and later Darmstodt 1885
(Hondbuch drr
gestion for its ideal abstraction. However, until photo-print processes as well as Ardurtkrur, part 2,
the end of the nineteenth century, the number and tracing paper. vol. 2).
variety of sheets depended on:

The possibilities of the hand drawing, In the following, we will take a closer look at the
the limitations of the material, and automation of drawings and the development of a
the limitations of duplication, and of specific phenomenon-the utopia of the automat
copying processes. ed hand-drawn plan.
VIII
Automation facture of compasses provides a showcase for

the transformation of the tool industry during the
late nineteenth century. In Chemnitz, the watch
of the drawin g maker E m i l Oskar R i chter began develop i n g
mechanically produced drawing instruments,
techn iq ue thus abandoning the tradition of the handmade

"Swiss compass." 2 5 The new "flat system," with 25
I n add•t•on, see:
an d copy its straight, square legs and exchangeable nee

dles could be produced with a milling machine
Frank, Wern�r,
"Reisneuge,"
1n Somm/e'Journo/
and was therefore more economical; another ad
method in plan
(2005), p. 56.
vantage was that the user could quickly change

26
needles. The industrially-produced, disposable After the patent's
production needles provided great precision and minimized

the number of punctures-as evident in the plans
e)(ptratlon, R1chter's
system was copted
throughout the world;
aroun d
until today, •t rema1ns
from this era.26 the model for the
The parallel ruler was replaced by a drawing commercially avail
able compass.
table equipped with a protractor T-square, thus
1 900 allowing "lines and points . . . to be made with 27
Bleochrodt, W•lhelm
greater accuracy."'7 This set-up was the precursor
GUnther, Hand
of modern drafting machines. 28 Drawings in the bueh fUr den orchttek·
tonisehen Zeich-
"black-line-manner" could now be achieved faster
nungs Untemeht und
with the help of a number of "apparatuses con fUr die Vrrfrrttgung drr
structed for this purpose."29 "The greatest effort Boumse und Bouon
seh/Oge, llmenau:
in crosshatching is to maintain a steady, regular Voogt, 1829, p. l19.
It was not until the mid-twentieth century that space between individual lines . . . the slightest, 287
28
drawing techniques and the development of new even singular irregularity in the distance of the The Mrst precise
draw•ng machine
tools intervened fundamentally in the basic issues lines immediately becomes noticeable to the eye
the baste prmc1ple
of knowledge transfer between architects and of the beholder in a displeasing way."30 In order to was already estab-.
20 lished m patents
For example, .n practitioners. Since the turn to the twentieth cen accelerate the crosshatching process, the rolling
of the 1880s IS a
Mitterer, Hermann,
Anleitung zur bUrgerli
tury, attempts had been made to rationalize draw parallel rule was developed; the draftsman simply further development
of an apparatus
chen Boukunst und ing processes, leading to changes in the division had to draw a line along its edge. With the cross 1nvented by Frt�nz
Bouzt1chnung mit den
noth1gsten Grundsot
of labor and also, the systematization of process hatching ruler-also a patent by E. 0. Richte r - a Kuhlmann 1n the U.S.
du6ng the 1920s.
um begftlltt, Munich: es. The concept of a (computer-aided) process simple push o f the button was enough, a n d the See also, Feldhaus,
Verlag der l•thogra
ph•schen Kunstanstalt
chain of construction and the automation of pro T-square moved the desired distance [fig. Ill. Geschichte dtts tttch
n�schen Zttchnens
der Feyerugs Schule, duction would subsequently fundamentally trans Not only inventions, but also the further devel
(see notto 24),
1817-1824.
form the building plan's character. opment and the refinement of existing instru pp.l02 118.
21 In early-nineteenth-century reference books, ments were important for the drawing process:
29
Megede, Alfred zur,
W1e ferttgt man tech
initial steps toward regulating and standardiz the drawing pen was critically improved through Bletchrodt, Hand·
buch fUr den orchitrk
msche le1chnungen? ing architectural drawings were still formu l ated sophistication of the joints, adjustable screws, ton•schen Ze�eh
and sheet metal profiles.31 The increasing preci
Le•l(oden fur d1e
Hersrellung 110n tech·
in a very cursory way.2° Crosshatching and col nungs-Untemcht
(see note 27), p.ll9.
ntschen ze,c.hnungeon ors should be used economically in b u i l d i ng sion of standardized l i n e widths resulted in a
;ederArt fUr den
Gebrouch in tech
plans, and only if they d i d not harm clarity. Both change of plan graphics-as easily recognizable 30
Megede, w,.
lllschen Lehronstolten the means of representation and the function of in the floor plan in fig. 1 8 . A patent drawing for a
und Bureaus, Berlin: (ert1g t man techn1·
Seydel, 1887.
crosshatchings and colors were left to the drafts fountain-pen shows that already in 1864, creative sche le1chnungen?
(see note 21),
man. In 1 887, Alfred zur Megede published Wie solutions were being sought for drawing contin
p.25.
22 fertigt man technische Zeichnungen?, 21 an early uous lines across greater stretches: a drawing
Benkw•ll, Gustav,
o,eOorsteflung der systematic guide for standardizing the means of pen with an ink reservoir that allowed drawing 31
For ad;usting the line
without pausing for refilling.3 2 A dotting pen was
Bouzetchnung,
Berlin: Springer,
representation in technical drawings. Benkwitz's width there are steel
Die Darstellung der Bauzeichnung 22 followed in

pens wtth tract•on or
1889. also developed to allow a clean and regular dot
pressure screws.
1 889; it was an official manual for the creation of ting of lines-it was essentially a drawing pen Ma ny draftsmen
23 preferred the latter,
The first uniform architectural drawings i n the German-speaking with a small wheel at its tip, which applied the ink
because they could
regulat1ons 1n Sw•tzer
land for architectur'al
area.23 Supplemented with colored lithographs regularly by means of spikes on the wheel.33 For c hange the line w1dth
with the fourth finger
representations and based on the earliest standards established the same purpose, Richter developed another
of the hand hold•ng
were created '" 1983;
the st and11rds for
in the engineering disciplines, this handbook pro instrument: "the line to be dotted . . . was d rawn the pen, wh1le draw
1ng. On this, ibtd.,
design plans from vided rules for scale, detailing, and color coding by a bow-type drawing pen, which was raised and
p.l3.
the SIA (Sw•n Soc•ety
of Engineers and
all of which remain, for the most part, valid today lowered abruptly by means of a spring connected
Architects). [hg.lO]. with a spiked-wheel."34 Different wheel inserts
24 allowed the production of different types of lines:
Feldhaus, Franz The industrial production of instruments dots, dotted, and dashed lines [fig.I2J.
Mana, The Hstory of
The History of Technical Drawing by Franz Maria The horizontal divider was developed espe
Technical Drawing,
New York, 1960. Feldhaus24 provides a good overview on the ori cially for the division of brick walls at a scale of ..
gins and development of architectural tools up to 1 : 1 00: "There is a small gear wheel attached to
the mid-twentieth century. The industrial manu- both ends of a little rod such that it is rotatable
VIII
.. around an axis and removable. The circumference today. In 1 863, Poitevin and Pellet created the
of the gear wheels is divided in such a way that ten positive copy (blue l i nes on a white base), and
32
Already the earlier, or thirteen teeth equal the length of a centime Gustav Kogel's patenting of the diazotype in 1 9 1 7
frag•le glass pens w1th
ter."35 A simpler device consisted of a bundle of provided the cornerstone for the invention of the
a cap•lla ry tube could
hold a small ink re steel plates that was attached around a revolv dry process and the success ofthe firm, Ozalid AG.
serve. More on this
ing pencil; when drawing floor plans at a scale From the final days of the nineteenth century until
'" •b•d., p. 15; Feld +
haus, Geschichte des of 1 : 1 00, this device facil itated " . . . setting out the 1930s, an entire industry was created around
techn1schen le•chnens
commonly recurring measurements of wall thick the reproduction of architectural drawings.
(see note 24), p. 88.
nesses as well as door and window openings."36
33
Architects also used more elaborate, so-called Disadvantages and limitations of the
See on th1s, the
product catalogue by mathematical precision instruments. Due to their new duplication method
Kevffel & Ener Co.
(ed.l, Catalogue of
high price, these were employed mainly in the In today's architectural archives, the commercial
Ktufftl & Esstr Co. public offices of building authorities and engi spread of blueprints becomes apparent in draw
Manufacturers and 40
neers. The pantograph [Rg.131, for example, al ings from ca. 1 876. The number of plan copies Reporting on this:
Importen, New York
1921, no. 551. lowed drawing a copy by tracing the original plan seems to have increased significantly with the in Price, Lois Olcott,
Lont, Shodt and Shod
to scale, enlarged, or scaled-down. With the so troduction of the blueprint process. However, the ow: Tht FobtJCOtJon
34
From the product called measuring counter, one could calculate graphic editing of the blueprint copies presented and Preservot1on of
c•talogue of the ArchJttcturol Draw
lengths; and the rolling planimeter calculated sur new problems for the draftsman. Although the re
Firma E. 0. Richter, ings, New Castle
Chemnitz, ca. 1910, face areas by retracing their contours. Amsler's production of lines was precise and inexpensive, (Delaware): Oak
quoted by Frank, Knoll Press, 2010,
"Re1sszeuge" (see
mechanical integrator, a high-precision planime the dark Berlin blue was utterly unsuitable for the p. 159.
no te 25), p. 56. ter for the measurement of very small areas, such color coding of architectural elements and build
41
as on cadastral plans [Rg.14l, or Coradi's mechani ing materials. Some plans41 show attempts to Good examples
35
Megede, W�t cal "integraph" were Swiss discoveries that were differentiate various elements by applying color can be round in the
{trtigr man tech arch1ve of Karl Moser
n1sche le�ehnungen?
exported all the way to the United States. with pens or crayons; however, in terms of legibil (gta arch1\les, ETH
288 (see note 21), ity, these measures brought little i mprovement. Zurich, in\1, no.:
p.23.
Duplication techniques: the blueprint Most likely, these limitations of the negative copy 33 1916 8 27).
The earliest duplication technique was the pierc method accelerated the development of stan
ing of the original plan with a needle or dotting dardized and codified representations of cross
37 wheel,37 a method that is still evident on twentieth hatchings and lines.
The German 41Jahr
bucher" or annuals,
century plan copies. The blackening of the ori Beginning in the 1890s, a comprehensive use
provide extensrve ginal's backside allowed for a copy to be made of specific crosshatchings can be observed on
documentation on
the development of
without perforating the original; but here, too, the blueprints. In large-scale plans, the sections of
pl�n dupl1cat•on: reproduction still had to be fixed and partially re wooden elements were now represented by wood
Zw•ck, Hermann,
Johrbuch Uber dre
drawn. The direct tracing of the original on trans grain, artificial stones by diagonal lines at a forty
le1stungen und parent paper was made possible by the spread of five degree angle, and cement or reinforced con
Foruchriut oufdem
suitable oil paper or tracing paper, which allowed crete by dotted areas [Rg.16J.
Geb•ete der proc·
t1schen Baugewerbe, the direct production of copies with ink and water
leopzog: Carl
Scholtze, 1871.
colors. The introduction of the blueprint at the end Automation of the building plan
of the 1870s brought mass duplication into archi In the early twentieth century, architects increas
38
The l othography
tectural offices. The blueprint was the answer to ingly refrained from investing too much effort in
procen developed by the demand for a precise, simple, and inexpensive complex elaborations of their presentation plans.
Alors Senefelder
p rov•ded the firs t
duplication procedure.3 8 After the discovery of Until the introduction of the blueprint, they com
possibility to duplicete light-sensitive iron salts and J. F. W. Herschel's in pensated for the growing demand for precision
plans. However, the
vention of a liquid for fixing light-sensitive copies, and speed in plan production by developing fast
origma l dra wi na was
destroyed during 1ts the first usable blueprint was produced as early er drawing techniques and new drawing instru
transfer onto the
as 1842.39 The commercial distribution of the tech ments. As a result, new line and crosshatching
l•mestonej and the
proce ss was too s low, nique, however, occurred only in the late 1870s in techniques began to replace hand-drawn, paint
too complicated,
Paris, when Marion & Co. began the manufacture erly work; at the same time, more information was
and therefore too
costly for small ed1 and sale of light-sensitive paper.40 included in the building plan [Rg.17J.
t•ons '" the architec
For the production of a blueprint, the transpar The dotting instrument with wheel inserts,
tural office.
ency drawing was affixed to light-sensitive paper which allowed the production of various types of
39
in a darkroom. Both the original and the copy pa lines, offered another possibility forfurnishing the
See, Ste nger, E nch,
Ore Kop1erver(ahren per were stretched in an exposure frame and cov monochrome drawings with additional informa
mit Entwidfungs- und
Auskop,erpop•eren
ered. Before the availability of powerful lamps, the tion. Richter's manufacturer's catalogue specified
emschl�essfteh des prepared frame had to be brought outside to face seven line types for identifying the most common
Plolm und Eisen
the sun, and the covering was removed for a set construction materials: the dotted line, for exam
drucks und der kiinu1,4
chen Kop1erver(ohren amount of time [R9.1s). In a chemical process, the ple, referred to cast iron, the dash-dotted line to
der Neuze11, Berlin:
exposed areas turned blue, while the areas cov steel, and the elongated lines to wood.
Union Deutsche
Verlagsgesellschaft, ered by the ink-lines of the above-lying original As shown by the early plans of the engineer
1926, p. 151.
transparency remained white. and architect Carl Sequin-Bronner, not only did
Even though new chemical processes later al technology influence the modes of graphic repre
lowed the use of other colors, both the principle sentation, but also vice versa, the representation
and the notion of the blueprint remain in use until technique influenced the development of new
VIII
tools. Already before the introduction of drawing

instruments, Sequin-Brenner's detailed draw
ings-using various types of crosshatching and
lines-attained a precision comparable to today's
detailed plans created using computer-aided
design (CAD).
The simplification and optimization of drawing
processes, as well as constraints imposed by re
production processes, led to new discoveries in
graphics; for example, beginning in the 1 870s,
two different line thicknesses were used to gen
erate a three-dimensional effect (hg 181.
While dividers, rulers, and protractors suffic
ed for the representation of architectural draw
ings in the eighteenth century, a highly specialized
tool industry emerged for draftsmen in the nine
teenth century, bringing hundreds of drawing in
struments onto the market. Surveyors, mechani
cal engineers, and ship builders developed plan
standards even earlier than architects, and they
also created norms and symbol tables. Not sur
prisingly, the accelerated reproduction of archi
tectural drawings in the technological world led
to a loss of diversity in the means of representa
tion, and with this, also a decline in artistic ambi 289
tion, and a disappearance of the painterly allure
that had been so characteristic of early drawings.
The blueprint, in particular, and the industrialized
and standardized building processes, in general,
now became synonyms for progress.
�.
VIII
..
" .
""
fig. l
Illustrations of the
dance steps from
Oiderot's and d'Aiem
bert's Encyclopidit,
�l' "' to..., 1772.
. '
C.. ll o
1
0 '
�g. 2
U"
•
........... , .., .;�o -z:r
= ,. Borges, Jorge Lu•s:
"
I l J J. J J o o Untvtrsolgesch�ehte
'W' .- ..- ,-"'1U-,. V V der Nitderrrocht,
,.
, / - - � "'-.- Mun1ch: Carl Hanser,
"
......
•';) ) "') 1970, p. 346 (ong;nal
ouy '"C/"q �J''q fq Argentinian edition
� J 1935; English edttton,
.i
(' .. <' H
" q d q A Un1vtrsol Htstory of
c./ (/ Infamy, Boston, MA:
EF Dutton, 1972).
·G
"�
,.,.. r.8. 3
Plate showtng the
Corinthian order,
from Johann Mat
fig.3
thaus von Mauch's
Dit Archtttktomscht
290 Ordnvng dtr Gr,tchtn
�g.l und Romtr, 1875,
fig. A
1' Representattve plan

Von der Strenge der Wissenschaft in the beau:IC·arts
tradition, develop
ment Ramtstrnse,
. . . In jenem Reich erlangte die Kunst der Kartographic cine der· Zunch. Hetnnch
artigc Vollkommenheit, daO die Karte einer einzigen Provinz den Ernst, 1885-1889.
Raum einer ganzen Stadt einnahm und die Karte des Reichs
den einer Provinz. Mit der Zeit befriedigten diese iibermiillig gro·
llen Karten nicht Ianger, und die Kollegs der Karthographen er·
stellten eine Karte des Reichs, die genau die GriiOe des Reiches
hatte und sich mit ilun in jedem Punkt deckte. Die nachfolgenden
Geschlechter, die dem Studium der Kartographie nicht mehr so
ergeben waren, warcn der Ansicht, daO diese ausgedehnte Karte
Uberfliissig sei und Ubcrliellen sie, nicht ohnc VerstoO gegen die
Pietiit, den Unbilden der Sonne und der Winter. In den WUsten
des Westens haben sich bis heute zcrstiickelte Ruinen der Karte
erhalten, von Tieren bchaust und von Oettlern ; im ganzen Land
gibt es sonst keinen Oberrest der geographischen Lchrwissen·
schaften.
(Su6.rtt Miranda, Viaits d1 Varouts Prudut11, l1bro cuarto, np. XIV,
Urida, t6)8.)
fig. 2
fig.4
VIII
hg 7
Pl1nn•ng and $-U�ey
ing: the project of
the new St Peter's
Church on the cadat.
,, tr•l pl•n by Bruchsol.
r.;..t
Forst holf of tho
etghteenth century
hg. 8
Pal•u•na del Ptacere
-d�f;:..,_
in Caprarola. Mea
sured sketch drawmg
hg 7
1n trllvel JOUrn•l.
Gust•• Gull, 1883.
� P'..J
� #-�-:/. Ag. 9
'-;
-� ��) . Kunsthalle K�rlsruhe,
-]·) '
� - ,. ground pl1n of the
.
.J�...z·/31J
- /..1.,_
.
A�l(;
upper floor wtth ,heet
� for a sketch study
glued on (�rea of the
� ""' �
"" m11n 5.\llrwly), Karl·
sruhe. He.nr.ch
?("V �
....�
.-: •
Hubsch, 1838/39.
-->, '
hs 5
Workmg dr1wmg
for a pond •n the
garden of Schloss
hg. 8
Bruchsal. First half
of the eoghteenth
century. As 5
291
hg 6
Ground pl1n, elev••
t•on, 1nd ••ct•on of
the "model shed," -(
1721.
hs. 9
hg. 6
..
VIII
..
,__... ...
f<g lOA
S•mple plot• for
.�
--:t:-1 1I 11-- ·
bui lding plans at 1
� --,!1 scole of 1:1011:50,
' J
I I
from 1901.
r
.
e
hg lOB
Hand color�d l1tho·
graph for the st,.nd
erduation of color
and crosshatchtng
'" m.chantul
draw•ngs
hg.IOA
hg ll
Kennzelchnung der Baustoffe Crosshatchmg
(nur ift S<h.;ltlllchtft�
..... .. rul•r by Emol Osk�r
R1chter, IBn.
hg. 12
Dottmg •ppar�tus
for d•fTerent symbol
\l
ltnes, by Emil Oskar
R,chter, 1876,
"For t try type
of line served a special
wheal •ts border
292 furnished w1th the
c
correspond•ng teeth
F4
or fil tngs whtch, on
demand, ould be
c=J -
1)' .... .
2)
3) .
......................
·-·-· -·
-..... ou..ttilllll.
•
Bcbmledcel,.n.
St&lli.
• > . . ..
�)
G) . .
.. .. ..
·--
. . Muaina.
Rothgu...
.. Kupfer.
a a
•nserted between tht
steel pl te or fe ther (
and the brass plate
7) Hob. or the frame cr."
hg.13
Pantogroph woth
hg.l2
f,.ee 1Win£!na arms
by Jokob Gold
schmtd, Mech•n•cus
'" Zunch, 1864
•} M �� .,.,_ �I l• � .._ ..... H � � ...... �If

ttlft>,.k:fot ·� &.....-. "-•.tttww ii!MI ...II 1"1•�
hg lOB
hg. l 3
VIII
�g. l4
For very prec•�e
measurements of
imaller arttl; me
chan•cal mtegrator
by Jokob Am•lor
h g 17
Laffon .n Schaff
Changma represent•
hausen.
t•ons as a result of
new drawmg instru
hg. l5
ments and enhanced
Exposure frame
reproduc•b•l•ty
for blueprmu.
througt-1 bluepri nts·
bu ildings were no
hg 16
longer h•ghlighted
Early apphcat•on of
wtth colors, but
st1ndardued cross
Instead, wah cron
hatchmg on blue
hatchmgi m add•t•on,
pnnt, new f1ctory
the planned new
bu•ld•ng, Schaffhau
II•H�- butld•ng was mark�d
�en. Karl Moser,
w1th hard shadows
1916. �-;::"'...:·:;:-
------ ----_
-�----.....:::.. _ . """"' and different line
hgl7 w1dths. Areu wtth
d,fferent levels of
broghtneu tO\IId be
hg l4 generoted by ch•ng
'"8 the mtervals of
the crouhatch•ng
mach1ne. Different
symbol l•nes often
gener.u.d with dot
t1ng •nstruments
d1frerent1ated the
ltnes accordtng to
thetr functton.
Schul heus Hrschen
graben, Zurich,
stiidt. lngenteur 293
Bureau, stgned
C. Schollenborg,
22 Morch 1890.
hg 18
Graph•c tnnovatton
through new workmg
hg. IS
processes and drtwtng
tnstruments: the
draftsman used two
dtfTerent feather
wtdths for &raetng tht
penctl drawtng wtth
mk. The contours of
•II paru to be h•gh
lighted are accentual
ed wtth a bro�Jder ltne
on their right and
lower s1des, thus
creating a shadow;
this en ha nces spittttt l
legtbiltty. The tech
ntque became wtde·
spread around the
1870s. New factory
buildtng Pasquale+
Burgh• tn Varano,
Rut•, C. �uon
Bronner, 1902.
fig. l6
..
IX
..
Urs
Primas
CONTEMPORARY
W ITNESS ES
The implementation
plan s for Susten
strasse
294 The implementation plans for the Sustenstrasse, road of the preceding project was entirely re
completed in 1946, were created directly before worked to lessen the "great number of hairpin
and during the caesura of World War II, which bends," which must "presently be identified as a
shaped modern Switzerland. With their help, we transportation hindrance." 3 The staging of the 3
Baud•rekt1on des
can well understand aspects that were funda mountain landscape for tourists- an outstanding KantoM s�rn: Ge
ntrtlltr 8tflcht f
ur dtn
mental at the time to the construction of this im quality of Sustenstrasse from a contemporary Ntubou dtr Suutn
portant new road. Along with their actual function perspective- was, however, not mentioned as strosst Btr•cht &
Kostl'nvoronschlog,
as instructions for building, their study also makes a distinct criterion in its design. It seems to have Thun: Arch1v des
further levels of meaning accessible. For example, arisen almost incidentally, as a side effect of Obenngen1eurs Kre•s
I (Oberland), 1935,
they provide evidence of an attitude toward build technical and operational considerations: a route
p. 13.
ing in the Alpine area that was typical at the time planning that is transportation-friendly with low
4
and document a culture of drawing that has large grades and few turns avoids the danger zone of lbtd., p.4.
ly been lost today. avalanches descending from the Wendenstocke
s
and uses the existing shape of the landscape al lbtd., p. 6.
Engineering landscapes lowing the road to be built with the least possible
"In the 11th section, the road surmounts the valley outlay in terms of material and transport.
step of Feldmoos in a loop that extends far to However, the mentioned report also illustrates
the north through the Gschletterschlag forest. that the planners were thoroughly aware of the
The hairpin bend is reached via several tunnels . . . demands of the tourist gaze. The i nvestment in
half-galleries, over small bridges and sloping via road building was legitimized with a bundle of
ducts. It is located in an abrupt, sloping recess arguments related to transportation, the military,
in the Wendenlamm. For a short stretch, the high construction, and tourism. There is ". . . no doubt
forest opens to reveal a view; upward to the that a modern motorway over the Sustenpass,
3,000-meter high ridges ofthe Wendenstocke and which is so blessed with natural beauty, would
beyond over Gad men valley to the distant Wetter be an appropriate draw for motorists from other
horn. Filling in the hollow encircled by the street countries."" On the other hand, the Susten
Baud1rekt•on d�s
will lead to the creation of a beautiful parking spot." 1 strasse is important not only as a "tourist road,"
Kantons Bern: Projdf This introductory overview by the project " . . . butjust as much or even more so, as a military
fUr d�n Nrubou dtr
Susttnstro.sse, XI.
author E. Nil is testimony to a remarkable sensibil road." In the case of an attack coming from Italy,
Sektron. Ttchmscluu ity for the road's scenic potential. In a pioneer the Furka could be made impassable by means
Bericht, KostMYoron
ing monograph on the Sustenstrasse, Werner of artillery fire. The Susten, as a topographically
schlog, Thun: Arc.h•v
des Obenngemeurs Zschokke describes the mentioned hairpin bend, protected connection between Gotthardachse
Kroos I (Oberland),
which moves around a jag of rock that has been and upper Aaretal thus presents ". . . an extremely
1937, p.l.
left in place, as the highpoint of a first, romantic important link for our national defense."5
Z..:�okko, Waller· Oto
section of the road. He makes the conjecture that This convergence of arguments from the mili
Stross� 1n d�r veorgtu " . . . with his road, the planner wanted to get around tary and tourism is characteristic of the political
tntn londschoft Dor
this point."2 legitimation of investments made in the Swiss
Susrtnpon, Zunch; gta
Verlag, 1997, p. 78. The report on the project in general from 1935 Alps before, during, and after World War II. The
shows that in this partial section, the layout of the planning of Sustenstrasse came at a time when
IX
the tourist potential of the now-affordable auto In this way, the outlay in terms of work, energy, and
mobile was d iscovered. The Alpine area, as a key material can be kept within limits, thereby saving
element of the World War II defense dispositif, building costs. However, at the same time, the
was simultaneously heavily fortified with new carefully aligned mass balance points to a creative
strongholds, antitank barriers, military airfields, understanding of the relationship between road
and development infrastructure. and topography. The building of the road is under
The prioritizing of the Alpine space in the inter stood as a complex regrouping of material found
est of national defense and tourism influenced, on-site rather than as insertion of an independent
last but not least, the 1 930s discussion of structure into the site. The demand that ". . . the ar
developing the transportation network in an tificial installation ofthe road construction" should
automobile-friendly way. Because there were ". . . blend as naturally as possible into the terrain," is
fears that otherwise, " . . . the limits of what was found in a prominent position in the "norms for
feasible would be hopelessly exceeded," the mountain roads" of the VSS, declared as binding
Vereinigung Schweizerischer Strassenfachman in the context of the federal decree from 1936.9 9
Vere•n•gung Xhwet
ner (VSS) campaigned already in 1933 for priori There, profile types favorable for this purpose zenscher Str1ssen�
f•ch mtnner� Normo·
tizing an Alpine road as opposed to the upgrading were proposed, which were applied and further
ur 8ergstrossen
lten f
6 of other trunk roads. 6 1n spring of 1934, a petition developed in the Sustenstrasse lhg 21. Also fitting II. Ttil: 8ounormo/rtn,
VSS Vert"tntguna
Zunch 1942, p.l.
SchweuenKher for a referendum supporting Alpine road con with this logic is the concept of short tunnels
Str1ssenf1chleute
VSS 1913 bos 1988. struction gathered an unusually high amount of through an�tes, a solution that is also used in plac 10
Conzett, Jurg, Lond
Eine Ch rontk ub•r signatures. The counterproposal by the federal es where an incision would probably have been sco�s and S1rvcrures
das Wtrdtn, Wochsen
unci W,rkfn dtr Vtrt•
council was put in action in 1936 and enabled the simpler in terms of realization. Jurg Conzett men A personal mvtntory
ofJUrg Conzttt,
mgung Schwtutmchtr building of the Sustenstrasse, in the context of a tions these tunnels as an example of ". . . conscious
photog,ophed by
Slrossenfochleur�,
Zunch 1988, p. 29.
program financed by fuel taxes, among other decisions about shaping the landscape: it was Mortm L.nst, Zunch:
V•dog Scheidegge'
things. At the national exhibition in 1939, the VSS thought best to leave the ribs of the terrain in & Spooss, 2010,
was able to offer an account of hitherto successes tact." 1 0 p. 245. 295
in Alpine road construction.7
8
Baudtrekhon des
A culture of drawing
Kontons Bern: Regrouping In addition to the plans' content that was explicitly
Gtntrtlltr Btncht
f
ur den Neubou dtr
Through a closer look at the plans themselves it depicted in graphics or clarified in writing, from to
SusttnUrout, is possible to retrace the design attitude under day's perspective, also the "style," that is, the way
he-e note 3), p. 1
lying the road planning in terms of embedment of the plans are drawn, is remarkable. First, the depth
the road in the Alpine topography. In the situa of their graphic depiction is impressive. For exam
tional plan [-> K6. P· 2131, colored areas on both sides ple, examining the situation plan from a distance
of the road identify the removal of earth and rub mediates a concise overview of the entire section.
ble (brown) and rock (dark g ray). Backfills, such Beholding the drawings from up close reveals an
as those for new embankments, are depicted in astounding wealth of information about details
dark yellow. Together with the cross profiles, and cross references. From today's perspective,
these areas result in a balance of the regrouped also notable is that the plans contain hardly any ir
material volumes in the road section in question. relevant information. The elaborate manual labor
The transfer of the displaced material from each seems to have led to a consistent reduction to es
cross profile into a horizontal road axis develop sentials. Finally, surprising is how a movement
ment results in the surface profile depicted in a through the landscape is successfully sketched
separate plan 11o9. 11. The removed volumes are out. Together with the spectacular longitudinal
drawn in above the horizontals and the filled-in profile [n9.3J, the ground plan develops a choreo
volumes below the horizontals. I n this way, a graphic quality, which seems to express a particu
graphic balance of masses arises making legible lar attitude with regard to the Alpine landscape.
the necessary displacements of earth, rubble, The graphic depiction is oriented on carto
and rock. graphic conventions, for example, in the way the
Such a drawing helps optimize transport ex typography and orientation of writing are handled.
penditures in the building of the road. As much Information that refers to the road itself is set par
material as possible will be recycled on site, and allel or at a right angle to the course of the road,
for what remains, the shortest possible transport while the field names, height notations, and titles
routes to areas for reincorporation or landfill sites follow the orientation of the sheet. Also the intelli
are chosen, whereby downhill transport is pre gent folding principle, which enables leafing
ferred. The general report on the project refers to through on the construction site, is reminiscent of
the fact that ". . . in the detail development, the road a map. The intersection points of the hundred
[should be] pushed as much to the mountain-side meter network of the national topographic survey
of the section as possible." 8 The introduction of run across the entire sheet in a fine grid. However,
pneumatic drill hammers made this possible also noticeable in contrast to today's implementation
in rocky terrain. Far fewer hairpin turns and abut plans, which are furnished with photos of the ter
ments are required as compared with earlier proj rain, is the lack of structural contour lines. . .
ect studies. At the same time, the excavated ma What might shed light on the categorization of
terial can be recycled in the building of the road. this drawing culture is a sidelong glance at another
IX
.. 11 Hg.l �g.3
major project that was likewise taken u p before Imhof, Eduard, "In· Surface Longitudtnal
World War I I : the mapping of the Alpine area at a terv•ew m1t Prof. Dr. sectton (detail) sectton (detatO
h.c. Eduard Imhof.'' New constructi on N�w constructton
scale of 1 :25,000. Eduard Im hof, professor of
broadcast on: Sc:h Sustenstrasse, XI, Sustenstrasse, XI,
cartography at the ETH Zurich beginning in 1925, we•zer Radio DRS 1, sect1on: proJect sektton: project
Rendet-vous om surface section, longitud inal
propagated for years, a nationwide, uniform car M•tcog, on 14 Decem March 1937 sectoon 1:1000/100,
tography that would represent the mountain area, ber 1981, http://www. 189 >� 29.7cm, March 1937
karto.ethz.ch/arch•..,e/ heltographic print, 236 x 29.7 em,
hitherto depicted at a scale of 1 :50,000 [hg. 41, in ika rad•o (part 1: hand colored and heliographic print,
the same degree of detail as the flat land. "With lmhors yout h, tnun folded on A4. hand colorfd and
mg, and first years as folded on A4.
the assistance of all civil national organizations in professor), Out The street develop
terested in the map,"- namely, the Swiss Alpine v•ewed on 30 March ment at a scale of The long1tudmal
2013). 1:\000 forms the section, mcreased by
Club- Imhof, himself a passionate alpinist, was
horizontal &Ius.
From a factor of 10 through
ultimately successful. 11 12 every cron sectton, the street a>�•s, ts
Imhof, Eduard, the sectional surface turned sect•on-wtse
One could identify the effort at a precise, min GeiOnde und Kortt, of the road cut is by 45 degrees. The
imal, and at the same time beautiful graphic rep Erlenbac:h Zi.irich: transferred to the top yellow areas i dentify
Eugen Rentsch and the backfill to the the e>�cavated ground,
resentation of complex reality as the most import Verlag, 1950, p. 98. bottom . One centi the light red areas the
ant parallel between the drawing style of the meter corresponds backfill. The strut·
implementation plans discussed here and the of 13 with 10m2 of cross lures a re depicted tn
Panofsky, Erwin, section area, so that red.
ficial maps of the federal cartography. In the 1950 "lkonograph•e und one square cent1me
lkonologie. Eine ter tn the plan corre Hg.4
compendium Ge/ande und Karte published by the EinfUhrung in die sponds wtth a material Overview map
Federal Military Department, I m hof demanded Kunst der Rena•s volume of 100m1. The General project
sance," m lb•d., Sinn re-assembly on stte for the new construe·
that "art and science" strive together for a true und Deutung in dtr is depicted in dark tion of Sustenstrasso,
to-form, graphically clear, and easily legible de bildenden Kunst, yellow, the matenal lnnertkt rchen
piction.1 2 Imhof pointed out that good maps do

Cologne: Dumont for the stone bed and at the he1ght of
Verlag, 1975, p. 40; graveling is dark gray. the pass (canton
not arise simply as the automatic result of consis Harley, John Bnan The other colors border), overview
296 tently applied representation processes, but in
and Blakemore, MJ.,
Concepu in tht Hsto
tdent•fy the redtstri
button of materia l
plan 1:50'000,
August 1935
stead - l ike pictures- have to be carefully de ry of Cortogrophy, volumes. On the 75 x 29.7 em,
Toronto: Un1vers1tyof 1,478 m-long sectton, colored map detail,
signed and composed. Toronto Press, 1980, 33,803 m1 of e>�ca folded on A4.
Cartographic images such as these permit in 78 f. Wtth reference vated matenal accu
to Erwin Panofsky, mulates. Of that, For the overview
terpretatio n - beyond the intended function as the Canadian cartog 15,067 m' will be maps of the Susten
a map -as indicators ofthe "fundamental attitude raphy h1stonan John reused tn the road strasse, a compilation
Bnan Harley proposes construct1on, the rest of the sheets 392
of a nation, a period, a class, or a religious or phil an "iconographic" is deposited in the Meiringen (1932) and
osophical conviction." 13 The implementation plans interpretat ion of terrain. 393 Wossen (1933)
maps. On Sw1ss from the Siegfr�ed
for Sustenstrasse might also provide these types n&tional topography, �g.2 maps were p rinted, in
of hints. As witness to a particular design attitude, see also: Gugerli, Norm sect•on wh•ch the forest and
Davtd und Speich, (detail) meadows were set m
they tell of an era in which the rationality of the en Damel, Topogro{l�n New construction color in the area
gineer, surveyor, and military, went hand in hand dtr Notion. Politik, Sustenstrasse, XI, affected by the road.
kortogrofische Ord sectton: project In 1948 the sheet 255
with a demanding design project: the develop nung und Lond- norm section l:SO, Sustenpass from the
ment and staging of the Swiss Alps as military schoft im 19. Johr· March 1937 federal topography
hundert, Zunch: 231 ' 29.7 em, was publtshed for the
"reduit" and tourism-based world of experiences, Chronos Ve rlag, heliographic print, first time at a scale of
but also as "crowd symbol" 1 4 and mental signifier 2002, p. 192 f. hand colored and 1:50,000. The corre·
folded on A4. spend ing sheets at a
of the nation. scale of 1:25,000
14
Canetti, Elias, Crowds The norm secttons of followed >n 1967
ond Power, New York: the Sustenstrasse rest (sheet 1211 Metental)
Farrar, Straus and on th� principl�s and 1969 (sheet 1210
Girou•, 1984, p. 175: presented in the VSS' lnnertkirchen).
"The Sw1ss pla ns for "Norms for new
defence during the mountain roads" and
last two wars e>� show typical solut1ons
pressed th1s equatton for the embedment of
of t he nation and the the road mto the
chain of the Alps in a terrain. Ideally, the
curious way. In the road axts follows the
case of an attack all e>1ist1ng terratn to the
the fertile land, all the greatest e>�tent possi
Clttes, and all the ble, so that an eve n
centres of product ion balance of masses
were to be left unde anses and the topog
fended. The army was raphy rema1ns, for
to rettre to the moun the most part, un
tains and would only changed.
have fought there.
People and country
would appear to have
been sacnficed, but
Swttzerland would st1ll
have been represent
ed by the army in the
mountams; the crowd
symbol of the natton
would have become
the country 1tself."
IX
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Kornel
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PLANNED
MY TH
The buildin g plan s
for Eero Saarin en's
TWA termin al
as marketin g
tool
298 When Saarinen's Trans World Airlines Terminal to.3 "Now I observe myself ardently promulgating
was preserved as a landmark in 1 994, the land the Eero-myth," she confessed in 1958. 4 Together
marks preservation based it on a myth: They justi with the client, she coordinated communication
fied the protection order by claiming that Saarinen measures along "four target moments for public
had attuned the structure to the then-new jet ity": the awarding of the contract, presentation of
planes and thus revolutionized airport architec the implementation design, during headway in
ture not only in terms of design, but also opera construction, and finally, on the occasion of the A, Mork Wogloy
1 dtsclo$ed m hts en1y,
Cl. New York L..nd•
tions.' The preservation order thus reinforced opening on May 28, 1962.5 One of the main goals const1tuttve for the
marks PreservatiOn a fundamental misunderstanding: In order to in this was to present Saarinen's terminal as state subsequent lrgu,.nt,
Comm•n•on: Trans "'The �rchttec.turll
World A.rltnet. Flight
avert the threat of demolition, they bestowed the of-the-art in terms of operational technology and cult of synchronttl
Center at New York terminal, which no longer met TWA's operational capable of handling jet planes. Despite increasing t•on," John McHale
lnternat•on•l A•rport, from the Independent
Des•gnatton Ltst 2�9,
demands, with a seductive aura. They drafted an passenger numbers, TWA had frequently been
Group had olreody
LP·1916, New York, idealized image of the real structure and monu operating in the red from the time of its founding captured the connK
N Y.: The Commts t•on of the cult of
ston, 1994, p. 2.
mentalized it. As monument, the building ritual in 1930 and therefore occasionally demanded in htstorical preservllton
ized the ability to ignore its grave deficits in terms creased efficiency and cost effectiveness from and reproduction in
1966. In the esny,
of operational technology. 2 The working drawings the ground infrastructure. "The Plastic Parthe
for the terminal were also part of this myth making. non," McHale had
hoghloghted the role of
While at the time of its construction they were still The design by Eero Saarinen & Associates (ES&A)
mau medu1 and the
a purposeful tool and instrument for communica clearly bore witness to this. It corresponded with consumer goods
mdustry tn the ere
tion among architect, engineer, and construction the concept of increasing the number of auto alton of monuments.
firm, they now serve to glorify the terminal and mated and mechanized processes, and thereby S.. Wogloy, Mork,
"The arch•tecturJI
Saarinen. followed the principles of operations research. cult of synchronul•
Starting from extensive time studies at numerous lion,'" •n Th� Journal
of ArclurKrurt, vol. 4,
Supposedly jet-ready airports and flow charts of ideal handling pro
no. 4 (1999), pp. 409
This development reaches back to the airport ter cesses, ES&A designed a succession of nearly 435; McHolo, John,
"Thf' Ptast•c Parthe
minal's origins beginning in late 1955. 1n the battle threshold- and door-free spaces, a marked differ non,'" •n DorOes,
for customers in the fiercely contested U.S.-Amer ence from the hitherto predominant chamber-like G;llo (ed.), K;uch,
London: Stud•o Vtna,
ican market, the airlines stepped up their efforts spatial concept of airport terminals. 6 Additionally,
1969, pp. 97 110;
to differentiate themselves from one another via with the smoothly functioning machine as oper
Dot1�ro Mogotme,
their airport terminals. The peak of this develop ational model, diverse handling stations were
no. 3 (Sprong 1967),
ment came with Idlewild Airport in New York (to mechanized and automated in order to check-in pp.4-11.
day: John F. Kennedy International Airport), where the passenger through a structure that was pre
the major American airlines could build their own cisely optimized, and therefore highly specialized
terminals, and intensely market themselves. TWA for the building's purpose. However, important in
was heavily supported in this endeavor by Aline sight relevant for the ground check-in of the jets
Saarinen, the architect's wife and public-relations that had been introduced during the terminal's
manager. However, she used the terminal to pur planning stages was first available when the
sue also her own goals and guarantee Saarinen structure was already mainly finished.7 1n addition
the place in architectural history that he aspired to that, the financially strapped TWA was forced to
X
make savings in early 1 9 6 1 , which further de The complexly organized forms were illustrated
creased serviceability. Thus, when the Trans World there by connecting points of the same elevation,
Flight Center opened it was neither on par with that is, by means of contour lines, as used in map
the latest findings nor specifically tailored to the illustrations. The translation of the models into
new generation of aircraft. Beginning in 1970, at working drawings was nonetheless extremely
Other than the
the latest, when the first wide-bodied jets had to complex: the architects made countless horizon wtngspan, ES&A
recetved no reltable
be checked-in, the departure hall proved ineffi tal cuts through the imaginary building from the
tnformetton from the
cient and inept at handling the ever more numer four arched supports, at an initial distance of two client about the
check'In or the new
ous passengers. feet (61 centimeters). The numerous curves of the
generatton or &tr
interior were defined in the ground plan by radius planes. See ES&A,
11Piane posttton plan,"
Both the client and Aline Saarinen knew of the es and their center point registered in a coordi
implementation
long walk, the detrimental height offset between nate system. There were ninety-two of these set destgn, Eero Saannen
drive-up and airplane entry, inconsistent weather points, which were listed in a book. 17 The archi Collectoon (MS 593),
Manuscnpts and
3 protection, and capacity shortages, yet they none tects were not able to fall back on experience in Archives, Yale Univer
"I would frankly hke Stty Ltbrary, sertes IV,
to leave a place for
theless emphatically marketed the terminal as jet their work, but instead, had to experiment. They
bo• 274.
myself m orch•tectur ready.8 And there is more: their communication thus determined that the slightest deviations in
al history," Saarinen
announced 1n ca. 1953
systematically reacted to the deficits by glossing the blueprints, for example, as a result of heat ex S.e TWA, "Amend
1n a letter. Saarinen, them over. For example, shortly before the start of pansion, would result in major i m precisions i n ment of agreements
Eero, letter to 110r. covenng constructton
construction, the client emphasized in a communi the shell plans. In order t o avoid this, they intro
B." (Bartemayer], of Untt Termtnel at
undated (1952 1953), cation that her new airport terminal would not only duced an identical grid in all plans and doubled the New York lnterna
Aline and Eero ttonal Atrport to
Snrmen Pa pers,
be capable of handling the new generation of jum number of elevation lines. ES&A prepared roughly
provide tncreased
1906 t9n, Arch.ves bo jets, but also future generations of supersonic 130 plans in about 5,500 hours of work. 18 facilittes" [meeting
of Americ11n Art,
Smtthson•an lnst•tu
aircraft. 9 The aviation organization also willingly protocol or the ad
ministrative commtt·
t1on, senes 1, box 2, supported the claims of operational progress with But the design was still not ready to be built. Archi tee], Nov. 1961, p. 1,
folder 49, sheet 13.
detailed descriptions of the elaborate architecture tectural designs are only the basis for the engi Floyd D. Hall Papers
299
(RG 488), Auburn
4 of the arches.1 ° Combined with fabricated photos neering plans and the building company's produc Universtty Spectal
Saarinen, Aline B., Collecttons and
lette r to B. B. (Ber
and descriptions of strictly organized, smooth con tion plans. Over a period of nearly two years, the Arch tves, sertes I, box
nard Berenson], May struction processes, as well as the many ingenious architects, engineers, and later the construction 2, folder "Meetmas,
Ajjendas & Reports,
24, 1958, pp. 1, 2,
and operational claims, this was seemingly com firm compared their plans.1 9 For the latter, the con
Aline and Eero November 1961."
Saa ri nen Pa pers, mensurate with the promised efficient, jet-ready, crete shell, which additionally required even more
1906· 1977, Archives
of Amencan Art,
check-in process. The media as well as construc precisely detailed plans, presented a major chal 9
See TWA, ''Work to
Smithsonian lnst1tu tion firms and suppliers cultivated the image of an lenge. In part with computer support, a novelty in begm soon on new
t•on, series 2, box 6,
folder 18, page 3.
operationally high-standing airport terminal.11 The the construction industry at the time, they were TWA termtnal at
Idlewild ourport,"
misconceptions were transcribed, became estab ultimately successful in accurately defining every (press release], April
5
Seerinen, Aline B.,
lished, and turned into supposed facts. Until the rib and connection between buttress and arch.20 15, 1959, Trans World
Airlines Collectton
letter to w.JI.am A. present day, reviews present the misunderstand But the building plans were not finished even now, (M-234), The Saont
Hewitt (president of Louts Mercenttle
ing that Saarinen revolutionized airport architec as Chuck Parise, architect at ES&A, recalls; short
Deere and Company], Lt brary, Untverstty of
March 26, 1962, ture with the TWA Terminal.1 2 ly before breaking ground the financially strapped Missouri -St. Louts,
Eero Searinen Collec bo• 1 65.
tion (MS 593),
TWA announced that it had to make cutbacks.
Manusc npts and Elaborately produced building plans Bent over sepia drawings, the client, architect, 10
Arch1ves, Yale Un.ver See TWA, "Takong
sityLi brary, series I,
The extraordinarily complex production of the and construction firm made two and a half million
sha pe," in Slcylmer, vol.
bo• 14, folder 228. building plans for the terminals also would have dollars in savings with a few thick pencil strokes; 23, no. 9 (Apnl 28,
6
fitted neatly into the public relations campaign. On the following day, building began.2 1 1960), p. 1; see TWA,
''Fact Sheet" (press
The •dea of an unbri April 1 0, 1958, Helmut Borcherdt, a German archi relea se], MiJy 2, 1962,
dled c heck·1n became especially pp. 1-2,
more and more of an
tect at ES&A commented, "The plans for the TWA Additional marketing tool
Trans World A1rlmes
IllUSIOn With the nrst building are now finished, the countless models Just as elaborate and innovative the production of Collection (M-234),
plane h�ack•ng at The Satnt Louts Mer
the end of the 1960s
have now been put in storage, the large model, the final plans was, Aline Saarinen and TWA did cantt le Library, Uni
and the subsequent that you can crawl into, is covered over."13 With this not use them to market the terminals and its archi versity or Minoun
stricter secunty St. Lou1s, bo�t 1·30.
controls. See unkown,
statement, Borcherdt drew along with a sigh of re tect. This is surprising. Similar to the meticulous
"Antt· h�acktng sys lief, a closing line under the intensive, more than construction planning, the precise realization,
tem b&tng used
by TWA/' in Avtotion
two-year design work on the terminal. The "ardu ingenious special accomplishments, and much
Week ond Spoce Tech ous process," as the architect would later remem more, the preparation of the plans would have
nology, vol. 91, no.25
(December 22,
ber it, was initially entirely under the auspices of offered useful public relations material to fortify
1969), p. 32. the search for the desired building form, then a technical progressiveness and operational effi
way to formulate this in a plan. 14 The architects cre ciency. In light of the breadth of the marketing
ated between three-hundred and five-hundred themes, advertising means, and channels of com
models before Saarinen was finally satisfied with munication, this was not a simple oversight. In
the design. "Then," the architect summarized, addition, remarkable is that specially prepared
". . . we were able to make drawings of what we ac- presentation plans were used in publications rath
tually had." 1 5 As Borcherdt explained, in the pro er than implementation designs. 22 "The represen
�-
duction drawing division at ES&A the models were tation of structures on paper is simply a means for
"scanned and drawn" by the architects responsible understanding," declared Borcherdt in 1 960. 2 3
for completion. 16 From this, it can be concluded that at the time,
..
building plans served simply for communication consequently advanced to the epitome of the
between architect, engineer, and construction modern airport terminal, even becoming a monu
11
firm, and did not yet perceive a marketing mission. ment for airline industry buildings par excellence.
A full page advertise· But this would change. An early indication of this The TWA Flight Center is the embodiment of an
ment by the Sloan
Valve Company
is the monograph Eero Saarinen on His Work, architecture that is an event in and of itself rather
compared the effec which his widow published in 1962 shortly after than serving as an environment for a particular op
ttllenen of the termt·
nal w1th the long hfe
the architect's premature death, to guarantee erational event, such as check-in.
cycle or the nush "one of the twentieth-century's foremost archi-
val¥es mstalled tn the
butldmg. See Sloan
tects" the place in architectural history that he
Valve Company, aspired to. In addition to Saarinen quotes, the ex 12 16 22
"Performance rt-cords More recently, Borcherdt, Helmut, The few except1ons
of mtlltons of Sloan
hibition of works was based on large-format pic
Ahmed Sorbutu ond "Pianung des TWA- thematize the pr'o-
Flush Valves indtcate tures, including a working drawing for the TWA Hubertus Adam, for Flughafengebaudes duct•on of the work-
...," [pre-print of an e••mple, spoko or the in New York," 1n •ng draw•ngs, wh1ch
advertisement),
Terminal; the other projects, on the contrary, were
term•nal as an opera Baukunu und Werk- makes their publica-
undated, unpagtnated, documented exclusively by presentation plans. t1onal Jewel. See form, vol. 13, no. 5 t•on unavo1dable.
Eero Snr.nen Collec Sarbutu, Ahmed, (Moy 1960), pp. See, author unknown,
toon (MS S93), Manu
They thereby set the hoped-for "keystone for all "Expression und 2S6 263, p. 2S7. "Shaping a two-acre
scripts and Archtves, subsequent works," as it says in the cover text. The Funktion: das TWA ES&A ore. loke SOM sculpture" (see note
Yale Um..,erstty Lt Terminal von Eero back thon, organ•.t:ed IS); Borcherdt,
brary, Senes IV,
later monographs and articles published begin Saannen 1n New eccording to spec•al- Helmut, "Pianung des
bo• 273, folders 906 ning in 2003 document the departure hall with, York," 1n: Arch•th1se, •zed work funct•ons. TWA rlughafenge
910. In addttton, the vol. 32, no. 5 (2002),
departure hall served
in part, full-page building plans. 24 Presentation The var ious develop- bliudes in New York"
pp. 32 35, p. 32; mental phases and (see note 16).
as the backdrop for plans, whether originals or newly created ones, Adam, Hubertus, JObs dunng a plan,
films and fashion
which show the spatial connections so important "Die Ruckkehr der from the design to 23
shoots, as well as for Sonne: das Dock E the construction and Borcherdt, Helmut,
postcard mottfs. The for an airport terminal more clearly than produc und d1e moderne realiz&[IOn to proJeCt "Pianung des TWA·
airport termtnal was Flughafenarch•tek- adm1n1strat1on Flughafengebaudes
meant to provtde the
tion plans, are presented only in small versions, or tur/' 1n Ntut Zurchtt are ass•gned special in New York" (see
starttng pomt for a are missing entirely. Ze,tung, August 29, d•visions. See Me note 16), p. 2S8.
300 new documentary 2003, p.83. Evodonce Quade, Walter, "The

series on "The great of th1s mythmaking is New Saarinen Of- 24
bulldtngs done by The fact that the flight center was usually the only also found m the fice," 1n The Arch,rec· Antonio Roman ,
man." See Barnstcne, characterization of turol Forum, vol. 118, for example, 1llustrat
Howard [Howard
project in the monographs illustrated based on the bu1lding contract no. 4 (Aprol 1963), ed the term1nal
Barnstone and Part production plans has to do with their enormous from TWA as an act PP· 113 119, pp. 114, w•th six implementa-
ners), letter to Altne of corporate responsi- 117. t1on destgns on three
Saannen, September
visual effect. The numerous bends and lines are .
b1l•ty Soe Ftsher, double pages. cr.
28, 1962, Eero capable of expressing the building's exceptional Thomas, "Landmarks: 17 Romin , Antonio,
Saarinen Collect1on TWA Termmal," tn cr. Borcherdt, Eero Saor�nen:
geometry especially clearly. The fact that the
(MS 593), Monu Progressive Arch,tee-- Helmut, "Pianung An Architecture of
scnph and Archives, building plans were shown due to their aesthetic ture, vol. 73, no. 5 des TWA Flug MulripltCJiy, New
Yale University Li (May 1992), pp. 96 hafengebliudes m York, N.Y.: Pnnceton
appeal, however, is also shown in that their elabo
brary, senes IV, 101, p.96. New York" (see Architectural Press,
bo• 273, folders 906 rate production was only mentioned in passing, note 16), pp. 2S7 2003, pp. 54-59.
910. The TWA Flight 260.
Center served as the
if at all. Even more important, however, is that the
13
sett•ng for vartous original, handmade plans point to the original Borcherdt, Helmut: 18
feature Films, such .u Arch1tekten: Begeg· Cf. 1nterv1ew by
state of the departure hall, which differs so Wesley Jan.t: with
Tho April Fools (1969), nungen 1956 1986,
Boby Boom (1987), blatantly from today's version. Saarinen's land Mun1ch: Langen Charles (Chuck)
Tho Wodding Bonqutr Muller, 1988, p. 98. Parise, employee
(1993), Cotch Me •(
mark-preserved terminal was closed in 2001 due
ES&A, 1956 1964,
You Con (2002), and to its operational insufficiencies and has been 14 January 13, 1993,
Old Dogs (2009). I bod. locat1on unknown,
empty since, awaiting its next use, wedged be Wesley R. Jonz
tween newer, much larger airport structures and a 15 Collect•on, Bentl�y
Eero Saor•nen, quoted Historical L1brary,
sky train. The working drawings disregard this in author unknown, UniYersity of
context. Like the well-known, often published pho "Shap•ng a two-acre M•chtgan.
sculpture, 1n Thcr
tos by Ezra Stoller from the opening year, the many 19
Arch•tccwrol Forum,
vintage memorabilia in internet auctions, and the vol. 113, no. 2 (Aug. Cf. Tor, Abbo [re·
1960), pp. 118 123, spons•ble 1n the
latest computer generated imagery, they remove p . 1 19. comm•ssioned con-
the flight center from the temporal process of de struct1on office Am-
mann & Wh.tney]:
cay; lend it a seductive, nostalgic aura; and negate email to the author,
the operational and commercial demands current August 6, 7012.
ly made of the ground infrastructure. Whereas the 20

plans once enabled understanding among archi Cf. "Shap•ng a two-
acre sculpture" (see
tect, engineer, and construction firm, they cur note IS), p. 119.
rently serve instead for Aline Saarinen's intended
21
glorification of Saarinen and his terminal.
cr. interview by
Wesley Janz w1th
Charles (Chuck)
The changed communication function is exempla
Panse (see note 18).
ry of the transfigured image of the TWA Terminal,
whose reproduction value is now the building's
only use. As its ability to perform diminished, the
value of the airport building was defined more by
its media presence than its operational capabili
ties. The unique exterior of Saarinen's building
www.Ebook777.com
XI
A kos
Moravanszky
THE AXONO
tv1 ETRIC PLAN
On the
obj ectivity of the
architectural
drawin g
The path from the first sketch to the working draw tive-based architectural representations in favor 301
ing traces out a part of the trajectory from idea to of isometric drawings. In mechanical engineer
building. The process is one of increasing objec ing, in particular, axonometric projection was con
tification, intensification, and materialization. The sidered an efficient method to visualize spatial
technique used for visualization in initial sketches, relations true to size. 2 Axonometric projection, Cf. Moravanuky,
ranging from fine pencil drawings through to char as parallel projection not tied to the position of Akos, �Az tu:onome
tria m1nt SZ1mbol1kus
coal drawings rich with contrasts, reveals a great an observer in space, was considered an objective fol'ma-Axono·
deal about the architect. The working drawing, on means of technical drawing in contrast to per metry as Symbolic
Form," in Peterncik,
the contrary, should be free of this subjectivity spective. MiklOs and ErOss,
that is found in the architectural drawing, and in The advantages of simple measurability and Nokolett (eds.l:
Prrsprktivo P•rsp�c
stead, direct attention to the architectural object. transferability of dimensions is not sufficient to ex ltvt, (e�t. cat.),
Rather than expression of the gestural qualities of plain the popularity of axonometry in twentieth Budapest: MUcsar·
nok, 2000, pp.
the sketch, the working drawing offers a high de century architecture. Daniel Libeskind and the ar 193 203.
gree of specificity: it does not require interpreta chitects who belonged to the group known as the
tion, but instead, materialization. It exists as a New York Five, such as Peter Eisenman, pro
graphic projection at the border between idea and duced axonometric projections for their works
realization. [fig.lJ. Their completed buildings were also photo
The working drawing must contain all of the graphed in such a way that the photos showed
necessary information for the realization of a characteristics of axonometric representations.
structure. The state of building technology around
the mid-nineteenth century and the organization The "official" entrance of axonometric projection
of the construction site made it possible to under into architectural representation occurred at the
stand the working drawing along these lines. At first exhibition of the Weimar Bauhaus in 1923.
the same time, the Positivism of the era led to the I n one blow, isometric projection superseded
conviction that the correct technical or scientific perspective, which had attained a high degree
visualization of an object had to exclude all "sub of virtuosity during the early centuries. A large
jective" factors.1 The working drawing, resulting format perspective, often prepared by a profes
Daston, Lorra•ne tmd
Gahson, Peter: Ob;ec from industrialization of the building site, became sional "renderer," was the piece de resistance of
ttvt!y, Cambridge,
increasingly more specific and precise. The model every competition project. The question of why
MA.: The MIT Press,
2007, p. 17. for this was provided by the mechanical mode of architects returned to a seemingly more "primi
operation of the machine, its logic, and the abso tive" mode of representation in the modern era is
lute objectivity of the image it produced. The de therefore more than warranted.
signer's presence was no longer required at the The isometric drawing that Herbert Bayer
construction site, designs traveled; major interna made in 1923 for Walter Gropius's director's office
tional offices produced drawings that set the stan at Weimar's Bauhaus does not show the space
dard in terms of their great detail and precision. from the view of an observer, but emphasizes in
.. .
The issue of the architectural drawing's objec stead the three axes of the orthogonal coordinate
tivity gained particular relevance as architects system as the spatial orientation that defines the
of the modern movement abandoned perspec- form of the room and its furnishings through to the
XI
.. fluorescent tubes spanned through thin cables removal of the vanishing point enabled games
lhg 21. The drawing is meant to reveal the concep with picture puzzle tilts and blurring of the border
tual stringency and logical consistency of the between surface and space.
solution, rather than showing the result as the vi Russian Suprematism, in addition to mechani
sual perception of an observer. Such axonometric cal drawings and De-Stijl aesthetics, paved the
projections should appear as products of the way for the metamorphosis of the vanishing point;
form-finding process and not as retrospectively its transformation to an inner core of the spatial
drawn representations of a project worked out in object. Particularly important in this regard was El
full detail. Lissitzky's contribution "K. und Pangeometrie" in
It is often claimed that in Bauhaus the use of the Europa-Aimanach (1925), in which Lissitzky at
the so-called cavalier perspective - a parallel pro tacked the myth of naturalism and the supposed
jection that does not distort the elevation plane objectivity of perspective.7
El Linttzky, "K. und
corresponds with the principles of De-Stijl aes The American architectural draftsman and oc Pang�metrie," '"
3
For • comp•lat1on of
thetics3 [hg 3J. But Fred Forbat, employed in Walter cult thinker Claude Bragdon took aerial projection E.nste1n, Carl and
Wet.the•m, P1ul
tht YlfiOUS types of Gropius's office at the time, claimed in his mem as starting point for his contemplations on axone (ods.): Europo·Almo·
axonom•tnc prOJf'C.. noch (1925), (repront
tion\ and thetr uses,
oirs that he was the one to first use the cavalier metric projection in his essay collection The Fro le•pz•giWe•m•r·
s�• Aubert, Jtan, perspective in Bauhaus. The drawing points to zen Fountain published in 1932. The hero of the Koepenheuer, 1984),
Axonomttflt: Thtorlt, pp.l03 113.
art tf prottqul dts
the military origins of this form of representa book, Sindbad, took a journey in the world of geo
�rsfMCtwts porollflts, tion; used for visualizing the design of fortresses. metric forms and on his journey in search of the 8
Par.s: �d1ttons dto Ia Br.agdon, Cl1ude, Tht
At the technical universities in Europe, engineers ideal manner of visual representation, explained:
Vollotto, 1996. Froztn Fountom: Btmg
rather than architects used axonometric drawing. "Now an isometric perspective is [ ... ] like an air Euoys on Arch1ttcturt
4 and thr Art of Orsogn
Choisy, Augu1te, l'ort
Christian Rieger demonstrated in his work Per plane view in that the vanishing-point is far re m Spoet, New York:
dt bOt,r chtz Its Ro spectiva militaris ( 1 7 5 6 ) that the drawing of moved- is at infinity, in point of fact- and con A. A. Knopf, 1932,
mams, P&ns: Ducher, pp.60 61.
1873; I bod., L'orl de
ground plans, elevations, and perspectives are sequently such a perspective, though itself a
302 bcitir chtz Its Byzon not necessary for understanding the edifice, be distorted image, is free from that order of dimin 9
tms, P•m: Ltbra•r•e de I bod., p. 69.
Ia Socuit4i Anonym•
cause the "military perspective" unites all neces ishment and distortion to which ordinary perspec
de Publtcat•ons Pfr•· sary information in one drawing. This was the base tive is subject, for that aims to reproduce the opti 10
odoquos, 1883. Albert•, leon B1U1St1,
for the renowned book Geometrie descriptive by cal image in which the size of objects diminishes Dt Rt Atd•focotor�o,
5 Gaspard Monge (1799). Monge was concerned in proportion to their distance away, and parallel Florence 1485 (ro·
Atel••r Bow·Wow pnnt Mun1ch: Presttl,
(Tsukamoto, Yosh•n•
with the planning of military complexes that of lines converge, which, though true to appearance, 1975).
ru and Kajlml, fered the enemy the least possible surface area is contrary to fact. Isometric perspective, on the
Momoyo), Grophoc
Anatomy, Tokyo:
for attack, but from which the defenders could other hand, less faithful to appearance, is more
TOT0, 2007. fire from an optimal angle. The term "projection" faithful to fact; it shows things more nearly as they
shows the direct connection or analogy between are known to the mind: Parallel lines are really par
6
Panofsky, Erwm, the beam of projection and the trajectories of the allel; there is no far and no near, the size of every
o, Ptrsptkt•vt
ols 10symboltscht
projectile. thing remains constant because all things are
Form," Letpz•g The practical advantages and practical aes represented as being the same distance away and
ond Berlin: B.G
thetics of the axonometric projection emphasized the eye of the spectator everywhere at once.
Teubner, 1927.
by Forbat were inseparable from one another. Ax When we imagine a thing, or strive to visualize it in
onometric drawings were admired for their preci the mind or memory, we do it in this way, without
sion; the folio publications by Auguste Choisy on the distortions of ordinary perspective. Isomet
the history of building constructions have a spe ric perspective is therefore more intellectual,
cial significance in this regard.4 Choisy was able more archetypal, it more truly renders the mental
to mediate the structural clarity of major spatial image-the thing seen by the mind's eye." 8 Brag
constructions in a suitable manner of representa don's conclusion comes as no surprise: "Sindbad
tion lhg.4]. The axonometric (and perspectival) finds that man is isometric." 9
drawings by Atelier Bow-Wow, which the archi This conclusion may seem radical, but in prin
tects of this Japanese studio call "graphic anato ciple, its essence was already long present in the
my," play a similar "panoptic" role- all necessary practice and theory of architecture. Andrea Palla
information for realization is contained in a single dia presented his building drawings for entabla
drawing 5 [hg. sJ. tures and other details in sections and isometric
drawings, easily legible for the craftsmen 1�9.6).
In Renaissance perspectives, the vanishing point Leon Battista Alberti viewed perspective as
corresponded with eternity, which in Erwin Panof one of the painter's instruments that can lead
sky's much discussed text Die Perspektive als to self-deception in the work of the architect. For
"symbolische Form" (1927) was interpreted theo that reason, he advised the draftsperson to use
logically and set in a charged relationship with "lineamenta," an abstract line structure of ground
the commandment against the portrayal of God. 6 plan, section, and elevation-supplemented by a
Axonometric projection found an alternative for model.10 Perspective was particularly suitable for
this matter-the interminable was not represent representation of the existing world; Alberti de
ed by a point, the projection occurred with parallel scribed his theory of perspective in his treatise
beams. The image still had depth, but the eye of "Della pittura" (1436). At issue was not the re
the observer was not bound to a set point. The placement of the representation of reality by an
XI
abstraction, but instead, the "l iberation" of the craftsman who makes the object and in the mak
object defined by means of the perspective; not er's pleasure in his own work is obvious. Today,
the opposition of humanism and anti-humanism, one hundred years later, examination of the
but rather, the critique of the single viewpoint. social, cultural, and aesthetic processes that con
What axonometric projection does not generate tribute to the production of the building plan re
is a frozen, ocular-centric view of reality. mains a task to be resolved.
A fundamental problem in the development of
adequate projection systems was the discrepan
cy between increasing spatial complexity and the
necessity that the building plan had to be legible
for the craftsman. Palladia, like other Renaissance
architects supplemented his sections with iso
metric views to show the elevations more clearly.
The drawing, as instruction for the craftsman,
required not only precision, but also a high degree
of legibility. The complex vaulting systems of
the late-Renaissance, and even more of the Ba
roque era turned out to be particular challenges.
It was not possible to visualize the conical stone
trompe by Philibert de I'Orme by means of the or
thogonal system of ground plan, section, and ele
vation in such a way that the stonemason could
determine the form of the individual stones of the
arch. As a solution, he proposed a complex system
of projection planes. The Baroque vaults by Fran 303
cesco Borromini, Guarino Guarini, and Filippo
Juvarra presented an even greater challenge for
both the architects and the craftsmen. On the
building site, the orthogonal system combined
with axonometric projections remained a wide
spread means of communication t�9. 7]. Between
1937 and 1961, Hungarian architect Bela Samson
di Kiss (1899-1972) developed an industrialized
system of extremely thin concrete cells, which he
patented as "szovetszerkezet" (textile construc
tion), for which he prepared hundreds of hand
drawn sketches as basis for his experiments at a
11 scale of 1 : 1 1 1 tR9.sJ.
J•nesch, Peter (ed.),
From Beauty to
Beauty and Bock
Agom, Budapest:
As we have seen, perspective and axonometric
MUcsarnok, 2004; projection each construe different maps of reality.
K1ss, Bela Simsond•,
SzOvttSztl'kttttts
No map can correspond entirely with reality
tpVIetek, Budape�t: each one pursues its own knowledge interests, its
MUsuk• Konyvk•adO,
1965.
specific viewpoints. Although in the case of axo
nometric projection, the perspective of the ob
server, and of the maker of the drawing, is not
captured in the image, this manner of visualization
has its theoretical foundations in the dominant
world-view. Axonometric projection is thus not at
all "objective." The question of authorship of the
building plan likewise poses a number of ques
tions: the plan represents an interstitial realm be
tween the architect whose name appears on the
project, and the workers at the building site. This
realm, with its complex social and professional
connections, is rarely investigated, although the
building plan is shaped by networks of actors who
usually remain anonymous. Instead, traces of the
master's handwriting are sought in the building
plan. This search shows many nostalgic elements
..
that no longer correspond with the practice of to
day's architectural production. In the essays by
Adolf Loos, his interest in the participation of the
XI
..
h8. 1
Peter E•senmen:
Diagram of House VI
(1975), Cornw&ll,
Connecticut.
fia. 2
Walter Grop1us
l$ometnc: prOJ�l•on
of d•rec;tor'J room •n
Btuh1us We1m1r
(1923), (Orowong:
Herbert B•yer).
ha
3
Gerr.t R•eh'eld:
Isometric projection
or the ground floor'
Schroder House
(1924), Utrecht.
h8
.4
Auguste Cho•sy:
Isometric depiction
of �n arch at the
304 Palatmus, Rome
hg I
h8. 4
ha 2
XI
hg. 5
Atelier Bow·Wow:
S.Ctton Nore House
(2006), S.nd•o,
Japan.
hg.6
Andrea Palladia:
Deuul of the en tabla
ture Porta Maggtore
(drowong ca. 1550),
Rome.
hg. 7
Cnorles F. A Leroy:
Stereometnc deptc·
lton of a trompe.
hg 8
Bela S.msondt Kiss

lsometnc dep•ctton
of a constructton
detail of concrete
netting, 1966.
305
The author vrrould li�t'

to rhonlc Momoyo
Koljtmo (Atelter Bow
Wow) ond Gyorgy
Somsond• K•ss for
�rmtsston ro use the
drowmg1
�g. 8
..
XII
..
Philipp
Esch
VIEWED
FROM A STE P
BACK
Possibilities
for representation
306 The term "building plan" actually refers to two The architectural intention is thus not always di
entirely different types of plans: on the one hand, rectly recognizable in the building plan; some
plans for the construction of things, and on the times, however, the plan reveals it indirectly by ex
other hand, plans of the construction of things. posing the efforts to be taken behind plaster and
The first type describes an intention; the second, paneling to create the desired space, the desired
a reconstruction. The first adamantly defines how image.
something should be built, the second, on the con These types of implementation plans are re
trary, makes speculations about how something served for the insider circle of implementers. In
might possibly have been built. Building plans recent years, however, a trend can be seen of ill
in the second sense- reconstructions- are more ustrating buildings on the basis of their imple
instruments for the arts and natural sciences; mentation plans. This might demonstrate, first
building plans in the sense of a constructional of all, an insistence on the reality of construction
intention, however, belong within the realm of as opposed to its ever more deceptive surrogate,
engineering. When, for example, in physics, talk the world of visualizations. Frequently, however,
gladly turns to the "world's building plan" in con the published building plan serves as evidence
nection with the atomic structure of the world; or that the spatially-effective and constructional
in biology, to "nature's building plan" in connection structures are congruent, that is, that the moral
with the genetic code, the hypothetical character imperative whereby form and structure are con
of these plans are ignored, and a higher- in past tingent upon one another has been fulfilled. For
days one would have even said "divine"- inten that reason, such architecture is usually present
tion is implied. ed by means of building plans that seek a mono
In the context of this publication, we are natu lithic expression, an elementary one rather than
rally more interested in plans for the construction focusing on the tectonics of the multilayer wall.
of things: building plans in the sense of construc The recently published monograph of Buchner
tion plans. These are, as a rule, not published Bri.indler Architekten is a telling example of this.
for that, we have publication plans. Building plans Strictly speaking, every plan has two scales
are addressed to professionals who have a well the scale of the depiction and that of observation.
trained, but narrowly focused gaze- craftsmen Whereas the first has to do with the proximity of
who build a house, contractors who calculate the the depiction to that which it depicts-at a small
price, and public agencies that authorize it. This scale, we see the building in the context of the
circle of participants is initiated in the tricks nec city; at a large scale, we see, for example, the
essary to generate the impression, the image, the molding of the window sill -the scale of view has
ambiance that one envisions. I recall the pragmat to do with the viewer's proximity to the depiction.
ic confusion of concrete and bricks in the framing Does she view the plan from a distance -whereby
of a building by Alvaro Siza, which I happened to a distance can mean from afar, or simply with ca
pass by as a young architect, and the radiant clar sual interest -or does she bend down close to
ity of the finished building, whose ambiance abso make out a minor detail? Only as I gained more
lutely did not want to fit with the "bricolage" I re experience did it become clear to me that ab
called. stracted consideration is just as i mportant as
XII
concentrated; the distant look as important as generations. Although the small amount of handed
the close-up. The long underrated view from afar down gothic building plans is also due to the
is informed by a graphic interest, by the interest of source situation- because realized plans were
the visually-oriented person and not that of the not preserved- they nonetheless illustrate the
architect. Building plans thus generate a sense supposition of a shared knowledge of scale cul
of fascination in a way similar to musical scores, tivated in the masonry lodges; a shared, deeper
circuitry, and timetables. I am able to obtain this understanding.
perspective best with Japanese plans where Richard Serra once said of the music of Steve
no linguistic understanding whatsoever already Reich, "Comprehension is a matter of complicity," 1 R.chard Serra, Talk for
draws me into the plan early on. From this perspec which offers an apt description of this initiated the award•ng of the
MacDowell Medal to
tive, plans become pictures, structures become community (if not identity) of designers and exec Stove Reoch, 2005,
patterns, and letters and numbers become specks. utors. In medieval building practice, however, not http://www.st�v�r�
•ch .com/art•cles/
I enjoy the beauty of regularity, the greater order, only were the persons of planner and executor R.chard_S.rrl.html
the inspiring turmoil; and I feel challenged. For I do one and the same, also ". . . in gothic architectural (last v•s•t�d on 4 May
2013).
not (yet) understand the complex matters depict sketches, design ideas and geometric construc
ed there, but am fascinated by the promise of the tion were linked right from the outset." 2 That
Paul Booz, quoted 1n
finished thought that speaks from these plans and would change in the Renaissance. The separation T•gler, Peter, D•t
diagrams. of design and production introduced in Alberti's Arduttlcrunhtor·� clts
Ftlorttt, Mun1ch: dt
An actual oscillation begins between closer and Filarete's architectural treatises meant that Gruyter 1963, p.152.
and more distant observation, from the overview design could be freer, while at the same time, it
3
to the detail, and back, which is helpful not only in now demanded additional explanation. Further On the development
examining the plans of others, but also in the com more, the client was now also among those and methods of the
plan process, see
position of one's own. When this happens on the addressed by the plans, so that specific forms of es.pecutlly the chapter
computer screen, a simple move of the mouse al depiction for presentation, calculation, and reali "'Disegno': F'ilaretes
lows the switch between scales of observation, zation were developed. To make it possible to have Plan\lerfahren," 1n
3 Q7
lb;d., pp. 141 ff
but strangely enough, this does not replace actu someone realize the planned structure, they
4
ally physically stepping back or squinting one's needed a basis that was true-to-size: the scale Porttturtn und Btldtr.
eyes in front of the large plan on the wall. drawing was introduced, "disegno proporzionato," Archutkton•scht
Arbetten ous dem '
When plans are formulated with utmost clarity, a scaled ground plan drawing gridded according Attlttr Ptttr Zumthor,
they suggest that the depicted matter has been to a coordinate system. 3 1985 1988, (ox Cit
Archtte kturga lene
thought through to the end. They then mediate el Why take this brief look back? It is remarkable luzern, 2·23 Octo.,
egance in a mathematical sense: compelling logic, how, with the new means of the plan, new possi ber 1988, H•u• dor
Arch•tektur, Grll,
mutual determination of detail and whole, and the bilities for mediation were opened, and also for 27 July 18 Augu•t
conciseness of something that cannot be reduced even conceiving of space. Yet accompanying this 1989), Lucerne
Arch•tekturaalene
any further. Incidentally, the difference between gain for communication and conception, was a Luzern, 1989.
earlier, manually drawn building plans and today's loss of the previously mentioned "complicity." This
digitally produced ones is especially noticeable development began in the Renaissance, and ends
precisely in this regard. Whereas the pencil's in the somewhat paradoxical situation of today's
thickness and the calm of the draftsperson's hand architectural practice, in which we are increasing
once limited the amount of information and forced ly freer in the design of form, while at the same
a certain conciseness, the computer allows any time, ever more limited in the process of realiza
scale desired. The draftsperson no longer has to tion. On the one hand, digital tools enable us to
abstract, hierarchize, or omit. The amount of infor conceive of nearly every form because we have
mation in today's implementation plans thus com available the instruments for its description, de
monly corresponds with what was featured in piction, and fabrication. On the other hand, the
earlier plans at the next larger scale. Of course, planning must be increasingly more fault-tolerant
however, by amount of information, nothing is said and comprehensively defined as the planning
of its density, which is why many digital building route runs through ever more middlemen and has
plans seem to be more loquacious than eloquent. an increasingly longer lead time. Our professional
The building plan mediates a constructional practice is marked by extensive alienation be
proposition to those who are meant to realize the tween planning and realization. Full-service gen
work that has been drawn. The closer the two, the eral contractor models force us to comprehen
one who plans and the one who realizes, the less sively define a project before we have even spoken
has to be defined in plan form. In gothic masonry with the tradesperson who will implement it; they
lodges, which we thank for what are probably the therefore not only alienate us from the realization
earliest building plans, the two actors were one process in terms of content, but also in terms of
and the same person-the master builder. Nowa time. Continuing standardization and juridification
days we cannot comprehend how architectural contribute their part to this development.
structures with the complexity of a gothic cathe A good twenty years ago when Peter Zumthor
dral could be realized with so few plans, how identified building plans as musical scores,4 in
instructions could be given to huge armies of •0
which that which is not drawn is left to the liberty
builders, and how design continuities could be of the interpreter, he had to be certain of the "com
maintained in a building process spanning several plicity" of the tradesperson. But what happens
XII
.. when this interpretation degenerates into a mere

vestige of what the planner had in mind?
The work by Studio Mumbai i mpressively
shows how the organizational model of a gothic
masonry lodge can be converted to the current
form of a full-service general contractor mandate.
As in the past, the planners are also the imple
menters, and thus the physical realization of these
�g. I
projects, which are characterized by a highly pre rrom the sketch book
of V•IIard de Honnf'
cise construction and accurate craftsmanship,
court. Elevat1on of 1
can be carried out with models and a few free chancel pillar of
Rhe1mt Cathedral, ca.
hand drawings sketched out with a ballpoint pen 1230 1235.
on graph paper. A v�ry early work•ng
drawmg sketched on
As the introduction to this volume explains, the
the bu•ld1ng t•te of
working drawing is more capable than any other the Rhe•ms Cathe
dral.
depiction of mediating the idea of a structure, and
Vill.rd, h•mself a
at the same time, its physical realization. Remark bu•ld�r and •nterened
1n t.chn•cal Ito well u
able is the relationship of the two, idea and reali
design-based knowl·
zation. After all, the building plan simply makes f'dg�, YISilfd tht
bu,fd,ng s•te and drew,
statements about the physical realization, where
on the one hand, what
as what it is actually about, that is, the idea of the he saw, and on the
other hand, what
structure "shows itself," as the philosopher and was 1n process (wh1ch,
architect Ludwig Wittgenstein would have said. ultimately, in this
case would be bu•lt '"
In his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus Wittgen
a different form).
308 stein developed a system of propositions stating
everything that can be said about the world in
words. This system, however, is merely a means as
the actual goal is a different one. lt is to show what
cannot be grasped by words-the sublime, tran
scendental, the ethical and aesthetic (which Witt
genstein did not differentiate), and to do so within
the contours of what can be said. "The method of
'calculating' the factual to show the valuable pro
ceeds in a manner comparable with drawing a fig
ure, and then acknowledging it as such, so as to
perceive the space outside it as the space that ex
cludes the figure."5
W�develd, Paul,
Ludw1g Wttrgensrtrn, This effect can also be developed by a building
Arch,ttct, Cambndse.
MA:MIT Preu,
plan in which everything that can be said is prop
1994, p. 184 agated in adamant precision so that the beauty of
the imagined space is made vivid before our inner
6
Wnght, Fronk Lloyd, eye in extremely precise contours.
"The Logoc of the
Plan," m Arch,
tecturol Rtcord 63 In reading a plan, the beauty of the imagined ob
(Jonuory 1928),
ject is joined by the beauty of imagining, the beau
pp. 49- 57
ty of the perception process. It is along these lines
that I understand Frank Lloyd Wright's assertion:
"There is more beauty in a fine ground plan than in
almost any of its ultimate consequences." 6
309
..
C H R O N O LOGY A l l P L A N S A R E D E P I C T E D A T A SCALF O F 1 : 3 7
C A 1280 EARLY 19THC

..
15A5 1652
M�ISIER A N T O N I O DA FRANCESCO HANS
ARNOLD SANGALLO BORROMINI CONRAD
K7 P 705 THE YOUNGER .s. p 229 STADLER
Ll.P ns FS. P 139
1925 1926 CA 1927 CA 1927 1927 1931

KARL LUX LE CORBUSIER, LE C O R S U S I E R , HANS LE CORBUSIER,
MOSER GUYER ALFRED ALFRED LEUZINCER JOHN
FI, P 1.11 MI. P 149 ROTH ROTH c 0. p 69 TORCAPEL
All. P 2� A72. P 27 Jl. p 187
310
1959 1959 1961 1962 CA. 1962

ALVARO ALVARO MAHENDRA SIGUER BRUNO HALLER,
SIZA SILA RAJ MITSUIANI F R I T l HALLER
05. p 87 J5. p 191 L6. P 2Js C.l. P 55 Ml.P 261
CA. 1976 1979 1980 1980 1984

MARIO LINA 80 BARDI MAHENDRA RAFAEL HERMANN
RIDOLFI ANDR£ VAINER. RAJ MONEO CZECH
l4. P. 231 MARCELO FERRA/ 012,P 101 L7. p 237 L2 P 227
M2 P 2�1
2001 2002 2003 2004 2004 2006

ELIZABETH DILLER, ADAM CARUSO, MIRKO GU I LLER MO VAZQUEZ CHRISTIAN F A B I O GRAMAZIO
RICARDO SCO F I DIO PETER ST J O H N BAUM CONSUEGRA KEREZ MATTHIAS KOHlER
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CA 1823 CA 1861 C A . I 861 CA 1871 CA 1871 1871 1893 CA. 1894 CA. 1897 1899 CA 1900 1900 1902 C A 1914
KARL COTlFRIEO GOTTFRIED GOTTFRIED GOTTFRIED GIUSEPPE ALFRED HANS BENJAMIN S�QUIN- PAUL ROBERT R08ERT GUSTAV
FRIEDRICH SEMPER SEMPER SEMPER SEMPER MENCONI FRIEDRICH WILHELM RECOROON BRONNER. 80UVIE R CURJEL. CURJEL. CULL
SCHINKEl 07. p 91 F 4 P 1.}7 f=O. P IAI fl. p 143 K8. P. 217 8LUNTSCHLI AUER MO. P 259 KNOBEL OII.P 99 KARL KARL Fl. p 135
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1931 1933 1935 1937 1938 1938 1939 CA 1939 1 94 2 1950 1 957 1958 1958 1958
OTTO RUDOLF MAX ALFRED ROTH, ROBERTO KARL HANNES JEAN GUSTAV EUCEN ALBERT P I E R L U I G I NERVI, MARCEL B R E U E R , ATELI E R S ALVAR
SALVIS B E R C , BILL EMIL ROTH, 8URLE ECENOER, MEYER PROUV£ AMMANN NIL HEINRICH A N N I B A L E VITELLOZZI EBERHARD EIOEN8EN1 M3, P 253 AALIO
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K7.P 215 03. p 83 H2. P 107 MULLER 06. p 89
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311
CHRONO
LOGY
1963 CA. 1964 1964 1964 1965 CA 1965 1965 CA. 1965 1965 CA. 1965 1966 1971 1971 1972 1973
EERO CARLO FRED C R A M E R , JORN FRANZ FUEC. 8 R U N O HALLER, HANS SIGURD LUDWIG M I E S ERNST OTTO CLAUS, MAHENDRA OOLF MARIO 80COAN
SAA R I N E N SCARPA W E R N E R JARAY, UTZON JACQUES HENRY FRill HALLER OEMARMELS LEWERENTZ VAN OER ROHE CISEL RUEDI LIENHARD RAJ SCHNE8ll RIDOLFI 80CDAN0VIC
KS. P. 211 HO. P 17!> CLAUDE PAIL LARD L8. P 239 C S . P 59 01. p 70 E6. P 119 CI.P51 GS. P 157 G 4 P •�s 0 4 p 85 E1. p 109 n P 185 02. p 81 AO. P 23
J7.P 19!:1
1985 1988 1988 1988 1988 1989 1989 1989 1992 1994 1996 1996 1996 1997 1998 2001
SEVERIANO PETER LUIGI HfLIO H£UO GlENN PAULO PETER PAUL STOCKLI, E R I C H HUSMANN, FRED UTA CION A HERZOG & HERZOG & VALERIO OLIVER
MARIO ZUMTHOR SNOl/1 OLGA OLGA MURCUTT MENDES D I E H R KIENASI, ANDREAS VASS EICHER HASSLER CAMINAOA DE M E U R O N DE M E U R O N OLCIATI SCHWARZ
PORTO Gl P 149 C9 P 67 G7 P lSI JI.P 183 A2,P 15 DAROCHA HANS DIETMAR KOEPPEL H:S.P 169 B S , P. 41 Gl.P 153 C2. P 53 08. p 93 C8. P 65 F2. P U.S C1. P 6.1
co P 61 010. p 97 MS. P 757
2006 2006 2007 2007 2008 2008 2008 2009 2011 2011 2011 2012 2012 2013
MEIKE HOFFMANN, ANNETTE SPIRO, 8AR8ARA F R E I L O R E N Z BAUMA N N , DES I GN TO ADRIAN FROELICH ANDREA JOS[PH UDO T H O N N I S S E N , 81JOY J A I N , ALAIN JEAN P I E R R F MARKUS SCHNETZER
MARC W I E T H E C E R STEPHAN G A N T E N B E I N MARTIN SAARINEN ALAIN ROSER E N S PRODUCTION MARTIN H S U DEPLAZE, SCHWARTZ N I K W F. R E N F E L S STUD I O MUMBAI HERVE DURIC SCHIETSCH PUSKAS
H7, P 1 7 7 D9, p 95 A l . P 17 M 4 , P 255 HI, P 165 H 4 , P 171 LS. P 2.1.1 [2. p Ill AS. P 21 A4 P IQ K4. p 209 K l P 203 £8. p 123 I NC E N I E U R E
86. p 43
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A P P EN D I X
AUTHORS
P.314
PICTURE
CREDITS
WORKING
DRAWINGS
P.316
PICTURE
CREDITS
ESSAYS
P.318
INDEX
p 320
ACKNOWL
EDGMENTS
P.323
SPONSORS
P. 325
313
IMPRINT
P. 328
..
AUTHORS
.. MARIO CARPO P H I LIPP ESCH A KOS MORAVA NSZKY

Teaches Architectural H1story and Theory Architectural stud1es at the ETH Zunch From 1969 to 1974 architectural studies
at the Yale School of Architecture and and at CEPT Ahmedabad (India). From at the Budapest Un1verS1ty ofTechnology
at the Ecole Nat1onale Superieure d'Ar 1993 to 1999 architect 1n various offices and Economics, subsequent work as an
chitecture de Paris La Villette. His 10 Basel, Berlin, and Zurich. 1997-2000 arch1tect 1n Budapest. From 1977 student
research and publications focus on the ass1stant at the EPF Lausanne and of Art History at the Vienna University
relationship between architectural theory, ETH Zurich. Self employed since 2000, ofTechnology, doctorate in 1980. From
cultural history, and the history of the until 2003 with Detlef Schulz, from 1983 to 1986 editor in chief of the archi
media as well as information technology. 2008 w1th Stephan Sintzel as partner. tectural journal Magyar Epitomuveszet.
His book Architecture in the Age of Print From 2003 to 2005 editor of werk, 1986 1988 visiting researcher at the
ing (2001) has been translated into sever bouen + wohnen. Zentralinstitut fur Kunstgeschichte in
al languages. His most recent publications Munich, 1989 1991 research associate at
include The Alphabet and the Algorithm the Getty Center in Santa Monica. From
(2011), a history of digital design theory, DAVID GANZONI 1991 to 1996 visiting professor at M.I.T.
and The Digital Turn in Architecture 1992 Has been teaching Architectural Theory
Architectural studies at the ETH Zurich
2012 (2012), a reader from the Archi at the Institute for the History and
and at the Accadem1a di architettura
tectural Design (AD) series. Theory of Architecture (gta) of the ETH
1n MendnSio, graduated in 2004 under
Zunch s1nce 1996 (titular professor).
Prof. Wolfgang Schett. From 2004 to
2003/04 visiting professor at the
2008 staff member of various architec
H E RMANN CZECH Moholy-Nagy Umversity 1n Budapest.
tural offices 1n London and Zurich. S1nce
Numerous book publications on themes
Born 10 Vienna, student of Konrad 2009 teach1ng and research assistant
in architectural hiStory and arch1tec
Wachsmann and Ernst A. Pl1schke. Urban at the Chair of Annette Spiro at ETH
tural theory.
planning, residential, school, and hotel Zurich. Since 2008, working as a free·
buildings, conversions and exhib1tion lance architect in Zurich, independent
des1gn. Visiting professor at Harvard pubhshmg act1v1ty.
URS PRIMAS
University and at the ETH Zurich,
among others. Numerous crit1cal and Architectural Hudies at the ETH Zurich,
theoretical publications on architecture, UTA HASSLER diploma in 1991 under Prof. Alexander
for example, lur Abwechslung (expand Hcnz. Work as architect. Lived in Amster
Since 2005, tenured professor and head
ed, new edition 1996). Research and dam between 1995 and 2002 and worked
314 editing of reprints and translations of
of the Institute of Historic Building Re
as correspondent for the magazine werk,
search and Conservation at the ETH Zu
Otto Wagner, Adolf Loos, Josef Frank, bauen + wahnen. Lecturer at the Amster
rich. Architectural studies in Munich and
and Christopher Alexander. Freelance dam Academy of Architecture and the
Karlsruhe, PhD from the TU Karlsruhe.
arch1tect in Vienna. TU Delft. Since 2002 freelance architect
Various poSitions in civil service as well as
in Zurich, teaching and research activities
freelance work, professorship at the Uni
at the Urban Landscape Institute of the
verSity of Dortmund. Her research focus
TOM EMERSON Zunch Univers1ty of Applied Sciences.
es on bu1ldmg and construction history
Since 2006, partner in the architectural
Arch1tectural studies at the Un1vers1ty of the e1ghteenth to twentieth centuries,
office Schne1der Studer Pnmas, Zunch.
of Bath, the Royal College of Art 1n the h1story of architectural knowledge,
London and the University of Cambridge. conservation themes, and the long-term
Founded the office 6a arch1tects 1n stab1l1ty and transformation dynamics
KORNEL RINGLI
London in 2001 together with Stephanie of buildings and building stocks.
Macdonald. The office's proJects 1nclude PhD thesis in 2012 at the ETH Zurich,
galleries for contemporary art in London under Prof. Laurent Stalder, on Eero
as well as a students' residence for the Saannen's TWA Terminal. Publishing ac
University of Cambridge. Following tivitieS already during his architectural
teaching posts in Cambridge and at the studies, also at the ETH Zurich, graduated
Architectural Association in London, in 2001 under Prof. Hans Kallhoff. Re
he has been a professor at the ETH Zurich sponsible for project development and
since 2010. The book Never Modern communication at the Zurich real estate
by 6a architects and I renee Scalbert was foundation PWG.
published in 2013 by Park Books.
AUTHORS
STEPHAN R U T I S H A U S E R DAN I E L STOCKHAMMER
Architectural studies a t t h e ETH Zurich Professional training as a draftsman in

and EPF Lausanne. 2004-2009 work in structural engineering. Architectural
various architectural offices in Switzer studies and diploma at the Zurich Univer
land, the Netherlands, and the U.S. From sity of Applied Sciences and the Vienna
2007 to 2013 teaching and research ac University of Technology. Studies and
tivities at the Swiss Federal Institute of work activity with Wolf D. Prix and Zaha
Technology. Since 2009 own architectur Hadid at the University of Applied Arts
al and planning office, SMRA Architek· Vienna and at the ETH Zurich. Master
ten, in Bern, various positions as guest thesis and subsequent employment with
critic in Switzerland and abroad, as well as Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron in
journalistic work for Swiss professional Basel. Freelance work in the areas of
journals. planning and renovation. Since 2012,
academic staff member and PhD student
at the Institute for H istoric Building
JO NATHAN S E R G I SO N Research and Conservation at the ETH
Zurich.
Architectural studies a t the Canterbury
School of Architecture and at the Archi
tectural Association in London. Founded
P H I L I P U RS P R U N G
the office Sergison Bates architects in
1996 together with Stephen Bates. I n Since 2011, professor for Art and Archi
2 0 0 6 winner of t h e Heinrich Tessenow tectural History at the Institute for the
Medal and the Erich Schelling Medal. In History and Theory of Architecture (gta)
2008 and 2012 participation in the Ar at the ETH Zurich. He teaches at the
chitecture Biennale in Venice. Numerous Berlin University of the Arts, the Univer
publications and lectures as well as teach sity of Zurich, Columbia University New
ing activities at renowned architectural York, and the Barcelona Institute of
schools. Since 2008, Professor of Design Architecture, among others. Editor of
at the Accademia di architettura in publications such as Herzog & de Meuron
Mendrisio. Natural History (2002) and Caruso St 315
John: Almost Everything (2008). Author
of Die Kunst der Gegenwort: 1960 bis
A N N ETTE S P I R O heute (2010) and Allan Koprow, Robert
Smithson, and the Limits to Art (2013),
Professional training at the Hochschule
among others.
fur Gestaltung Zurich (today, Zurich
University of the Arts) and architectural
studies at the ETH Zurich. Since 1991,
architectural office in partnership with
Stephan Gantenbein in Zurich. Publi
cations on Brazilian architecture. Author
and editor of the monograph Paulo
Mendes do Rocha. Works and Projects
(2002) and Uber Putz. Oberfiiichen
entwickeln und reolisieren (2012). Since
2007 tenured professor for architecture
and construction at the ETH Zurich.
..
P I CT U R E C R E D I TS , WO R K I N G D R AW I N GS
.. CB, P. 65 © 2013, Herzog &

A1 - A 7 F1 - F7
de Meuron, Basel.
All rights reserved.
AI, P. l3 Arch. dep. de Meurthe- Fl, P. 131 gta Archives, ETH Zunch:
C9, P. 67 Luigo Snozzi
et Moselle: 23 J 68 30 33 1924 4 269
CIO, P. 69 gta Archives, ETH Zurich:
© 2013, ProLittens, F2, P. 133 Archiv Olgiati
45-08.1
Zurich F3, P. 135 gta Archives, ETH Zurich:
Cll, P. 71 Caruso StJohn
A2, P. IS Courtesy of Glenn 22-01-1178
Architects, London
Murcutt and Archotecture F4, P. 137 gta Archives, ETH Zurich:
Foundation Australia 20 0320-114
A3, P. l7 Frei + Saarinen FS, P. 139 gta Archives, ETH Zurich:
Architekten, Zurich 8 00 1:1/3
A4, P. l9 BUoy Jain, Studio Mumbai 01 - 01 2 F6, P.l41 gta Archives, ETH Zurich:
Architects, Mumbai 20-0196-53
AS, P. 21 ETH Zurich, Chair of Dl, P. 79 gta Archives, ETH Zurich: F7, P. 143 gta Archives, ETH Zurich:
Annette Spiro 189 0133.1 20-0196-50
A6, P. 23 © Architektur- D2, P. 81 Accademia Nazionale
zentrum Wien di San Luca, Archivio
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131-02-2 Fondo Rodolfi-Frankl- G1-G6
© 2013, ProLitteris, Malagricci, Rome
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A7.2, P. 27 gta Archoves, ETH Zunch: 131-024-29 G2, P. ISI Heloo Olga de Souza
131-02-2 D4, P. 85 gta Archives, ETH Zurich: Jr., Sao Paulo
© 2013, ProLotteris, 129-jakobsgut.l G3, P. 153 Prof. Dr. Uta Hassler,
Zurich DS, P. 87 Alvaro Siza
Cha1r for Historic
D6, P. 89 gta Archives, ETH Zurich: Building Research
122-043.2 and Conservation,
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81 - 8 6 20 0320 94
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de Meuron, Basel. 140-0120
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© 2013, ProLitteris,
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Zunch
Architekten, Zurich G6, P. 159 gta Archives, ETH Zurich:
B2, P. 35 gta Archoves, ETH Zunch:
DIO, P. 97 Paulo Mendes da Rocha, 33-1900 I 45
II 053 48
Sao Paulo
B3, P. 37 Gramallo & Kohler,
Dll, P. 99 gta Archoves, ETH Zurich:
ETH Zunch
98-02.1
84, P. 39 gta Archoves, ETH Zunch:
Dl2, P. I O I Mahendra Raj, Delhi
NSL -2-0291C-2, H1-H7
NSL -2-0291C.7,
NSL -2-0291C.6 HI, P. l65 Design To Production,
85, P. 41 Hansjorg Jauch, Zurich Erlenbach I SANAA,
86, P. 43 Schnetzer Puskas E1 - E 9 Tokyo
lngenieure AG, Zurich H2, P. 167 Copyright Burle Marx &
El, P. 109 Mahendra Raj, Delhi Cia (original) I Annette
E2, P. 111 Dr. Schwartz Spiro (reconstruction)
Consulting AG, Zug H3, P. l69 Hubmann Vass,
C1 - C 1 1 E3, P. 113 Centro Studi e Archivio Vienna
della Comunicazione, H4, P. 171 Froelich & Hsu
Parma University, Architekten, Zurich
Ct, P. 51 The Swedish Museum of
Project Section HS, P. l73 Guillermo Vazquez
Architecture's Collections,
(CS AC 8019898 S) Consuegra
Photographer: Matti
Ostling E4, P. 115 Staublo, Kurath & Partner, H6, P. 175 Archovio Carlo Scarpa-
Zurich I Diller Scofidio + Museo di Castelvecchio,
C2, P. 53 Gion A. Camonada, Vrin
Renfro, New York Verona, onv. 31682
C3, P. 55 Paulo Mendes da Rocha,
ES, P. 117 Christoan Kerez, Zurich H7, P. 177 baumass, Meike Hoffmann,
Sao Paulo
E6, P. 119 Hans Demarmelsjun., Marc Woetheger,
C4, P. 57 Mirko 8aum, Roetgen
Zunch Cologne
CS, P. 59 Archives de Ia construe
E7, P. 121 gta Archoves, ETH Zunch:
toon moderne- Ecole
232 01.1
Polytechnoque Federalc
E8, P. 123 Markus Schietsch
de Lausanne, Fonds
Architekten, Zurich
Franz Fi.ieg J1-J8
E9, P. 125 © bpk/ Kupferstich-
C6, P. 61 Federal University of Rio
kabinett, SM8
de Janeiro Architecture Jl, P. 183 Helie Olga de Souza Jr.,
and Urbanism College Sao Paulo
Research and Documenta- J2, P. 185 gta Archives, ETH Zurich:
tion Center 210-059.1
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Tuchschmid AG, Frauen 95-01.1/
feld © 2013, ProLitteris, Zurich
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44 0159 728
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J5, P. 191 Alvaro Siza

Ml-M8
J6, P. 193 gta Archives, ETH Zurich:
28-1937-1-64
M1, P. 249 gta Archives, ETH Zurich:
29-01-71
181- 01 27.1
M2, P. 251 © Institute Lina Bo e
P. M. Bardi, Sao Paulo,
116-095.1
Braz i l / Photoimagem 5
M3, P. 253 Atelier 5, Bern
M4, P. 255 Baumann Roserens
Architekten, Zurich
Kl - K8 M5, P. 257 gta Archives, ETH Zurich:
NSL 16-1074.1
K1, P. 203 Durig AG Architekten, M6, P. 259 gta Archives, ETH Zurich:
© with the individual 24-0163-75
planners M7, P. 261 gta Archives, ETH Zurich:
K2, P. 205 © Cologne Cathedral 189-0124.1
Archives, Matz und Schenk
K3, P. 207 gta Archives, ETH Zurich:
33- 1 897- 3-49
K4, P. 209 created by the CMS
collaboration at CERN
K5, P. 2 1 1 Eero Saarinen collection,
1880-2004 (inclusive).
Manuscripts & Archives,
Yale University
K6, P. 213 Tiefbauamt des Kantons
Bern, Oberingenieur·
kreis 1, Thun
24-0139-31 317
97-01.6
L l - Ll O
Ll, P. 225 © bpk I Kunstbibliothek,

SMB I Dietmar Katz
L2, P. 227 Hermann Czech, Vienna
L3, P. 229 Albertina, Vienna
L4, P. 231 Accademia Nazionale
d i San Luca, Archivio
del Contemporaneo,
Fondo Ridolfi-Frankl
Malagricci, Rome
L5, P. 233 ETH-Studio Monte Rosa,
Department of Architec-
ture, ETH Zurich, Prof.
Andrea Deplazes, Bearth
& Deplazes Architekten
AG, Chur I Zurich, Daniel
Ladner
L6, P. 235 Mahendra Raj , Delhi
L7, P. 237 Rafael Moneo, Madrid
L8, P. 239 Mitchell Library, State
Library of NSW- PXD
492/SOH 1093
L9, P. 241 © Alvar Aalto Museum,
Jyvaskyla I
© 2013, ProLitteris, Zurich
UO, P. 243 gta Archives, ETH Zurich:
70-027-27
..
P I CT U R E C R E D ITS, ESSAYS
.. ng.6, P.291 fig. 16, P. 293

"H,stonsche Plansamm gta Arch1ves, ETH Zurich:
ng.1, P. 266 lung," Generallandesarchiv 33 1916 8 26, Estate of
gta Arch1ves, ETH Zurich: Karlsruhe, sign. GLA Karl Moser
28-1939-1-80 2004-19K, sign. Grund fig. 17, P. 293
bestand 424b K Baugesch1chtliches Archiv
ng. 7, P.291 Zunch, microfilm inv. no.
" H istorische Plansamm IX L. 11e
lung," Gen eralla ndesa rc hi v ng.1a, P. 293
II Karlsruhe, sign. GLA gta Arch i ves, ETH Zurich:
2004-19K, sign. Grund 116 051, Estate of Sequin
ng. 1 , P. 269 bestand 424b K B re nner
Heinz Frank
ng. a, P.291
gta Archives, ETH Zurich:
Estate of Gustav Gull,
Sketchbook of travels in IX
VIII Italy, vol. Genova
fig.9, P.291 figs. 1-4, P. 297
fig.1, P.290 Generallandesarch1v Ticfbauamt des Kantons
"Choregraph1e ou I'art Karlsruhe, inv. no. 369 Bern, Obenngen1eur
d'ecnre Ia danse" (etch,ng), ng. lOA, P. 292 kre1S 1, Thun
in D1derot, Den1s and Benkw1tz, Gustav,
d'Aiembert, Jean Baptiste D1e Dorstellung der
le Rond (eds.), Recueil de Bouzeichnung, Berlin
plonches, sur les sciences, les 1901, appendix
arts liberoux, et les arts
XI
ng. lOB, P. 292
mechoniques, avec leur Haberstolz, P., Dos
3·• edition,
explication,
fig.1, P. 304
Moschinenzeichnen,
Peter Eisenman, Houses
Livourne 1772, p.101, Strelitz in Mecklenburg
of Cords, New York I
318 panel II (volume of panels 1920, appendix
for Encyclopedie ou Die Oxford: Oxford University
fig. 11, P. 292
tionnoire Roisonne des
Press, 1987, p. 85
Zwick, Hermann (ed.),
Sciences, des Arts et des
ng.2, P.304
Deutsches Johrbuch iiber die
Metiers, Pans 1751-1780) Bauhaus Archiv Berlin
Leistungen und Fortschritte
ng.2, P.29o (ed.), Modell Bauhaus,
aufden Gebieten der Theorie
B orges, Jorge Luis, "Un1 Ostfildern: HatJe Cantz,
und Praxis der Bougewerbe,
versalgeschichte der 2009, p. 153
vol. 7, Le1pzig 1877, ng. 214
Niedertracht," in Haefs, fig.3, P.304
ng. 12, P. 292
© 2013, Pro L1ttens,
Gisbert and Arnold, Fritz Zw1ck, Hermann (ed.),
(eds.), Gesommelte Werke Zunch
Deutsches Johrbuch tiber die
m zwolf Bonden, vol. 5:
fig.4, P. 304
Leistungen und Fortschritte
Der Erzcihlungen erster Teil,
Ch oi sy, Auguste, L'ort
auf den Gebieten der Theorie
de botir chez les Romoins,
translated from the und Praxis der Bougewerbe,
Spanish by Gisbert Haefs, Paris: Ducher, 1873,
vo l. 6, Leipzig 1876, ng. 270
Karl August Horst, panel VIII
ng. 13, P.292
and Wolfgang Luchting, ng.5, P.3o5
Solley, P. and Kro na uer,
Munich: Carl H an ser, Atelier Bow-Wow, Graphic
J. H . (eds.), Schweirerische
Anatomy, Tokyo: TOTO,
2000, p. 346. (original Polytechnische Zeitschrift,
Argentinian edition: Histo· 2007. With the kind
vol. 9, no. 4, Winterthur
rio universal de lo infamia,
permission of Momoyo
1864, vol. IX, panel 13,
Buenos Aires 1935). Kaijima
fig. 1
© Carl Hanser Verlag fig.6, P.305
fig. 14, P. 293
ng. 3, P.290 Pupp1, L1onello, Pollodio
Keuffel & Esser Co. (eds.),
Drowmgs, New York:
Scamozz1, Vincenzo, Catalogue of Keuffel & Esser
"Postament, Bas1s, Cap1tael Rizzoli, 1989, panel 33
Co. Manufacturers and
und Gebaelk konnth1scher fig.?, P.305
Importers, New York 1921,
Ordnung," 1n Mauch, Leroy, Charles F. A., Troite
no. 4280
de stereometne: Les oppli
Johann Matthaus von, ng. 15, P. 293
cot,ons de lo geometne
Die orch1tektomsche Ord Eder, Josef Maria, Die
Pans:
descriptive. Plonches,
nung der Griechen und Lichtpousverfohren, die
Romer, Berl1n 1875 Gauthier-Villars, 1870,
Plotinotypie und ver
panel 58
ng.4, P.29o schiedene Kopierverfohren
gta Archives, ETH Zurich: fig. 8 , P.305
ohne Silbersolze, Halle
73-01, Estate of Heinrich Janesch, Peter (ed.l,
1929, fig.10
From Beauty to Beauty and
E rn st
Bock Ago in, Budapest:
ng. 5, P. 291
" H istorische Plansamm
Mucsarnok, 2004, p. 380.
lung," Generallandesarchiv
With the kind permission
Karlsruhe, sign. GLA of Gyorgy Samsondi
2004-19K, sign. Grund Kiss
bestand 424b K
P I CT U R E C R E D I TS, ESSAYS
XII
fig. l , P.308
Bibltotheque nattonale de
France
Despite best efforts, we hove

not been able to identify
the holders of copyright and
printing rights for all the
illustrations. Copyright
holders not mentioned in the
credits ore asked to sub
stantiate thetr clotms, ond
recompense will be mode
occordmg to standard proc
tree.
319
..
I N DEX
.. A F M
Aalto, Alvar . . . L9, P.241 Ferraz, Marcelo . . . . M2, P.251 Me1ster Arnold . . . . K2, P. 205
Acayaba, Marcos G2, P.l51; Frank, He1nz . . I, fig. I, P.266 Mendes da Rocha, Paulo C3, P. 55;
Jl, P.l83 Fre1, Barbara . . A3, P.17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . DIO, P.97
Ammann, Gustav . 84, P.39 Froelich, Adrian . H4, P.171 Mengoni, Giuseppe . KS, P. 217
Atel1er 5 . . . . . . M3, P.253 Fueg, Franz . . . CS, P.59 Meyer, Hannes . . . . J6, P. 193;
Auer, Hans Wilhelm . LIO, P. 243 . . . . . . . . . . . . . I, fig. 1, P. 266
Mies van der Rohc, Ludwig . G5, P.157
G Mitsutani, Siguer C3, P. 55
B Moneo, Rafael . L7, P. 237
Gantenbein, Stephan . 09, P.95 Moser, Karl Fl, P.131;
Baum, Mirko . . . . . C4, P. 57 Gisel, Ernst . . . G4, P.155 . . . . . . . . . G6, P.159;
Baumann, Lorenz . . M4, P. 255 Glaus, Otto . . . . . . D4, P.85 . . . . . . . . . K3, P. 207
Bayer, Herbert XI, fig. 2, P. 304 Gramazio, Fabio . . . . 83, P.37 Muller, Wilhelm . J4, P. 189
Bill, Max . . . . . . . . . 81, P. 33 Grop1us, Walter . . XI, fig.2, P.304 Murcutt, Glenn . A2, P. 15
Bluntschli, Alfred Friedrich . . . 82, P. 35 Gull, Gustav F3, P.135
Bo Bardi, L1na . . . . . . . . M2, P. 251 Guyer, Lux . . . . . . . Ml, P.249
Bogdanov1c, Bogdan . . . . . A6, P. 23 N
Borges, Jorge LUis . . . V111, fig. 2, P. 290
Borromini, Francesco . L3, P. 229 H Nervi, Pier Luig1 . . E3, P.l13
Bouvier, Paul . . . 011, P. 99 Nil, Eugen . . . . K6, P.213;
Bow-Wow, Atelier . XI, fig. 5, Hailer, Bruno 01, P.79; IX, figs.l-4, P. 297
. . . . . . . . . . P.305 M7, P.261 N1Sh1zawa, Ryue . . . . . . H1, P.165
Brechbuhl, Otto K7, P.215 Hailer, Fritz . 01, P.79;
Breuer, Marcel . 03, P.83; M7, P.261
E7, P.121 Hassler, Uta . G3, P.153 0
Burle Marx, Roberto H2, P.167 Henry, Jacques CS, P. 59
320 Herve, Alain . . K4, P.209 Olga, Helio . . G2, P.151;
Herzog, Jacques . C8, P.65, Jl, P.183
c DB, P.93 Olgiati, Valerio F2, P.133
HolTmann, Meike . H7, P.177
Caminada, Gion A. . . . . . . C2, P. 53 Honnecourt, Villard de X11, fig. I,
Caruso, Adam . . . . . . . . . Cll, P. 71 P.308 p
Casetti und Rohrer Arch1tekten . . . . . Hsu, Martin . . . . H4, P.l71
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 06, P.89 Hubmann, Erich . . H3, P.l69 Pa1llard, Claude . J7, P.195
Cho1sy, Auguste XI, fig. 4, P. 304 Hubsch, Heinrich . Vl11,fig.9, Palladio, Andrea . XI, fig.6,
Correa, Charles . L6, P. 235 . . . P.291 P. 305
Cramer, Fred . . . J7, P. 195 Pool Arch1tects . 86, P.43
Curjel, Robert . . G6, P. 159; Porto, Sevenano Mimo . . Cover;
. . . . . . . . . . K3, P. 207 J C6, P.61
Czech, Hermann . . . . . . . L2, P. 227 Prouve, Jean . . . . . . . A1, P.l3
Jain, BUoy . . . A4, P.19
Jaray, Werner . J7, P.195
D
R
de Meuron, Pierre . C8, P.65; K Raj, Mahendra. . . . . 012, P.101;
08, P.93
. . . . . . . . . . . E1, P.109; L6, P.235
Demarmels, Hans . E6, P.119 Kerez, Christian . . ES, P.117 Record on, Benjamin M6, P. 259
Deplazes, Andrea . L5, P.233 Kienast, Dieter . MS, P.257 Richter, Gerhard . . . H7, P. 177
Design To Production . H1, P.165 Knobel, Hilarius . . J8, P.197 Ridolfi, Mano . . . . . . 02, P.81;
Diderot, Denis . . . . V111, fig.1, P. 290 Koeppel, Hans-Dietmar . . MS, P.257 . . . . . . . . . . . L4, P.231
Diller, Elizabeth . . E4, P.115 Kohler, Matth1as . . . . . . . . 83, P.37 Rietveld, Gernt . XI, fig. 3, P. 304
Durig, Jean-Pierre . . . . . . Kl, P.203
Roserens, Ala1n . . M4, P. 255
Roth, Alfred . . . A7.1, P.25;
L . . . . . . . A7.2, P. 27; 03, P. 83
E Roth, Em1l . . . . . . . . D3, P. 83
Le CorbuSier. A7.1, P.25;
Egender, Karl . . . . J4, P.189 A7.2, P.27;
Eicher, Fred . . . . . 85, P.41 J3, P.l87
Eidenbenz, Eberhard E7, P. 121 Leroy, Charles F. A . XI, fig. 7,
Eisenman, Peter . . XI, fig.1, P. 304 P.305
Ernst, Heinrich . . . V111, lig.4, P.290 Leuzinger, Hans . . CIO, P.69
Lewerentz, Sigurd . . C1, P.51
Lienhard, Ruedi . . . . . . 04, P.85
I N DEX
s
Saarinen, Eero . . KS, P.211
Saarinen, Martin A3, P.17
Salvisberg, Otto Rudolf . K7, P. 21S
Samsondi Kiss, Bela . . . XI, lig.8,
P. 3 0 S
Sangallo the Youger, Antonio da . Ll,
P.225
Scarpa, Ca rlo . . . . . . H6, P.175
Schietsch, Markus . . . . E8, P.123
Schinkel, Karl Friedrich . E9, P.12S
Schnebli, Dolf . . . . . . J2, P.18S
Schnetzer Puskas lngenieure . . . B6,
. . P.43
Schwartz, Joseph E2, P.111
Schwarz, Oliver . C7, P.63
Scofid1o, Ricardo E4, P.11S
Sejlma, Kazuyo . . H1, P.16S
Semper, Gottfned. 07, P.91;
F4, P.137; F6, P.141;
. . . . F7, P.143
Sequin Bronner, Carl . . . . . J8, P. 197;
. . . . . . . . VIII, fig.18, P. 293
Siza, Alvaro . . OS, S. 87; JS, P.191
Snozzi, Luigi . . C9, P. 67
Spiro, Annette 09, P. 9S
St John, Peter . C11, P. 71
Stadler, Hans Conrad . FS, P. 139
Staubli, Kurath & Partner . E4, P.11S
321
Steiner, Albert Heinrich 06, P. 89
Stockli, Peter Paul MS, P. 2S7
Studio Mumbai . . . A4, P. 19
Thonn1ssen, Udo AS, P.21

Torcapel, John . J3, P.187
u
Utzon, J0rn . . . . . . . LB, P. 239
v
Vainer, Andre . . . . . . M2, P. 2S1
Vass, Andreas . . . . . . H3, P. 169
Vazquez Consuegra, Guillermo . . . HS,
. . . . . . . . . . . . . P.173
Vitellozzi, Annibale . . . . . . E3, P. 113
w
Werenfels, Nik . . AS, P.21
Wietheger, Marc . H7, P.177
z
Zumthor, Peter . G1, P.149
..
..
322
AC K N OW L E D G M E N TS
This publication is the result o f several years o f work

by the Chair of Annette Spiro at the Department
of Architecture at the ETH Zurich. At the very start
stands the c a n d i d a c y lecture by Annette Spiro.
Stephan Rutishauser performed a great deal of the
foundational work.
Our thanks go to all of the offices and archives who

have made their plans available for this book. In addi
tion, countless individuals have given us invaluable ad
vice and supported us i n o u r efforts. Without them,
this collection would not have been possible. In partic
u l a r, we would like to thank Marcelo Aflalo, Jakob
Bill, Richard Bosel, Miriam Dahinden, Carmen Diez
Medina, Catherine Drouin -Prouve, Catherine D u
mont d'Ayot, Gerard Faber, Susanne Frank, Anette
Freytag, Stephan Gantenbein, Jose Paulo Gouvea,
Ji.irg Graser, Ariel H u ber, H ansjorg Jauch, Erika Kie
nast, Marta Knieza, Bernd Kulawik, Bruno M a u rer,
Heinz Muller, Werner Oechslin, Martin Raspe, Ivan
Ristic, Daniel Schlapfer, Anneliese Spiro, Marc Stein
mann, and Jan Willmann.
Special thanks go to the entire staff of the gta Archives

of the ETH Zurich, especially to Daniel Weiss. Without
his competence, overview, and willingness to help, we 323
would have never been able to salvage the treasures i n
o u r very own archives.
The book was created i n close collaboration with Park

Books and the graphic designer Esther Rieser. We
would like to thank Esther Rieser and Thomas Kramer
for their competent guidance and untiring commit
ment.
For financial support, we thank the Department of

Architecture of the ETH Zurich, which supported us
during the many years of basic groundwork. Without
the generosity of private firms, this book would not
have been published. Our thanks go to all sponsors and
patrons, first and foremost, the firm Caretta Weid
mann, main sponsor of our work.
..
..
324
T H E MAIN SPONSOR
What materializes o n the plan is something that in every light. Is it true then that the architect de 325
has arisen in the mind of the architect as merely a signs the stage on which life is played out? To
vague idea at first, and then become buildable day's plans are abstract instructions. There is no
through countless stages of refinement. The other way to overcome the technological variety.
plan's contents should be realizable; tangible for We were thus delighted, being involved with plans
client and tradesman. Beyond that, with the plan, o n a daily basis, by the examples in this book,
a visibility ensues that endures long past the con which also give an account of the look-and-feel of
struction phase, until inhabitants and passersby the future structure.
are familiar with the building from every angle and
Ca retta Wei d ma n n
Baumanagement A G , Zu r i c h and Basel, www.caretta-weidmann.ch
general planning, overall control, cost pla n n i n g , site management
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326
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IMPRINT
.. ETH Zurich
Department of Architecture
Chair for Architecture and
Construction Annette Spiro
CONCEPT:
Annette Spiro and
David Ganzoni, Zurich
ASSISTANCE:
Tina Mott and
Nice Muller, Zurich
ADVISOR:
Andrea Wiegelmann,
Zurich
COPY-EDITING:
Karoline Mueller-Stahl,
Leipzig
TRANSLATIONS INTO
AMERICAN ENGLISH:
Lisa Rosenblatt, Vienna
PROOFREADING:
Lisa Rosenblatt, Vienna
DESIGN:
Esther Rieser, Zurich
LITHOGRAPHY,
PRINTING. AND
BINDING:
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Altenburg GmbH,
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328
© 2013 Annette Spiro,
David Ganzoni and
Park Books AG, Zurich
© for the texts: The
authors
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All rights reserved; no part of

this work may be reproduced or
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Jonathan Sergison the architectural

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AS Paper format: 42 x 29.7cm

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