Table Of ContentVisioning Technologies
Visioning Technologies brings together a collection of texts from leading theorists
to examine how architecture has been, and is, reframed and restructured by the
visual and theoretical methods introduced by different ‘technologies of sight’ –
understood to include orthographic projection, perspective drawing, telescopic
devices, photography, film and computer visualization, amongst others.
Each chapter deals with its own area and historical period of expertise, organized
sequentially to mark out and analyse the historical evolution of how architecture has
been transformed by technologically induced shifts in human perception from the 15th
century until today. This book underlines the way in which architectural forms and
design processes have developed historically in conjunction with the systems of sight
we manufacture technologically and suggests this continues today. Paradoxically, it is
premised on the argument that these technological systems tend, in their initial formu-
lations, to obtain ever greater realism in our visualizations of the physical world.
Graham Cairns is an academic and author in the field of architecture who has written
extensively on film, advertising and political communication. He has held Visiting
Professor positions at universities in Spain, the UK, Mexico, the Gambia, South Africa
and the US. He has worked in architectural studios in London and Hong Kong and
previously founded and ran a performing arts organization, H ybrid Artworks, special-
izing in video installation and performance writing.
He is author and editor of multiple books and articles on architecture as both a form
of visual culture and a socio-political construct. He developed this book during a two-
year period as Visiting Scholar at Columbia University, New York. He is currently
Director of the academic research organization AMPS (Architecture, Media, Politics,
Society), and Executive Editor of its associated journal A rchitecture_MPS . He is Hon-
orary Senior Research Associate at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University
College, London, UK.
Visioning Technologies
The Architectures of Sight
Edited by Graham Cairns
First published 2017
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2017 selection and editorial matter, Graham Cairns; individual chapters,
the contributors
The right of Graham Cairns to be identified as the author of the editorial
material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted
in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
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known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
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Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
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without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Names: Cairns, Graham, author.
Title: Visioning technologies : the architectures of sight / Graham Cairns.
Description: New York : Routledge, 2017. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016026538 | ISBN 9781472454966 (hardback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Architecture and technology. | Image (Philosophy) |
Technology–Social aspects.
Classification: LCC NA2543.T43 C35 2017 | DDC 720/.47–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016026538
ISBN: 978-1-4724-5496-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-54802-9 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
List of figures vii
Contributors x
Introduction 1
Reproducing reality – a psychological origin of the technological
visualisation of space? 3
GRAHAM CAIRNS
Neo-formalism: The technological and social evolution of
visual representation and the emergence of contemporary optics
and architecture 11
GRAHAM CAIRNS
PART I
Perspective 19
1 E nvisioning geometry: Architecture in the grip of perspective 21
NICHOLAS TEMPLE
2 Desargues’ oeuvres: On perspective, optics and conics 36
NADER EL-BIZRI
3 G alileo’s limit: Mechanical sciences’ technologies of sight
and the translation of analogical representations into
diagrammatic illustrations 52
FEDERICA GOFFI
PART II
Photography 71
4 T he transformative interface: Fragmentation, process and
construction in the photographic representation of architecture 73
NIGEL GREEN
vi Contents
5 ‘ The great publicist of modern building’: Photography
and architecture in the inter-war years 87
VALERIA CARULLO
6 Photography and architecture: From technical vision to art
and phenomenological (re)vision 105
IÑAKI BERGERA
PART III
Film 119
7 Absorbing cinematic modernism: From the Villa Savoye to
the Villa Arpel 121
FRANÇOIS PENZ
8 Fragmented fluidity: A possible future for spatial theory and
praxis in filmic form 136
GRAHAM CAIRNS
9 Intersecting frames: Film + architecture 153
SCOTT MCQUIRE
PART IV
Digital technologies 167
10 Hyperreality, vision and architecture 169
DAVID ROSS SCHEER
11 Rebooting spaceship earth: Astrospatial visions for
architecture and urban design 185
DAVINA JACKSON
12 Leveraging nature to envision (functional) space:
An architecture of machinic abduction 207
TIM IRELAND
Index 223
Figures
1.1 Demonstration of “Meditative Angles”, De Beryllo ,
Nicholas Cusanus (1400–64) 25
1.2 View of the Baptistery of San Giovanni taken from the
central portal of Florence Cathedral. Akg-images/Album/Prisma 29
1.3 Plan of Florence Cathedral and Baptistery (after Bernardo Sansone
Sgrilli) showing a hypothetical reconstruction of Brunelleschi’s
visual angle from central portal of the Duomo to the Baptistery,
with perspective view of the Baptistery (drawn by author) 30
1.4 Detail of right hand side of the fresco ‘Raising of the Son of
Theophilus and St Peter Enthroned’ by Masaccio (1426–27) and
Filippino Lippi (1457–1504), Brancacci Chapel, Church of Santa
Maria delle Carmine, Florence. Nicholas Temple 32
2.1 The two triangles of Desargues’ projective theorem. Image by author 38
2.2 Illustration of perspective projection. Image by author 41
2.3 Illustration of Desargues’ perspective projection. Image by author 43
3.1 Cantilevered Beam (1638), Galileo Galilei. Istituto e Museo
di Storia della Scienza, Florence, Rare collection 075. © Courtesy
of the Museo Galileo, Florence, Library 56
3.2 Left two images: (1638), Galileo Galilei. Istituto e Museo di Storia
della Scienza, Florence, Rare collection 075. © Courtesy of
the Museo Galileo, Florence, Library. Right two images: 1680,
Giovanni Alfonso Borelli. D e Motu Animalium . Public Domain 56
3.3 Anatomical study of the shoulder (ca. 1510–1511),
Leonardo Da Vinci. Royal Collection Trust (RCIN 919003) /
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2015 58
3.4 De Motu Animalium (1680: Table III), Giovanni Alfonso Borelli.
© Public Domain 59
3.5 Study of the strength of the muscles of the upper limb.
Ms. H (IFP) cc 43v and 44r (1493–94), Leonardo da Vinci.
Bibliothèque de l’Institut de France, Paris 60
3.6 The Divine Cosmographer, or a Brief Survey of the Whole
World, Frontispiece (1640), William Hodson. The Folger
Shakespeare Library (STC 13554), Washington, DC 62
3.7 Les Oeuvres Mathematiques’ [. . .] (1634: 434). Simon
Stevin. The Folger Shakespeare Library (Q155 S77),
Washington, DC 63
viii Figures
3.8 Wood post, loadstone, brass hanger, iron sepulcher,
wood (1608 ca.) Museo Galileo (Inv. N. 2431) Florence.
Photo by Franca Principe 63
4.1 Untitled from series ‘Fictions’, 2007, Filip Dujardin 83
5.1 500 Fifth Avenue and Victoria station, London.
Architectural Review , November 1932, p. 219,
Architectural Press Archive / RIBA Collections 88
5.2 Miramonte, Kingston-upon-Thames, London (1937).
Architect: E. Maxwell Fry. Photographers: Dell &
Wainwright. Dell & Wainwright / RIBA Collections 93
5.3 Peter Jones department store, Sloane Square, London (1939).
Architects: Slater, Crabtree and Moberly. Photographers:
Dell & Wainwright. Dell & Wainwright / RIBA Collections 94
5.4 Norwegian Pavilion, Exposition Internationale des Arts et
Techniques dans la Vie Moderne, Paris 1937. Photographers:
Dell & Wainwright. Architectural Press Archive /
RIBA Collections 96
6.1 Double page of the article “The camera always lies” by John
Donat, published in the RIBA Journal 5 (1968) and lectured on
October 24, 1967: a critical visual statement to the use of
architectural photography 107
6.2 Cover of the book Photographing Architecture and Interiors
by Julius Shulman (New York: Whitney Museum of American
Art, 1962). The book condenses the master’s technical profi ciency
and expertise on the fi eld 109
6.3 ‘Fields of Vision’, a diagram by Hebert Bayer for the 1930
catalogue of Deutscher Werkbund, exemplifi es graphically
the non-lineal and fragmentary nature of vision 111
6.4 Interior view of Therme Vals, the spa complex built by the Swiss
architect Peter Zumthor. Photograph by Hélène Binet.
© Hélène Binet 114
7.1 Villa Savoye – l a promenade architecturale scene in
Architectures d’Aujourd’hui. Pierre Chenal, 1930 123
7.2 Villa Arpel – M on Oncle . Jacques Tati, 1958 125
7.3 La promenade architecturale : Villa Arpel (left) – St Maur
(right) – Mon Oncle. Jacques Tati, 1958 126
7.4 The French Pavilion at the Venice Biennale 2014.
François Penz 130
7.5 The narrative layering from 2014 to the Acropolis.
François Penz 131
8.1 Still from Timecode. Mike Figgis, 2000 138
8.2 Follie at Parc de la Villette. Bernard Tschumi, 1982–1998.
Graham Cairns 139
8.3 House VI. House of Cards, Peter Eisenman 140
8.4 Diagrams from Manhattan Transcripts, 1981.
Bernard Tschumi 142
8.5 Diagrammatic Plan of Parc de la Villette, 1982.
Bernard Tschumi 143
8.6 ‘The City of Culture’, 2011, Spain. Peter Eisenman 146
Figures ix
10.1 A representative contemporary tract house. Brendel.
Public Domain 174
10.2 RTKL Architects, L A Live , Los Angeles, CA. (2010).
RTKL.com. David Whitcomb 175
10.3 Orators Rostrums and Propaganda Stands , 2012.
John Craig Freeman 176
10.4 Studio Roosegaard, Lotus 7.0 (2010). Studio Roosegaard 178
10.5 Minimal complexity (2012). Vlad Tenu 179
11.1 Image of the world from the US Army’s V-2 #13 missile, October 24,
1946. White Sands Missile Range/Applied Physics Laboratory 186
11.2 Central Dubai seen from a Digital Globe satellite.
Digital Globe 189
11.3 Manal Rachdi’s proposed “City Sand Tower”.
OXO Architectes 190
11.4 Map of Sana’a, Yemen. EC JRC, Ispra/Institute
for the Protection and Security of the Citizen 194
11.5 Paris artist Yann Kersalé’s Sea Mirror heliostat of
colour-changing LEDs and mirrors, cantilevered from
an upper fl oor of Sydney’s Central Park One apartment
tower, designed by Jean Nouvel with Peddle Thorp
(Fraser Properties-Sekisui House) 196
12.1 Interaction between man and machine, the ‘see and
decide relationship’, by Broughton, Tan and Coates (1997);
redrawn by the author 209
12.2 Paramecium Drawing. Tim Ireland 211
12.3 Tomás Saraceno arachnological composition, photographed
by the author 216
12.4 Bee wax construction by Ren Ri 216
