A study on the Visual Representation of Design Presented in 'Perfect Acts of Architecture' Exhibition of 2001

Abstract

Throughout the history of architecture, sometimes the main focus of design was determined by a particular visual representation method, and other times a particular form of visual representation method was required by perception of a particular architectural issue or an architectural form or idea. That is why the visual representation method of architects becomes an important means of reading the flow of idea and thinking behind architecture. This study is an investigation on the relation between architectural thinking and visual representation method expressed through the conceptual drawings by avant-garde architects of the 1970s and 80s, a period of the emergence of postmodernism. Rather than proving the objective reality regarded important by traditional architectural drawing, attempts are made to express the design concept in which the project has its base. Such interpretation and explanation regarding the concept become the main interest of the drawing. It is not that the architecture itself was not expressed in the contents, but it may not be the main subject of expression in the drawing. The value of architectural drawing recovers its value as an art work in itself, as a means of communication, and as an important conceptual tool in the design process. It can be seen that the visual representation method in postmodern architectural drawings is breaking free of the traditional objective depiction of matter and is changing and developing as a design tool of the architect.