Journal for Geometry and Graphics 12 (2008), No. 1, 087--098
Copyright Heldermann Verlag 2008
Drawing as Insight into Wholeness
Michael Sciarrillo
Catholic University, School of Architecture and Planning, 620 Michigan Avenue N.E., Washington, DC 20064, U.S.A.
msciarri@gmail.com
Scott Aker
Catholic University, School of Architecture and Planning, 620 Michigan Avenue N.E., Washington, DC 20064, U.S.A.
scottlaker@gmail.com
The technique of perspective drawing has evolved over the past 600 years. Yet this has been primarily an external approach to visualizing and has lead to a mechanical interpretation of space. The influence of the Cartesian coordinate system has further forced perspective drawing into a rigid response to one's surroundings. In the domain of creating architecture, this mechanical approach has led our culture into a banal and characterless environment. Furthermore, it has suppressed our emotions and crippled our intuition. Through the collaboration of our thesis for masters of architecture, we developed an approach to transforming space that begins immediately with one's feelings. With the use of our method called the reverse engineered perspective, we have created a successful mathematical model that can be used to unfold one's inner vision into physical space. The process takes the form of an intuitive sketch, from which a plan can be extracted by reversing the sequence of conventional perspective. Our case study focused on creating a chapel and extending inner geometries into the surrounding outdoor spaces. With this method of perspective art, drawing one's inner feelings provides us with new insight into Christopher Alexander's theory of wholeness and our unfolding surroundings.
Keywords: Perspective geometry, representation of art in architecture, morphology, projective geometry, proportions, transformations, reverse engineering.
MSC: 51N05
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