The Topkapi Scroll


Book Description

Since precious few architectural drawings and no theoretical treatises on architecture remain from the premodern Islamic world, the Timurid pattern scroll in the collection of the Topkapi Palace Museum Library is an exceedingly rich and valuable source of information. In the course of her in-depth analysis of this scroll dating from the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century, Gülru Necipoğlu throws new light on the conceptualization, recording, and transmission of architectural design in the Islamic world between the tenth and sixteenth centuries. Her text has particularly far-reaching implications for recent discussions on vision, subjectivity, and the semiotics of abstract representation. She also compares the Islamic understanding of geometry with that found in medieval Western art, making this book particularly valuable for all historians and critics of architecture. The scroll, with its 114 individual geometric patterns for wall surfaces and vaulting, is reproduced entirely in color in this elegant, large-format volume. An extensive catalogue includes illustrations showing the underlying geometries (in the form of incised “dead” drawings) from which the individual patterns are generated. An essay by Mohammad al-Asad discusses the geometry of the muqarnas and demonstrates by means of CAD drawings how one of the scroll’s patterns could be used co design a three-dimensional vault.




Perspective for Artists


Book Description

Depth, perspective of sky and sea, shadows, much more, not usually covered. 391 diagrams, 81 reproductions of drawings and paintings.




Manual of Engineering Drawing


Book Description

The Manual of Engineering Drawing has long been recognised as the student and practising engineer's guide to producing engineering drawings that comply with ISO and British Standards. The information in this book is equally applicable to any CAD application or manual drawing. The second edition is fully in line with the requirements of the new British Standard BS8888: 2002, and will help engineers, lecturers and students with the transition to the new standards.BS8888 is fully based on the relevant ISO standards, so this book is also ideal for an international readership. The comprehensive scope of this book encompasses topics including orthographic, isometric and oblique projections, electric and hydraulic diagrams, welding and adhesive symbols, and guidance on tolerancing.Written by a member of the ISO committee and a former college lecturer, the Manual of Engineering Drawing combines up-to-the-minute technical accuracy with clear, readable explanations and numerous diagrams. This approach makes this an ideal student text for vocational courses in engineering drawing and undergraduates studying engineering design / product design.Colin Simmons is a member of the BSI and ISO Draughting Committees and an Engineering Standards Consultant. He was formerly Standards Engineer at Lucas CAV.* Fully in line with the latest ISO Standards* A textbook and reference guide for students and engineers involved in design engineering and product design* Written by a former lecturer and a current member of the relevant standards committees




Drawing Futures


Book Description

Drawing Futures brings together international designers and artists for speculations in contemporary drawing for art and architecture.Despite numerous developments in technological manufacture and computational design that provide new grounds for designers, the act of drawing still plays a central role as a vehicle for speculation. There is a rich and long history of drawing tied to innovations in technology as well as to revolutions in our philosophical understanding of the world. In reflection of a society now underpinned by computational networks and interfaces allowing hitherto unprecedented views of the world, the changing status of the drawing and its representation as a political act demands a platform for reflection and innovation. Drawing Futures will present a compendium of projects, writings and interviews that critically reassess the act of drawing and where its future may lie.Drawing Futures focuses on the discussion of how the field of drawing may expand synchronously alongside technological and computational developments. The book coincides with an international conference of the same name, taking place at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, in November 2016. Bringing together practitioners from many creative fields, the book discusses how drawing is changing in relation to new technologies for the production and dissemination of ideas.




Diagramming the Big Idea


Book Description

As a beginning design student, you need to learn to think like a designer, to visualize ideas and concepts, as well as objects. In the second edition of Diagramming the Big Idea, Jeffrey Balmer and Michael T. Swisher illustrate how you can create and use diagrams to clarify your understanding of both particular projects and organizing principles and ideas. With accessible, step-by-step exercises that interweave full color diagrams, drawings and virtual models, the authors clearly show you how to compose meaningful and useful diagrams. As you follow the development of the four project groups drawn from the authors’ teaching, you will become familiar with architectural composition concepts such as proportion, site, form, hierarchy and spatial construction. In addition, description and demonstration essays extend concepts to show you more examples of the methods used in the projects. Whether preparing for a desk critique, or any time when a fundamental insight can help to resolve a design problem, this new and expanded edition is your essential studio resource.




Seeing and Visualizing


Book Description

How we see and how we visualize: why the scientific account differs from our experience.