SOCKS

An online magazine of Art, Architecture, Media, Culture, Sounds, Territories, Technology)

  • Media
  • Art
  • Architecture
  • Culture
  • Sounds
  • Territories
  • Visual Atlas

Real Paper Architecture, on Lebbeus Woods

August 18, 2011 by Fosco Lucarelli Leave a Comment

Here’s the full commentary by Lebbeus Woods, worth a read. Thanks Ethel for the link.

When rummaging though her extensive library, Aleksandra Wagner discovered a pattern book of the old city of Prague. Similar to a dressmaker’s pattern book, it is meant to be cut up, very precisely, and assembled into a three-dimensional paper model. Designed and printed in the early 1970s, in Czechoslovakia, it is remarkable in several ways:

First: in that pre-computer era, all measurements of the actual architecture had to be made by hand—a formidable task in itself.

Second: the patterns of the scale buildings had to be calculated and drawn by hand. In engineering school, these patterns are called developments, and must take into account the actual dimensions of walls, roofs, and all other architectural surfaces, and therefore are not simply orthographic projections of plans and elevations of the buildings.

Third: the several pages of written instructions on the model’s assembly would seem to have been as difficult to compose and they will be to follow.

Fourth: in that pre-laser cutting era, the authors had a very high regard for a modelmaker’s manual skills, not to mention surplus of time and determination.

It is also worth mentioning that the book’s pattern pages have the visual allure of abstract paintings, enhanced by the knowledge that the shapes were arranged not for their composition but for efficient use of the paper they are printed on. Perhaps they can be thought of as ‘functional’ art. If so, then they have more relationship to architecture than the representations that can be made from them.

LW

Related Posts

  • Architecture Without Humans

    Factory Futures, (Architecture Without Humans), a studio of AA Visiting School at Ivrea, directed by…

  • Book Review: Pamphlet Architecture 11-20

    Pamphlet Architecture is a Princeton Architectural Press publication founded in 1977 "as an alternative to…

  • Technical Cutaways, 1940s, By Frank Soltesz

    Frank Soltesz, illustrator. Click to zoom. Via: Retronaut

  • Michael Webb interviewed by Tim Abrahams

    On drawing techniques, Sin Centre, new and old technologies, America and the golden years. Tim…

  • Lectures on Ventilation (1869)

    XIX Century studies of air movement through various rooms: illustrations from Lectures on Ventilation, "Man's…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Tumblr

Socks is a non-linear journey through distant territories of human imagination.

About | Visual Atlas | Topics

We are Mariabruna Fabrizi and Fosco Lucarelli from Microcities. Ask us anything

  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Tumblr


SOCKS is a project by Fosco Lucarelli and Mariabruna Fabrizi of MICROCITIES, Architecture Cityscape, Landscape.
Except where otherwise noted, the content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license.
Whenever possible we try to attribute content (images, videos, and quotes) to their creators and original sources. Please feel free to write us if you notice misattributions or wish something to be removed.
SOCKS is powered by WordPress.