From Drawing to Technical Drawing

Abstract

It is in the early Middle Ages that the demonstrative effectiveness of drawing begins to be correlated to mathematical description, thus laying the foundations for the geometrical conceptualization that technical drawing makes measurable. The biunivocal procedures that make it possible to transcribe three-dimensional shapes and to trace from these their exact collocation in space, their real size and their real shape, arose from the experience of specialized building site craftsmen and from the study of classical works. The new figure emerged that of the master mason who could draw and interpret designs. The need to show or to see what the end product would look like before it was actually built brought about the refinement of a drawing system from which the professional figure of the architect emerged.

Adriana Rossi received her degree in architecture with honors from the University of Naples Federico II. She was qualified as an architect in 1985. That same year she began to collaborate with the University of Naples in the department of “Configurazione e attuazione dell’architettura”. She earned her Ph.D. in 1992 in “Survey and representation of built work”, and was awarded a postdoctoral grant from the Dipartimento di Rappresentazione of the University of Palermo. She joined the Second University of Naples as a researcher in 1995, becoming part of the Department of “Cultura del Progetto” in 1996. Today she is an Associate Professor there, teaching “Drawing and techniques for design”. Among the books she has authored are I Campi Flegrei (Officina Edizioni, 2006), DisegnoDesign (Officina Edizioni, reprinted in 2008) and Suoni di pietra (Deputació de Barcellona, 2009).