Browsing by Author "Gardner, Frederick C."

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    Visual simulation in time
    (1968) Gardner, Frederick C.; Sobel, Robert
    Architectural design has always been limited to static procedures of study. The means of study has a profound effect on the shape and form of the result. The discovery of perspective drawing during the 15th century had a strong influence on Renaissance architecture. Buildings and spaces were designed to be seen from static, fixed viewpoints. Space was regarded as a two-dimensional or pictorial composition. Today we are witnessing the effect on architecture of another media: the chipboard model. Buildings are springing up with blank planes of natural concrete and detailing that makes them look like blown up chipboard models. Motion is becoming an ever more important factor in architectural design as the architect must deal with spaces through which the viewer will be moving at a specific rate of speed (flying, driving, walking). Space can no longer be thought of as pictorial, from a static viewpoint. The fact that the viewer is moving and that he is moving at a given rate, not only has a profound effect on the way the spatial envelope is perceived but on the way a building itself is perceived. This paper describes a tool developed at Rice University which enables the architect to study, represent and communicate his designs in terms of movement.