Monday, July 20, 2009

Week 1 questions:

For help this week see:

HOW TO READ A DIFFICULT BOOK

by Mortimer J. Adler, Ph.D.

click here

Allen, S. (2000). Mapping the unmappable, on notation. From Practice, architecture, technique and representation. London and New York: Routledge. Pg 31- 45
1: What does Allen mean when he says that architectural drawing is instrumental?
2: What change in the literary descriptions of the city does Steven Marcus note, and why is this relevant to Allen's argument?
3: What is the main argument that Allen is making?
4: Suggest some areas, topics, or relations that could be mapped in Auckland that would include aspects of anticipation, invisibility and time as discussed by Allen.

Aureli, P. & Mastrigli, G. (2006). Architecture after the diagram. Lotus International(127), 96-105. (101-105 English trans.)
1: Locate an image of Giovan Battista Nolli's Great Plan of Rome (1748). Bring a copy to class, large enough for all to see.
2: Why do the authors consider this map to be paradigm breaking?
3: Why is Deleuze and Guattari's idea of the abstract machine important? What effects do the authors see it as having?
4: Locate images of the 7 architectural projects mentioned and bring to class.
5: What issue do the author's have with diagrammatic architecture?

Cosgrove, D. (2006) Carto-city in Abrams, J. & Hall, P. (Eds.). Else/where: mapping new cartographies of networks and territories. . Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Design Institute. 148-157
1: Cosgrove says that urban maps, "continue to control the daily lives of citizens through zoning ordinances, zip codes, and the myriad territorial regulations that shape daily life". Locate, and bring to class, at least 5 maps of Auckland city that operate in this way.
2: Radial axis and the grid. Cosgrove mentions Versaille, Rome and Paris as radial axis cities and Greek colonies of the Mediterranean, imperial Chinese cities and modern American cities as being based on the grid. Locate some historical maps of Auckland, and bring to class. Are they radial or grid?
3: Locate and bring a copy of Charles L'Enfant's map of Washington, DC. and describe it in Cosgrove's terms to the class and compare to the map of Auckland from umber 2.
4: Take a look at Braun and Hegenberg's city maps from Civitates Orbis Terrarum (1570). (Click here for good res versions). Find a copy of Turgot's 1739 Plan de Paris. Using these describe the visual differences that Cosgrove identifies. Why are these differences important?


NB* When copying images make sure you reference the source.

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