Who Was First to Practice Architectural Visualization?

Architecture has always faced the task of visualizing the architect's plan. We recall that precise knowledge was the privilege of the guild, of the caste; but in the relationship between architect and client (often represented by the rulers of nations or states), there had to be an intelligible pictorial language, accessible to the warrior, the merchant, and the wealthy farmer, and not restricted by territory or tribe.

In Egypt, on one of the wooden panels from the walls of the tomb of the architect Hesir, the basics of the system of linear dimensions used in construction (about 2800 B.C.) are recorded. In Russian civilization, the system of architectural proportions was known under the name "babylon."

Among finds of the ancient Indian culture at Bahia de Caracas, the archaeologist E. Estrada discovered neatly molded houses and figurines. Some of the figurines depicted bearded people sitting in a typically Japanese pose — with their legs crossed. And the roofs of the toy houses had curved corners, like those of Asian pagodas.

The clay houses found in the area between the Dnieper, the Carpathians, and the Balkan Peninsula can be considered the most ancient of the structures "visualized" in three-dimensional form. Here is what the academician B. A. Rybakov says about them in his book "The Paganism of the Ancient Slavs":

Eneolithic models of dwellings and their parts. At the top, the main roof. The second row, models of houses under construction. The third row, models of huts and barns. At the bottom, a two-story house and a model of a settlement.

The Mesolithic (10,000 to 15,000 years B.C.) agricultural tribes, both in the Balkans and to the north of them, in the zone of Indo-European colonization, preserved a whole layer of archaeological records. These are various clay models of huts, sometimes showing us the external appearance of the building with its vertical pillars or smooth painted walls, and sometimes revealing to us only the interior of the house, with its stove, benches, and even utensils (mortars, millstones).

In the Eneolithic period (8,000 to 5,000 years B.C.), a simplified form of clay model appeared: instead of three-dimensional, volumetric houses, flat clay plates were sometimes used, giving only the outline of a house with a gable roof. These plates marked round windows and the upper crosspieces of the rafters.

Of particular interest for its remarkable solution to depicting a gable-roofed house is a clay plate from the outskirts of Plovdiv. The plate is square, and the gable roof is shown not by the outline of the plate but by the pattern on it. On two opposite sides of the plate are the triangular gables of the house, crowned at the ridges by extremely stylized figures with arms raised to the sky. The sides show the vertical supports of the walls (or the side slopes of the roof?). This ability to render a three-dimensional house unfolded onto a plane shows considerable thought on the part of the artists of the time.

Most of the models depicting the structure as a whole give us the appearance of a stylized gable-roofed house. Southern huts are shown with smooth, mud-brick walls (often decorated with patterns); the more northern models reflect real post houses, where the gable roof rested on strong vertical pillars and the spaces between the pillars were filled with woven wicker panels. The roofs of southern huts (evidently thatched) are pressed down by thin poles, while the northern ones clearly show solid rafters.

In addition to ordinary huts, there were models of two-story structures with a box roof (Rassokhovatka in Ukraine).

Village house of the Trypillia culture. Voroshilovka village, Vinnytsia region. 3,000 years B.C.

Clay model of a dwelling house. Approximately 3,000 years B.C.

In making such objects, the craftsmen did not aim to show the exact size of the building, but they could convey a general idea of the house — especially its appearance, the proportions of its sides, the number and placement of windows, the roof design, and the main facade, as well as design features such as whether the house was meant to be built in a wet place ("chicken legs").

It was only in the Middle Ages that European researchers of optics and painting developed a system of visual perspective. Leonardo da Vinci and his teacher Verrocchio are among the authors of this work. The most comprehensive work, summarizing previous experience, was written by Brunelleschi. From this time on, paintings gained relief and depth. Drawing began to be used as a transition: from conception to creation.

From the Russian Middle Ages we have no evidence of the use of drawing in architecture, and it remains a mystery how projects for such magnificent buildings as the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl, the Church of the Intercession on Red Square, or St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev were approved.

Some researchers believe that Russian architects made models, and that "...even in the 16th and 17th centuries, drawings were needed not so much by the architect as by the customer, 'for the purpose of preliminary planning, allocation, and accounting of the work to be carried out,'" writes N. N. Voronin in his essays on the history of Russian architecture of the 16th and 17th centuries.

With the development of electronic means of producing drawings, vector images, and programs for creating three-dimensional objects in virtual space, it became possible to show the customer a near-realistic idea of the vision of the architect, designer, or builder at any stage of the design or construction of a building. The basis of 3D visualization is the mathematical methods of constructing perspective and displaying the physical characteristics of materials.

Electronic and paper drawings, photographs, catalogs, and magazine illustrations can serve as the basis for such work — along with, of course, the knowledge of an experienced visualizer.

This method allows you to see the structure in its final form, built into its living environment, even at the paper-design stage; to check usability and the beauty of the interior and exterior design; to "try on" the furniture you like within the space of the house; to make virtual cutaways of the house; to check the coordination of rooms on different levels; and to identify the project's "weak spots" in advance. Computer visualization lets you arrange the right lighting, see the house and its interior rooms at different times of day, and lay out the surrounding landscape beautifully and sensibly.