L’art d’appareil by Menand is a book strongly relying on hand drawings and precise construction by hand. Therefore, my first words to type into the Alice engine where “hand drawings” and “construction drawings”. A book that showed up multiple times is “the autopoiesis of architecture” by Patrik Schumacher. Besides various complex themes the book also discusses the importance of hand drawings and sketches as a design tool. He describes the drawing by hand as a a tool of great importance in terms of communication between architects. Besides this topic the book is rather philosophical and therefore not that close to L’art d’appareil, which is way more practical, focusing on the drawings.
Another book i found and explored a bit was “Architectural Capriccio” by Lucien Steil. Once again, the concept of the book stands in contrast to L’art d’appareil, as it is more theoretical. There is an interesting connection regarding the importance of hand drawings nevertheless. Lucien Steil sees the drawing/painting as a method to give insights to the “Architectural Mind” and, just as Menand, describes it as an absolute necessity to master this tool. As this is a newer book, the obvious comparison to computer generated drawings and plans is made, but the conclusion gives credits to books like L’art d’appareil by Menand. Steil approves the complex and strict theoretical rules of figuration used in books like L’art d’appareil and states, that without the ability to draw by hand, an important part of the imagination would be lost.
It was hard finding a book that resembles the style of L’art d’appareil, but finding books that discuss the importance of these books was rather easy. There is a clear opinion among these books, that the hand drawing and construction by hand, like the one used in L’art d’appareil, is still important, even though a computer nowadays can do it way faster. Even though there is strict rules and theory for these hand drawings, they are essential in the design and imagination process.
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To find a similar book I searched for an article that contained a similar Alice searching result from the past Task as mine. With different books and keywords we still got both the same book suggested: „The Architectural Capriccio“ by Lucien Steil. Likewise your book mine strongly relies on drawings and focuses on the perspective of the author. Whereas your author tries to explain his observation and importance of the illustration techniques by hand with drawings and explaining text nearby, my book only contains illustrations without any text passages, which gives them a powerful meaning and shows their importance. Furthermore both books where released in the 18th century but in different geographical areas. I think it’s quiet interesting that the both books still have some similarities even if they have been written in other circumstances whereas both authors experienced different cultural impacts.
Student number: 21-923-412
My book: “Opera di Francesco Borromino” written by Sebastiano Giannini
Similarity: illustration techniques, historical background