Almost a year ago I was paired with the book “les Regles du Dessin et du Lavis”, which was written in French, and I had no idea about how to communicate with or even understand anything about this book. Thus, I became utterly horrified about what is going to come in the following months.
Later on, as new tasks came and as I learned the elementary steps of researching and understanding a book, I suddenly have found myself writing essays about the content of this book, which I thought I would never understand.
I would say the tasks “Contact” and “Text&Image” has thought me the most. Hence, they were the ones that sparked my interest. Our visit to the Werner Oechslin Library in Einsiedeln during the task “Contact” was a very valuable experience for me. Being able to interact with hundreds of old books about architecture, admiring the marbling on the cover of my book made me establish a deeper connection with “les Regles du Dessin et du Lavis” The techniques used in “Text and Image” were really informative and I presume that they will make my future researches much more convenient.
It was interesting that there was a 214 paged book which was written just to tell architects and cartographers how to draw technical illustrations. As I found out more about the book, I became more and more impressed by the importance given to ones work, but also by the importance given to uniformity, thinking that there is just one right way to do something. The book itself tells so much about the era in wich it was written.
Furthermore, how a book is composed also tells us more than we think. Just by evaluating the use of specific words, one can gather plenty of information about an author, as well as his/her perspective. It is mesmerising, how much you can understand and learn from a book written centuries ago and in another language without actually translating and reading the whole.
Personally, I don’t think that this project was just about getting to know an old book. It was about learning and practicing how to access and evaluate information. Knowing how to find useful information has a remarkable significance. During this exercise, we all had an idea about the digital resources available online, which is fundamental for our studies.
Even though we are all first year students on bachelor program , being able to contribute to an architectural research was highly engaging and a source of personal growth for me. In course of this year, I can say that we all had a glimpse of a field in which we can improve ourselves. Considering many students start their studies thinking architecture is just about designing, this exercise has probably broadened the perspective of loads of students, showing them that there is much more to architecture than they actually thought.
I sincerely wish that this exercise will be the key for me to establish much more deeper connections with other friends in the future.