Task 3 – Friends with an old Book – Xenotheka
In Les Édifices Antiques De Rome where many roman ruins are measured and drawn in a very detailed manner, and in contrast to many predecessors, in the way they were found on site, one of the ruins which is subject of an in-depth investigation is the ruin of the Panthéon in Rome. This evoked some interest in me, so I decided to do some research on where else the Pantheon is mentioned and treated in the vast digital Xenotheka.
In Leatherbarrow Eisenschmidt, Twentieth Century Architecture the Pantheon is not a subject of investigation and a miracle being looked up to but just a reference for a huge size. The perception of the remains of the Panthéon shifted from a subject of a technical interest towards a fascination for the monumentality of space that is expressed with it. Nevertheless the Pantheon has lost importance comparing with Les Édifices Antiques de Rome.
In Frampton, Modern Architecture A Critical History the historic architectural drawings as for example in Les Édifices Antiques De Rome are discussed and their impact on (the developpement of) architecture. The focus lies on the meta layer of the drawings, the drawings and measurements pretend to be objective but upon a closer inspection turn out to be subjective too. Maybe they do not show an interpreted original state, but the way in which the information is selected, interpreted and drawn is very subjective and underlies the beliefs, prejudices and expectations of the drawing person. Modern Architecture A Critical History by Frampton puts a special highlight on the fact that the Process of drawing the ruins of the Pantheon immanently contains a high degree of abstraction. Modern Architecture A Critical History by Frampton states that it was this abstraction in drawings that laid the base for the modern movement after the turn of the century.