Dissection

My initial Axonometric drawing of part of my scheme, this was drawn to help me clarify the the buildings structure, scale and spaces.

foremost element of the design structurally, but also its fundamental aesthetic characteristic.7

My own initial axonometric drawing, whilst not from the same worms-eye perspective conveyed similar meaning. The defining feature of my working axo is the buildings structure and tectonic qualities. The drawings isolation on the page, its dissociation from the context of the cathedral or the rest of the structure, mean that the viewer sees the building element portrayed as an object, floating in space, not part of a wider urban or architectural context. Whilst this technique greatly helped me to organise and understand my design, this process of dissection meant that I was making choices about my design without fully appreciating how they would respond to or affect the surrounding site and buildings. This drawing, whilst helpful as a design tool, thus encourages the architect to further objectify their work , and dissect it from the context that should be so crucial to informing design decisions . Moneo’s response to Allen’s work prompted a similar reaction, thus when an exhibition including these axos was curated, Moneo instructed Allen to cut the work down, so that drawing bled to the edges of the page, thus implying the building continues beyond the page and grounding it more within its context.8

Auguste Choisy Drawing from L’art de batirchez les romains Choisy employed the wormseye viewpoint to convey the sense of standing in the space and looking up at the vaults. It is important to note that Choicy was an engineer by trade and this significantly informed his style of representation

Stan Allen’s axo drawn for the Merida Museum. 15cm were cut from the left side if the drawing

The limitations of the dissected axonometric led me to study the theory of Moneo’s second axo from the Merida museum, drawn by Enrique de Teresa. This drawing contrasts significantly with Allen’s work through several very different representation techniques. Firstly, the angle of the drawing is flatter, to achieve a more accurate approximation of how a person might see the building. The traditional overhead perspective is also more natural than the Worm-eye, which requires more thought to understand.10 Most significantly however, is the relationship the