Visual Literacy Now

Visual literacy initiatives have grown in popularity, and moved beyond the Arts and Design Colleges. A particulary noteworthy international and interdisciplinary collaboration is Visual-Literacy.org. Participating faculty include engineers, designers, computer scientists and physicists. Online tutorial modules are available for business and engineering students.

Above is a plan of London's Soho District (1845) that demonstrates what University of Lugano Communication Science professor Riccardo Mazza calls Graphics for Explorative Analysis:

"Graphics are also a mean for finding and identifying structures and properties in a given data set (Card, et al, 1999). The special properties of visual perception of data may facilitate the finding of relationships, trends, revealing hidden patterns, or as Bertin (1981, p. 16) says, 'it is the visual means of resolving logical problems.' To illustrate. . . [on this map] black dots represent individual deaths from cholera and "x" marks the position of the water pumps. The map allowed Dr. John Snow to observe that most of the deaths . . . were concentrated around the Broad Street water pumps, which was discovered to be the source of diffusion of cholera in the area (Tufte, 1983)." [Visual Literacy Demo Tutorial: Visualization for Engineering and Communication. Viewed 20.04.2009 at http://www.visual-literacy.org/pages/demo.htm].

To read more on visualization/nomenclature/academics of, click here for the group's recommended reading list.

Building by the Letters

Can you read the plans?
As related to the previous blog post, the plans above are devised based on the Roman (or Latin) alphabet. Reading from top to bottom, left to right, the plans spell out: "LOVIS LE GRAND" (doubled mirrorwise); the initials of Prince Christian Carl Friedrich Alexander of Anspach, and "IHS," the Monogram of the Name of Jesus (The Jesuit Order). These architectural follies were never built.

Upper: Thomas Gobert, Traitté d’Architecture dedié à Louix XIV (n.d.). Collection of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich. Published in Josef Ponten, Architektur die nicht gebaut wurde. Stuttgart, Berlin, and Leipzig: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1925, Vol. I, pp. 60-61, and Vol. II, figs. 119-125. As it appears in Conrads, Ulrich and Hans G. Sperlich. The Architecture of Fantasy: Utopian Building and Planning in Modern Times. New York: Praeger, 1962.

Center: Johann David Steingruber, Page from his book, titled Architectonisches Alphabet: bestehend aus dreyssig Rissen, wovon jeder Buchstab nach seiner kenntlichen Anlage auf eine ansehnliche und geräumige fürstliche Wohnung, dann auf alle Religionen, Schloss-Capellen und ein Buchstab gänzlich zu einen Closter, übrigens aber der mehreste Theil nach teutscher Landes-Art mit Einheiz-Stätte auf Oefen und nur Theils mit Camins eingerichtet ... : zu welchen auch die Façaden mit merklich abwechslender Architectur aufgezogen find : ueber diss sind noch zwanzig Plans auf Kayserlich, Königlich, Chur- und anderer hoher Fürsten Namen, Risse auf aleiche Art mit aller Geflissenheit und distincter Architectur dergestalten auf einen Bogen aufgezogen, dass solche eingeschlagen mit denen vorstehenden in einen Format gebunden werden können. Schwabach: Gedruckt Mizler, 1773. As it appears in Conrads, Ulrich and Hans G. Sperlich. The Architecture of Fantasy: Utopian Building and Planning in Modern Times. New York: Praeger, 1962.

Bottom: Anton Glonner, plan for a Jesuit college and church, 1774. Published in Die christliche Kunst, Monatschrift für alle Gebiete der Christlichen Kunst XI:10 (1915). As it appears in Conrads, Ulrich and Hans G. Sperlich. The Architecture of Fantasy: Utopian Building and Planning in Modern Times. New York: Praeger, 1962.

Want to read more?

Conrads, Ulrich and Hans G. Sperlich. The Architecture of Fantasy: Utopian Building and Planning in Modern Times. New York: Praeger, 1962. TSA Library & HTML NA 8460 .C613

Decoding Plans I: Electrical Symbols

Pencil Points (January 1924) published its "Standard Symbols for Wiring Plans" that were recommended and adopted by the American Institute of Architects (A.I.A.), the Association of Electragists (A.E.I.), and the American Institute of Electrical Engineering (A.I.E.E.) Standards Committee on 6 March 1924. For those interested in decoding the symbology of early twentieth-century plans, this may help. As new units and circuitry developed throughout the late twenties and early thirties, professional architects recommended new symbols. These included designations for early HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) systems and radio aerial outlets. American Architect developed these tentative symbols as part of its Time-Saver Standards (December 1935).

At Large in the Archive

The architecture periodical Pencil Points (1920-1942) included in each issue a regular book review column titled "At Large in the Library." Reviews focused on everything from the mundane (standard plumbing fixtures, engineering terminology, use of gypsum) to the sublime (architectural utopianism) and were written by article contributors. Taking that as my model, from this point forward, I will periodically feature a recommended book, either one available in the TSA Library ("At Large in the Library") or in the Southeastern Architectural Archive ("At Large in the Archive").

A Story of Accomplishment 1866-1916. [New York: Sanborn Map Company, c. 1916].SEAA Reference G1204 .A4 S35

Sanborn fire insurance maps are of course a vital resource to anyone interested in the history of urban planning and architecture, for they indicate location and size of buildings, construction materials, fenestration, function and occupancy. This corporate history presents a history of fire insurance maps as a whole, tracing their origins to British tithe maps. It describes Sanborn's production model, from the surveying work, to the draughtsmanship, to the lithography, hand-coloring, mounting to canvas and binding. It further addresses the process of making revisions, and the tedious printing and adhering of correction "pasters." The book's anonymous author recounts the use of Sanborn Maps by insurance companies, municipalities, and utilities companies. Profusely illustrated with photogravures of company headquarters, printing plants, and employees.

[Pictured Above: Detail of Key of Signs Bound Maps, 1916. Illustration from A Story of Accomplishment 1866-1916, n.p. Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries].