Visual perception and the body in motion: notations for the analysis and design of architecture

Abstract

In the last few decades, the diagram has emerged as one of the main themes in the architectural debate, becoming a malleable term which has adopted a myriad of meanings and promoted new ways of designing architecture. This article aims to highlight one of these diagrammatic instruments, namely, notations for the analysis and design of architecture, due to its ability to work with the temporal dimension. It will analyze the notational systems elaborated by Philip Thiel in the mid-1950s and Bernard Tschumi in the late 1970s. These two different proposals for architectural notation, the first one focused on phenomenological questions and the second one on programmatic themes, sought to improve the traditional mechanisms for architectural representation. When introducing the variables of time and experience in the processes of analysis and design of architecture, the notations focus their attention on the dialogue that is established between the act of looking and the physical experience of the user in motion with the architectural space, while leaving out more formal issues.

Keywords: diagram, notation, architectural experience, Philip Thiel, Bernard Tschumi.