Lens on! Photography as a design tool in the invention of modern architecture
Final Report Abstract
Photographs design architecture: for example, when testing a view in a model, as elements in collages, as a recording medium in experiments or as collections of sources of inspiration. Photographs and the associated techniques and practices of their production and handling have a fundamental influence on architecture. The photographic gaze constructs our cities and thus also our lives. However, photography has never been examined in depth in its function as a design medium. This network attempted for the first time to outline a range of approaches to researching analog photography as a medium of design in architecture. Based on photographic strategies - from the beginning of avant-garde architectural movements in the 1910s to the emergence of digital imaging processes - the participants' contributions shed light on selected examples whose visual methods continue to have an impact today in ubiquitous digital image collections and databases. The anthology resulting from the network, "Der konstruierende Blick. Fotografisches Entwerfen in der Architektur" (The constructive gaze. Photographic Design in Architecture) brings together an introduction with approaches to an interdisciplinary definition of architectural design with analog photographs, as well as research contributions that illuminate selected aspects of designing with photographs based on previously unexamined archive finds. An artistic picture essay by Tobias Becker makes it possible to experience the material presence of the work in the archive and the material constitution of photographs as objects. Surprises in the course of the project concerned the role of collecting and collections on a content level.
Publications
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Der konstruierende Blick. Fotografisches Entwerfen in der Architektur, 128 Seiten, deutsch, ISBN: 978-3987619991, Schlaufen Verlag, Berlin, 2023
Teresa Fankhänel
