Construction of Classical Design

Construction of Classical Design is a detailed historical analysis of the genesis of architectural drawing and design since the late Gothic period in Europe. In his exacting and irreverent style, Sérgio Ferro reveals how these tools were slowly separated from their origin – instruments in a material process – and turned into a formal language, legitimised through reference to antiquity and alien to the logic of construction and its workers. This transformation is shown to be part of the social, economic, political, and intellectual transition from the Middle Ages to the capitalist era. In tandem, Ferro deciphers the evolution of the professional and disciplinary field of architecture, with its struggles for recognition and its self-deceptions. Following Architecture from Below and Design and the Building Site, this third volume of Ferro’s writings presents some of his most recent research, offering a radical reinterpretation of the received history of European architecture, and with it architecture tout court. It offers a deeply material analysis of a subject often either bypassed or overindulged, proposing lucid explanations and inspiring new ways of working.