Draw In Order to See
is the first book to survey the history of architectural design using
the latest research in neuroscience and embodied cognition.


At
present, among the dozens of books on architectural drawing, design
theory, methodologies, model making, CAAD, and planning, there is no
book that specifically looks at the history of representation as a
reflection of cognitive habits among individuals and groups of
architects. As a historian and a practicing architect, Mark Hewitt has a
unique point of view, that has enabled him to study the design
practices of many architects during various eras, beginning in the
Renaissance and stretching into the late 20th century. His earlier
published books have touched on subjects related to design practice, as
many have dealt with the lives of architects and designers. In addition,
he has written dozens of biographies of architects, published essays on
architectural representation, and wrote a master's thesis on visual
perception and architecture. Hewitt has dedicated more than 30 years to
writing about the process of conception (or visualisation) of buildings
in the brain. Researchers on that subject now consistently cite one of
his earliest studies on drawings and modes of conception.


This
book pursues that line of inquiry with the new discoveries about visual
perception, cognition and embodiment that have revolutionised brain
science. Hewitt believes that looking historically at how architects
have designed, a brain-based practice developed during and after the
Renaissance, once drawings became sophisticated enough to provide
feedback for perception and memory in the cortex. His contention is that
disegno, as invented in Italy during the time of Leonardo and
Michelangelo, initiated that system, and that it was translated into a
curriculum during the rise of Beaux Arts institutions prior to the
1920s, after which the Bauhaus system replaced it completely with what
we have today.