Visionary Architecture - Early Designers and Artists

Early Designers and Artists

During the Renaissance period, the differing representations of buildings evolved and grew rapidly through the introduction of perspective. The discovery of this visualization tool, allowed for experimentation with imaginary architectural scenes, and while many architects wrote greatly on the subject, others articulated their concepts and ideas through drawings.

During the sixteenth century, a Dutch painter and architect, Jan Vredeman de Vries, produced numerous engravings, which portrayed new forms of architectural representation. His works were of pure fantasy and imagination, but were also regarded as avant-garde messages in the depiction of architectural space.

Giovanni Battista Piranesi was considered one of the greatest printmakers of the eighteenth century. He is notably one of the greatest printmakers of his time, where it is through this medium in which he demonstrated his mastering of etchings of imagined spaces. It was suggested that the drawn spaces would lose their magic and meaning if they were to be physically built in real life, as they would lose their unique forms of detail and intricacy, which is only achieved through drawings. The particular series of etchings ‘Prisons (Carceri d'invenzione) or 'Imaginary Prisons,’ depict his famous fictitious and atmospheric etchings of Rome’s ancient remains, and his dreams of antiquity that often surpassed reality.

Etienne-Louis Boulle’s Monument to Newton is considered to be more perfect due to its capability in successfully defying any attempt to physically use it, being the most magnificent unusable space images, a dome with its literal-minded fulfilment underfoot, in a second answering dome.

The young motion picture industry also created an impact within the architectural scene, represented through the films ‘Metropolis’ and ‘Just Imagine.’ This differing form of media allowed for the elaborate and imaginative architectural sets depicting futuristic scenes to be observed. Through this, other significant artists and architects such as Hugh Feriss were influenced.