Geometry and Graphics in Spatial Invention: among Mind, Hand, and Digital Means

(Incipit) Aiming to discuss the spatial invention in Architecture, Environment and Design, we have to consider the related domains of Art, Science and Techique, and we have to accept the risk of slipping in a way apparently not strictly connected with mathematics. As an architect, in fact, I’m firmly persuaded of the old concept regarding the complexity of space. That is, as Christian Norberg-Schulz said, an “existential” space for the human beings [15]. The first question: how to fix, on a physical or on a digital support, the image of a not yet existing space? As a scientific discipline, in fact, Geometry is generally used as a deductive tool, and consequently, it shouldn’t seem to be really useful to well support us at the begining of a project work, that is to say, when we have not yet a pre-existing idea of a given spatial shape. The second one: may the new digital means to kill the so called creativity? As a technological tool, in fact, digital Graphics could induce the architect to jump across the first steps of the work, compelling him to quickly define the shape, and so disrupting the continuity of the project process. About the first interrogative, we can refer to the sketch -handly or digital-, as a kind of visual embryonic expression that contains several an several implicit information, liable to be developed. As a sort of intermediate synthesis between iconic and non-iconic representations, it seems really able to condense the spatial intuition, when we begin to define the ‘genetical code’ of a certain spatial configuration. May be, becouse of this fact, the sketch was, and it is still, one of the most important and used working tools, both by scientists and artists. (...).