Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
sketch” ef ect familiar in architects' notebooks. h is is markedly in contrast with
the carefully “ruled” plans scribed on the Mesopotamian tablets.
Egyptian building drawings can be broadly classii ed into two groups of building
plans and architectural details. Both groups are similar in expression and there is
nothing like the full scale details of Greek practice.
h e spontaneity and variety of Egyptian building-drawings makes it dii cult to
be sure of the purpose of the drawings. Not only is it dii cult to distinguish what
are “project drawings” from those with another purpose (e.g. a record of existing
building) but the term “project drawing” may be in itself not dei nitive. Hitherto
it has been understood that a “project drawing” signii es one to guide the builder
in materialising the design of a projected building. However whereas numbers of
Egyptian drawings were certainly made within the margin of a building project,
it is not likely that all of these were intended as guides to construction. Rather it
is likely that some are sketches to help formulate the design of the building.
Draw-
ings &
models
3, 6?
Models
In a land where models were pervasive in a funerary context (e.g. to help eternalise
the good life), there is little evidence of their use in building construction. h e
one example commonly referred to in publication is a model of funerary cham-
bers and passages below a Middle Kingdom pyramid. h is was sculpted from a
block of limestone. It was found at the Valley Temple of Amenemhet III at his
Dashur pyramid complex (ca 1800 BC), which was not used for his burial since it
manifested structural failures during building. h is very explicit model does not
represent the analogous features at the Dashur Temple, but it has been stated that
what is represented are the features at Amenemhet's second pyramid at Hawara in
the Delta (Maquettes Architecturales, pp. 215-16). A model is in point here since
this complex of interconnected chambers at dif erent levels is dii cult to render
intelligible by drawings alone.
9
3.
Greek Building
(Heisel pp. 154-183)
Drawings
No scale plan has survived which can be considered a project drawing connected
with Greek building. However it is within the context of Greek building that
there emerges architectural detail of features in elevation scribed to full scale on
the standing masonry of the building concerned. h e commonsense explanation
for this state of af airs is that plan drawings to scale serving as project drawings
were made in fugitive materials (e.g. parchment). h e necessity of some graphical
record to control the setting out of e.g. the lines of the crepis of a temple and in
