Designing architecture in the Sixteenth-Century Low Countries. Architectural drawing as motor and medium for a new designing practice.

The subject is the design and design process of architecture in the Low Countries during the long sixteenth century (1480-1630), with the architectural drawing and print as its main focus. The objective is gaining insight into the design of architecture while keeping in mind that in the Renaissance architecture is newly defined as an intellectual activity, and that the architectural drawing constitutes one of the mechanisms of interchange with the fine arts. Symptom of a new practice but also motive force of its development, the architectural drawing will be studied as means of communication and as design tool, on and off the construction site. Three turning points will be analyzed in depth by promoters De Jonge, Kavaler, Fuhring, Ottenheym and Nubetabaum: 1. the impact of the first graphical research on the column orders 1520-1540; 2. the development of a common visual architectural culture on the eve of the Revolt 1550-1580; 3. the genesis of an increasingly mathematical architectural practice 1590-1630, in a comparative European perspective with special attention for the German Empire. The PhD researcher focuses on the building site and examines the evolving role of architectural drawing in Netherlandish building practice during the sixteenth century.

Keywords:Sixteenth-century, Low countries, Architecture, architectural drawings

Disciplines:Architectural engineering, Architecture, Interior architecture, Architectural design, Art studies and sciences, Visual arts