Vitruvian Hands: A Historical Perspective to the Relationship between Invention and Production

• In Event: No Paper, No Pencil, No Tape Measure: Situated Craft Practices, Computation, and Automation

Abstract

When Vitruvius wrote his treatise, De Architectura, he permanently changed the course of architecture. His revolutionary definition of architecture elevated its status from mere craftsmanship to an art born from fabrica (craft, manual production) and ratiocinatio (reasoning, reckoning). For Vitruvius, fabrica and ratiocinatio are inseparable, i.e., design and production are not consecutive processes but simultaneous ones. Manual production by hands working on material intertwines with the reckoning of form, material, and techniques. Dispositio (arrangement), one of the six principles of Vitruvius, implies that the simultaneous operation of both hand and mind in design brings forth invention in the arrangement of elements in a refined composition. Vitruvian hands are sympathetic to the material in which they work. They keep making and alternating the design until the materials take the final form.

This study questions the relationship between design and production methods from a historical perspective through Vitruvian theories. It studies the role of manual practice in the invention in design compared to automated production methods, such as CNC and Robotic arms. In contemporary design practice, automated production speeds up the production process and provide a perfect accuracy between design and the product. In doing so, automated production separates design and production processes. Therefore, it requires design to stop at the stage of computation and interrupts the invention in the production stage. This study states that despite the speed and accuracy of automated production, it results in a less fertile production process, which is close to interruptions from hand and mind, thus it is close to the invention.

Author

• Hayri Dortdivanlioglu, Georgia Institute of Technology