Grammar : Syntax

[Re]Visions: For proper design, revision and vision are necessities. Designers need inspiration to design and then take that inspiration and modify it to work better in the space or environment. Revisions are also made to existing architecture. Renaissance architects of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries endeavored to create new rational, mathematically describable forms based on what they understood of the Classical architecture of ancient Rome (Roth 397). They even invented a term to describe their decisive break with the Gothic past, saying their work marked a renaissance, or rebirth (Roth 397).
Audience: Architecture and design are meant to be enjoyed by all viewers. Buildings and cathedrals used to be built for enjoyment by using large scale that allows for the viewer to be transformed into a different atmosphere and puts the viewer at awe of the space. “Illusionisic architectural painting was aimed at extending real architecture into an imaginary space” (Blakemore 159).
Character: Character is what sets a piece of architecture from another. It is the identity of a piece of architecture that gives it personality. Renaissance architects and designers looked to make their designs different and monumental from all other designs. Annibale’s representations were vital, animated, dramatic, and monumental (Blakemore 158). Every designer desires to put character in their designs and to be able to call them their own or make them stand out from the rest.

Transition: Flowing and moving through time and space is transition. Change in styles or attitudes from one to the other or back again makes up transition. To eighteenth century French critics, the curving, heavily embellished architecture of the seventeenth century Rome, with its corkscrew columns and bent entablatures, was as much a deviation from the paper architectural norms as a twisted pear that deviated from the spherical norm, and they applied to that architecture the derogatory Portuguese term used for misshapen pearls: barocco, “baroque” (Roth 398). The transition of names and titles of the time periods marked those times for future reference. Gradually, however, the term baroque came to be used by late-nineteenth-century art historians such as Heinrich Wolfflin in a more positive, descriptive sense, to describe any art that was elaborated, embellished, and complex, compared to preceding simpler forms (Roth 398). But also, these time periods became known by their change in architectural styles.

Datum: A datum line is a point of reference. For architecture, the datum line keeps everything straight and accurate. Drawings and design are kept precise by including a datum line.

Summary: Architects and designers think of the audience and the vision they are trying to capture when designing, then they revise the idea, add in the character and transitions from one space to another. They also use datum lines to distinguish the symmetry and balance in the design.