Things that move

Architects are often judged through judgements of their built work, its originality and functionality. To be defined as a built work implies a degree of permanence in the thing judged. So one can say that one characteristic about judgements about architects is that they are are made finally about things that dont move. Although subject to periodic challenge, this permanent work-author connection (applied to the way building production intersects the activities of architects) continues fundamentally to effect how architects think about themselves, how others see them, the way in which architects approach tasks and the roles they claim within project processes. This project returns to the roots of modern architectural theory both to explore how this came to be the case, and to challenge that model of architectural ?work.? The project will review four canonical architectural treatises written in Italy between the two end dates of 1450 and 1590 in order to pose the following questions: what conditions during the 16th century and made conventional the view that an architects work could be described by representing permanent buildings? by what representational means was this view developed, cemented and guaranteed in contemporary texts? and particularly, what other histories, possibilities and interpretations lie within the material that we today regard as canonical in establishing this conventional model?