Rendering as Critical Reflection: On the visual production of architecture in China and the West

Abstract

This thesis reflects on our thoughts and actions towards the proliferation and use of photorealistic rendering by the architectural profession in China and the West, both of which actively engage in this form of image making to various degrees with both positive and negative reception. As architects do not have the privilege of working directly on the subject of their work, drawings as mediators become critical to the intellectual identity of the profession as a whole but the way we speak of images themselves do not reflect this level of importance. If the standardization of parallel line projection could be understood as symbolic of the architectural values of building, distinguishing architecture from all other visual professions, then what architectural values does the standardization of photorealism speak to?