Geometry and design artworks recostruction: new methods or new tools

Descriptive Geometry is the science that Gaspard Monge systematized in 1794 and that was widely developed in Europe, up until the first decades of the twentieth century. The main purpose of this science is the certain and accurate representation of three-dimensional shapes on two-dimensional support of the drawing, using successive auxiliary views. This method uses quantitative measures of length, angles, shapes and other geometric information. The technology required a systematic approach to problem solving with accuracy in projections and transfer of distances from previous views. The layout and position of the successive auxiliary views were essential in the solution of the problem. Descriptive Geometry has been the object of theoretical studies and is an essential tool for designers, engineers and architects. Nevertheless, at the end of the last century, the availability of electronic machines capable of representing three-dimensional shapes has produced an epochal change, because designers have adopted the new digital techniques almost exclusively. Apparently, in architectural practices, CAD (Computer Aided Design) has replaced descriptive geometry as a tool for the representation and in Universities, the teaching of Descriptive Geometry is disappearing. Today, the users of computer graphics do few or none relation between the CAD’s tools and descriptive geometry. The purpose of this paper is to show by examples that the concepts of descriptive geometry have not changed, only the process through which we obtain the results has changed. On this purpose, we study the design of the armchair prototype designed by Augusto Magnaghi-Delfino in 50’s.