Critical Writing 1 Sherin Sunny Varikkatt

Embracing the Potential: Diagram as a Representational and

Generative Tool in Architecture
Introduction 
This essay reviews the history, evolution and the use of diagrams in architecture. It studies
how the diagram embodies in itself various sets (layers) of information which can be
interpreted differently. Diagram is an abstract visualisation of a thought process or an idea
represented in a drawing. It has evolved over the years. Over time, the diagram has
transformed from its once representational form, which was analytical, definitive and
concrete, to a generative and abstract form.
The essay shall also be a testing ground for the application of diagrams in order to understand
and read the Strahov Stadium site in Prague. It shall see how the illustrative mode of a
diagram can be transformed into a performative or generative mode.
Evolution of Diagram 
The word diagram formed by the Latin word diagramma in which, dia- means through and
gramma means text. The word diagram can be also referred to the word the Greek word
diagraphein, which means marked out by lines. Thus diagram by its meaning is a graphical
line drawing which could be read to interpret. Drawing has always been a representation of
something which draws the attention of the reader. According to Peter Eisenman, “The
diagram traces and writes, and can be traced and read in, architecture” (Diagram Diaries,
1999, p93).
Representational Diagrams
Historically, diagram has been a representational tool and it was rarely associated with a
constructive concept. A diagram was thus the direct impression, a drawing, of something real.
It was concrete and rigid and definitive. Diagram in its representational form constitutes
large amount of information of what it represents. It is often logical and rational.

 
Colin Rowe, Fred Koetter: Collage City (1978–)

According to Gestalt psychology, humans sees world in the form of patterns which are stable,
firm and coherent. Based on this a visual language was developed which was centered on
black and white diagram in Gestalt psychology. This diagram was illustrative by means of
lines, planes and contours which instantly got influential in architecture. Colin Rowe and
Kevin Lynch were among those who made use of this visual concepts. In Collage City, one of
Rowe’s texts, in “The Crisis of the Object” using a figure ground map on Gestalt terms he
argues that the modern city has failed. Similarly, Kevin Lynch in his book Image of the City,
diagrams were used to establish how cities are perceived and how the elements and dynamics
of cities are converted into symbolic geometrical forms which are representational.
Representational diagrams can be classified into two; illustrative and analytical. An example
of the former is shown in the diagram by Kazuyo Sejima’s work where the diagram is a
representation of a physical object or form. Architect’s often use the diagram for analytical
purposes such organising architectural program, studying spatial patterns, relationship of the
functions with the form of the building. Peter Eisenman says, “In an analytical role, the
diagram represents in a different way from a sketch or a plan of a building…. Attempts to
uncover latent structures of organisation…..even though it is not conventional structure
itself” (Diagram Diaries, 1999, p94). This is evident in his diagram of transformation of
House IV, in which architecture takes an intellectual role wherein the elements are separated
from aesthetic and functional context and are used for establishing various spatial
configurations.
   

 a.  b.    

 
a)Rudolph Witttkower, Palladian Villa Types, in Architectural Principles in the Age of
Humanism(1952) b)Kazuyo Sejima, Project for Middle Rise Housing Prototypes,1995,Plans.
Assemblage 30(1996)
  
Peter Eisenman, Diagrams of transformation of House IV, 1971

On the other hand, Peter Eisenman in his book Diagram Diaries (1999) says “diagram is a
graphic shorthand. Though it is an ideogram, it is not necessarily an abstraction. It is
representation of something in that is not the thing itself…… It can never be free of
value……diagram is neither a structure nor an abstraction of structure. While it explains
relationships in an architectural object, it is not isomorphic with it.” He conceives that
diagram in architecture as representational with potential of infinite possibilities to write and
rewrite.  
Eisenman also says diagrams are not just representational but also generative. “The diagram
acts as an agency which focuses the relationship between an authorial subject, an
architectural object and a receiving subject; it is the strata that exist between them…..
diagrams do not generate in and of itself” (Diagram Diaries, 1999, p103). It needs a testing
ground, an external force which can inject multiple series of information to push it into a
generative mode, as envisaged by the authorial subject.

Peter Eisenman, Frankfurt Biocentrum,1987, Diagram of Superpositions and Rotations, in Diagram

Diaries(1999)
Generative Diagrams
Relatively recently in the history of architecture, the diagram gets developed in architecture
progressively as a tool of generation and operation. When an illustrative diagram form is
injected with complex variable information, it becomes abstract and generative. It loses its
function of representing and it becomes that of suggesting. “Diagram as a generator is a
mediation between a palpable object, a real building, and what can be called architecture’s
interiority” (Diagram Diaries, 1999, p94). 
According to Somol, noted by Eisenman in Diagram Diaries (1999), diagram is an implement
of an architectural production and discourse generation which operates between form and
words, space and language. This diagram is performative, it operates as tool to represent
form, space and function. Bjarke Ingels uses diagram as a generative as well as analytical tool
in his project Mountain dwelling to establish the form using several influencing factors. It is
an articulation of information of a process, architectural creation. Thus diagrams has left its
normal mode of being just representational of the real world to a virtual world.

Bjarke Ingels, Mountain Dwellings / PLOT = BIG + JDS, 2008

CHORA sees cities as dense and proliferating places, so any activity requires abstraction of conditions
of change until these conditions can be manipulated, altered (Bunschoten, 1998)
This is expanded by Deleuze in his essay on diagrams where he sees the diagram as an
abstract machine which functions not only to represent, but to construct the reality of the
future. Deleuze says “Diagram is a supple set of relationships between forces” (Diagram
Diaries, 1999, p96). It has machinic characteristics, assembling various forces to generate
new creations in architecture. These forces which related to various systems which becomes
the organisational principle that forms a structure. In the book on Francis Bacon; The Logic
of Sensation, Deleuze describes diagrams as an operative set of asignifying and non-
representative lines and zones, line-strokes and colour patches. “They marks out the
possibilities of facts but do not constitute a fact….in order to be converted into a fact, in order
to evolve into a Figure, they must be re-injected into the visual whole” (Francis Bacon: The
Logic of Sensation, 2003, p83). He also says diagram is a chaos but is a germ of order or
rhythm.
When the diagram becomes the organisational principle of an assemblage, a structure, it is
not the structure itself but the underlying principle similar to what Eisenman had pointed out.
“It represents multiple actions and functions, forces and layers, and thus is informative of
potential relationships” (Olivera Dulic, Viktorija Aladzic, Places and Technologies, 2016,
p86) between the spatial elements which each function or actions are assigned with. OMA’s
verbal diagram of Yokohoma master plan in 1991 is an example of how a round the clock
fluctuation of active usage of spaces and program in depicted in a diagram. Thus diagram is
also a drawing or a map or trace of possibilities of a creation that is yet to come. It is
important to emphasize that….these ‘open’…. diagrams do not map or represent existing
objects or systems, but assume new organizations and indicate yet to be realized
relationships. They are simplified and highly graphic, and support multiple interpretations.
“Diagrams are not schemas, types or formal paradigms; they are contingent descriptions of
possible formal configurations, and do not resemble what they produce” (Allen 1988, quoted
by Olivera Dulic, Viktorija Aladzic, Places and Technologies, 2016, p87).  
 

OMA’s Verbal diagram of Yokohoma master plan 

Architecture as a field uses both the representational (illustrative and analytical) character of
the diagram as well as its performative character. It could be stated that diagram as
representation of something that is not the thing itself is an abstraction, and it can represent
multiple forces, functions and characteristics of something that is not yet real. The lack of
reality in it adds the value of abstraction, the value of flexibility and the possibility of
becoming generative. The diagrams could be read and interpreted differently by different
readers which makes it indeterminate. As Douglas Graf puts it, “An architectural object may
be seen as an array of abstractions, reductions, as a series of segments and boundaries which
are manifested simultaneously and which are prone to expansion and contraction, never
letting the eye settle on what it sees and constantly eliciting revisions” (Diagrams, Perspecta
22, 1986). When a neutral diagram, which is representational, is added with abstract
information it leaves its determinate form to an indeterminate form and thus becomes
performative and generative and enigmatic.
Diagrams of Strahov Stadium
Diagrams of the Strahov stadium would be representative of its history (of the structure itself
and the void before the structure, i.e. the quarry), the field and the mass (the solid and void),
rhythm (of structural columns and flag masts), the interaction of the edges and elements. The
idea is to generate something which is closed and empty by introducing forces from history
and present, which would allow new reading to emerge. Diagrams of Mass and void, frame
and field, figure ground and axes are representative of the existing scenarios at the site. These
diagrams are further injected with forces such as infill grids and axial divergence to produce
possible layouts and circulation patterns. 
Representational diagrams of Strahov Stadium 
 

a. Mass and void: Represents the mass of

the stands and the unbuilt ground inside

b. Frame and field: Represents the stands

as a frame which bounds the playfield
 c. Figure ground: represents the built mass in
the Strahov area

d. The Central Axes

e. The Axes of access points

 

Generative diagrams of Strahov Stadium

a. The Generated axis of divergence formed

from representational axes diagram
 b. The Convergence of the axes forms a
possibility emergence of figure within a figure, a possibility of architecture with in
architecture or a city with in a city.

Diagrams of Infill

a. b. c.
a. Maximum fill. b&c. Possibility of Grids; The grids could be generated from the
rhythm and the order of the structure itself.

d. Infill- Possibility of depth; it could be referred to the historic marlstone quarries in

the area. The possible infill could trace back the depth of the quarries.
 

Conclusion
Diagrams are visualisations of creative thinking which can provide numerous possibilities
and combinations as evident in the diagrams developed for the Strahov Stadium. These
diagrams are ‘open’ to further injection of forces which could be juxtaposed to obtain desired
outcomes. Thus they become a part of the design process itself. The diagram enables the
architect or designer in critically and visually analysing the problem, the object, and the
concept of the project. The emergence of computer aid diagramming has revolutionised the
generative and performative modes of diagram. Architects and designers are able inject
information at various levels and layers at will to test various possibilities both in research
and praxis. Wide range of possibilities encapsulated in the diagrams allows architects to find
a balance in creative thinking and rationalisation. Thus diagram maintains the dichotomous
character of being both rational and abstract. Architecture always take advantage of this dual
paradigms diagram embodies, that of being rationale to expedite the unrealised and of being
radical to explore the unfound realms.  

References
Eisenman, Peter. Diagram: An Original Scene of Writing. Diagram Diaries, Thames & H,
1999, 93-103
Deleuze, Gilles. Francis Bacon-The Logic of Sensation. Continuum (in English), 2003, 81-98
Vidler, Anthony. Diagrams of Diagrams: Architectural Abstraction and Modern
Representation. Representations, No. 72. (Autumn, 2000), 1-20.
Dulic, Olivera. Aladzic, Viktorija. Places and Technologies 2016, Architectural Diagram of a
City. University of Belgrade – Faculty of Architecture, 2016, 85-99
Dortdivanlioglu, Hayri .The Diagram in Continuum: from inscription to generation of form in
architecture. Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, 2018, 2-9

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