The Code in the Project Drawing of Civil Engineers in the XIX Century
Authors: Фабио  , Fabio Fabbrini Mikelandzhelo 
Published: May 2015

Drawing is a manifestation of symbolic activity of

man, that is, its ability to represent things by means of signs which

constitute the substitutes of those things. For its nature, it’s intended

to convey meanings among individuals who recognize it, it

is therefore a means of communication. In this context, the project

drawing has a place which is a means of communication by which

information is transmitted through the reduction of the concept in

concrete and legible signs.

These signs semantically allow the reading and the perception

of the orderly content that constitutes the signifier; such signs

represent the elementary cell of the graph as binary action among

two abstract classes of concepts: the meaning and the signifier. The

first one (the meaning) is the mental image that is produced it,

depends on the experience and is induced by the second (the signifier)

which is the physical vehicle, concretely materialized with an

ИСТОРИЯ НАУКИ И ТЕХНИКИ. БИОГРАФИИ

In the past, the representation of design profited from

some symbol-forms such «architectural orders» or building

types, which were common and certain patterns, but

with the changes of the nineteenth century, it has been

assuming ever greater autonomy and symbolic-expressive

capacities.

The representation, endowed with a very articulated

syntax, results fit to rather reproduce complex representations,

such as the graphs of assemblage of metallic works

or preparation for theirs single components, but also the

diagrams for the temporal planning of the operations of

yard. In the interpretation of the drawing, therefore,

interesting to define the relationship between the content

of the information and the characteristics of the communication

medium.

The versatile design allows you to articulate it in multiple

uses, each expressed with a specific pattern; in the

nineteenth century has gone by defining the division of

the models into three classes, for the purposes of representation,

which has largely remained unchanged up to

us: the iconic models that communicate the concept

trying to maintain the qualitative and quantitative aspects,

the logic models that reproduce the phenomenon through

the use of symbols and relations between them and the

verbal patterns that represent the phenomenon by describing

lexical character and properties. The latter have a

dual nature, of instructions or information. Information

go to complete the information of the representation with

denominations, attributions of materials, dimensions,

explanation of the characteristics of the surfaces of the

conservation status. Instructions, serve to explain the

context in which you put the subject of the representation

with formal definitions and descriptions. It is easy to

imagine that the oral model doesn´t exhaust him in a

simple terminological description, but consists mainly of

numerical specifications to a graphic support which they

refer. In the drawing of project it doesn’t use a single

model, but it is assisted to their mutual integration, with

the prominence of one in comparison to the others according

to the object represented of the period and of the

professional sector which refers.

In the given plans it’s evident the heterogeneity of the

employed style; the different kind of the object does not

affect the model: the bulkhead of a rail yard has markimage.

The system of signs can be organized in a code when it

allows the recipient an unambiguous interpretation of the written

message. It becomes, therefore, necessary to determine the encoding

used in the act of writing the graphics, in order to ensure an

exact decoding, avoiding any possible ambiguity in the subsequent

phase of reading.