Haecceity, Drawing and Mapping

Abstract

Haecceity or ‘thisness’ is a philosophical concept that relates to architectural drawing in the sense that a haecceity is something that becomes individual from having been undifferentiated. Haecceities lie at the heart of many interlinking, dynamic processes of ethics, art, instinct, intelligence and life. Haecceities open up for an understanding of architectural drawing distinct from ‘merely’ representing built or buildable architectural space, being rather a method of both acting and thinking. That the architectural drawing represents building and space is inherent, but, for the same reason, the architectural drawing’s power to produce space and buildings is sometimes diminished. This capacity of drawing, along with analogue and digital drawing tools and analogue and digital notational systems, is discussed in the paper, aiming to break down the usual ideas of architectural drawing, the digital and the analogue, and to build up a research method to create thoughts and worlds.