STOÀ is an Italian architecture magazine that comes from the academic world for to explore and reflect on methods and processes of didactics in the architectural field. The magazine stands as a space to investigate the roots and cultural horizons of contemporary educational projects and as a tool to explore possible limits and criticalities. Among its pages it examines the theories, techniques and practices involved in the teaching process of architecture. STOÀ focuses on architectural design, its teaching, its methods and its objectives, gathering some of the most relevant experiences that combine academic research and educational practices.
ISSUE 3 - IL RENDERING
The second issue of STOÀ is dedicated to rendering.
Rendering: in computer graphics, the conversion by means of special software of the profile of a two-dimensional image into an image with a realistic and perceivable three-dimensional aspect, thanks to the accurate calculation of the perspective and the addition of colors, lights and shadows.
An examination of the effects of the use of renderings in the didactic and pedagogical fields for the architectural project has not been systematically conducted, since the temporal distance - from when they have become everyday work elements - is, perhaps, excessively narrow. Although the critical scope of the use of this tool has not yet been metabolized, the construction of images using digital graphics has been too quickly relegated (certainly in the European educational culture) among the causes of a certain degeneration of know-how (therefore of knowing design) architecture. The essays collected in this issue of Stoà Journal outline - through a targeted survey of teaching practices and pedagogical experiences in progress - a spectrum of potential and criticality of this tool, giving the opportunity to reflect on some issues of which the renderings can be significant.