Abstract

Pablo Picasso’s first act of collage-making in May of 1912, in its conceptual, material, and technical originality, has profoundly influenced numerous artists and architects throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. Collage inherently emphasizes process over product, offering the potential for a multiplicity of readings while re-conceptualizing three-dimensional space. This ambiguity creates opportunities for multivalence in the architectural design process and the resultant work of architecture, responding to the richness and complexities extant in sites and cities. Collage can be considered in the following ways in its relevance to the field of architecture: collage as autonomous work of art, collage as analytical and/or design tool, and architecture as collage. The richness and potentiality of collage as a tool for analysis and design lies in the diversity of media and techniques. This paper will address the efficacy of collage as a representational medium integrated into the design process in the work of Le Corbusier and Eduardo Chillida, whose work proves a lineage of the Cubist conception of space through the translation from collage to built form. Considering collage as an instrument for analysis and design, drawing on decades of relevance in art and architecture, offers a diverse set of material, technical, and conceptual precedent for designers.