Descriptive Geometry: A Question of ‘Form’

Abstract

What future for Descriptive Geometry? This question is the starting point for a reflection on the role of this discipline in contemporary research and education, focusing on one of its founding objectives: the study of the geometric properties of figures and their implications in the genesis of designed form. Starting from its mongian origins, the discipline is reinterpreted not as a science of representation, but as a science of form, in which the speculative dimension and design application are interwoven through the heuristic value of drawing.
The analysis is grounded in several invariants - the centrality of form, the relationship between geometry and construction, and the cognitive role of representation - which run through the discipline’s historical transformations while preserving its relevance. The main recent transformations that have redefined tools and fields of operation are then examined, ranging from the constructive-topological revolution of the twentieth century to the digital turn, up to the current opening towards artificial intelligence.
These transformations have led to a progressive fragmentation of knowledge, outlining a “grey zone” in which Descriptive Geometry appears to be losing its role, becoming articulated into autonomous disciplinary fields. In this context, the need emerges to recompose these competences within a shared theoretical framework that recognises research on form - and its pedagogical implications - as its privileged field of inquiry, recovering the historical roots of the discipline and reaffirming its role in relation to generative design processes.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.20365/disegnarecon.36.2026.12