John Robert Senseney

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Books

• Senseney, J. (2011). The art of building in the classical world: Vision, craftsmanship, and linear perspective in Greek and Roman architecture. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511976711
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  This book examines the application of drawing in the design process of classical architecture, exploring how the tools and techniques of drawing developed for architecture subsequently shaped theories of vision and representations of the universe in science and philosophy. Building on recent scholarship that examines and reconstructs the design process of classical architecture, John R. Senseney focuses on technical drawing in the building trade as a model for the expression of visual order, showing that the techniques of ancient Greek drawing actively determined concepts about the world. He argues that the uniquely Greek innovations of graphic construction determined principles that shaped the massing, special qualities and refinements of buildings and the manner in which order itself was envisioned.

Journals/Publications

• Senseney, J. (2007). Idea and visuality in Hellenistic architecture: A geometric analysis of temple a of the Asklepieion at Kos. Hesperia, 76(3). doi:10.2972/hesp.76.3.555
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  The author uses analytic geometry and AutoCAD software to analyze the plan of Temple A of the Asklepieion at Kos, revealing a circumscribed Pythagorean triangle as the basis for the plan's design.This methodology and its results counter earlier doubts about the application of geometry to Doric temple design and suggest the existence of an alternative to the grid-based approach characteristic of Hellenistic temples of the Ionic order. Appreciation of the geometric system underlying the plan of Temple A leads to a consideration of the role of visuality in Hellenistic architecture, characterized here as the manner in which abstract ideas shared by architects and scholars conditioned viewing and influenced the design process. © The American School of Classical Studies at Athens.