The Manhattan Transcripts

The Manhattan Transcripts differ from most architectural drawings insofar as they are neither real projects nor mere fantasies. They propose to transcribe an architectural interpretation of reality. To this aim, they use a particular structure indicated by photographs that either direct or "witness" events ( some would say "functions", others would call them "programs") At the same time, plans, sections, and diagrams outline spaces and indicate the movements of the different protagonists- those people intruding into the architectural 'stage set". The effect is not unlike an Eisenstein film script or some Moholy-Nagy stage directions. even if the Transcripts become a self-contained set of drawings, with its own internal coherence, they are first a device. their explicit purpose is to transcribe things normally removed from conventional architectural representation, namely the complex relationship between spaces and their use; between the set and the script; between 'type' and 'program'; between objects and events.