Detailing Worlds: A History of Architectural Particulars, 1755-1899

DISSERTATION

Detailing Worlds gives an account of the history of “detail” as a disciplinary concept, as a word and idea with meanings specific to practices of building. It locates the term’s origins in 18^th century France and traces the evolution of the concept’s varied meanings within different disciplinary cultures—of academics, technicians, students, engineers, and architects—through the end of the 19^th century. Through this story, it also explores the ways disciplinary knowledge and the concepts on which it is based evolve and change over time, slowly but constantly reconceived, redefined, and transformed in the minds and words of individual actors through their work and exchanges with peers, and how this process is shaped by the ever-changing socio-cultural and technological dimensions of the world around us.

Eric Bellin