The Construction of Architectural Knowledge

The construction of architectural knowledge is dependent on the visual material of architectural ideas. Photography became a medium in which architecture could be documented, made reproducible, and that translated architecture and its ideas into comprehensible knowledge. The photographs that produce architectural knowledge captures architecture that does not entirely reflect its built counterpart.

This paper summarizes the process used to create a cataloguing system for a digital photographic archive housed in the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto. The unique character of architectural photography and its use in a pedagogical setting are discussed and employed in the creation of this finding aid. Issues related to the importance of institutional archives are also explored.