 Subject/Built
Work Identification
Related
People/Corporate Bodies
Subject/Built
Work Characteristics
Subject/Built
Work Bibliographic References
By definition, architectural documents concern some aspect either
of a design or of the built environment. Every such document, whether
it is primarily visual (e.g., a drawing) or textual (e.g., an
architectural program), has at least one subject. A subject is
that which is depicted, whether it represents all or part of an
unbuilt design or built work. In current parlance, the term
architectural work is sometimes used for this
concept.[1] Subjects may be the result
of a problem-solving or theoretical exercise, a competition, the
surveying or recording of structures, or fulfillment of an academic
requirement.
Subjects can be recorded through proper names and/or generic
characteristics. Proper names (of the subject and its geographic
location) serve to identify what is represented; these categories
are listed under Subject/Built Work Identification. Subject/Built
Work Characteristics include generic information: form, style,
function, materials, method of construction, dates, etc. This
section also includes categories for Related People/Corporate
Bodies, such as architects, clients, and inhabitants, and
for Bibliographic References.
A subject may represent any built structure, whether or not the
structure still exists or has been renovated, changed, incorporated
into another structure, or copied elsewhere. Equally, a subject may
represent a design—or a series of designs—never actually
built, or built much later. An example of such complexity is a set of
competition drawings submitted in 1901, by Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
Entitled Haus Eines Kunst-freundes, the project did not result
in a realized building at the time. However, 88 years later, in 1989,
the drawings were used to build House for an Art Lover in
Bellahouston Park, Glasgow, Scotland. A subject may not have anything
to do with the design process, but can be topographical, or a
retrospective record of some aspect of the built environment at some
point in time. Finally, a subject can range from an entire geographic
place, such as a city, to a small part of a structure, such as a
light fixture.
In cataloguing architectural documents, it is critical to
establish a consistent framework for distinctions within this wide
range. Above all, it is necessary to be explicit about whether an
entry describes the subject as it is depicted or whether it describes
a built work. At first glance, it may seem that a drawing's subject
has many of the same attributes as a built work. But because a
drawing is not the same thing as a building, it is also possible that
they may differ in any or all of their attributes. For instance, the
name of the subject in the inscribed title may not be the name of the
built work, as in the following example of a subject and built work
in London, England:
INSCRIBED TITLE
[naming the subject]:
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1 house Chelsea Embankment (Tite St) for
Whistler
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SUBJECT/BUILT WORK NAME:
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The White House
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The following is an excerpt from a subject/built work authority
record:
In repositories with collections of architectural
documents (as opposed to institutions responsible for recording the
built environment), the focus of cataloguing is usually documents, not
built works. One of the primary reasons to catalogue such documents is
that they are a source of information about designs of all sorts,
whether built or not. Often, architectural documents are the only
source of information about unrealized proposals and concepts. Keeping
this need in mind will help maintain the distinction between subjects
and built works.
Numerous items may depict the same subject—in fact, some subjects
have been represented in thousands of documents. Certain subject
categories (such as Subject Name and Subject
Location) are often identical among all entries, which argues for
maintaining an authority file for subjects. The following guidelines
assume the use of such a file. Some institutions may also wish to
record information on built works in a separate authority file.
Ideally, what is required is a data structure that allows for the
linking of subjects to built works. However, these guidelines do not
attempt to solve the problem of data structure for the two separate but
parallel types of information. Unless otherwise noted under
Implementation, the categories that follow are applicable to both.
Repositories will need to consider their focus and resources when
implementing a data structure that includes these
categories.
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