What this is
Archsynopsis is an open visual archive of architectural precedents. Each entry reduces a building to a single square black-and-white drawing, in which plan, section, structure and social setting are condensed into one readable image.
The archive is deliberately non-hierarchical and non-chronological. There is no ranking, no canon, no timeline. Buildings are placed side by side so that resemblances can surface across periods, geographies and programmes — resemblances that a chronological history would keep apart.
Why
Architects think through precedents, but precedents usually reach us as photographs: seductive, partial, and silent about how a building actually works. A diagram asks a different question. It forces a decision about what matters in a building and what can be left out and that decision is already an interpretation.
Archsynopsis treats drawing as a method of analysis rather than a method of presentation. Each synopsis is an argument about a building, made in the only language architecture fully shares.
How to use it
Entries can be filtered by several themes at once. The useful connections are rarely the obvious ones: compare a housing block with a museum, a pavilion with an infrastructure. The archive is built to reward lateral reading.
The drawings are free to consult and to use in teaching, with attribution.
Method and tools
Hand-drawn on iPad in Procreate, Morpholio Trace and Concepts, working over redrawn plans and sections. Square format, black and white, no rendering. The constraint is the method.
How to cite
Nica, Răzvan Mircea. Archsynopsis: A Visual Archive of Architectural Precedents, 2023 – 2026. https://archsynopsis.com
For an individual entry, add the building name and the date you consulted it.