Throughout history, civilizations live through irreversible inflection points that impact their fortune.  July 16, 1769 marks such a point in the history of San Diego. Two weeks after arriving in San Diego, the Spanish Franciscan Father Junipero Serra raises the Christian cross on a hill overlooking the San Diego River delta (now Mission Valley). This architectural act, symbolically broke ground on the construction of the ‘Mission San Diego de Alcala’.

Two weeks later (Aug. 15), a band of Kumeyaay ambush the nascent Spanish outpost, killing one.

The raising of walls represents a basic function of all civilizations, architecture – even unrefined and primitive, signals commitment to a specific time, space, and scale. The Kumeyaay likely did not have a word for architecture, however, they understood what walls represented and responded reflexively with a symmetrical act of warfare.

At the time, neither the Kumeyaay nor the Spanish would have known this, yet they were participating in a broad natural cycle present since the dawn of civilization. Even after 1769, the Spanish and Kumeyaay continued to display acts of architecture and warfare, one following the other almost as a form of principle.

It’s no large leap to suggest that civilizations leave records of their legacy in their architecture and warfare. The Roman image of water as a medium for architecture, is evident by the still standing aqueducts and public baths. In contrast, the American image of water as a medium for warfare, is present in the fleet of supercarriers and submarines with nearly unrestricted access to the planets oceans.    

Civilizations are thus continuously producing new forms of architecture and warfare, one initiating the other and at times one transforming into the other.

In San Diego, the Spanish Mission was initiated as architecture yet transformed into an ambush on the nascent Kumeyaay civilization, killing one.

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usage A wireframe viewport reveals all edges to an object. The viewport renders a floor plan of defensive architectural strategies.

Introduction

Viewport writes about architecture & warfare as they construct and destruct civilization. These subjects are analyzed along three domains: time, space, and scale. The combination of subject and domain is written using three formats: wireframe, shaded, and rendered. This matrix of subject, domain, and format, creates the fertile ground to update our viewport of civilization, architecture, and warfare.

Civilization, Architecture, and Warfare

Civilization, architecture, and warfare have seldom been studied under a common umbrella. The study of civilization is routinely atomized by the social sciences, excluding new models, found in cross-disciplinary study. In turn, architecture is often studied in a vacuum of self-referencing precedents, ignoring the broader attitude shifts of civilization, influencing architecture. Similarly, warfare is typically studied independent of architecture, overlooking how this relationship shapes the nature of civilization.

Time, Space, and Scale

The domain agnostic metrics of time, space, and scale create the scaffolding to interweave the subjects listed above. Time arranges the stories of civilization, architecture, and warfare along a single reference dimension. Space locates the vastness of each subject along 3-dimensions. Lastly, scale contrasts each subject against itself and one another. Thus, each metric acts as a device to examine and analyze the subjects.     

Wireframe, Shaded, and Rendered

Writing a contemporary survey of such storied subjects as described above, requires updated mediums, this is where the wireframe, shaded, and rendered formats are introduced. To observe something in wireframe is to see it stripped of its verbs, adjectives, and pronouns. The shaded format increases fidelity by introducing adjectives and nouns. Finally, a rendered format presents in full color; dates, names, the specifics of an object and subject.                      

Conclusion

Viewport booleans literary and pictorial mediums to render a portrait of civilization, its construction and destruction, its architecture and warfare.

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