Plan, elevation and details of Doric temples in Greece (from Le Roy) 

This print of Doric temples in Greece was created by Giovanni Battista Piranesi in the 1700s, using etching and engraving. These printing processes were key to the circulation of architectural ideas at the time. Take a close look at the lines – all created by hand, with incredible precision. Piranesi wasn't just documenting these structures; he was interpreting them, and in doing so, he's revealing a great deal about the production of architecture itself. The Doric order, with its fluted columns and simple capitals, appears so elemental. Yet as the print suggests, each element is dependent on the careful labor of quarrymen, masons, and carvers. The print itself required a different kind of labor: the skilled work of the printmaker, meticulously incising lines into a metal plate. In a way, Piranesi is translating the physical work of building into the intellectual work of design. It all reminds us that even the most refined designs are rooted in material realities and the skilled hands that shape them.