Architecture and engineering as we know it today are two distinct higher formations, which share similar scopes and which, therefore, have moments of intersection, but also preserve fundamental differences. Even though this overlapping of activities results in a lack of consensus both in relation to the history of the professions and current professional practice, it is important to highlight the differences and specificities that characterize each of these professions today.
The figures of the architect and the engineer as we know them today appear at different moments in history. In the early days, construction techniques were a collective craft, segmented into different skills and passed on orally from generation to generation. This collective practice of construction began to change on the European continent from the Renaissance on, when graphic representations became a design and communication tool based on new techniques, such as the introduction of perspective drawing, which transformed the way of recognizing, thinking and predict space. It is at this moment that the figure of the solitary architect emerges and it is from there that we begin to recognize important architect characters such as Alberti and Brunelleschi.
