For centuries, architects have used drawing as the prime mode of conveying abstract ideas about the built environment. Inadvertently, when trying to delineate or render abstract ideas onto two dimensional mediums, elements of the original idea are both added and lost. Deviations occur again when the two dimensional images are reinterpreted into three dimensional forms. For some architects this is a negative consequence, something that needs to be guarded against. The purity of the original idea is the essence that needs to be maintained.

However in “Translations: From Drawing to Building”, the author, Robin Evans, sees this moment of transfer as an opportunity for enhancement. Evans writes, “We may try to take advantage of the situation by extending their journey, maintaining sufficient control in transit so that more remote destinations may be reached”(Evans 15).

Evans contrasts Andrea Paladio’s S. Petronio with Philberte de l’Orme’s dome in the Royal Chapel at Anet. In the facade of the S. Petronio, the two dimensional drawings are quite apparent. The same methods of implying depth in the drawings are used in the facade. In de l’Orme’s dome however, it is not so easily understood the direction from which the idea came. The mystery is sublime and adds to the beauty. De l’Orme in fact used parallel projection to translate an “annular envelope of circles” and accurately project them onto the inside of the dome. He then took the annular envelope and cropped it at points of intersection that produce a rotation of "tear dropped radii" to be inscribed upon the floor.

In both instances, de l’Orme uses projective drawing techniques to enhance an original idea. In the Royal Chapel of Anet, he takes a simple circle and creates a complex optical illusion. The geometric form of the circle is both obvious and obscured. For some, architectural drawings are regarded as precious and pure. For others, drawings are a tool; merely a dynamic step along the way to a more complex final condition.