Claude Fayette Bragdon, Architect. The Fourth Dimension Exposed

At the beginning of the 20th century, in the United States of America, some treatises about the diffusion of scientific knowledge, about the notion of space and time and on the fourth dimension, were published. The authors were mathematicians only in some cases. Claude Fayette Bragdon (1866-1946), a valued architect and stage designer, quoted in the renowned book of American Architectural History “The Architecture of America: A Social and Cultural History” (John Burchard and Albert Bush-Brown, 1961), published a chain of essays, books and articles about the higher space geometries and related visualizations. The present paper investigates the connections and consequences among the issues that concern the understanding and construction of space in four dimensions and its application in Bragdon’s architectural projects.