This paper examines the pedagogical implications of the integration of different orders of images in architectural design studios and the re-introduction of what might be called existential or phenomenal dimensions to a representational agenda that has become predominantly conceptual as opposed to physical, rationalistic as opposed to experiential, production-oriented instead of purely investigative. By attempting to historicise the idea of the deployment of representations of space into real space I hope to contribute to a discourse which emphasises the experience of images rather than technologies and techniques of representation. Examples of seemingly antique and forgotten media that synthesised aesthetic and scientific ways of investigating the world are examined for their relevance and utility in twenty-first-century design education.