Table Of Content

Understanding Architecture Through Drawing Second Edition This new edition is fully revised and updated and includes new chapters on sustainability, history and archaeology, designing through drawing and drawing in architectural practice. The book introduces design and graphic techniques aimed to help designers increase their understanding of buildings and places through drawing. For many, the camera has replaced the sketchbook, but here the author argues that freehand drawing as a means of analysing and understanding buildings develops visual sensitivity and awareness of design. By combining design theory with practical lessons in drawing, Understanding Architecture Through Drawingencourages the use of the sketchbook as a creative and critical tool. The book is highly illustrated and is an essential manual on freehand drawing techniques for students of architecture, landscape architecture, town and country planning and urban design. Brian Edwards is an architect, town planner, writer, teacher and artist. He has taught in various schools and has been Professor of Architecture at Huddersfield and Heriot Watt universities and the Edinburgh School of Art. He has written over 16 books, seven of which published by Spon Press/Taylor & Francis. First published 2008 by Taylor & Francis 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Taylor & Francis 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY10016 Taylor & Francis is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2008. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” First edition © 1994 Brian Edwards This second edition © 2008 Brian Edwards Designed by Gavin Ambrose Printed and bound in Great Britain by The Cromwell Press, Trowbridge, Wiltshire All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-203-88243-1 Master e-book ISBN ISBN10 0-415-44413-6 (hbk) ISBN 10 0-415-44414-4 (pbk) ISBN13 978-0-415-44413-2 (hbk) ISBN13 978-0-415-44414-9 (pbk) Understanding Architecture Through Drawing Second Edition Brian Edwards Edinburgh School of Art Contents Chapter 7 Chapter 19 The importance of practice 60 History and archaeology 160 Chapter 8 Chapter 20 From sketch to plan making Interiors 170 and documentary Chapter 21 investigation 64 Using drawing to analyse an Chapter 9 urban area 178 Sequential sketches 72 Case study 1 Chapter 10 The Merchant City, Drawing and photography 80 Glasgow 178 (with Susan Fahy) Case study 2 Acknowledgements v The Bastide towns, France 187 Introduction vi Part Three Case study 3 Case Studies in Drawing Japanese urbanism 192 Chapter 1 Chapter 11 The benefits of drawing 1 Towns, townscapes and squares 90 Part Four Chapter 12 The Way Forward Streets, lanes and footpaths 100 Part One Chapter 22 Guiding Principles Chapter 13 Exploration through the sketchbook Landmarks, skyline and Chapter 2 – some suitable subjects 198 city image 108 Why draw? 16 Chapter 23 Chapter 14 From sketch to design 214 Chapter 3 Gateways, entrances and Chapter 24 Choosing the subject 30 doorways 114 Designing through drawing 226 Chapter 15 Chapter 25 The façades of buildings 122 Part Two Drawing in architectural Techniques Chapter 16 practice 238 Machinery, function and Chapter 4 modernism 132 Perspective 38 Bibliography 260 Chapter 17 Chapter 5 Landscape 142 Index 262 Line and shade 46 Chapter 18 Chapter 6 Sustainability 152 Composition 50 Acknowledgements The author wishes first to thank those bodies that available images of sketchbook practice from earlier awarded research grants to undertake the work outlined periods. in this book, namely the Arts and Humanities Research Finally, the author wishes to thank the many Council and Edinburgh College of Art. In addition, the students of architecture from Edinburgh, Glasgow and book has drawn upon material from the Sir Basil Spence Huddersfield who kept him company with their sketch- Research Project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. books on study visits to places far and wide over a Various chapters use material abridged from the author’s twenty-five year period. article ‘The use of drawing in architectural design: some Unless stated otherwise all subsequent drawings are recent experiences from UK practice’ published in by the author. Architecture Research Quarterly (ARQ) in 2005. The author is also indebted to a number of architects and designers who have provided time for interviews and given consent for the use of drawings in the book. These include Lord Foster of Riverside, Sir Terry Farrell, Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, Edward Cullinan, Bob Allies, Will Alsop, Richard Murphy, Allan Murray, Gordon Murray and Malcolm Fraser. In addition, the following architects have kindly provided drawings to augment those of the author, namely Santiago Calatrava, David Prichard, Francis Tibbalds, Derek Fraser, Richard Reid and Arup Associates. The author is particularly indebted to Nick Hirst for allowing drawings prepared as a result of his Philip Webb Travelling Scholarship to be used in the publication. The author also wishes to thank the RIBA Library, RCAHMS and the Hunterian Museum for making Acknowledgements v Introduction The aim of this book is to explore how freehand drawing The central aim of the book is to encourage the use of can increase the level of understanding of the the sketchbook as a vehicle for learning about arch- complexities of modern architecture. In particular it seeks itecture. There is currently a revival of interest in the to provide the means whereby there can be a marriage of pedagogic role of drawing, particularly its place in the art and architecture by establishing shared values generation of architectural forms. This book looks forward and understandings. The sketchbook is a useful tool to to design practice by examining past examples using help counter the dominance of science in architectural freehand drawing as the main analytical tool. The book is education, or at least to ensure that technology is arranged thematically into four parts: the first part employed with judgement and aesthetic discrimination. presents guiding principles, the second introduces the The aim is to encourage the creation of a more humane student to the main graphic tools and drawing techniques environment by developing visual and artistic sensibilities used by the architect; the third part explains how through the practice of drawing. common design issues can be better understood through A number of themes are presented, each as a case drawing with a number of case studies of sketching study of issues facing students or practising architects. practice; the final part focuses upon examples from Since the first edition of this book was published in 1994, contemporary architectural practice with the emphasis fresh concerns have emerged and these form the basis upon current trends in drawing technique. of much of the new material presented in this edition. A characteristic of the book is the division of study There is also greater discussion of the role of sketching material into themes. The aim of sketching is not to vis-à-vis other design development tools such as model- undertake drawings of subjects that randomly catch making, computer-aided design (CAD) and photography. the eye but to explore architecture in a more systematic As a result there are a number of more theoretical fashion. The comparative analysis of material through chapters than in the first edition, as well as interviews sketching entails a more rigorous questioning than with a number of the UK’s leading architects such as is possible by many other means. Once sketched, the Lord Foster, Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, Will Alsop and subject under investigation can be explored further – Edward Cullinan. vi Understanding architecture through drawing perhaps by resort to archival sources or textbooks on easy for students to overlook drawing when other more construction. Thematic exploration through drawing aids fashionable or accessible tools, such as CAD and learning about the built environment – it helps you to see, photographic digitisation, are presented during the to think and to design. courses of study at undergraduate level. As this The book presents a general overview of drawing book argues, the power of drawing to get beneath the practice in the twenty-first century and the principles that surface encourages those who use the sketchbook to underpin it. The benefits of designing through drawing are confront the deeper forces at work in shaping discussed, particularly the way sketching allows options contemporary architecture. Architects were once noted to be explored conceptually and in detail – this interaction for their ability to visualise through drawing and this set across the scales is an important characteristic of them apart from engineers or technicians. In writing this drawing. Inevitably in the digital age, there is a great book the author seeks to revive the tradition of drawing – deal of interplay between freehand drawing and CAD, not as mere draughtsmanship or documentation, but as a especially at the genesis of a project. Different architects powerful tool in generating the built forms of the twenty- use drawing in different ways but for many, if not most, first century. architects freehand drawing is the first tool or medium used in designing a building. The professional bodies which underpin standards in architectural education in the UK, namely the Architects Registration Board (ARB) and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), recognise the importance of the facility to draw to that of becoming an architecture. Under the criteria for the prescription of architectural courses the term ‘communication’ is employed. It is used in the context of evolving and representing architectural design proposals, and embraces freehand drawing as well as CAD. Sketching remains an important aspect of being an architect, even in an age where information technology (IT) has to an increasing degree displaced traditional notions of architectural representation. Sketching remains important to designing and, equally, to understanding the physical, environmental and cultural context for architectural practice today. In presenting new material in this edition, the author hopes to encourage greater use of the sketchbook and freehand drawing within architecture and design schools. The potential of investigating, learning and practising design through drawing is considerable. However, it is Introduction vii Chapter 1 The benefits of drawing The act of drawing is an important starting point for the studies and his commissions as an architect. Later intellectual process we call ‘design’. To be able to draw architects such as Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier and Louis a chair or a building is a prerequisite for anyone wishing Kahn employed the sketchbook in a similar fashion, to design such things. Drawing has two functions for though to different ends. Lord Foster (opposite) continues the designer – it allows him or her to record and to with this tradition. analyse existing examples, and the sketch provides the Drawings have been used by architects in many medium with which to test the appearance of some different ways. Ranging between the opposite poles of imagined object. the freehand drawing as a record and as a design tool Before the advent of photography most architects exist many different applications for the designer. Some kept a sketchbook in which they recorded the details of architects use the sketch as the main means of buildings, which they could refer to when designing. The communicating a design idea to clients. Such sketches fruits of the Grand Tour or more local wanderings relay the thinking behind a proposal as well as suggesting consisted of drawn material supported, perhaps, by a tangible form. Other architects use the sketch to written information or surveyed dimensions. analyse townscape and to indicate how their design will The sketchbook provided a form of research and a fit into the street. Others use the sketch as a method of library of plans and details to crib at a later stage. Because studying building typology, using the analysis as a way of the architect is not necessarily aiming only at placing their design into known precedents. However the documentary representation, the sketches were often sketch is employed, the main point is to use the freehand searching and analytical. Many of the drawings prepared drawing as a design tool, as a method of giving form and found their way into later designs. The English architect expression to one’s thoughts. One may finish the design C.R. Cockerell used pocket-sized sketchbooks and filled process with a formal perspective, but that end product them with drawings not only of sites in Italy and Greece, should not be where sketching begins. Design analysis but also of cities in Britain. His sketchbooks, which through the freehand drawing should be at the start of the survive at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), creative process, not at the end, and preferably before the show that a direct link existed between Cockerell’s field design commission arrives in the first place. The The benefits of drawing 1