Visual notes for architects and designers

242 Pages·2012·159.1 MB·English

by  Laseau

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VISUAL NOTES
for Architects and Designers
SECOND EDITION
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VISUAL NOTES
for Architects and Designers
SECOND EDITION
Norman Crowe
Professor Emeritus, School of Architecture
University of Notre Dame
Paul Laseau
Professor Emeritus, Department of Architecture
Ball State University
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This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Copyright © 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Crowe, Norman.
Visual notes for architects and designers / Norman Crowe, Paul Laseau. -- 2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-470-90853-2 (pbk.); 978-1-118-12295-2 (ebk); 978-1-118-12297-6 (ebk); 978-1-118-12932-6 (ebk); 978-1-118-
12933-3 (ebk); 978-1-118-12934-0 (ebk)
1. Communication in architectural design. 2. Visual perception. I. Laseau, Paul, 1937- II. Title.
NA2750.C76 2012
720.28--dc22
2011016228
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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Contents
Preface vii
1. Introduction 1
The Uses of Visual Notes 2
Visual Literacy 6
The Notebook 10
Using This Book 14
Getting Started 15
2. A Guide to Note-Taking 17
Recording 19
Analysis 26
Design 30
3. A Journal 35
Exploring a Place 38
Understanding Order and Disorder 50
Solutions to Common Problems 64
Focusing on Details 72
Design Study: International Center 86
4. A Collection of Visual Notes 99
Thinking and Creativity 99
Visual Note-Taking 101
Examples 102
5. Transitions to Design 141
Visual Notation and Design Process 141
Impact of Digital Technology 142
Digital Design Media 142
Examples 144
Conclusion 178
Appendix— Tools and Techniques 181
Equipment 182
Basic Drawings 184
Drawing Conventions 202
Analytical Drawings 214
Symbolic Drawings 220

Endnotes 226
Illustration and Photo Credits 227
Bibliography 229
Index 231
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Preface to the Second Edition
When we completed Visual Notes for publication We are told that sketching engages a diff erent
in 1984, hand drawing with drafting instruments part of the brain than, for instance, taking pho-
was still the customary practice at the drawing tographs. Comparable research in 2003 by neu-
board for most designers. Cameras, however, roscientist Eleanor Maguire of University College
had virtually replaced fi eld sketches for gather- London, though not focused directly on sketch-
ing information in the fi eld. We recognized that ing, seems to emphasize the point. She discov-
something was missing and so we wrote Visual ered that spatial understanding is enhanced by
Notes for designers —especially architects, land- direct and intense experience with something
scape architects, planners, and engineers—to in its true three-dimensionality, versus viewing
reassert the value of visual notation. The book it in two dimensions as a photograph or other
proved to be remarkably successful, indicating abstract representation. In particular, her re-
that many agreed with our assessment. Since search involved London cabdrivers, who it turns
that time, digital cameras, computer aided de- out have a larger posterior hippocampus—the
sign software (CAD), hand-held digital sketch- region of the brain that fi les spatial memories—
pads, the Internet, smart phones, fax machines, than the average Londoner. Of course today,
and scanners have become just about ubiqui- one could negotiate London’s complex street
tous. While the aim of this edition is to continue network with a GPS navigational aid, but be-
to demonstrate the eff ectiveness of gathering cause it does not engage spatial organization in
visual information by means of freehand nota- the same way as a series of related, consecutive
tional sketches, ways of incorporating today’s active spatial experiences, the brain is deprived
available technologies, we believe, have become of developing more subtle and refi ned spatial
too important and eff ective to exclude. Thus, understanding. It would follow that operating
the objective of the current edition is two-fold: computer graphics, for instance, like negotiating
to provide further instruction on visual notation, the streets with a GPS device, short circuits the
and demonstrate how new graphic-oriented fuller neuronal involvement of drawing by hand.
technologies may expand the effi cacy of gather-
Since the fi rst publication of Visual Notes, an
ing visual information.
inadvertent discovery involving the applica-
We noted in the fi rst edition that sketching tion of computer graphics versus hand drawing
and keeping notes was once the mainstay of emerged in response to a decision made by the
a traveler’s skills. Recording visual information professional degree architectural program at the
alongside verbal notes—in forms that are dia- University of Notre Dame. After considerable
grammatic, abstract, pictorial, and realistic—was evaluation, it was decided that students would
simply a part of how one “took in” the important be prohibited from using computer graphics
qualities of a place, as well as to reinforce the in the design process until they had reached
memory of that place for a later time. But there their fourth year of architectural studies. The
is more to sketching in the fi eld than meets the reason had to do with the observation that hand
eye, so to speak. While we engage in sketching drawing required a much greater conscious
for purposes of capturing information, we tend understanding of how things go together—in
to forget that an important eff ect has to do with constructional, architectural, and general spatial
truly seeing things in their deeper complexity, terms—than simply selecting a detail or element
thereby heightening a fuller and at the same from a digitized plan fi le in a CAD program,
time more subtle understanding of our environ- then modifying it to suit a particular applica-
ment. And this eff ect increases, becoming more tion. What happened, in addition to ensuring
effi cient and useful as one’s habit of sketching a greater understanding of architectural form,
stretches over time. was that when architecture students who began
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with hand drawing fi nally transitioned to the use The act of drawing, like writing, is an integral
of computer graphics, their computer drawings part of developing thought. William Mor-
were noticeably superior to others who began rish, whose drawings appear in this addition,
with computer graphics in the fi rst place. That demonstrate that point. As he sketches unseen
was a surprise. It turns out that the use of line relationships—for instance a landscape of
weight, perspective devises, color, and the like to distant features that cannot all be seen at the
clarify formal-spatial understanding were more same time from a given place—he discovers
fully and eff ectively employed by those who meaningful associations between things that
began with the development of hand draw- become integral to a broader understanding
ing skills before they learned to use computer that cannot be revealed by the eye on its own.
graphics. It would seem that the abstract under- Or the drawings by Leon Krier in this edition,
standing of spatial form gained from computer which develop a link between the memory of
graphics, as in the situation of photography an object or place and its role as an idea that
versus sketching or negotiating London streets can inform design. These tangible connections
with a GPS device, something is gained while between thought, memory, experience, and
something else is lost. But if both are brought design, further develop the original theme of
to the fore, each in its appropriate place in the Visual Notes.
larger scope of eff ective communication, the
We believe that engaging hand drawing in its
result is greater breadth of useful understanding.
many forms is more important today than it ever
We believe that encouragement to use hand was. The temptation to bypass engaging our
drawing in its many forms is more important environment in all its richness, meaning, and
now than ever. The temptation to bypass complexity has become greater than ever. To
engaging our environment in all its richness and actively see, as opposed to merely record inert
complexity has become greater than ever. To data, enriches our understanding and enhances
truly see, as opposed to merely record, enriches our ability to remember and to use our knowl-
our understanding and enhances our ability to edge to more eff ectively and responsively
remember and to use our knowledge to better facilitate the act of designing. NC/PL
facilitate the act of designing.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We would like to thank those who so generously We would also like to thank Holly M. Johnson
contributed their sketches to this edition. We for her generous time and expertise in gather-
believed from the onset that expanding those ing photographs for us in Philadelphia, Kenneth
sections of the book that feature a broad array of Johnson for technical consultation, and Michele
drawings by people from diff erent fi elds was of Laseau for her design advice. Special thanks go
particular importance. New contributors to this to our editors, Margaret Cummins and Lauren

edition are Mohammed Bilbesi, Lauren Deeg, Poplawski, for their encouragement and helping
Wayne Estopinal, Susan Fox, Harry Eggink, us through the process of putting the book
Andrew Hesterman, Susan Fox, John Hoover, together. Finally, we would like to thank all those

Cathi and Steven House, Nancy Kreger, Leon who expressed their enthusiasm for Visual Notes
Krier, Jim Leggitt, Scott Lockard, Efthimios over the years and whose interest in visual nota-
Maniatis, William Morrish, Michel Mounayar, tion encouraged us to expand and revise the

Bruce Race, and Kevin Sloan. We wish we could original edition.
have included all the sketches they sent us, but
editing from such a wonderful preponderance
of drawings, we believe, provided us with the
best combination overall.
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