Chapter 23
From sketch to design
Having become accustomed to using the sketchbook as
an aid to visual understanding, it is not too much of a leap
to begin thinking in design terms. Your sketches will not
only have sharpened your perceptual awareness, but
more importantly opened your eyes to how a designer
thinks. Basically an architect or urban designer has to
evolve a form – hopefully an elegant one – to suit a
particular function, and relate it to a context. Hence
design is a two-way process – working from the
functional programme outwards, and from the physical
surroundings inwards. How well the balance is struck
establishes the appropriateness and even beauty of the
design.
Most books on design focus upon programme,
process and function, leaving aside questions of suitability
to townscape or landscape. By way of contrast, this book
looks at the visual language of places in an attempt to
address the balance. Drawing existing buildings, squares
and streets not only provides a rich repertoire of details
and forms from which to seek inspiration, but teaches
something of the significance of particular places and
their functions. To draw an area of eighteenth-century
London, for instance, is to realise how important buildings
and squares are to each other – to understand that a
23.1 a, b and c
Richard Reid’s drawings of Epping
High Street provide the context for
the design of his town hall. The
dictates of function are moderated by
a concern for the historic fabric of
the town. These sketches show how
place and programme are reconciled.214 Understanding architecture through drawing