Understanding Architecture Through Drawing

techniques of drawing and the perceptual experience of
space, the tools employed by architects to represent
reality (drawings, models, CAD) have not received the
attention they deserve in shaping some imagined future.
Architects are generally innocent actors in these wider
debates yet, as the Critical Architecture conference at
University College London in 2004 noted, ‘the drawing of
lines and the drawing forth of ideas’ is what designers do
as matter of course even if the deeper significance is
rarely addressed (Critical Architecture 2004). Not only do
architects draw forth creative ideas habitually, they use
drawing to gain a better understanding of the context to
the problem in hand, whether this be the physical sight or
precedent studies.

Although there is a large body of understanding

surrounding the interface between the initial functional

diagram, drawing, briefs and site characteristics (Lawson

1990 and 1994; Dunster 2006), the more critical role of

drawing in evolving new technological solutions or fresh

constructs of space is less understood. Admittedly there

is an increasing interest in the use of drawing to represent

different philosophical approaches to design, though until

recently these have rarely developed into buildings of a

concrete nature. However, Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry and

Will Alsop have begun to open up a debate between the

mode of drawing and its design consequences. Rather

than separate the media of painting, drawing, models and

CAD onto different drawings, these architects have

24.4

Sir Terry Farrell’s sketch design for

an Arts Centre in Newcastle

combines different drawing types

on one sheet. (Sir Terry Farrell)

230 Understanding architecture through drawing