former’. A similar view is expressed by Allies, who says
he cannot design without drawing, since ‘drawing is how
I understand the problem’. A distinction, therefore, can be
made between those architects who see design in
conceptual terms where drawing may become an
impediment to deeper cognitive processes, and those
who see design as a synthesis of complex factors whose
resolution is undertaken partly or wholly through manual
drawing. Some architects admit, however, that in the initial
design sketches lines and words are often combined in
order for there to be synthesis of spatial, functional and
contextual concerns (Allan Murray, Alsop, Farrell). All of
the architects questioned believed you could think without
drawing (although two admitted its usefulness here too),
suggesting that to the architect drawing and designing are
more closely related than thinking and drawing. However,
after the initial stage of tentative form generation
expressed usually as a plan or less frequently as a section
diagram, all admitted the usefulness of freehand drawing
in the development of design ideas ‘right through the
design and construction process’ as Allies put it. The latter
is a useful point, for whilst the design is developed and
tested using CAD, when changes occur during the
evolutionary process, these are invariable undertaken
through freehand sketching.
Farrell relayed the process of designing the Visitor
Centre in Newcastle. The first idea was a sketch from
above, which represented the formal elements in
relationship to the city. This volume was then divided into
functional and hierarchical elements using diagrammatic
axonometrics drawn in felt-tip pen from above. Various
forms of testing, some involving a rough model, were
undertaken before the first section was drawn, and this in
turn led to the exploration of structural possibilities drawn
by hand. When these were resolved, the plan was
addressed both internally and in relationship to the city.
Once a working solution had been arrived at, the sketches
at 1.500 were then translated into digital format and
tested further. The CAD explorations involved views from
various points, the addition of colour and texture, and
then structural delineation. These were printed and
overdrawn and led to a fresh round of freehand sketching
and then further refinement on the screen. In time these
sketches were digitised and allowed to interact with the
CAD images, which in turn became the medium for the
detailed involvement of engineers. Farrell’s role in all this
was that of a conductor, leading the team with sketches,
diagrammatic lines and the occasional word.
Although most of the architects interviewed could and
often did draw without designing, the majority still kept
either a sketchbook or notebook. The practice of drawing
a repertoire of forms and precedents to employ in new
designs, what the architect Thomas Jackson in 1873
called ‘the making of careful drawings of existing
buildings to inspire the designer later in life’ (Royal
Academy of Arts, 2003), is still employed. For example,
Foster keeps a sketchbook ‘whose images influence my25.1 (opposite)
This collage of architectural sketches
and diagrams represents well the
early design thoughts for a number of
projects. (Architectural Review)242 Understanding architecture through drawing