Understanding Architecture Through Drawing

generation of architects whose education was based
upon the modernist concept of the ‘architectural diagram’
and creativity developed through the medium of drawing,
painting and abstract model-making. The focus of the
investigation was upon how freehand drawing was
employed at different stages in the design process and
particularly how drawing interfaced with CAD and model-
making. The intention was to move from documentary
and explorative freehand drawing (the theme of this book)
to examine sketching in the context of architectural
practice in the twenty-first century. Inevitably, the
interviews relayed both personal experience as well as
wider perceptions of the role of freehand drawing in the
offices concerned. Four main conclusions can be drawn.
First, in the process of solving design problems the

freehand drawing is the pre-eminent tool employed. The

drawings produced are a kind of conversation acted out in

line and often integrated with words, symbols and

photographs to produce a kind of collage of design

potential. Whilst architects tend to employ different

explorative drawing techniques, they all rely upon the

freehand drawing at the initial design stage and to a

degree at subsequent stages. The first drawings are

‘thinking’ drawings or abstract diagrams, usually private

rather than shared, often produced after much inner

reflection, and generally in plan form. These initial

drawings invariably record design thoughts rather than

the thoughts following the design sketches. The diagram

can be a mere dozen lines but it contains the kernel of a

design idea and its very presence is one of the defining

25.11a and b
These sketches by Sir Nicholas Grimshaw display an interest in the
poetics of construction. They relay more intended character than a
CAD drawing. (Sir Nicholas Grimshaw)

254 Understanding architecture through drawing