designer. In your drawing you can simplify the decorative
carvings or simply record one section of detail, but the
proportions of width to height of the door and of any
panels should be depicted as accurately as possible.
Many doorways or portals contain the coats of arms or
inscriptions of their benefactors. The presence of such
embellishment simply highlights the symbolic importance
of doorways or gateways. Much recent design has sought
to resurrect the language of the doorway and to revive its
spiritual importance. In terms of building design, much
has been achieved in the past ten years, but in the
context of the town or countryside as a whole, the idea of
gateways has not received as much attention.
If the culture of Europe resides in her distinctive cities
as against countries, then doorways, gateways and
entrances are very much part of local and regional
character. In Barcelona, for instance, the approach to the
design of entrances is quite different to that employed in
Glasgow – the Catalan tradition is far removed from the
Celtic one. To maintain these differences, not just
between cities but within them, the freehand sketch is a
vital means of recording, understanding and cultivating a
climate for preserving local idiosyncrasies.
A good exercise is to search out entrances at the
various scales – urban, district, neighbourhood, building,
interior, etc. Each can be recorded and related to the other
in the form of a network or in terms of spatial hierarchy.
By relating the scale of the doorway to its sphere of
perceptual influence, one can begin to understand the
language of cities and where the visual clues become
disjointed. Cities encompass patterns of behaviour and
networks of design, with doorways providing the links
between one system and another. Hence, of all the
architectural elements, few have more symbolic value
than the doorway or portal.
14.9
Detail of a door latch at
Goddard’s, designed by Edwin
Lutyens. Such handles are often
the first point of contact with
buildings and deserve particular
attention. (Nick Hirst)120 Understanding architecture through drawing