This list is not exhaustive; you should seek to embrace
the particular qualities that the district in question offers.
As the Merchant City was a planned expansion of
Glasgow in the eighteenth century, the layout is fairly
regular and this makes the analysis a little easier than had
the area grown organically. However, subsequent
changes to the urban pattern and to the neighbourhood’s
architecture have added complexity and spatial richness,
and it is largely these qualities that the freehand drawing
seeks to describe and understand.
THE URBAN STRUCTURE OF THE AREA
By using a good town map, preferably an Ordnance
Survey sheet, it is possible to see at a glance the basic
geometry of the area. The layout of streets, the pattern of
squares, the placing of public buildings are all well
described on plans and can be highlighted through figure-
ground analysis. Moving from the two-dimensional plan to
the three-dimensional image is where drawing comes in.
By employing axonometric or isometric projection, or by
using bird’s-eye perspective (i.e. singlepoint, high-level) it
is possible to represent the underlying structure of the
area. Such a drawing requires a degree of simplification or
abstraction, otherwise the irregularities of building height
or façade line would defeat all but the most gifted artists.
Drawings of urban structure do not need to show
detail – their function is to represent the spatial geometry
in a simple, easy-to-grasp, three-dimensional fashion. By
drawing cubes of building mass that show height in
proportion to width, and that relate the various urban
blocks to each other, the layout of an area will become
clearer than had plans alone been employed.
The method is simple: with axonometric drawing,
simply rotate the plan through 45° and project the lines
upwards using the same scale for building heights as the
one in which the plan is drawn. With isometric drawing
you will need to employ a 60°/30° setsquare and, again,
do not allow for perspective in height or depth of field.
Alternatively, you can employ perspective drawing, taking
a high eye-level and vanishing point placed near to the
centre of the sheet. Whichever method is employed (and
remember axonometric drawing is the easier to make), it
helps if the sides of the blocks are shaded to highlight the
three-dimensional effect.
Other key information, such as the location of public
buildings, parks and important squares, can be added
relatively easily to the basic three-dimensional drawing.
The advantage of this approach to drawing is that the
relationship between the urban parts becomes self-
evident. For example, the importance of a public
monument to a street, or the role of a park in defining the
edge of an area, becomes a little more obvious. Had your
analysis relied upon plans alone, such relationships may
not have become so apparent.THE ROLE PLAYED BY PUBLIC BUILDINGS
The three-dimensional drawing described above is also
important in helping to establish the scale of influence of
a public building or civic monument. A public building can
have its position in the townscape eroded by unsuitable
neighbours. How far the setting of a building extends can
be plotted on such drawings. Often the major buildings in
an area have a relationship to each other, perhaps as
skyline features or as markers along a particular street.
Freehand drawing can be employed to study these
aspects of the townscape, particularly if such sketches
are related to the drawing of the whole area. Similarly, if a
design is proposed for a building, it can be tested against
existing neighbours so that the potential benefits or
injuries to skyline or space patterns can be analysed.
In the Merchant City public buildings are generally
located so that they terminate street vistas. This classical
device is common to planned towns of the eighteenth
century. In Glasgow it means that you can find your wayUsing drawing to analyse an urban area 179