Understanding Architecture Through Drawing

designer must consider both the buildings and the space
they occupy. Similarly, sketches of Los Angeles show
how central the road and parking lot are to modern civic
design. If you were to sketch in parts of Paris or New
York, you may also discover the urban significance of
corner sites – not just as a place for architectural display,
but as a location for prime real estate.
The process of drawing is, therefore, crucial to
understanding the significance of architectural ‘events’ in
the urban scene. Gateways may be special buildings but
their real value to you as a designer is to help you
establish the relative importance of such structures within
the hierarchy of the city. Designers have responsibilities
towards the town as well as their clients: addressing
questions of legibility, order, hierarchy and continuity are
part of the architect’s and urban designer’s wider duties.
By sketching you will begin to understand the visual
structure of an area, and the various details that
collectively make up cityscape or landscape. Places are
assemblies of parts held together by an organising

principle. The latter may be simple, such as an urban grid

of streets or a network of docks, or complex, such as an

inner-city neighbourhood made up of fragmented parts.

Landscapes, although superficially beautiful, are often

composed of irregular or dislocated elements. It is

analysis through the sketchbook, rather than through

words, that can best unravel these complexities.

Designing from the basis of a sharpened visual

perception is of obvious benefit to you, to your client and

to the environment. If your task is relatively simple, such

as designing a new house, then it is a straightforward

undertaking to sketch the houses in the neighbourhood,

recording their basic shapes and window, door, roof and

wall details. The cataloguing of parts and general

arrangements make a good starting point for the design

of the new house. Your ambitions as a designer may go

further than blindly repeating the pattern round about, but

a clever architect will reinterpret the old forms, not invent

completely new ones. Should you decide to place a glass

box in a district of Arts and Crafts houses, then it is hardly

surprising that the planning authority will take a dislike to

your design.

The form and details of what you have drawn are

important, but so is their significance. A particular

assembly of glass and steel on an office block may prove

useful in the design of objects unrelated to architecture,

such as in furniture or product design. The way the

juxtaposition of materials is handled can, therefore, have a

universal application. Similarly, an aircraft wing may

provide clues as to how a building could be put together –

the moving parts giving hints, for instance, as to how

flexible solar screening could operate. When drawing, one

should be asking questions about the subject, discovering

the essence rather than merely recording the surface

forms. It is often the underlying principles, more than the

details, that prove a source of inspiration in design.

It is obvious that the way we draw influences how we

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216 Understanding architecture through drawing