Understanding Architecture Through Drawing

Chapter 10

Drawing and photography

with Susan Fahy

To freehand drawing, photography is a double-edged
sword. The lens can make an exact copy of a building
façade or city scene, allowing the designer to save time
on the arduous task of rendering. Once a design has
begun to take shape, photography can also allow the
imagined object to be further explored with the help of
digitisation. Hence, photography adds a useful dimension
to the trilogy of freehand sketching, model-making and
CAD simulation.
Photography is, however, an ambivalent tool because
its ability to make quick accurate images can engender a
certain lack of critical engagement by the student or
practitioner. The photographic image is so superficially
compelling that the deeper inquiries that accompany
freehand drawing are discouraged. In fact, the better the
photograph the less likely it is that other modes of visual
media will be employed. The lens produces a mind set of
replication and exactitude that can thwart visual
discrimination unless the student seeks to combine
photography with other tools of design analysis. If the
camera is employed simply for recording it has many
advantages as long as freehand drawing is used to
scratch beneath the surface. By combining the use of
photography and drawing, the architect can record all the
details and at the same time explore the fundamentals of

rhythm, structure, proportion, skyline and texture. It is the

latter that are needed as a stimulus to design intervention

in the city or landscape.

It is clear that the photograph can anticipate the

freehand drawing or, conversely, it can follow the sketch

by recording and digitising the drawn image. Either way,

there is a dynamic relationship between what is drawn,

what is photographed, and the evolving design

intervention. The latter can be developed using other

tools such as the sketch design model and CAD. As such,

the photographic image can play an important role in the

testing and resolution of architectural design problems,

particularly when there is a physical context to take into

account. Here one can use collage or cut and paste to

combine design options with the photographic realities of

the site.

Photography has insinuated itself into nearly all

aspects of visual culture and this has inevitably impacted

upon architecture. In architecture, photographs can also

be used in a variety of ways both documentary and

creative. Used with a critical eye, the photographic image

can be employed, for instance, to study an existing

building in order to understand design qualities such as

the use of light, structural arrangements or the colour or

texture of materials. Light in particular is well explored via

80 Understanding architecture through drawing