Drawing Architecture and the Urban

DRAWING ARCHITECTURE AND THE URBAN

ANCILLARY LEARNING MATERIAL

By Sam Jacoby

These additional notes are especially intended forformal group learning environments led by an instructor. But they are also suitable forindependent learning by students at all levels and practitioners. The book is not conceived as a classical textbook and aims to develop larger discussions around design research through graphical thinking, which is part of lifelong learning by architectural and urban designers.
The notes suggest a number of possible questions that can be considered and discussed.
The notes provide sample exercises or assignments and a list of further reading material.
Depending on existing levels of knowledge, the different chapters and their sections can be studied separately.

CHAPTER 1: CONVENTIONS

Chapter Learning Outcomes

The aim of the book chapter and this additional study material is the:

Understanding and knowledge of the concept of conventions.
Understanding and knowledge of common conventions of representing an architectural or urban design project.
Ability to apply conventions to the representation of a design project.

INTRODUCTION

Conventions derive from agreements between people with a shared interest and objective. However, they are not absolute rules but general principles that can change.

For example, they are:

agreements on practices;
agreements on forms and formats of representationor description;
and agreements on construction methods and assembly.

Questions for Consideration and Discussion

What areexamples of conventions in architectural and urban design practices?
How has a convention changed over time? What led to its adjustment or abandonment and what convention might have replaced it?
Why are conventions important?

Sample Assignment

Write a short illustrated piece on how conventions have shaped a particular aspect of design practices.

Suggested further reading

Caragonne, Alexander, The Texas Rangers: Notes from the Architectural Underground, (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1993)

Eisenman, Peter, Houses of Cards (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987)

Love, Timothy, ‘Kit-of-Parts Conceptualism: Abstracting Architecture in the American Academy’, Harvard Design Magazine, 19 (Fall 2003/Winter 2004), 1-5

Ungers, Oswald Mathias, Eckhart Reissinger and Ulrich Flemming, eds, Wochenaufgaben - Veröffentlichungen zur Architektur No 1 (Berlin: TU Berlin, Lehrstuhl für Entwerfen VI, 1965)

PLAN CONVENTIONS

Often prescribed by rules and standards, the conventions followed in the representation of architectural or urban projectspermit a consistentand agreed communication of design ideas and the three-dimensional objects they might produce.

Common drawing types are:

plan and elevation (orthographic projections);
plan and section (cutaway views);
axonometric, isometric and oblique (paraline drawings);
and perspectives.

Question for Consideration and Discussion

What are the advantages or disadvantages of each drawing type when representing a three-dimensional design?

Sample Assignment

First construct the multi-view orthographic projections for a chosen case study and then use these to construct a three-dimensional CAD or physical model.
Make a three-dimensional CAD model of a chosen case study first, and then derive the common drawing types for it.

Suggested references

Ching, Francis DK, Architectural Graphics, 5th edn (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2009)

Yee, Rendow, Architectural Drawing: A Visual Compendium of Types and Methods, 4th edn (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2012)

GRAPHIC CONVENTIONS

Graphic conventions are agreements on how to communicate drawn information between different users effectively with a minimum amount of effort and detail.

Common graphic conventions deal with the use of:

line weight, style and type;
hatching, texture, material and shading;
colour;
drawing scale;
paper size;
annotation;
and dimensioning.

Questions for Consideration and Discussion

What are examples of clearly defined graphic conventions and drawing standards?
How does a final drawing scale and paper size affect the drawing process and amount of detail necessary in a drawing?
Why are certain plans drawn at a particular scale?
How to determine whether or not a drawing is ‘finished’?

Sample Assignment

Draw a plan using the same line weight and style (ie, thin, continuous line). Then, first, only apply different line weights, styles and types;second, only hatches, textures and shading; and, third, only colours to the plan. Compare the legibility of the four versions of the same plan. (Particular draftingconventions can be specified.)
Annotate and dimension the plan.
Print or reproduce the plans at different scales (eg 1:10, 1:100, 1:1000 and 1:10,000) and compare their legibility.

Suggested references

Ching, Francis DK, Architectural Graphics, 5th edn (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2009)

Tufte, Edward R., Envisioning Information (Cheshire: Graphics Press, 1990)

Yee, Rendow, Architectural Drawing: A Visual Compendium of Types and Methods, 4th edn (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2012)

CHAPTER 2: DRAWING ARCHITECTURE

Chapter Learning Outcomes

The aim of the book chapter and this additional study material is the:

Understanding and knowledge of the difference between adescription and analysis of a building design.
Understanding and knowledge of the formative diagrams of a building and their use for design and analysis.
Understanding and knowledge of the use of comparison to determine generic and specific (typological) building characteristics.
Ability to describe, analyse and compare architectural case studies by applying a set of assessment criteria relevant to their design.

ARCHITECTURALPROJECT DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS

While the description of a building relies on established conventions and represents a project’s ‘reality’, in contrast its analysis is always a form of interpretation of what is less visible or apparent.

Common examples of descriptive drawings dealing with a project’s context are:

location and site plan;
and site section.

Common examples of descriptive drawings dealing with the project itself are:

plan, elevation and section;
axonometric or isometric;
and perspectives.

Common examples ofanalytical drawings dealing with a project’s context are:

figure-ground plan;

and orientation.

Common examples of analytical drawings dealing with a project itself are:

massing;
structural organisation;
programme;
circulation-to-use;
part-to-whole;
repetitive-to-unique;
geometrical order;
andparti.

Questions for Consideration and Discussion

What is the difference between a project’s description and its analysis?
What is the difference between a drawing and a diagram?
What are important design criteria and their parameters?How do theyaffect a design and how are drawings generative in the design process?
Are analytical criteria and design criteria the same?
What is a typological problem of design?

Sample Assignment

Choose a case study of a building and draw the different descriptive and analytical drawing types to scale.Determine which drawing types are relevant and explain why.
Develop one additional analytical category not included in the book, define its parameters and produce drawings for it.
Write a short illustrated piece on an analytical criterion and how it can be drawn. Discuss how this is evident in or has influenced the design of a chosen case study.

Suggested references

Balmer, Jeffrey and Michael T Swisher, Diagramming the Big Idea; Methods for Architectural Composition (New York and London: Routledge, 2012)

Caniggia, Gianfranco, and Gian Luigi Maffei, Architectural Composition and Building Typology: Interpreting Basic Building (Florence: AlineaEditrice, 2001)

Clark, Roger H and Michael Pause, Precedents in Architecture: Analytic Diagrams, Formative Ideas, and Partis (London: John Wiley & Sons, 2005)

Eisenman, Peter, Ten Canonical Buildings (New York: Rizzoli, 2008)

Reiser, Jesse, and NanakoUmemoto, Atlas of Novel Tectonics (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006)

COMPARISON OF PROJECTS

The comparison of case studies is interpretative and based on analytical abstraction. A comparison determines whether a project is unique or shares characteristics with others, thus, raises a typological question. If analysis in architecture is a form of design research, then its abstracted diagrams arguably always refer to specific and generic design possibilities.

A drawn comparison might consider:

massing;
conceptual organisation;
disposition;
distribution;
circulation;
difference;
and growth.

Questions for Consideration and Discussion

What design questions or analytical criteria are suitable for a comparison of similarities and differences in a series of case studies and why?
Is any comparison of case studies also a typological comparison? To what extentare both either descriptive or analytical?

Sample Assignment

Propose a common architectural design problem and select a number of projects through which a range of design responses to this problem can be discussed. Explain why you have selected the design problem and the case studies (is it an important historical or contemporary design problem?Are the cases opposites in design approach? Do they form a series of linked and incremental developments?Do they share the same interpretation? etc).
Draw the selected case studies and relevant descriptive and analytical drawings. Explain why you have chosen certain analytical drawings over others.
Draw a number of comparative matrices for the series of case studies. Carefully develop and explain your own categories of comparison, do not just use the ones in the book. Explain the differences or similarities between case studies.
Write an illustrated piece discussing a series of case studies by comparing them to a common design problem, such as structure, circulation, organisation, form, function etc.

Suggested references

Ábalos, Iñaki andJuan Herreros, Tower and Office:From Modernist Theory to Contemporary Practice (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2003)

Durand, Jean-Nicolas-Louis, Précis of the Lectures on Architecture, trans by David Britt (Los Angeles: Getty Trust Publications, 2000)

Kuhnert, Nikolaus et al, eds, ARCH+, 179 (2006), ‘Oswald Mathias Ungers, Architekturlehre: Berliner Vorlesungen, 1964–65’

Lee, Christopher, and Sam Jacoby, eds, Typological Formations: Renewable Building Types and the City (London: AA Publications, 2007)

Lucan, Jacques, Composition, Non-Composition (Oxford: Routledge, 2012)

Steadman, Philip, Building Types and Built Forms (Leicester: Matador, 2014)

CHAPTER 3: DRAWING THE URBAN

Chapter Learning Outcomes

The aim of the book chapter and this additional study material is the:

Understanding and knowledge of the difference between a description and analysis of an urban plan.
Understanding and knowledge of common plans or formative diagrams used to describe, analyse and design urban plans.
Understanding and knowledge of the use of comparison to determine generic and specific characteristics of urban plans.
Ability to describe, analyse and compare urban plan case studies by applying a set of assessment criteria relevant to their design.

URBAN PLAN DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS

Urban plans are a survey of an existing urban context and/or future intentions of development. They are often strategic, describing less specific designs than defining general ambitions. Plandescriptions have a regulatory function whereas analysis serves the design of the urban plans.

Common examples of descriptive maps and diagrams indicate:

urban plan (physical features);
land use;
density;
circulation (transport);
open spaces;
and infrastructures.

Common examples of analytical maps and diagrams indicate:

figure-ground plan;
hierarchies and organisation;
part-to-whole and repetitive-to-unique;
built environment;
and phasing.

Questions for Consideration and Discussion

What are the differences between an urban plan’s description and analysis?
What are important design criteria and their parameters? How do theyaffecta design and how are drawings generative in the design process?
Why is an urban plan more strategic than plans for an architectural design? What are their different intentions, requirements and specificities? How do the elements they describe differ?
How does time affect the conception, representation and implementation of an urban plan?
How is the urban plan affected by a set of interrelated problems at different scales? What are these scales and their relation to design problems, eg, at an architectural, metropolitan, territorial, national, infrastructural, social, cultural, economic, political, etc, scale? Especially, what is the relationship of architectural elements and their design to the urban plan?

Sample Assignment

Choose a case study of an urban plan and draw the different descriptive and analytical drawing types to scale. Determine which drawing types are relevant and explain why.
Develop one additional analytical category not included in the book, define its parameters and produce drawings for it.
Write a short illustrated piece on an analytical criterionand how it can be drawn. Discuss how this is evident in or has influenced the design of a chosen case study.

Suggested references

Allen, Stan, Points and Lines: Diagrams and Projects for the City (New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 1999)

Caniggia, Gianfranco, and Gian Luigi Maffei, Architectural Composition and Building Typology: Interpreting Basic Building (Florence: AlineaEditrice, 2001)

Lehnerer, Alex, Grand Urban Rules (Rotterdam: 010 Publishers, 2009)

Lynch, Kevin, The Image of the City (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1960)

COMPARISON OF PROJECTS

The comparison of urban case studies is interpretative and based on analytical abstraction. However, while a comparison of architectural projects frequently has a typological implication, in an urban plan this is rather concerned with the relationship of typologies to urban morphologies and various definitions of infrastructure. The comparison of urban projects demands a more explicit multi-scalar analysis and description.

A drawn comparison might relate to:

size;

distribution;
hierarchy and layering;
difference;
growth;
and architectural types and urban morphology.

Questions for Consideration and Discussion

What design questions or analytical criteria are suitable for a comparison of similarities and differences in a series of case studies and why?
How does a comparison of urban plans differ from that of architectural projects?

Sample Assignment

Propose a common urban design problem and select a number of projects through which a range of design solutions to this problem can be discussed. Explain why you have selected the design problem and the case studies (is it an important historical or contemporary design problem?Are the cases opposites in design approach? Do they form a series of linked and incremental developments?Do they share the same interpretation?etc).
Draw the selected case studies and relevant descriptive and analytical drawings. Explain why you have chosen certain analytical drawings over others.
Draw a number of comparative matrices for the series of case studies. Carefully develop and explain your own categories of comparison, do not just use the ones in the book. Explain the differences or similarities between case studies.
Write an illustrated piece discussing a series of case studies by comparing them to one common design problem, such as infrastructure, transport, land use, density, etc.

Suggested references

Lee, Christopher, and Sam Jacoby, eds, ‘Typological Urbanism: Projective Cities’, Architectural Design, 81.1 (Jan/Feb 2011) – Special Issue on Urbanism

Lee, Christopher, and Sam Jacoby, eds, Typological Formations: Renewable Building Types and the City (London: AA Publications, 2007)

Petruccioli, Attilio, After Amnesia: Learning from the Islamic Mediterranean Urban Fabric (Bari, Italy: ICAR, 2007)

CHAPTER 4: TRANSFORMATION

Chapter Learning Outcomes

The aim of the book chapter and this additional study material is the:

Understanding and knowledge of the concept typological transformation.
Ability to represent typological transformations through a range of drawings.
Ability to consider typological transformations in relationship to a design brief and design propositions.

TYPOLOGICAL TRANSFORMATION

The aim of a comparative analysis of architecture and urban plans is to produce knowledge for design and design research. As argued in this book, the formative and typological diagrams of architecture – the structural and organisational diagrams that relate simultaneously to generic and specific forms – can be derived through comparative analysis. Their changing relationshipshavebeen understood here in terms of typological transformations.

In this book, examples of drawings that describe these transformations are:

timelines;
comparative matrices;
comparative diagrams;
typological transformation diagrams;
and transformative matrices.

Transformations, for example, relate to specific:

formative elements;
repetitive or modular parts;
programmes;
structures;
and functions.

Questions for Consideration and Discussion

What are examples of a meaningfultypological transformation? What formative structures and organisations at architectural or urban scales are transformed? (Can these transformations be conceived beyond categories of function, form, morphology alone?)
What led to these transformations (sociopolitical, economic, environmental, technical, etc, changes and contexts)?
How were or how can these transformations be represented and compared?
How did these transformations change an approach to design?
When are (historical) transformations relevant to contemporary problems of design and context?

Sample Assignment