October 26, 2023
Recorded on October 11, 2023.
In architecture, drawings serve a variety of purposes, from the functional to the conceptual.
Drawings communicate the image of a building to a client or public. They guide a building’s construction. But drawing as a practice helps an architect or designer explore ideas—about a building’s site, its volume, its plan, its details, and more. Drawing is a tool not only of observation and management, but also of imagination; drawings can articulate a speculative realm of possibility that extends beyond established ideas and material conditions. Over the past several decades, the array of digital technologies that have transformed design have transformed drawing itself. As these technologies are absorbed by designers, what is the state of drawing in architecture today?
Stan Allen, Olalekan Jeyifous, Hilary Sample, and Billie Tsien explore this question.
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Light and proportion in the Cistercian monasteries
Naoki Seshimo writes about his exploration through drawing of the Cistercian monasteries in southern France.
Drawings and intent in American architecture
Excerpts from the book's introduction by David Gebhard looks at themes of style, intent, and value in architectural drawing, situating these works in relation to "high art" of the 19th and 20th centuries.
June 7—July 17, 1977
200 Years of American Architectural Drawing
A 1977 exhibition on the role and aesthetic value of architectural drawings, featuring over 200 drawings from 1776 to 1976.