6 Architectural Drawings: Pen and Paper in a Digital Age

by Elen Jones

Is there still a place for pen and paper in the Digital age?

Architectural drawings are not just blueprints or the 2D versions of scaled toothpick models. They help to convey the purpose of a building, to inquire if the use of space is truly effective, to note information helpful to a creative process, or even to research Architectural anomalies, (phenomena), and their socio-political or economic impact on societal functions. In the digital age, with computers to create technical plans in half the time, already interconnected with data and to greater precision than any pen or pencil drawing, let us reassess the importance of drawn depictions – and the vitality they exude from the page.

LINA BO BARDI

Trained in Milan, Lina Bo Bardi moved to Brazil, finding her life in post-war Italy a challenge and, with her husband, in search of a blank canvas. A well regarded architect, she was just as enamoured by the physicality and skill required to build and construct as she was by the ideology and messages that would permeate her design. She was not known to produce 'standard' architectural drawings, though a skilled and notable draughtsman. Instead, she used pens, paints, watercolours and brushes, which help to characterise her childlike style. There is a naivety in her drawing, but it's almost always appropriate. Left, a preliminary study for MASP (Museu de Arte de Sao Paulo) conveys the optimism of the project and its cultural offering.

MASP was intended to challenge the social inequality and elite notions surrounding culture, internationally and in South America. Akin to this, the drawing above and image right shows how connected the building remains to the street even while it floats.

MASP was intended to challenge the social inequality and elite notions surrounding culture, internationally and in South America. Akin to this, the drawing and image show how connected the building remains to the street, even while it floats.

In the drawing, the prestressed-concrete beams on either side are grey, hardly noticeable, yet they are a bright vermillion in real life. The building has been regarded successfully in its aims, especially compared to other galleries, pompous and expensive, which fail to fill the social voids of our city centres or to bridge cultural differences. This drawing is particularly successful in its hopeful, illustrative character.

RICARDO BOFILL

Bofill, a prolific Spanish architect, sadly passed away this month. His commitment to his practice, highly original style and fantastical visions makes him hugely influential, inspiring the architecture in Squid Game for a start. The drawing-collages above display his maverick spirit. His style is varied and postmodern, drawing on many influences and often taking on garish colours – pink, ochre, blue. It’s like something you might make on Minecraft today, but this time you are limited to only the coloured clay and carpet blocks (and on ‘creative’ mode – clearly.) Bofill seems to take some inspiration from previous spanish architects, like Gaudi – La Pedrera (Casa Mila) seen above in the background (right), but also from a strangely pleasing combination of geographical and mathematical forms.

Then again, he also creates buildings so removed from reality in their stacked form and vibrant colours appear to be out of this world, explaining their appeal for film directors and tourists. His work certainly divides people, some in awe of its scale and others repelled by how ‘tacky’ it is, especially compared to a subdued modernist palette.

ROBERT VENTURI AND DENISE SCOTT BROWN

In autumn,1968, Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown took a trip with some architecture students from Yale to Nevada to examine ‘Urban Sprawl’- specifically the Las Vegas strip. The book, ‘Learning from Las Vegas’, 1972, which was the controversial product of this research, aimed to question elitism within architecture (specifically through modernism) and the repercussions of this on the make-up of our cities. Their findings are presented, interspersed with diagrams, images, and examples. The ‘polemical’ drawing above is perhaps the most memorable from the book and displays its core, and complex, message. It is a ‘decorated shed’ – a term Venturi uses to describe simple, box-like structures which take on interest and identity through applied symbols.

Their writing is sardonic, but honest. If we were to bring their research into a more 21st century conversation, it would perhaps touch on the appropriation of cultural references and styles, and the inflated architectural and obvious projects which world leaders and billionaires take on, often with little regard for others. A particular example is of the horrible clash of fonts on the Caesar’s palace sign – referencing Ancient Rome, 1930’s Hollywood and the Paris Metro all at once. Las Vegas today is even more of an agglomeration, a sprawling metropolis, where you can find New York, Venice and Paris simultaneously. And all of this in a desert with temperatures soaring above 40 degrees Centigrade in the summer and with the whole population reliant on Lake Mead reservoir and the Colorado river. Venturi and Scott Brown begin to capture the architectural, geographical and planning absurdities of the place.

BUCKMINSTER FULLER

The drawing (below) of Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic sphere is perfect. Fuller had visions of these spheres forming what could be floating cities, and certainly here it appears weightless, composed of only thin red lines and without a perimeter, except the denser area to the sides, reflecting the curvature of the shape. Seen in 3D form (left) his more moderate aim of creating areas under which utilitarianism could flourish- ideas of working towards common aims for the common good above selfish desire.

However, here begins a contradiction. Architects have long seen the problem of a lack of interconnectivity to be solvable by creating transparent, or at least vast, communal areas, whether this is Roger’s Millennium Dome (O2 arena) or the Great Exhibition Crystal Palace (1851). They are supposed to be democratising, but can often feel cavernous, soulless, especially if they do not take on the hub of activity that their form requires ie a clear function. Living in a geodesic dome could be utopic, even crime free. But it could also be a trapping, surveillance state, isolated both in geography and time, and only honouring the vision of one individual. Fuller’s drawing is no doubt mathematically beautiful, but one can’t help wondering about the practicality of his technologically and ecologically aided alternate-reality.

DANIEL LIBESKIND

Very few of Libeskind’s early works could be described as buildings. They are conceptual and assembled like art compositions, exploring fragmentation and the nature of architectural space. In these projects he challenges the traditional expectation of architecture, carried through from the enlightenment period. The drawing itself in in some sections seems to have depth and dimension, but other aspects it is flat and ambiguous. These different projections means that the compositions have a certain dynamism and a sense of time, acting like cubist paintings, able to capture multiple facets and faces of the interlocking shapes. Not only this, but each face is also drawn on a different plane, some axonometric, some vertical, some horizontal and some driving straight into the page.

Libeskind urges that this drawing represents more than just the breaking down of form or the shadows of objects. It is ‘more than a resignation to the inertia of convention’. This is true, as the lack of conventional walls and perimeters breaks the boundary between internal and external space. His work is hard to understand, being so Avant Garde and intellectually supported. But this drawing provides at least a small insight into how Libeskind goes about planning his compositions in their physicality.

HERZOG & DE MEURON

The final essential drawing in my list depicts the present and future of architectural practice. A Building Information modelling (BIM) representation: this drawing is super smart, drawing upon data from multiple sources. This can be generated by software and built up so that all can be reflected in a visual representation. Everyone involved in the project can work on the drawing, so it becomes an extremely useful tool. This particular image is a print taken from the BIM plan of the Elbphilharmonie (2016), an innovative extension of an existing warehouse in Hamburg. It displays the role of an architect in co-ordinating construction. The layers of the model seen here display the air supply and servicing of the project, vital to prevent too much fluctuation in the environment, given that the building houses a concert hall. The undulating roof displays the character of the building and of the music that drifts from inside the main auditorium. A cross sectional image of the building can be seen above.

I feel this collection of drawings shows that all approaches to a project have significance. Some are very practical, some are experimental, and others are even cathartic, a part of the design process. Some exude how a building might feel once built, while others are simply used to portray ideas, ideologies and theories. None seem to address all of these and, despite being both beautiful and crucial in the design process, none alone encompass architectural pursuits in the way that the final constructions do. Even with the best BIM technology, there will always be a place for the Architect’s sketchbook.

IMAGES AND SOURCES

Thomas, Helen (2018). Drawing Architecture: The Finest Architectural Drawings Through the Ages. Phaidon Press.

Lina Bo Bardi

https://drawingmatter.org/lina-bo-bardi-public-plaza-and-museum-of-art-sao-paolo/

https://www.insight-architecture.com/select-your-day-tour/avenida-paulista-cultural-political-and-economical-center-sao-paulo

Ricardo Bofill

https://socks-studio.com/img/blog/City_in_the_Space_Madrid_Spain_Ricardo_Bofill_Taller_Arquitectura_16.jpg

https://socks-studio.com/img/blog/City_in_the_Space_Madrid_Spain_Ricardo_Bofill_Taller_Arquitectura_01.jpg

Venturi

https://www.phaidon.com/agenda/architecture/articles/2018/september/20/robert-venturi-dies-aged-93/

https://americansuburbx.com/2012/11/venturi-scott-brown-learning-from-las-vegas.html

Buckminster Fuller