Methods in Practice DEVS 5994 + Drawing Interior DESN6202IN

METHODS IN PRACTICE +
DRAWING INTERIOR
Course Co-ordinator: Susan Hedges + Jacqui Chan
Assessment: 100% Coursework (1 folio of drawings)
Studio Sessions: 9:30am – 12:30pm + 13:00pm – 16:00pm

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This paper introduces students to several of the fundamental

concepts and techniques involved in drawing including: freehand
drawing techniques, sketching, basic perspective, the use of various
media, the relationship between architectural forms and their
graphical representations, the analytical and critical value of drawing,
representation and rendering techniques related to studio drawing.

THERE WILL BE PLENTY OF SITE VISITS SO BRING

COMFORTABLE FOOTWARE. 2ND YEAR STUDENTS NEED TO
ALLOW 3 HOURS FOR THIS PAPER. 1ST YEAR STUDENTS MUST
ATTEND ALL 6 HOURS OF THE CLASS (ENSURE THAT YOU
RETURN TO STUDIO AFTER THE SITE VISITS TO CONTINUE
WORKING ON YOUR DRAWINGS IN STUDIO).

COURSE OUTLINE

Week 2. Tuesday 4th March: Campus Tour

Students are asked to make a number of drawing of the
UNITEC Campus.

Week 3. Tuesday 11th March: Shadow / Light

Students are asked to make a number of drawings of
shadows considering the following ideas: shadow as
threshold; shadow as refuge; shadow as trace; shadow as
projection; shadow as reflection; shadow as transparency

Week 4. Tuesday 18th March: Veil / Reflection / Transparency

Students are asked to make a number of drawings of veils
considering the following ideas: veil; transparency;
reflection; screen; dematerialization; transparency as grid;
transparency as movement and stillness

Week 5. EASTER BREAK

No classes on Monday or Tuesday

Week 6. Tuesday 1st April: Plan – Leaving Traces

Make a number of plan drawings. Consider the following
ideas: the plan as shadow; the plan as veil; the plan as
transparency; the plan as reflection; the partial nature of the
plan; the plan as plot of human habitation; the pacing out of
plan; the floor grid and articulation of spatial division; the
plan as footprint emphasizing horizontality

Week 7. Tuesday 8th April: Section – The Bloody Cut

Make a number of sectional drawings. Sections should show
the 3D nature of the object. Sectional cuts to be at right
angles to the main surfaces of the object. Consider the
following ideas: the destruction of wholeness; the partial
nature of the section; the section revealing the body as
container; the section revealing the space of inhabitation
(the space between the cut-plane and what falls behind); the
section as a cutting action (dissection), void and mass; the
 Methods in Practice DEVS 5994 + Drawing Interior DESN6202IN

relationship between building and ground

Program for the second half of the semester to be

advised.

INTRODUCTION: AN ARCHITECTURAL VOYAGE

This paper emphasises drawing as a form of representation that

marks the experience and interpretation of the built-world.

For the course of the semester, drawing will be conceived of in terms

of a ‘voyage.’ The word ‘voyage’ names both a journey of exploration
and the record of that journey and its discoveries1. Through the
voyage concept the intention is to create an appreciation of drawing
as a means of making and marking spatial discoveries. In this
respect, drawing is considered not as a neutral tool for picturing a
scene, but rather as a means of analysis and critical enquiry, a means
of looking to learn and discover.

The modern architect Le Corbusier (1887-1965) understood

architectural drawing to be a voyage. He said that making a mark on
a page represented a means of looking, observing and discovering. In
a famous passage he wrote,

“When one travels and works with visual things – architecture,

painting, or sculpture – one uses one’s eyes and draws, so as to fix
deep down in one’s experience what is seen. Once the impression
has been recorded by the pencil, it stays for good, entered,
registered, inscribed. The camera is a tool for idlers, who use a
machine to do their seeing for them. To draw oneself, to trace the
lines, handle the volumes, organise the surface … all this means first
to look, and then to observe and finally perhaps to discover … and it
is then that inspiration may come. Inventing, creating, one’s whole
being is drawn into action, and it is this action which counts. Others
stood indifferent – but you saw!”2

Robin Evans, suggests that drawing facilitates a direct and linear

translation between ideas and building3. Through drawing, ideas are
transported to building with a ‘minimum of loss.’ The act of drawing is
framed as a neutral act of transportation. It is understood to carry
things from one place to another. In this respect drawing is thought to
neither contribute nor take anything away from buildings and ideas.

This paper turns around the difference between architectural drawing

as a form of transport and architectural drawing as a kind of voyage.

It is proposed that the voyage concept presents architectural drawing

as a much more active undertaking.

1
In its etymology the word voyage contains the root word viāticus, which is
Latin for ‘road’ or ‘journey’; from via, road, way (OED)
2
Žaknic, I., Ed. (1987). Journey to the East. Cambridge, MIT Press, p. xiii.

3
“Architecture has nevertheless been thought of as an attempt at maximum
preservation in which both meaning and likeness are transported from idea
through drawing to building with minimum of loss. This is the doctrine of
essentialism.” (Evans, R. (1997). Translations from Drawing to Building and
Other Essays. London, Architectural Association, p. 181.)
 Methods in Practice DEVS 5994 + Drawing Interior DESN6202IN

COURSE OUTLINE
The paper is conceived of as a series of voyages. Each week
commences with a seminar introducing students to the principal
drawing theme or technique to be developed that day. Together the
class will then walk to an identified ‘point of departure’. Over the next
few hours students will be asked to make a series of drawings
exploring and discovering various concepts, buildings, and spaces. In
this time students are asked to consider the act of drawing in terms
of a voyage.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Lectures and tutorials introduce the students to architectural drawing
as a formal design medium, a critical and analytical tool and as a
recording and observational technique. The students will study the
architecture of Auckland city in order to understand how drawing can
assist interpretation, produce a formal object and is a means to
understanding. The ideas will be introduced in a lecture and then
tutorials will provide the space and time to make the required
drawings.

ASSESSMENT
• Drawing folio (100%) Submission date: 23rd June 2008

• There must be a record of each week’s voyage – minimum of four

drawings. (Evidence of three hours work)
• Drawings must be gathered together carefully in the folder. They
need to be chronologically arranged, with the earliest drawings at
the front and the latest at the back.
• All drawings are to be named, dated and identified (i.e. John
Smith, Week one – Campus 1, etc.).
• Folders must be submitted with the appropriate ‘Assignment
Submission’ form attached.
• Folders to be A1 – (no envelopes or rolls).
• Assessment criteria and weighting will be in accordance with
DEVS 5994 requirements.

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA + WEIGHTING:

33.33% 1. The acquisition of practical skills and objective knowledge in

the use of materials and technology:
Demonstrates ability to make selective decisions in the
application and experimentation of materials and
technology.
Manipulates a variety of materials and technology with
fluency and purpose.
33.33% 2. The exploration of drawing possibilities:
Demonstrates ability to initiate and direct drawing
processes and procedures.
Conducts ongoing visual analysis of drawing processes and
procedures in manipulating material concerns.
33.33% 3. The communication of creative outcomes through practical
means:
Demonstrates ability to establish ideas, concepts and issues
relevant to the chosen field of practice.
Presents findings effectively using a variety of
 Methods in Practice DEVS 5994 + Drawing Interior DESN6202IN

documentation and presentation methods.

EQUIPMENT
Students need to have the following ready for use each week

(* equipment needed for Week One)

Flat Board for support while on site

* A2 Cartridge Pad
Permatrace
Tracing Paper

* Propelling pencils / Clutch Pencils

* Leads 3H – 8B
Eraser
* Sharpener
Scalpel
Fixative

* Graphite
Conté

Inks
* Pens

Small measuring tape.

Small directional compass (north point)

Small scale rule

 Methods in Practice DEVS 5994 + Drawing Interior DESN6202IN

READING LIST
Allen, S., Agrest, Diana. (2000). ‘Practice: architecture, technique and
representation.’ Amsterdam: G+B Arts International; Abingdon:
Marston.

E. Blau, (1989), 'Architecture and its image: four centuries of

architectural representation: works from the collection of the
Canadian Centre for Architecture.' Montreal: Canadian Centre for
Architecture; Cambridge, Mass.

J. Bloomer, (1993), 'Architecture and the text: the (S)crypts of Joyce

and Piranesi.' New Haven: Yale University Press.

Cixous, H. (2001). Veils / Hélène Cixous, Jacques Derrida; translated

by Geoffrey Bennington; with drawings by Ernest Pignon-Ernest.,
Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.

F. Ching, 1943-, (2002), 'Architectural graphics.' New York: John Wiley

J. Crary, (1990), 'Techniques of the observer: on vision and modernity

in the nineteenth century' Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

H. Damisch, (1994), 'The origin of perspective; translated by John

Goodman.' Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

J. Elkins, (1998), 'On pictures and the words that fail them.'
Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press.

R. Evans, (1997), 'Translations from drawing to building and other

essays.' London: Architectural Association.

R. Evans, (1995), 'The projective cast: architecture and its three

geometries.' Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Farthing, Stephen (2005). Dirtying the Paper Delicately, Furnival

Press, London.

M. Frascari, (1993), 'The Compass and the Crafty Art of Architecture',

Modulus, 22, 2-15

M. Frascari, (1985), 'Function and Representation in Architecture',

Design Methods and Theories, 19, 1,200-212

M. Frascari, (1991), 'Monsters of Architecture: Anthropomorphism in

Architectural Theory', Savage, Maryland, Rowman and Littlefield
Publishers Inc.,

M. Frascari, (1982), 'Professional Use of Signs in Architecture', JAE:

Journal of Architectural Education, 36, 2, 16-22

Pérez-Gómez, A., Pelletier, Louise, (1997). Architectural

representation and the perspective hinge, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT
Press.

D. M. Herbert, (1992), 'Graphic Process in Architectural Study

Drawings', JAE: Journal of Architectural Education, 46, 1, 12-13

D. M. Herbert, (1988), 'Study Drawings in Architectural Design: Their

Properties as a Graphic Medium', JAE: Journal of Architectural
Education, 41, 2, 26-38
 Methods in Practice DEVS 5994 + Drawing Interior DESN6202IN

R. E. Krauss, (1993), 'The optical unconscious.' Cambridge, Mass.: MIT

Press,

C. Rowe, (1997), 'Transparency; with a commentary by Bernhard

Hoesli and an introduction by Werner Oechslin.' Basel; Boston:
Birkhäuser Verlag.

Silvetti, Jorge (1977). 'The Beauty of Shadows.' Oppositions

9(Summer): 51.

K. S. Smith, (1990), 'Architectural Sketches and the Poser of

Caricature', JAE: Journal of Architectural Education, 46, 1, 49-58

G. Stamp, (1982), 'The great perspectivists', Trefoil Books in

association with the Royal Institute of British Architects.

K. H. Veltman, (1986), 'Linear perspective and the visual dimensions

of science and art.' München: Deutscher Kunstverlag.

C. Zegher, (2001), 'The activist drawing: retracing situationist

architectures from Constant's New Babylon to beyond.’ Cambridge,
Mass.: MIT Press.,