As well as being used at the beginning of the design process, as the scheme of a building further develops, many of the architectural drawings produced are analytical (even the detail drawings that explain the assembly of a building are themselves a form of analysis).
For example, analytical sketches can be used to explain site interpretation, any structural and environmental ideas for the site as well as detailed construction and assembly ideas. Cities can also be described through analytical drawing or mapping, and doing so often reduces complex forms of urban design to simple diagrams and sketches.
A series of analytical sketches will describe the thinking and evolution of the design idea, deconstructing it into stages of development and understanding. These sketches will reveal the thinking of the architect or designer and (when compared to the realised building) how it has influenced the final architectural scheme.
|
Sketch |
|
This sketch is created over a site plan to analyse aspects of route for pedestrians and cars. It also displays |
Observational sketches
Project: Observational sketch Location: Chichester, UK Designer: Paul Craven Bartle Date: 2007
This observational sketch is a perspective view, but it also describes the scale and the massing of the buildings in the street. The use of watercolours suggests the colours and textures of the building materials and the context of the street. Placing outlines of figures in the foreground of the drawing provides the sketch with a sense of scale.
Observational drawing is an important part of the design process. Careful observation allows us to first absorb and then comprehend what we see. To represent this in a drawing is a learned skill.
To produce an observational drawing first requires an initial period of concentration and analysis. It is important to take the time to really ‘see’. Look carefully at the subject; if it is a street scene or building look at it in terms of its underlying structure or layout as this will help allow a ‘plan’ to be established for the drawing. Before you put pen to paper consider how your drawing sits on the page and what techniques you will use to render or colour the image. The composition of the observational image on the page is key.
Project: Travel sketch Location: Venice, Italy Designer: Jeremy Davies Date: 2006
As well as capturing the space within and buildings surrounding St Marks Square (in the Italian city of Venice) in great detail, this observational sketch also captures the activities within, and use of, the area. This travel sketch captures the city’s famous annual carnival, when the city’s residents parade in colourful masks and vibrant costumes. As much as the buildings, the detail of the people and their costumes explain the place.
The buildings are a defining background to the sketch.
To construct a good observational sketch, visualise the entire view and ‘frame’ your subject so that it becomes a separate image from everything around it. Deciding what is important about your sketch, for example, determining those elements of the view that will form the focus of your drawing, is crucial.
Use guidelines to establish your framework. These guides may be a horizontal or vertical axis or other form of reference line on the page. Squares, circles or other geometric figures can also be used as guides and will help regularise your sketch. By gradually laying these guides on the paper you will be able to organise and place your view and in doing so help your drawing develop.
When the framework for the sketch has been established, it serves as an outline for the view. Take the time to check that this outline is correct. It may need to be adjusted to get the proportion and distances right.
Once the framework is correctly established, more line layers can be incorporated to develop detail in the drawing. At each point of addition the accuracy needs to be checked in order to ensure that the observational integrity of the drawing remains intact. Once all the lines are in place, tone, texture and colour can all be added to the sketch. It is important to ‘build’ drawings in this way, so that each stage is clear and if there are difficulties with proportion, scale or detail the image can be modified accordingly, again to keep the representation ‘true’.
Sketchbooks are containers of design information and can take many forms in order to suit different ways of thinking. Sometimes they serve as a kind of ‘aide – memoire’ to help record and pinpoint specific details, or they can be used to track the broader development process of a scheme.