This exercise is intended to explain and explore the sectional cut and drawing. Sometimes it is difficult to understand what the section of an object or building describes, but essentially it reveals the hidden aspects of a structure.
1 Find an old shoe and saw it in half along its length.
Be careful when cutting as some shoes have hidden steel plates.
2 Look at the cut carefully to try and begin to understand its form and how it appears to be assembled. Is it layered? What are the different materials it is made from?
3 Take the shoe and position it so that it is ready to draw (consider the light or shadow falling on it and its surrounding context). Now look again, what surface is it sat on? What is inside? What do you see beyond?
4 Once you have looked at the shoe in great detail, you will be able to make an informed decision about the medium and paper you wish to use. The medium and paper chosen should bear relation to your chosen drawing technique. For example, an ink drawing on cartridge paper will be more precise than an ink drawing on watercolour paper due to its absorbency.
5 Draw only what you see, but draw in detail and at full scale (1:1).
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Project: Kolata Living Steel
Competition
Location: Kolata, India
Architect: Piercy Conner
Architects
Date: 2006
Piercy Conner Architects recognise that contemporary housing rarely deviates from the accepted model of sealed cellular spaces, which often fails to respond to demographic and environmental conditions. So in designing for an Indian location, their challenge was to create an economically viable alternative that would be ‘expressive, joyful and responsive to the environment’.
This CAD image presents a perspective model of the scheme. The bird’s eye view is taken from second-floor level and it allows an understanding of the relationship between the buildings and the street, and also gives a glimpse of the rooftop gardens. Shadow and texture give a sense of reality to the image.
It can sometimes be difficult to read two-dimensional architectural drawings because certain drawing conventions can appear like a specialised code. Two-dimensional architectural drawings are often attempting to represent three-dimensional spaces or places, which is not always easy. Three-dimensional images can make the interpretation of a building so much easier, and create an impression of a building that is immediately accessible.
Each of the different three-dimensional drawing techniques explored in this chapter can provide a different way to view the building. Perspective drawings allow the view from a particular standpoint, and axonometric and isometric drawings create threedimensional forms from a particular point, which can be viewed in the same way as a model. The choice of view is the most important consideration when deciding which image type is relevant
Three-dimensional images create an impression of what it might be like to occupy or work in a building, and can be combined with other two-dimensional drawings to give a convincing overall impression of a scheme or project.
Although perspective images usually offer a true impression of a space, there are distortions in perspective that can make the impossible appear possible.
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Perspective Project: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Location: Kansas City, USA Architect: Steven Holl Architects Date: 2006 |
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This competition-winning addition to the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art is composed of five interconnected structures. Traversing from the existing building across a sculpture park, the five built ‘lenses’ form new spaces and angles of vision creating new experiences of the existing museum. This interior sketch explores the quality of light inside the gallery space. |
There is a sense that perspective images project a true and measured reality, but they are in fact open to interpretation and manipulation by the architect or artist, who will decide what is and isn’t seen and where the perspective’s viewpoint is taken from.