Architectural Drawing

A Visual Compendium of Types and Methods

Rendow Yee

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781118012871
• eBook ISBN: 9781118310441
• Edition: 4
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Architecture Design

The classic architectural drawing compendium— now in a richly updated edition

Today's most comprehensive compendium of architectural drawing types and methods, both hand drawn and computer generated, Architectural Drawing: A Visual Compendium of Types and Methods remains a one-of-a-kind visual reference and an outstanding source of guidance and inspiration for students and professionals at every level.

This Fourth Edition has been thoroughly updated to reflect the growing influence of digital drawing. Features include:

• More than 1, 500 drawings and photographs that demonstrate the various principles, methods, and types of architectural drawing
• Examples by an impressive array of notable architects and firms, including Tadao Ando, Asymptote, Santiago Calatrava, Coop Himmelb(l)au, Norman Foster, Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Steven Holl, Arata Isozaki, Toyo Ito, Gudmundur Jonsson, Kohn Pedersen Fox, Ricardo Legorreta, Morphosis, Patkau Architects, Pei Partnership Architects LLP, Renzo Piano, Antoine Predock, SANAA, David Serero, Studio Daniel Libeskind, Studio Gang, Bing Thom, Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, and UN Studio
• A brand new chapter, "Introduction to the Digital-Manual Interface" which covers how digital and traditional drawing techniques can be used in conjunction with each other
• A new chapter on guidelines for portfolio building
• Content organized in a streamlined, easy-to-use fashion
• Supplementary online instructor resources, including PowerPoint slides tied to the book

"This volume reveals how architects approach drawing as a process wherein ideas are given form. As a tool for teaching, these examples become important in students' understanding of the formal and technical aspects of design thought. In an age of digital technologies, this work emphasizes the intimate relationship that exists between the drawing and its maker, the process between paper, hand, and mind." —LaRaine Papa Montgomery, Professor of Architecture/Graphics Coordinator, Savannah College of Art and Design

"This book contains a wealth of information on architectural graphic communication. My students have found this to be an invaluable resource for graphic presentation techniques ranging from traditional hand drawing to advanced computer graphics. It features an amazingly wide range of examples including both student work and professional work by renowned architects. With the addition of a new chapter on portfolio design, this new edition illustrates the full gamut of graphic communication skills from the conceptual sketch through the documentation of the final portfolio." —Mark A. Pearson, AIA, LEED AP, Associate Professor of Architecture, College of DuPage

"This book should be in the library of all architecture and design students as well as practicing professionals. The richness and variety of hand-drawn and digital illustrations by students and architects offers deep insight into the many drawing types and methods used today. The section on portfolios is a helpful and timely addition." —Professor Michael Hagge, Chair, Department of Architecture, The University of Memphis

Chapter 1

Representational Drawing

BASICS

BASICS APPLIED

Sketches of the built environment are analytical drawings that generally convey an overall image. We do these drawings to gain a greater understanding of the nature of the man-made and natural landscape. To capture and convey the essence of a place, such drawings must be executed quickly, accurately, and with confidence. These drawings are our pictorial expressions of the spirit and sense of place as we document what we see.

Geometric shapes are the building blocks for all derived forms. Environmental form and composition are an aggregate of simple and complex forms. Whether you draw from life or from your imagination, these forms must be graphically expressed and communicated in a composition within a two-dimensional surface to convey the perception of a third dimension.

The intent of this chapter is to cover the basic aspects of freehand descriptive sketching and delineating, including the types of tools, line, shape, proportion, and values as well as examining, observing, and depicting encountered environmental elements. Another goal is to hone your ability to sketch by using line, volume, texture, and tone—as well as proportional and perspective relationships—to describe various objects.

The following are some of the important skills, terms, and concepts you will learn:

Types of sketching pencils and the strokes they make

Types of sketching pens and the strokes they make

Sketching and delineating architectural elements like trees, cars, and buildings

Sighting

Vignette

Vantage point

Foreground

Entourage

Stippling

Blocking out

Rendering

Value

Middle ground

Delineating trees

Delineating cars

Hatching

Construction lines

Focal point

Background

Delineating figures

Scribbling

Representational Drawing

TOPIC: VEGETATION
Wang 2002.

TOPIC: DRAWING METHODS
Crowe and Laseau 1986.
Mendolwitz and Wakeham 1993.

TOPICS: HUMAN FIGURES, SIGHTING
Wang 2002.

TOPIC: SKETCHING WITH MARKERS
Wang 1993.

TOPIC: BUILDINGS/TRAVEL SKETCHES
Ferriss 1986.
Johnson and Lewis 1999.
Predock 1995.

Chapter Overview

In studying this chapter, you will begin to develop skills in hand representational drawing and delineating. For continued study, refer to Ching 1990 and Wang 2002.

BASICS

INTRODUCTION

Drawing from life is essential to the development of the hand-eye-brain loop. The more you draw, the more you look at the world around you. As architects, artists, and designers become more aware of their surroundings, their work becomes more formidable. Often, when students begin drawing, their work does not have “the right shape”; in other words, it is not in the correct proportions. One of the most fundamental tools for controlling proportion is called sighting (see sighting section in this chapter). This method of using a drawing instrument held at arm’s or partial arm’s length as a measuring device (essentially simulating a picture plane) is highly effective in helping the beginner to make objects in the drawing the right shape, as well as controlling distances and relative sizes in general. Looking and recording reality with the aid of sighting strengthens the visual sense and brings confidence to the drawing process.

Drawing is a process that progresses from seeing to visualizing and, finally, to expressing. The ability to see gives us the raw material for our perceptions and, ultimately, for what we draw. Visual information seen by the eye is processed, manipulated, and filtered by the mind in its active search for structure and meaning. The mind’s eye creates the images we see and eventually tries to express them in the form of a drawn image. Our ability to express and communicate relies on our ability to draw.

Drawing: Student project by Johanna Rantonnen
Copenhagen, Denmark
Medium: Ink sketch
Courtesy of the University of Virginia School of Architecture

FREEHAND SKETCHING PENCILS

Some of the many quality sketching pencils are shown on this page. Other alternatives include charcoal sticks and Conté pencils. Experiment with different kinds of opaque sketching paper as well. Beginners normally use inexpensive newsprint paper as their first drawing paper. Smooth (fine-grain) sketching paper and coarse (textured) sketching paper are also commonly used. Sketched lines are more uniform and continuous on smooth paper, less uniform and more expressive on rough paper. Translucent yellow sketching (tracing) paper is used primarily for conceptual design sketching.

Soft lead sketching pencils can have round or flat leads. A flat sketching pencil can be thick (carpenter’s pencil) or medium thick (chisel pencil). Both must be sharpened by hand. Flat sketching pencils are mainly used in three degrees: 2B, 4B, and 6B. They are commonly used for covering large areas quickly, as when creating tonal indications for brick, stone, and wood. Conté pencils or sticks come in three grades of black, in four different colors, and in soft, medium, and hard. Both Conté and Ebony pencils give smooth lines. The Ebony pencil’s soft core is slightly wider than that of a typical pencil. Formerly, a good general-purpose sketching pencil with a soft lead was a Berol or Eagle Draughting 314; its successors are Sanford and General’s Draughting No. 314. When round leaded pencils become too short from use, add length by using a pencil extender. An all-purpose mechanical leadholder clutch pencil can adapt its lead to almost any shape and is ideal for rapidly sketching...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication
• Preface to the Fourth Edition
• Preface to the Third Edition
• Preface to the Second Edition
• Preface to the First Edition
• Chapter 1: Representational Drawing
• Chapter 2: Diagramming and Conceptual Sketching
• Chapter 3: Introduction to the Digital-Manual Interface
• Chapter 4: Conventional Orthogonal Terminology
• Chapter 5: Orthographic and Paraline Drawing
• Chapter 6: Linear Perspective Drawing
• Chapter 7: Light, Shade, and Shadow
• Chapter 8: Presentation Formats
• Chapter 9: Introduction to Portfolio Building
• Epilogue
• Drawing Exercises
• Appendix
• Bibliography and References
• About the Author
• Subject Index
• Contributor Index
• Web Site Contributor Index