How To Produce Arch Drawings Like Koozarch

A Bit of Architectural Drawing

Interviewee:

Federico Rebecchini

Project

I wanted to sympathise the meaning architectural drawing by manus had in the past, and the significant it has today. To practice so the only things that I could do were to study and draw. After half-dozen months of research I selected some architects that, in a manner or in another, take revolutionized the fashion of budgeted architectural drawing. Each and every one of these architects have experimented in the field of graphic representation, elaborating drawings that contained their architecture thought fully.

The mere observation of the drawings on some magazine or nice book wasn't enough. I had to clay my hands, really go to know which kind of process lay backside every one of those splendid images. Merely in this mode could I fully understood the endeavour and devotion in representing an unique idea.

Inventing new subjects of the drawing would have been something too superficial. As a effect I decided to pick a "model", a cubic house used for educational purposes. The house was projected by architect Alessandro Anselmi, and later has been published in a series of flashcards past builder Margherita Caputo. The aseptic nature of the cube was perfect for unlike interpretations.

While I was studying the different architects through their life, architectural ideas, and representation, I was also drawing. I did this to better get within the architects' listen.

For each builder I consulted dozens of publications to notice all their drawings, even the tiniest ones. In this way I had a full picture of their graphic oeuvre.

In one case I understood each of them, non only graphically, merely too their mind-ready, I selected for each one of them a couple of dozens of drawings. Especially the ones that had a stronger bear upon or meaning.

I opened up each drawing fashion similar a surgeon, extracting all the little details and unique features that I tried to replicate partly in my drawings.

The process was long and dissimilar for each architect. There was a outset part of filtering, where all the "non so of import" drawings were took off to requite room to the about relevant. In the end I noticed that for every artist there is a specific way of representing ideas that struck the observer more, either for the simplicity or the complexity. I'll take equally an case the procedure behind Cedric Price'southward cartoon.

Fun Palace 1961

Toll was an tenacious drawer, and nosotros tin come across it through some great books like Cedric Cost Works (Foursquare Book) or the super expensive Cedric Price Works 1952-2003. He experimented techniques, overlapped dissimilar means of representing and had e'er a funny and critic look on architecture. The images that definitely convey his thoughts are from two of his near famous unrealized designs. The start (a) is a view from the peak, over his great projection, the Fun Palace. The drawing mix different styles, with the aim of communicating the modernity and stratification of the palace, but from a new bending, the interior of a helicopter. This drawing is original and perfectly centers its goal. And fifty-fifty looking closely information technology is hard to understand the manual process behind that. We are talking about a photo of a model, on which Price drawn with opaque markers and and so overlapped some cutboard with the holes for the helicopter'due south windows. An hell of a work, almost as the one he did for the 2nd drawing (b).

Sketches for Potteries Thinkbelt 1964

Potteries Thinkbelt 1964

It'southward another view from the interior of a vehicle, in this case a train approaching i of the stations of his other famous project Potteries Thinkbelt. There are ii images (c) where we can come across the process and the sketches behind the final production. Here the work seems simpler, but in that location is again a lot of transmission craft behind it. Cutting the parts and overlapping the unlike layers.

All these things gave me an interesting look on Price's work, and specially his mind, kind of twisted, but really methodical when he had to represent it. He didn't have shortcuts, only a lot of effort to better convey his ideas.

A epitomize drawings to set up the final representation

Equally a resuly I decided to realize an image similar to the 2d of the two that I described. I opted for a ii points perspective, with the internal view from a taxi approaching the house. First, I fix the cartoon with a light pencil, the house and the shape of the windows of the taxi. It took me a lot of time to set the windows, it never looked so natural as in Price's drawings, there was always something not adding up. In the end I managed to become an acceptable event. At that point I've drawn the firm, the street lights and the swing with a felt-tip black pen; the ii human figures with the pencil; and the crossing lines of the street with a prc ink thin pen. Over these lines I practical a dot pattern, and I did the same for the sky, cutting off some parts to reveal the lightbulbs. In fact, it is possible to see the difference of density betwixt the sky and the street. The adhesive dot pattern was also actually hard to notice. This texture was really common during the 60s-70s, however this is not the case nowadays when it is but possible to detect expensive pattern used for manga images. To complete the drawing, I used an agglutinative transparent xanthous film for the cab, and a black opaque one for the wheel and the rear-view mirror.

It was a long work, that required lot of planning (d) , but more often than not a lot of time to collect all the cloth. The event is not in any way comparable to Toll's cartoon, simply I remember information technology could at least become someone curious nigh the English architect'south piece of work. Furthermore, it taught me the patience that lies behind some great drawings. Everything seems and so simple and straight at the beginning, but only looking closely we tin can see the depth of the work.

The process behind the other 8 drawings was pretty like to the one I just described. Evidently, there were different issues related to the supports on which I've fatigued, or perchance the mystery behind some drawing's technique. It really helped me consulting different publications to cantankerous the upshot and go an thought of the cartoon procedure.

The result of all my research is a series of ix drawings and a huge text of 300 pages that goes deep into the architects' life, thought and drawings, lingers on the themes related to this discipline and likewise has some interviews to architecture representation's personalities, equally Sergei Tchoban (from the Museum fur Architekturzeichnung in Berlin) or architect and drawer Franco Purini.

The first and last question that I ask in the thesis is: "Is architectural cartoon by hand dead? And what is its part today?"

Charles Rennie Mackintosh

The scottish architect has an unique way. He uses a clean but slightly shaking line [01]. He prefers black and white, especially for the prespectives [02] where he often uses his graceful and original font [03]. Merely he also does interiors drawings, really authentic watercolors [04] that he uses also for the elevations, depending to the projection [05]. His mode of representing vegetation has made history [06], it is non a case that he is considered a forerunner of Fine art Nouveau. His stroke, so clean and firm, gives its best in his famous striped skies. Skies in tension [07], in contrast with the absenteeism of shadows [08]. He did used hatched shadows merely just in the early drawings.

The drawing has been made on a A3 300 gr. opaque polish paper with china ink.

Josef Frank

The austrian architect has definitely less fame than he deserves. His lite watercolors are unmistakable with their tiny details and its evergreen nature [01]. Depending on the message he wanted to requite he chose different styles [02]. The watercolors have a delicacy given from the pencil strokes, that are not insisted and most invisible [03]. He uses diluted colors [04], giving a fairytale atmosphere to the representations, peculiarly with a flat sky and some color stains for an non-intrusive vegetation [05]. But his drawings piece of work so well thank you also to the accurate study of the shadows [06], that, even if they're lite, give a great three-dimensionality to the drawings. Besides the colors he choses are not banal at all, they are realistic simply at the same time dreamy like a toy [07], using them in calibrated compositions [08] that aim to send an exact message while stimulating the observer.

The drawing has been fabricated on a A4 300 gr. opaque rough paper for watercolor. The base was in pencil, deriberately left visible, the colors diluted as much as possible.

Gordon Cullen

The english language architect is by far my favorite. Unfortunately he is too almost unknown outside britsh borders. He theorized his idea of Townscape through hundreds of incredible drawings. The shapes are sketched and stylised [01]. They seem simple to replicate, but I claiming fifty-fifty professional person drawers to accomplish results similar to his. His drawings hold hided complexities, that only he is able to render in a easy way [02], using a lot of unlike techinques [03] and using the color in the smartest way [04], keeping the cartoon light and focus on what is of import to communicate. His stroke is at the same time insisted and careful, muddied and precise [05], producing perfect and unmistakable images with just a bunch of lines. We can say he has the gift of graphic synthesis [06]. Gift that he uses to convey concepts creating new ways of architectural storytelling, as his patented sequentiality of images [07], that illustrate paths and views of the city. His drawings are tiny or huge, ever giving the viewer a articulate image. They are full of life [08], how Cullen wanted the metropolis streets to be.

The drawing has been fabricated on a A4 200 gr. opaque rough paper for pencil. I used a charcoal pencil.

Lina Bo Bardi

The italian builder, naturalized brazilian, has had a renovated fame in the late years, merely her fashion of cartoon was never pointed out. Lina used drawing with a great naturalness, without thinking about the implications. She produced fast and imprecise watercolors [01]. Ink or pencil, it made no difference, she had a rapid and carefree stroke [02], filling the drawing with bright and local colors [03], never disturbing, just joyful. Her homo figures are kind of goofy, stylised and child-like [04], without mentioning her animals and the thriving vegetation, typical of Brazil [05]. Next to her childish spirit there was a more precise one, how we can see in the numerous side notes [06], just especially in her realized projects. She often depicts scenes of sweet daily life, giving almost move to the drawings [07]. Her nigh iconic drawings are key prespectives [08], kind of a naive representation, but perfect for her intents.

The drawing has been made on a A3 300 gr. opaque crude paper for watercolor. The china ink was used in the quickest and virtually natural way on a thin pencil base. The watercolor also was bandage in a rapid way.

James Stirling

Stirling has definitely set a trend in architectural representation during the 60s-70s. His use of axonometric was copied past hundreds of architects. He is oft chosen Isometric Stirling. Axonometry allowed him the best clarity and functionality [01], typical of his compages. He oftentimes added a sparkle of creativity to the rigorous technical drawings [02]. Thrifty on colors [03], he used a thin coloured pencil to hatch the different areas, the sky was instead composed of crossed bluish lines. His architecture is not the fruit of a sudden inspiration, merely it is adult through infinite little written report sketches [04], rarely published. To give depth and character to the technical drawing he used lines with different thickness and wise hatchings, if necessary [05]. But was as well really common the total absence of competition [06] to signal out paths or parts of the project. His "worm'south heart" view [07] became really famous. Even if information technology wasn't anything new, Stirling used it in a smart way, giving an unprecedented bespeak of view of the interior spaces, becoming i of his typical features, together with the total black filling of the sectioned structure [08], simple, effective and functional.

The drawing has been fabricated on a A3 300 gr. opaque shine paper. Prc ink was used for the lines and the filling, light coloured pencil for the background.

Aldo Rossi

The architect from Milan was one of the offset to give an artistic significance to the architectural representation, simply always keeping it strictly related to the projection and its whole atmosphere and never end to itself. Rossi had a melancholic and beautiful idea of architecture, and his drawings perfectly reflect it. The line is not precise, merely at the same time it is precise inside the context of the drawing [01]. The stroke is fast, and often reiterated [02], to delineate shadows and atmospheres that we tin can easly ascertain metaphisic [03]. Aldo Rossi was an incredible drawer, as we tin can see in his more precise drawings, but to convey his ideas he frequently used irrealistic prespectives [04], or sometimes he introduced classical elements, people and out-of-context objects [05]. All these features communicate a really human nostalgia. His stroke is childish, and information technology is perfect to stand for his "intelligent naivety" [06]. The colors are bright, and they overlap [07], with different intensities, techniques and supports [08], from watercolor, to feltip pens, gouache, crayons and whatnot.

The drawing has been made on a A3 500 gr. opaque crude paper for mixed techinque. Mainland china ink was used for the shapes, crayons to colour it up.

Lebbeus Woods

Nosotros can count on the fingers of i paw the projects realized by Woods, but despite that his product of drawings is more than impressive. He is definitely one of the most interesting figures in the modern architecture scene, particularly for his theories, exoposed in unlike essays with relative drawings. He focused on a destroyed architecture [01], and in the coming of the architect, an almost mythical figure, to save it. A geometric-organic-mechanical tissue [02] creates new spaces in a mail-apocalyptic atmosphere world [03]. These new spaces, these new zones, are the sparkle to beginning the revolution against the state of war and corrupted architecture. He used endless techniques [04], oft realizing installations. Woods alternates tense and cleaved lines [05] to a detailed and precise stroke [06]. His drawings have always a perfect spatial construction [07], with a mastery in casting colors and shadows [08] his works are alive.

The cartoon has been made on a A3 300 gr. opaque rough paper. Blackness pencil for the buildings, and different coloured pencils to requite shape and colour to the rest.

Zaha Hadid

The iraqi/english architect is almoste every fourth dimension linked to modern architectures and seductive 3D renderings. But not everyone knows that Zaha Hadid has only drawn and painted for the first xv years of her career. Her sheet unremarkably depicted the project in a totally twisted infinite [01]. She used ascending and exaggerated prespectives [02] to convey the tension of the idea. Cutting and speed [03] are her typical features, simply ever using them in precise and experimental images [04]. Zaha Hadid used compositions of elements in the infinite [05], often making them explode in different directions to dismantle the enviroment [06]. There is a huge attention and elegance in the option of the colors, with a limited pallette of colors [07]. Acrylic colors that are either apartment or nuanced with great mastery [08].

Despite her great ability Zaha Hadid stopped realizing hand drawings the moment she had the correct technological instruments to convey her ideas. She is the perfect instance of the shifting from analogic to digital drawing that happened at the beginning of the 90s.

The drawing has been made ona 60×40 cm canvas. Graphite for a crude base, then acrylic paint.

Interview

Who influences you graphically?

If we talk virtually mitt drawn architectures, nearly of my influences come from comics. I genuinely remember that the all-time manus drawn architectures (graphically speaking) come up from comics, especially since the first of digital era. The stroke perfection of Chris Ware, the fantasy of Moebius, the synthesis of Hugo Pratt, the lightness of Igort, all of these comic artists, in my stance, tin teach us something that we tin apply on fatigued architectures. But we can not forgot some absolute masters of architecture and its fatigued counterpart, like Aldo Rossi and a lot of others that I studied in my thesis. Everything influences me today, from graphic design, to movies, analogy, any kind of entertainment, that, thank god, we have in unlimited quantities thanks to internet.

What prompted the project?

This project is really my principal thesis. I didn't want to practice a bones architecture projection, or either a refurbishment to end five years of studies. I wanted to practise something that I actually liked. I wanted to draw, acquire new techniques and become an idea, equally big as possible, of what is and mean architectural representation. I'm a large fan of analogic supports, so I decided to focus on mitt drawn compages and its role today.

What is your take on contemporary architectural representation?

Architectural representation is definitely in a neat moment of its history. There are countless styles, tools and great designers out there. Digital drawing allow u.s. to produce clean and beautiful images in a fast fashion. Something that 20 years ago could have took weeks, today can be done past the cease of the twenty-four hours. That implies a growing speed also in the trending styles, everything moves faster and that ways more opportunities to sally, simply also less time to practise information technology. A designer really needs to absorb new updates nearly everyday. Doing something original become pretty difficult nowadays, particularly when we accept then many inputs from then many sources. That's why it's important to filter our options and get crafty. Your website is an example of how we can still invent, either with 100 different tools or 1 tool.

In taking architectural drawing as a process and inherently tied to the project, how limiting was the super imposition of the formal cube?

My first idea was to describe in unlike styles a "Generic itched roof firm", as you can see here. But this generic house unsaid a project that had to be directly connected with the architect and his/her architecture idea. It wouldn't accept worked. So my teacher suggested me to skip the project role and focus on the cartoon part only. Taking the cube as a model immune me to remember only nigh the drawing techniques and the bulletin related to them. In the end it really helped me, and existence the project a single house gave me the opportunity to place it anywhere without, for example, the limitations of a multi-storey building . Another plus was that the cube is as well pretty easy to draw.

What is your take on gimmicky tools of drawing?

I think we're still in a shifting moment. Digital tools are not totally developed yet. BIM is going to be the futurity but still needs to be implemented to become a tool to do compages and non only buildings. VR is still at its first steps, but Tilt Brush seems to be something that really tin can push frontwards representation. Graphic design and illustration programs seem to be the more than interesting. There are tons of styles, programs and new tools that we can utilize everyday, and that's great, but at the same time I experience overwhelmed. That'due south why I like analogic drawing, it gives me the fourth dimension to think rationally and slowly. At least at the commencement, after I tin easily shift to digital if necessary.

What and to what extent have they influenced how we perceive and communicate architecture?

This question make me think nearly the photorealistic renderings, especially those realized in the early stages of a project. They are something that can easily harm a valid projection. It is expected to run into something like this in competitions, and keeping the project similar to early renderings, in my opinion, is not great. Also the famous "Uncanny Valley", the moment when the photorealistic paradigm repels us, it'southward a common thing. We can avoid all of these issues by using abstraction. Abstruse drawings communicate ideas, moods and peculiarly the architect'due south will on the project. Finding our own mode of representation seems to me the simply way to really create and mayhap build architecture today (obviously also with the help of more than rigorous technological tools).

What office does the sketch play?

The sketch will always take a fundamental role in architecture. This is a thing on which 99% of architects concord on. I personally can non imagine starting producing any kind of image, from an architecture project to a unproblematic movie poster, without a little sketch as a basic guideline. Pencil and paper take e'er another taste, only also digital sketching is groovy. Sketching allow us to convey ideas, and especially continue our mistakes by paw. Paper and tracing paper with sketches, notes and doodles can tell us a lot most where the project started, and where is going to stop. Things that a direct-to-digital drawing is not capable of. Tools similar AutoCad or BIM programs have this kind of problem, but I'm seeing that applied science is everyday shifting more towards an "handy" approach, and that's nifty, or at least is amend than mouse and keyboard.