The primacy of drawing

There is no better project to reflect on the importance of visual communication during the design process than the design for an architecture school – particularly when it’s your alma mater.

As a former alumnus of the Welsh School of Architecture during the noughties, I have an enduring memory of box-fresh drawing boards laid out in the first year studio and an equipment list that consisted of a clutch pencil, an adjustable set square and a scale ruler. I’m pleased to see, despite rapid advances in digital technologies over the last two decades, that the drawing boards have returned to the newly refurbished studios (indeed, I still have mine!)

This was (and remains) a school of architecture that endorses the skill of hand-crafted drawing. In the first few weeks under the expert guidance of Professor Simon Unwin, we learnt how to compose a set of orthographic drawings at St Fagans Natural Museum of History, the importance of drawing conventions and we even drew 1:1 scale plans, sections and elevations of each other! From concept sketch and parti diagram to orthographic projection and two-point perspective, the objective was simple: how could you expect to create a digital drawing without first understanding how to compose one by hand – the weight of line, depth of shading, the level of detail.

These early lessons stayed with me and have served to demonstrate one of our most potent skills as architects – the ability to visually communicate our ideas to clients.

Drawing for Designers

When BDP were appointed by Cardiff University to develop the design refurbishment of the Bute Building for the Welsh School of Architecture, we had to think carefully about how to present our concept. Not only were we having to consider how best to communicate the aesthetic precepts of the design idea but, given the expert end-user client base that we were faced with, we also needed to consider how to present the inner workings of that idea.

In the modern architectural profession, we have all become accustomed to clients that are hungry to see the final ‘photo-real’ visualisations of the designs we develop, but the process of getting there can often be overlooked. In my experience, the rigour that is invested in this early iterative design process is perhaps the most significant stage in the gestation of a project. It sets the benchmark for design throughout the later stages and more often than not carries through the notion of conceptual clarity.

Whilst technology may have moved on (I now draw with a digital pencil for instance!) the principles of visual communication haven’t changed. How to distil a drawing down to illustrate the seed of an idea is always the first question I ask myself as it’s often not what you draw, but what you don’t draw that communicates the point.

Economy

There are lots of aspects that make drawing important as a skill and activity for architecture – light, colour, texture and atmosphere to name a few, but for me economy is perhaps the most important. The process we took to illustrate the design concepts for the refurbishment of the Bute Building is a great example of the power of economy in drawing and visual communication.

Working within an existing building, this was not a design that could be easily communicated through simple plan, section and elevation. As noted in my previous article Intelligent Repurposing for a Sustainable Future, the interventions were subtle, discrete and threaded throughout the building – from looking at a plan, one would not easily appreciate what we have done to the building. This was very deliberate as part of our ‘light-touch’ approach to repurposing the building with strategic, targeted interventions.

As such, it stands to reason that the method for communicating the design would also need to be localised, targeted and abstract. The axonometric design drawings that ensued focussed on the key target areas – the model workshop, the hybrid teaching studio, the front entrance and finally the exhibition hall. The objective was to extract each space from the whole and communicate its unique design characteristics through the subtle interventions and inhabitation of each space.

Whilst my approach to drawing changed through the process, from the initial abstract diagram that clarified the brief to the 3D sketches that communicated the concepts, I deliberately maintained graphic consistency in order that the design development could be seen as a suite of drawings that would communicate the holistic vision of the design.

Model Workshop – ‘Assembly’

Hybrid Studio – ‘Flexibility’

Front Entrance – ‘Identity’

Exhibition Hall – ‘Connectivity’

In the spirit of being economical and as a firm believer of the old adage - ‘a picture paints a thousand words’, I will keep the words short and let the drawings do the talking.