Architect Drawings : A Selection of Sketches by World Famous Architects Through History

and experience in their architecture and were apt to make more fluid and emotive sketches. Alison and
Peter Smithson used ideograms, Aldo Rossi considered multiple views in his sketches, Kunio
Maekawa utilized strong horizontal lines and, of course, Frank Lloyd Wright claimed not to have
sketched at all. Many of these architects also participated in the construction process, such as Felix
Candela, who built full-scale mock-ups of concrete shell structural systems. Architects such as Eero
Saarinen relied heavily on models and full-scale prototypes to evaluate and visualize complex building
systems and structure.
As unique as their buildings, modern architects used vastly different sketching styles. They
responded uniquely to the questions they asked themselves. Since querying the sketch about the relationships
between adjoining rooms, an architect may have responded with a plan. Where an architect
asked about regulating lines, a diagram in elevation would have been the best method for study. Since
there were few rules that guided the techniques of sketches, each architect found unique approaches
to their relationships with visual design media. The most striking are sketches by Aalto, where his
overlapping wavy lines have been exhibited in nearly all of his sketches. These architects implemented
individual conventions and the results reflected their personalities. The variations might suggest signatures
that varied from bold lines to delicate tracings. As the art historian Giovanni Morelli found
prominent painters from the Renaissance each had a ‘language’ in the way they formed ears or hands,
similarly modern architects can be distinguished and identified by specific traits (Fernie, 1995). The
period of modern architecture has been massively generalized. Although as the name the ‘international
style’ suggests many factions and interpretations were entertained around the world with generally
similar ideals.
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