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

This book examines a history of architectural sketches, exploring their physical technique,
comparing them to architects’ built work and speculating on how they convey architectural
intention in design process. Sketches, inherently different than drawings, illustrate conceptual
design thinking through architects’ personal dialogue. Tracing the development and use of
sketches by prominent architects reveals them to be instruments for recording, discovering,
designing, communicating, visualizing, and evaluating architectural constructs. Such an exploration
will provide insight into the role of sketches as mediators for the inception of architecture.
DEFINITION OF SKETCHES
The word ‘drawing’ presents a general term, whereas ‘sketching’ focuses on a specific technique.
Both can take the form of an action or object, verb or noun, as each can imply movement.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines a sketch as a brief description or outline ‘to
give the essential facts or points of, without going into details.’ Sketches document the primary
features of something or are considered ‘as preliminary or preparatory to further development’
(1985). Historically, the act of sketching or drawing on paper involves line. At its
most basic level, the production of line constitutes making marks with a pointed tool, initiated
by movement and force. In reverse, eyes follow a line and with that action the ‘line’s
potential to suggest motion is basic’ (Lauer, 1979, p. 151). A line, or mark, made with the
bodily action of the hands, demonstrates its ability to cause reflective action, as it attracts the
human eye to follow it. This cognition spurs associative thoughts, as the line suggests new
forms (Lauer, 1979). Much of the ‘motion’ of a sketch comes from the physical action of the
hand; in this way, the tool becomes an extension of the body and reflects the human body.
James Gibson, the psychologist and philosopher, writes concerning human contact with a
drawing and suggests that making marks is both viewed and felt (1979). The ‘gesture’ of this
intimate participation with a sketch gives it meaning and individuality.
The control of a hand on the drawing tool yields not a consistent line, but one that is
varied, thick or thin. The quality of the mark is important, since individual lines produce association
in the minds of architects. Gibson believes, in company with philosophers such as
Aristotle, that it is reasonable to suppose that humans can think in terms of images (1982).
Conversely, but consistent with his theories of visual perception, there cannot be vision
without the cognitive action of thought.
Sketches can be analogous for actions that do not involve a mark on paper. For example, a
quick skit by a comedian may be deemed a ‘sketch,’ although it does not involve the mark on
a surface. Thus, a sketch may be defined by its preliminary and essential qualities. Sketches
may also comprise three-dimensional actions preliminary to architecture, such as the fast
‘sketch’ model, or be conceived of digitally as a wire-frame massing in the computer. In such
ways, the intention takes precedence over the media. How sketches act to assist design thinking
designates their value.
As these definitions imply, sketches are notoriously imprecise; valueless physically, and
seen as a means to find something or communicate rather than as prized objects in and of
themselves. They are usually, but not necessarily, loose and lacking in detail. Some architects
make simple but precise diagrams, while others may use sketches purely for communication
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