28
II. 3 Architectural drawing
29
The main distinguishing feature of architectural drawing has been described by Henryk Dąbrowski: ‘Drawing – an architect’s workshop tool, and not an end in itself. Its essence is the information contained therein.’13 (Dąbrowski 1983, 42–43) Władysław Fuchs notes that ‘[architectural drawing] is characterised by a strictly defined goal: illustration of architectural thought’14 (Fuchs 1994, 12). A similarly broad definition has been given by Andrzej Białkiewicz: ‘Architectural drawing is both an architect’s drawing and a drawing depicting architecture. It can be defined therefore on the basis of the content and the identity of its author.’15 (Białkiewicz 2006)
Leszek Maluga points out that the exact assignment of some images to architectural drawings is a complex task. He proposed dividing them into three groups. The first group encompasses architectural and design drawings, i.e. drawings made for the purpose of illustrating the design project intended for implementation. The second group encom-passes the architect’s drawings, created for the purpose of design, but also art works, composition studies, theoretical considerations, spatial fantasies, and travel sketches.
Maluga also included autonomic architectural drawings in this category (see V. 4). He excluded ‘architecture-themed drawings’ from the ‘architectural drawing category – all the pictures representing existing and non-existent architectural objects, not necessarily authored by the architect and regardless of the reason for their creation’16. He emphasised what was mentioned at the beginning of the subchapter – the essence of architectural drawing in all its forms and manifestations is to depict the idea of space (Maluga 2006, 22–24).
A broad view of architectural drawing was adopted in the dissertation, reflecting the very complex and multidimensional activity of architects and urban planners. The most important distinguishing features are the above quoted: information content and the goal, which is an illustration of thought connected with existing, non-existent or designed architecture or urban space. At the same time, following Leszek Maluga’s line of thinking, the drawings depicting architecture but not made by architects were excluded from the discussed category.
13 ‘Rysunek – narzędzie warsztatowe architekta, a nie cel sam w sobie. Jego istotą jest zawarta w nim informacja.’ (translation into English: Monika Fryszkowska)
14 ‘[rysunek architektoniczny] wyróżnia się ściśle określonym celem: ilustracji myśli architektonicznej’ (translation into English:
Monika Fryszkowska)
15 ‘Rysunek architektoniczny to zarówno rysunek architekta, jak również rysunek przedstawiający architekturę. Można go więc definiować na podstawie treści oraz tożsamości jego autora.’ (translation into English: Monika Fryszkowska)
16 ‘rysunki o tematyce architektonicznej – wszystkie obrazy architektury istniejącej i nieistniejącej, niekoniecznie autorstwa architekta i bez względu na powód ich powstania’ (translation into English: Monika Fryszkowska)
30
An architectural drawing uses a particular convention of record (see V. 2. 5), most often in the forms listed below.
Orthogonal (rectangular) projection – mapping of a three-dimensional object on a plane, called a viewing plane; parallel projection in a direction perpendicular to the viewing plane. Each point in the space is assigned a point on a viewing plane through which passes a straight line perpendicular to the viewing plane and passes through a given point in space (Bieliński 2015, 19–21; Encyklopedia Szkolna Matematyka 1997, 356).
Fig. 5 Michał Owadowicz, design sketches made during the charrette workshop on the roundhouse in Gniezno, 2017;
A – plan, B – cross-section, C – elevation of the square, D – perspective
31
The most frequent orthogonal projections used to describe architecture and urban design are: plan (projection), section and elevation. The plan shows the horizontal cross-section of the building from above, thus the principle of room arrangement, their layout, functional spatial relationships, axes, communication, etc. are visible (Fig. 5A). The cross section is de facto a vertical section of the designed object and provides information about interiors, height relations, number of floors, etc. (Fig. 5B) In the case of elevation, it is the question of viewing the object from the outside – it may be a front elevation, side elevation or the so-called fifth elevation – roof view. Elevations provide information about external walls, their colour, texture, layout of window and door openings, etc.
(Fig. 5C)
Although it is a manner of recording with strictly defined rules, it does not mean the inability to use various drawing techniques, shadows, textures, values, colours, lines, as well as recordings on different scales and with varying degrees of detail. Orthogonal projections can be made manually as quick conceptual sketches, with low accuracy, without maintaining the scale. Then they have the character of a diagram17. Within the framework of orthogonal projections, there is a large range of possibilities for authoring drawings.
Linear (converging) perspective18 is the representation of three-dimensional space or objects on a surface created by projecting them on the picture plane (central projection).
This plane intersects the pyramid with the apex located at one point – the centre of view (eye) – and the basis for determining individual points in space. The image of a given real point will be created in the place where the plane of the image will be pierced by the radius running from that point to the eye. The lines parallel to the image plane keep the direction, changing the size. The lines not parallel to the plane of the image, but in fact parallel to each other, have a common vanishing point on it; in the case of horizontal planes, the vanishing point occurs on the line called the horizon (Panofsky 1991, 27–28;
Witwicki 1954, 26–50). An example of a sketch made in perspective is shown in Fig. 5D.
It is worth noting that there are more variants in the way of presenting the three-dimensional features in the drawing, as Kazimierz Bartel wrote:
17 The types of architectural diagrams have been characterised by Tom Porter (Porter 1997, 87–89), and can also be found in Tab. 2.
18 The publication titled Perspective as Symbolic Form by Erwin Panofsky (Panofsky 1991) describes the dominance of this method of representing three-dimensional space in Western culture, its history and interaction.
32
A drawing which reminds a person looking at the view of a three-dimensional object has the features of a perspective drawing. Difficulties that lie in checking and classifying visual sensations which, however, have such a highly subjective character, make the above description clearly relative.19 (Bartel 1958, 223)
There is also an aerial (atmospheric) divergent, and backstage perspective, as well as an isometric perspective, discussed below under the heading ‘axonometric projection’.
Axonometric projection20 is a kind of parallel projection and is a reflection of three-dimensional space or objects on the plane, using a rectangular system of axes. Axono-metric projection is distinguished from perspective by the pursuit of maintaining the real dimensions of projected objects, and sometimes the sizes of angles parallel to the chosen plane are also maintained. In the case of dimetric projection, two of the three axes of space appear foreshortened, and in the case of isometric projection – all of the three axes of space appear foreshortened (Bieliński 2005, 45, 53–54).
19 ‘Rysunek przypominający patrzącemu nań widok trójwymiarowego przedmiotu ma znamiona rysunku perspektywicznego.
Trudności leżące w sprawdzaniu i klasyfikacji wyobrażeń wzrokowych, które mają wszakże charakter tak wybitnie subiektywny, sprawiają, że określenie powyższe jest wyraźnie względne.’ (translation into English: Monika Fryszkowska)
20 Massimo Scolari’s book titled Oblique drawing is devoted to axonometric projection, its history and significance. It counters the view on the dominance of perspective in visual representation (Scolari 2012).
Fig. 6 Michał Owadowicz, design sketch of the roundhouse in Gniezno, 2017, containing elements of axonometric projection and convergent perspective
33
Axonometric projection is a convenient variant of imaging objects, mainly due to the accuracy of dimensions and angles while showing three-dimensionality; there is a useful feature to add a third dimension – height – to the plan drawn in the orthogonal projection, maintaining the added lines parallel (Fig. 6).
Rudolf Arnheim was sceptical about the affirmation of representations faithfully reproducing reality according to the rules of projection. Arnheim saw the discovery of the rules governing the central perspective associated with the mechanical reproduction of reality as an event threatening creativity (Arnheim 2004, 284). He pointed to other, alternative forms of record which often conveyed information about objects better than geometrical constructions. One of these forms was the Egyptian method, presenting the objects of interest as the sum of their most characteristic views (Fig. 7). Arnheim would add: ‘The power of all visual representation derives primarily from the properties inherent in the medium and only secondarily from what these properties suggest by indirection.
Thus the truest and most effective solution is to represent squareness by a square.’
Fig. 7 Jan Knothe, fish pond depicted according to the so-called Egyptian method (top) and in perspective (bottom)
34
(op. cit., 116). Taking into account the stages of perception (Fig. 22), the Egyptian method is based on the stage of the synthesis of features, omitting the final phase of identi-fication and recognition. Peter van Sommers addresses the issue in a similar manner, giv-ing as an example a common way of presen-ting a chess board (Fig. 8) which does not correspond to the actual perception of the object, and yet it is difficult to portray it more accurately. A drawing record that corresponds closely to visual perception is sometimes inadequate and does not meet the basic requirements of a drawing: cognitive, communicative and emotional (van Sommers 1984, 259).
The architectural drawing requires the use of a set of symbols adopted in the designers’
environment. As a result, it contains a significant semantic load, which opens up the possibilities of different understanding of the message and its interpretation. Another situation arises in the case of design record using a digital three-dimensional model which simulates the designed object and aims to render its realism in all possible aspects. The positive and negative consequences of the use of conventions in architectural drawing, also in relation to computer simulations, are discussed in Chapter V.