Research is defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as, ‘a detailed study of a subject, especially in order to discover (new) information or reach a (new) understanding’. It is a revelatory process, illuminating something which had been otherwise hidden and unknown. Creativity, on the other hand , “..refers to the potential to produce novel ideas that are task-appropriate and high in quality..”1 The tools and mechanisms involved in both these activities vary enormously across the disciplines- from the printed word to the scientific laboratory; from musical instruments to the artist’s studio. Within schools of architecture, these tools are traditionally associated with drawing and physical model making; previously in analogue mode and more recently in both digital as well as analogue modes. While much contemporary focus within HEI’s and the professions rests on new developments in digital 3D exploration such as BIM and virtual and augmented reality, the sustained tradition of the hard line orthographic projection drawing continues to provide a highly effective tool for research exploration. This paper explores two projects which utilize this medium and examines its continued relevance within an expanding and increasingly-sophisticated digital 3D landscape.
The tradition of what might be described as rational, 2D and 3D draughting within the mechanical, aeronautical engineering and shipbuilding professions developed to serve the specifics of engine component design, fabrication and manufacture. The particular characteristics of unambiguous, ‘hard line’ drawings proved vital for the making of precise, complex three dimensional physical components and machinery. They are the lingua franca of all industrial manufacturing processes. Such technical drawings can be understood to have one singular intended meaning. The need for precise communication in the preparation of a functional document has always distinguished technical drawing from the expressive drawing in the visual arts. Artistic drawings are subjectively interpreted; their meanings are multiply determined. Technical drawings on the other hand require to be rational, unambiguous and not open to multiple interpretations.
However, they have also served as an inspiration for architects and designers, such as the late Sir James Stirling, RIBA Gold Medallist and Pritzker Prize recipient, who has written about the elegance of ‘functional draughtsmanship’ which he observed from his own father’s engineering drawings as a nautical engineer. My own father’s engineering drawings books illustrating machine parts drawn in sectional axonometric embedded in me a formative enthusiasm and appetite for technical drawings. That interest centred on the simple pleasure of precision drawing itself. Whilst being unselfconsciously functional, these drawings nevertheless displayed a paired down graphic quality which is fresh, elegant and objective. What you see was what you got.
Two separate case studies carried out by students in the Mackintosh School of Architecture at the Glasgow School of Art as part of a 4th year research project, involve an exploration through the medium of such drawings examining particular characteristics of two neighbouring buildings of architectural distinction on the GSA campus. The Glasgow School of Art Library, designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the more recently completed Reid Building, by Steven Holl architects and JM architects stand across the road from each other and are the result of very different design and realization processes. Despite their differing historical contexts and procurement and construction cultures, the buildings’ authors both utilized the medium of watercolour drawings in exploring their respective design process in different ways.
Whilst the examination of the Reid Building examined the details of the overall building, the Library project examined one single space. The Reid Building was already well-known before its construction by the well- published watercolour studies by Steven Holl. Apart from these and some digital images of its urban setting, no specific detail drawings were released by his practice. Given Holl’s emphasis on the importance of phenomenology in his work, the theme of detail seemed a pertinent topic to examine. The drawings undertaken both examine key construction details as well as certain key elements which building users touch in their everyday useage. In concentrating solely on outline and form, these drawings illuminate particular relationships between the parts and the whole and the attention to detail that the architects invested.
With the Glasgow School of Art’s Library, the situation was almost the opposite. Here was a building which had been drawn and published extensively given its international significance and its acknowledged place in architectural history. The challenge of this case study for students was how to look freshly at such an extensively-documented space. In concentrating solely on the library, the students chose to extract the internal timber structure from the stone outer shell, desconstructing it through a series of axonometric drawings in order to understand the process of assembly. The building was measured in traditional ways and 2D and 3D CAD drawings produced. What is revealed is a fresh reminder of the extraordinary debt that the design owes to traditional architectural architecture and design, despite the total absence of a local carpentry expertise culture in Scotland at the time, in marked contrast to Japan.
The clarity and unambiguous character of the hard line drawings, black on white, recall the mechanical draughtsmanship of the past where creative interpretation had no place in describing a machine part or engine component. Le Corbusier’s ‘Engineer’s Aesthetic’ in ‘Towards a New Architecture’ making a plea for an ideas-informed design culture, is equally
applicable to the world of architectural representation, no more so than now- a time of seemingly limitless means of expression.
These simple drawings, modest, abstract and elegant, communicate vividly the authors’ intention in revealing a new perspective. They are tools which both edit and reveal-particularly important when being applied to highly sophisticated pieces of architecture such as the Reid Building and the GSA. They also have the ability to illuminate the genius of Mackintosh and Holl through a simple graphical manner. Perhaps most importantly, they also remind us of the importance of the draughtsman/woman behind the representation and the human mind and sensibility which is guiding the pen and the mouse.