Slade - Sketching for Engineers and Architects

Using real working drawings from a fifty-year career, Ron Slade shows how drawing remains at the heart of the design process in the everyday working life of engineers and architects. The book explains simple techniques that can be learnt and used to enhance any professionals natural ability. Using over 180 categorised examples, it demonstrates that drawing remains the fastest, clearest and most effective means of design communication. Unlike many other books on drawing in the construction industry, this book is engineer led and science oriented, but effectively shows that there is a close affinity between the working methods of architects and engineers.

Ron Slade is Structural Director at WSP | PB Group. Ron received his B.Sc. First Class Honours in Civil Engineering at City University, London and became a chartered member of the Institution of Structural Engineers in 1971 when he was awarded the Institutions A. E. Wynn prize. He was first appointed as a director in 1982.

Good engineers think, design and communicate through their sketches. A thoughtfully hand-drawn sketch offers a wonderfully efficient and immediately satisfying way for expressing the core concepts of a design. In fact, many problems and solutions do not reveal themselves until drawings are made from different viewpoints. The very act of drawing can help clarify the fabrication sequence and constructability of a complex design. Rons wonderful sketches are a delight to the eye and the mind. I can think of no better recommendation to my undergraduate and postgraduate structural engineers than that they obtain a copy and cherish this delightful book.

Roger Crouch, Professor and Dean, School of Mathematics, Computer Science and Engineering, City University, London, UK

Busy with 21st century technology, we run the risk of losing our mother-tongue: Sketching. Ron Slades book Sketching for Engineers and Architects is a must-have for all aspiring design and construction leaders in the building industry. This book is a treasure chest overflowing with creative engineering sketches and easy-to-understand drawing concepts. We are inspired and patiently guided to set aside our computers more often and pick up our pencils to organize, explore and communicate our ideas.

Gregory Brooks, Senior Lecturer, Architectural Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, USA

In a world of 3D modelling, the skill of interpretation through drawing is being lost. CAD has given us the ability to model buildings virtually, but can never replace the skill of engineers like Ron in being able to truly understand the challenges through free-hand construction sketches showing the process from fabrication through to construction and in doing so, developing innovative solutions. His sketches remind us of the importance of embracing technology whilst recognizing the role traditional methods can play in successful engineering.

Peter Miller, Sales Associate Director, Severfield, UK

In this age of digital imaging, 3D modelling and all manner of computer-aided drafting I believe that the art or skill of sketching is as valuable and effective a means of communicating an idea as any modern communication media. Sketching is a crucial tool in the kit of anyone who is engaged in the design or engineering process and should rank alongside IT in the education and development of young aspirant designers.

Peter Emerson, Laing ORourke, UK

I was delighted to be asked to add a foreword to Ron Slades book as I have long been an admirer of his engineering prowess, particularly as expressed in his exemplary drawings. Like me, he is a person who feels most comfortable expressing himself visually, but the great strength of his drawings and his approach to visual language is that it is rarely the drawing in itself that is the driver. It is the drawing as an act of communication, of thought processes and solutions to problems that is the primary value. So it is drawing as a language tool, as part of the process of problem-solving that answers the need to explore and describe answers to the very practical and pragmatic demands that architects and engineers address on all construction projects. I particularly enjoy Rons work when it embraces time-related sequences, as its often not the final answer that is paramount, but how you get there, how to lead up to and assemble; the process of constructing the actual solution can often be every bit as important as the very solution itself.

This book, in an age of increasing reliance on computer based drawing, is a very timely reminder of the crucial ongoing importance of the immediacy and spontaneous communication of hand drawing. But what comes over again and again is Rons inherent modesty and his desire to pass on his skills generously to young architects and engineers. He comes from several generations of passing on skills, as grandfather and great grandfather were stonemasons a trade whose skill sets often led to the very first architects and engineers; and his father, a builder who no doubt imbued the young Ron with yet further breadth, encompassing a wider view of construction, and the processes of assembly and actual on- and off-site organisation.

A further trait of Rons is his consistency of approach that I and so many architects such as Michael Hopkins, Renzo Piano, SOM, Foster + Partners, KPF, my former partner Nick Grimshaw and others have continuously relied on over many decades and on many notable projects. And this consistency, integrity and reliability is borne out right from the start of his career by never changing jobs he has forever been with WSP | PB (and its merged partners Kenchington Little) throughout a long career that has seen such vast, sweeping changes in our industry not least being growth and size. Kenchington Little when he joined was around 100 employees and WSP | PB is now 31,000 one of the largest organisations of its kind in the world.