Schank Smith - Architects Sketches

ARCHITECTS SKETCHES

ARCHITECTS SKETCHES

DIALOGUE AND DESIGN

KENDRA SCHANK SMITH

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First published 2008

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ISBN: 978-0-7506-8226-8

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CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Stapleton Collection, UK/Bridgeman Art Library

LOHA Lorcan OHerlihy Architects

Courtesy Steven Holl

Antoine Predock Architect PC

schmidt hammer lassen

Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects

Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects

Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects

Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects

Netherlands Architecture Institute

Central Office of Architecture

Museum of Finnish Architecture

Albertina Museum, Vienna, AZ Rom 159a

(in Drawings by Contemporary Japanese Architects)

Jun Itami Architect A Research Institute

OMA/Rem Koolhaas

Venturi Scott Brown and Associates, Inc.

LOH Lorcan OHerlihy Architect

(in Drawings by Contemporary Japanese Architects)

Ark-house Architects

Antoine Predock Architect PC

Antoine Predock Architect PC

Courtesy Steven Holl

Renzo Piano Building Workshop s.r.l.

MOMA 96.2000 Art Resource

RoTo Architects, Inc. Michael Rotondi

British Museum, London, UK/The Bridgeman Art Library

Museum of Finnish Architecture

Archivio Museo di Castelvecchio, Verona

Pei Cobb Freed Partners

Drawings by Contemporary Japanese Architects

Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects

Private Collection/Peter Willi/The Bridgeman Art Library

Foster + Partners

Venturi Scott Brown and Associates, Inc.

Central Office of Architecture

Art Resource

Archivio Museo de Castelvecchio, Verona

Utzon Associates Architects

Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan, Italy/Alinari/The Bridgeman Art Library

Santiago Calatrava LLC

Rafael Violy Architects, PC

RoTo Architects, Inc., Michael Rotondi

Venturi, Scott Brown Architects, Inc.

schmidt hammer lassen

Santiago Calatrava LLC

Murphy/Jahn

MOMA 95.2000 Art Resource

schmidt hammer lassen

RoTo Architects, Inc., Michael Rotondi

Santiago Calatrava LLC

Chicago Tribune

Chicago Tribune

Chicago Tribune

Chicago Tribune

Chicago Tribune

Chicago Tribune

Chicago Tribune

Musee Conde, Chantilly, France/Giraudon/The Bridgeman Art Library

Galleria dell Accademia, Venice, Italy/The Bridgeman Art Library

RIBA Library Photographs Collection (RIBA 10178)

RIBA Library Photographs Collection (RIBA 10184)

RIBA Library Photographs Collection (RIBA 10187)

RIBA Library Photographs Collection (RIBA 10182)

RIBA Library Photographs Collection (RIBA 10188)

Courtesy Steven Holl

Gage/Clemenceau Architects

Gage/Clemenceau Architects

Gage/Clemenceau Architects

Julio Bermudez, University of Utah, Bennett Neiman, Texas Tech University, Tim Castillo, University of New Mexico. Student project; Team 04 (13 d-model 2) Jeongkeun Yoon, Yalin Uluaydin, Jeffrey Schneider

Julio Bermudez, University of Utah, Bennett Neiman, Texas Tech University, Tim Castillo, University of New Mexico. Student project; Team 05 (12 a-model 3) Andrew Berry, Stephen Hunter, Tess Rigel

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank Stefanie Leontiadis, former graduate assistant at the University of Hartford, for her help with the initial research of images. I would also like to recognize Dmitry Kulikov of the University of Hartford and Erald Kokalari of Ryerson University for their assistance with digital reproduction at various stages of the project. My appreciation goes to Caitlin Bailey who edited much of the text and provided helpful insight.

I would like to thank the University of Hartford for assistance with a research grant and Ryerson University with development funds to help purchase illustrations.

I truly appreciate the generosity of the architects whose sketches are illustrated here. Their assistance, and enthusiasm for the project, was critical to the realization of this book.

I also would like to thank my family, and especially my husband Albert C. Smith, whose support means so much to me.

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION AND THE SKETCH

depicts an architect sketching what he observes, which represents one way that architects think with media and use sketches for dialogue. This architect, placed in front of a dynamic and historic construction, may be recording the buildings proportions, details, or its placement in context. He may be drawing to try to understand its scale, materiality, or how it compares with other buildings throughout history. He may be trying to replicate how it looks as a way to bring a souvenir home or to preserve its complexities, which may be hard to imprint on his memory without visual stimulus. The architect, possibly on a Grand Tour, comprehends more through the action of sketching than mere observation. Forced to study as he imitates, this architect may understand more about the buildings construction or intention. Drawing from observation is one dimension of how architects may use sketches as dialogue.

Triumphal Arch, Tripoli; Plate 4 (engraved by George Harley (17911871) 1821 (litho) from A Narrative of Travels in Northern Africa by Lyon, Captain George Francis (17951832) (after).

Architects depend upon sketches throughout the process of design as a medium for dialogue. They are the physical manifestation of their thinking and are used in various ways from the inception of the project to final detailing and evaluation. As instruments of a process, they reveal an intimate conversation that is coupled with desire for the future building (Piotrowski and Robinson, 2001). Intention and meaning evident in the use of architectural sketches may be explored by comparing them to theories of play, memory, imagination, and fantasy. A further method of examining the propositions inherent in sketches is to compare them to characteristics of caricature and the grotesque to find less obvious qualities of conscious, or subconscious, intention. Where architects depend upon sketches as the medium for the creative process used to conceive architecture, they also use sketches in all aspects of the design process with individual expression. This examination suggests an interpretation of architects relationships with the transitory and immediate images they utilize for design.