Drawing Analogies

Page 1


All drawings by Andrea Ponsi except when indicated. For their contribution to the creation of this book the author thanks: Federico Frittelli Gabriele Tarantino Beth Bevan Luca Ponsi Photographic credits Richard Barnes: pp. 90, 99 Alessandro Ciampi: p. 18 Mario Ciampi: pp. 89 (bottom), 111, 112, 113, 115, 117 Yoshiharu Matsumura: pp. 94, 96, 98 Andrea Ponsi: pp. 13, 40, 41, 89 (top left), 97, 100, 103, 104, 105, 110, 114, 116 Pietro Savorelli: pp. 89 (top right), 108 Translation from Italian: Susan Scott Graphic design: Giuseppe Scirè Banchitta

ISBN 978-88-6242-331-1 First italian edition June 2016 First english edition February 2019 © LetteraVentidue Edizioni © Andrea Ponsi No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, even for internal or educational use. Italian legislation only allows reproduction for personal use and provided it does not damage the author. Therefore, reproduction is illegal when it replaces the actual purchase of a book as it threatens the survival of a way of transmitting knowledge. Photocopying a book, providing the means to photocopy, or facilitating this practice by any means is like committing theft and damaging culture. Should any errors or omissions have been made regarding copyrights of the illustrations, we will be glad to correct them in the forthcoming reprint. LetteraVentidue Edizioni Srl Via Luigi Spagna 50 P 96100 Siracusa, Italy www.letteraventidue.com


Andrea Ponsi

DRAWING ANALOGIES graphic manual of architecture


Contents


9

Introduction

11

Drawing change

17

The four phases method

19 25 31 37

Observation Analysis Abstraction Analogy

43

Case Studies

44 54 60 64

Urban views Urban maps From architect to architect Analogous landscapes

73

The subjective map

87

Analogical models: four projects

90 100 106 110

118

Tiburon House Palos Verdes Art Center Exhibit Pavilion, Arezzo Maremma House

Conclusion


6


7


Introduction


A

new book on the techniques of manual drawing applied to architectural design could seem somewhat anachronistic. Indeed, bucking the trend of the spirit of the times, I propose here the alternative of approaching study sketches, one of the architect’s most important tasks, by using only a pencil and a sketchbook. The very term “manual” applied to this kind of work should in effect be interpreted not only in the most common sense of an expendable object for immediate consultation, but also in its more strictly etymological meaning, as a working tool based exclusively on the use of the hand. This does not rule out that the various methodologies suggested, in particular the graphic rendering that I have called “analogical drawing,” can serve as a stimulus also for someone who intends to use digital media. Acquiring skill in freehand drawing cannot but enrich the possibilities offered by computeraided drafting. This book, even if aimed at everyone involved in architectural design, was primarily conceived for architecture students who feel that the exclusive use of digital tools is insufficient for their training. The type of drawing considered here applies to the vast field of the human activities that, resorting to a wellknown metaphor, involve every scale of design “from a spoon to a city.” Nonetheless, we shall not concern ourselves in this book with objects, furniture or matters of interior decoration, design topics that could be the subject of a future discussion, but only with the spaces that because of their scale have to do with buildings, neighborhoods, and cities. The book is devoted to study sketches and only indirectly considers problems of planning and design. Readers will find a great many examples of analogical drawings that could be mistaken for actual plans. These drawings should be understood as mere exercises that only incidentally reflect the author’s design preferences. Thus they should

not be judged in aesthetic or functional terms; much less do they intend to encourage styles or formal solutions – more simply, they serve as examples of the application of a method which can spark other learning exercises or be used for strictly personal purposes. In the book we examine only the sketched drawing and not the elaborations aimed at the development and presentation of a project, which are necessarily the fruit of pondered evaluation and complex graphic compositions. The drawings offered here should be understood, conversely, as notes jotted down rapidly in a sketchbook, which as such require minimal reflection and maximum spontaneity. They should spring forth from an attitude of yielding to the images and fleeting thoughts of the moment, so the process can become an exploration open to unexpected developments, rather than the final result of logical, deductive reasoning. One last suggestion: Read at least the first and second chapters in sequence. The rest of the book can be dipped into at will, without further indications. In Chapter One, looking at the work of some contemporary architects, I note that analogical drawing is nothing other than the practical use of a procedure commonly adopted by architects, i.e., seeking inspiration from other works of architecture in order to conceive new ones. However, this modus operandi has rarely been approached in graphic/ comparative terms in a publication, a lacuna which I hope to fill with this book. In Chapter Two these observations are systematized by proposing a method of graphic elaboration by phases, illustrated by practical examples taken from differing scales of intervention, from the single building to urban planning. Once these two sections have been dealt with, for the reader the path through the changing and stimulating landscapes of analogical drawing should then be all downhill.

9


Drawing change


A

rchitecture is art, profession, and building science in a continual process of becoming: building types, technologies, materials, and functional programs are the object of constant metamorphosis, at times relatively rapid, other times so slow as to seem to stagnate over the span of centuries. The present study has a concrete aim: to suggest how drawing can become a tool for interpreting these transformations and, consequently, can stimulate the creation of new and original designs. The evolution of architecture vis-à -vis historical periods and geographical locations comes about primarily through analogical comparisons. Architecture generates other architecture, following principles of resemblance, similitude, and contrast. When an architect states that he takes his inspiration from the work of other architects, preexisting built environments, the structure or physiology of a natural system, or even – more generally speaking – from the spirit of the times, he does nothing other than implement analogies. The history of architecture can be read as the continual succession of changes set in motion by analogical reasoning. Without going into the theoretical and cognitive aspects of analogical thinking, this book will put forward practical suggestions on how it can be utilized through drawing, in an operation that intends to focus on the principal goal of an architect, which is the application of his skills to the conceiving of new works. The topic of analogical drawing can be approached from various angles, as diverse as the different possible sources of inspiration. In a preceding study (Analogy and design, University of Virginia Press), I analyzed potential analogical sources in the field of architectural design, dividing them into three categories: primary analogies, 11


Neo-rationalism, whose protagonists were the Italian architects Aldo Rossi and Giorgio Grassi, had as its principal references not only classical works and their reinterpretations, in particular those of the French Enlightenment, but also the elementary geometries of the metaphysical architecture of Italian or Mittel-European Rationalism. Deconstructivism, on the other hand, finds its place in the historical trajectory of the avant-garde movements in early twentieth-century art such as Cubism and Futurism; in its dynamic components, it looks also to expressionist modern architecture. Minimalism, in its most recent meanings, even though having frequent recourse to innovative technologies and materials, draws on Le Corbusier-type Purism and the essential shapes of European Rationalism of the 1920s and 1930s, without neglecting the suggestions of vernacular architecture distinguished by elementary geometries and simple, uniform surfaces demonstrating a strong sense of material. Drawing Getting back to the function of drawing in analogical thought, it is necessary in any case to remark how its ability to develop and illustrate plainly and concisely the entire planning process makes it a valuable tool for the architect to clarify his thinking as well as the means for incisive, clear communication with the client or intended users of the project. The above examples imply another immediately relevant observation, that is to say the attention that every great architect has always devoted to drawing. This is an activity that presupposes, like every other art, specific skills and a mastery of the medium. For this reason, even while maintaining as our object of investigation the relation between drawing and analogy, it is worth repeating how indispensable it is to gain familiarity with the basic techniques of representation. These can be summed up in two principal skills: reporting the visible with sufficient objectivity, in other words being capable of “copying,” while avoiding the snares of subjective perception; and secondly, knowing how to draw essential, effective graphic diagrams to be able to analyze critically the various components of architecture and urban space. The passage from objective sight to analogical-type 14

drawing, that is to say from the reality of the model of reference to the invention of a new design, will be the next chapter’s topic of discussion. Suffice it to say here that, as a bridge between the phases of observation and analogy, two further graphic exercises are proposed: the analysis drawing and the abstraction drawing. While analytical drawing is a tool generally used by every architect, abstract drawing is a procedure that is rarely followed. Inspired by already existing architectural forms or analytical diagrams constructed earlier on the model being examined, abstraction leads the draftsman to become a painter, a graphics artist, or more generally, a visual operator of images and concepts. As proof of the fundamental role played by abstract drawing for some architects, suffice it here to mention Le Corbusier’s Cubist-type compositions, Alvar Aalto’s paintings inspired by natural landscapes, and Daniel Libeskind’s Deconstructivist graphics.



Diagrams Analytical drawing presupposes a recourse to techniques that are able to render the observer’s immediate, clear, and concise reflections. In this sketch of Piazza Santissima Annunziata in Florence, some of the most effective expedients have been adopted: graphic signs such as arrows, hatched lines, color fields, written notes, and variations in the thickness of the line. In the case in point, the use of mathematical symbols such as the signs for “greater than” and “less than” are particularly functional. It is thus a matter of utilizing elements belonging to other fields of visual language, from alphabetical codes to symbols used in the physical, mathematical, and biological sciences.

Geometries The purpose of this drawing is to show how Florence’s architectural monuments are structured essentially on four basic elements, or in any case on their mutual contamination. These figures are the square, circle, triangle, and octagon. In this case the composition foregoes the spontaneity and rapidity of execution typical of an analytical sketch in favor of a clear, welldefined structure given by a strong sense of geometry. Elevations, ground plans, and crosssections faithfully reproduce the characteristics and architectural details of the buildings, utilizing a drawing technique based exclusively on a line traced with the aid of a ruler and compass. 26


Place The theme of this group of sketches is the analysis of the territory in which the Tuscan city of Pitigliano is located. The various forms of graphic representation bring out, by the targeted use of a pencil line, the relations between the built environment and the orographic conditions of its context. A quick look at the conditions of light and shadow evidences the spectacular continuity between the rugged walls of the gullies dug out of the volcanic rock and the exterior walls of the buildings in the town.

Deconstructions A typical San Francisco house is analyzed here using an “anatomical” type drawing, that is to say an axonometric projection whose purpose is to isolate the building’s compositional elements. Instead of a graphic rendering based on homogeneity and coherence, the drawing is developed using a hybridization of signs in which axonometric projection gives way to elevations, overall views, and the close description of details.

27


30


Abstraction

Abstraction can be the result of an instantaneous insight or may need a long incubation period. It represents the compendium of sensations, experiences, and information processed earlier. As such it entails the capacity to break free of any model to which it may have been attached, with only partial reference to an analytical approach. In abstraction, we work by synthesizing and extending thought in every direction, even autobiographical. Every painter or architect has to come to terms with abstraction: for some it is a goal, while others keep it at a distance, preferring to use forms and languages that are already codified. Prevailing in abstraction are the act of the hand and conciseness. The hand’s movement transfers to the sheet of paper a sensation stimulated by the image. It can be a line, a stroke, a rip, a curlicue. Mondrian’s or Klee’s geometric constructions, Rothko’s or Albers’ color fields, Pollock or Vedova’s informal signs are for the most part calculated, verified, planned abstractions. Abstraction has constituted an essential passage in the historical development of architecture. Periods of formal exuberance have always been followed by periods of abstract minimalism. Abstraction, however, does not coincide with minimalism, even though they are often found in association, but is nothing other than a form of transfer of the image to a different perceptual and conceptual dimension. The question concerns not quantity but aesthetic quality.

31



Analogy

The concept of analogical drawing can take concrete form on various thematic planes. Even while holding as a firm goal the development of an architectural or urban-planning topic, it is natural that the sources inspiring these analogical relations can range among the most disparate fields. Purely as an example, I present here some sketches that show how and to what degree some design solutions can be triggered by reflections, observations, or analyses pertaining to this type of drawing. The anatomical configuration of a hand with its joints can inspire the ground plan of a building, the structure of a tree an urban plan, the spatial relationship between two bodies the arrangement of two architectural masses, the shape of a vase the spatial concept of a home. Once these possibilities are ascertained, it is necessary in any case to return to the specific aims of this book, which is the analogical passages within the field, and thus the mutual, stimulating relations that are set up among objects, architecture, and urban space. In the analogy phase, the last of the methodology proposed here, the model of reference is transformed by means of a metamorphosis that partially changes its characteristics. In the phases of analysis and abstraction, the initial image was subjected to different ways of being. If not transfigured, it was in any case converted into a diagram and an abstract drawing. Now the phases of observation and abstraction have to converge on the architecture, understood as a three-dimensional construction on the scale of an individual building or of the urban and landscape environment. The model is measured against other functional and aesthetic conditions. An attempt is made to see if the portion of the faรงade of an ancient building characterized by a window with a tympanum can be translated in the drawing 37


into a ventilated wall with a large screen to shield the sun or if the eaves jutting out over a narrow alley in the old center of town can evolve into the thin protruding roof of a building. Relations are established, and analogies, resemblances, and objects derived from the earlier work of observation, analysis, and abstraction are sketched spontaneously. In noting analogies, contemporary thought, in other words the spirit of the times, prevails, and the ideas and preferences of the observer emerge: In a column of stacked stone drums, he can see its slender equivalent made of carbon fiber, in a brick arch its correspondent in steel and glass. The entire universe of existing architecture becomes a part of the process of analogical design. And yet this vast wealth of knowledge and experience is brought into relation with an image, a piece of architecture, a section of a real or imagined city, and within this comparison a synthesis is made between the most interesting aspects of the model and the architect’s intentions. Reasoning by analogy in front of an existing piece of architecture restricts analogical drawing’s field of investigation and expression. The architecture already has its own elements, perhaps derived from other non-architectural elements. In any case, now they are here and are waiting for a new idea, an unprecedented vision by someone who can intuit new potentialities in their already-proven qualities. Thus between existing architecture and new designs are generated close analogies, but nevertheless they are no less complex. Knowledge, that is to say the store of images and information connected with the model, acquired though the phases of observation, analysis, and abstraction, naturally plays an essential role. It makes the model familiar, increasing our capacity to grasp its values even just in rapid synthesis. But it is in the relaxed rapidity of expression that the logical part gives way to the spontaneity of the act. A sketched analogical drawing has to surge forth from an immediate reaction to the model and be executed in an attitude of easy industriousness, reducing interruptions or second thoughts to a minimum. Columns, gazebos, towers, bridges, terraces, gardens, stairways, ports, railroads, parks, all the forms of the built environment, are potential topics for exploration, reservoirs of ideas and knowledge on which to draw in preparing any future plans. 38

Out of the field analogies The shape of objects, the anatomy of living bodies, the universe of natural elements, or those that can be defined as analogical sources outside the specific field of architecture, have always inspired architects for their projects. The anatomical metaphor can be developed on the functional, symbolic, and conceptual levels. Sketching makes it possible to draw out these potential insights in the form of concise images and graphs. Observation of the articulation of a hand provides a cue for designing the ground plan of a building divided in a similar way. The sketch enables a quick visualization of both the image of reference and the structure taking shape in the architect’s mind, a structure that will be refined along the way as it moves from being a diagram to the building’s final configuration. Two distinct figures that form a single whole re-emerge in a similar relational composition of architectural volumes. Likewise a body’s reclining position can provide the inspiration for a seat. Outside of the corporeal metaphor, an object’s shape, in the case illustrated a flower vase , with a perceptive leap in scale can be transformed into a general image of an architectural volume, or the structure of a tree can inspire the composition of a series of vertically developed architectural spaces.


ANALOGICAL MODEL

PROJECT

39


Urban maps

OBSERVATION

Piazza del Campidoglio, Rome The ground plan is characterized by the convergent axes of the stairways that move up from the foot of the hill to form an acute angle. While the stairs provide the monumental approach, the other roads worm their way almost undetected into the geometric clearing of the square. Renaissance regularity is distorted into an elongated trapezoid where the façades of Michelangelo’s palaces frame on one side the palace of the Campidoglio and on the other the sweeping view of the city. The decoration of the pavement is a spiral composition developing out from the center to form the figure of a mannerist ellipse. Loggias, chapels, and interior partition walls establish a secondary rhythmic weave to the architectural volumes of the complex.

ANALYSIS

directions of approach ABSTRACTION

54

main axes

architectonic rhythms


ANALOGY

55


Carrara quarries Because of their precise geometric configuration, stone quarries are often considered true pieces of “unconscious� architecture, and this is even more so for the Carrara quarries, with their craggy, polished walls of pure white marble. The cross-section in profile of the quarry shows ramps, terraces, tight passageways that lend themselves very well to providing ideas for structures in which vertical sequences are the dominant theme, as in the analogical projects proposed here: the first presents a village made up of individual homes clinging organically to each other; the second is a model for the design of a staircase.

66


67


SUBJECTIVE MAP


Florence, Piazza della Signoria The illustration opens with a broad view fanning out from the Neptune fountain to take in the space of the Piazzale degli Uffizi. While on the left side the drawing presents a traditional streetscape, as the observer’s eye approaches the entrance to Palazzo Vecchio the gaze is led to flow upwards, following the vertical thrust of the protruding bell tower. Thus a vertical axis is created which intersects at right angles with the predominant horizontality of the view. At the bottom of the sheet is an aerial view of the square indicating the exact point of view of the image above it.

ANALOGY

83



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