Drawing an Education: Influence and Evidence

Abstract

This thesis is concerned with the art and act of sketching existing architecture. "Drawing an Education" refers to both educating the line by the practice and habit of drawing and to allowing the line to be the educator by drawing from buildings and places, disclosing relationships, structure and meaning. "Influence and evidence" refers to the influences that affect the process and the evidence as exhibited in a finely tuned intuition.

This thesis is arranged as a three-part inquiry:

* Drawing: how sketching facilitates an intimate connection between the architect and the place, the effect on the collective reality and cultural transmission, and sketching in relation to the photograph, both as a device and as a source; * Influences: how six major influences impact the drawing process, each investigated individually and in relationship to one another, both in an historical as well as a poetic context - eye and perception; interpretation; representation; hand and discipline; media and format; and the line itself; * Implications: how an architect's drawing an education through sketching the built environment is evidenced as a developed intuition and imagination.

It is intended that the reader will have a greater awareness of the process of architectural sketching and be encouraged to draw more, perceive more, and understand more as he sketches along the way, as well as when he embarks on his own Grand Tour.