'Architects do not make buildings, they make drawings of buildings'. In his 1989 contribution to the CCA’s major publication Architecture and its Image, Robin Evans eloquently affirmed the important role of architectural drawings within architectural practice. Often mediating between architectural conception and realisation, the drawing proposes a free space for the construction of architectural thought. The affordances and limitations of specific media used, suggest a certain way of thinking about architecture, at times prophesying technological innovations in representation. Likewise, innovation in media and technical instruments has given way to new forms of thinking and representation. One could argue that the material medium and technique of the drawing affords, limits or directs the conception of the architectural drawing and the architectural project; in other words, that the drawing constitutes the formal, material or atmospheric qualities of the project. As such architectural drawings, their making, material histories and collaborators, contribute to an alternative architectural historiography. The period between the 1960s–80s, which could be considered a last call for disegno, is rich with examples spanning from the pencil drawings and paintings of Aldo Rossi to the sketches and paintings by Zaha Hadid, from the axonometric drawings of Ricardo Bofill to the collages and silkscreens of OMA.

This EAHN session is interested in exploring the material history of architectural drawings. It welcomes papers considering the two-dimensional conventions of architectural representation (floor plans, sections, facades, axonometric or perspectival views) in relation to the techniques and media used (sketchbook, painting, collage, etching, pen, pencil, ink-wash). It focusses on drawings stemming from the postmodern period in Europe and is particularly interested in proposals relating the forensics of drawing to the construction of architectural ideas. It explores several questions: How does the drawing push the limits of representation to influence the proposal? How does the technique of representation enable a certain approach towards architecture? How does a concise analysis of the drawing and its materiality propose an alternative historiography? And how might this enable us to rethink ideas of authorship in architecture?

Véronique Patteeuw, ENSAP Lille
Tina Di Carlo, Drawing Matter

Contact : Véronique Patteeuw, Email : [email protected]