by Kevin W. Sloan
Kevin Sloan Studio, Dallas

Summary: In an accelerated world, drawing by hand is rapidly becoming an endangered activity. Once the cornerstone of architecture practice and a fundamental part of architecture education, today it is a momentary step in the production of digital images or part of the preparation of implementation documents that can be shared electronically. Gone is sensitivity of line weights, development of a personal drawing style, and the ability to learn by drawing or by direct observation from a given place or site.

The development of hand-eye coordination traditionally has been best accomplished by using the pencil as a mediating tool between seeing with the mind and eye and drawing with direct muscular control. Drawing by hand is an indispensable tool for developing visual memory, ability to make the image permanent in the mind with the kind of understanding and recall that taking photographs cannot duplicate. The computer, with its attendant keyboard, is not the transparent tool necessary for immediate feedback and is, at best, a blunt instrument in need of self-conscious guidance and time.

What are notational drawings?
The notion of drawing as a device to see and understand builds on the works of others. In lieu of making drawings that are personalized views of the world, i.e., expressions or interpretations, the process I refer to as “notational drawing” requires the opposite from the observer in that “you put yourself away” and succumb to the building or place in order for it to reveal its lessons. By this process the observer enters into a direct and penetrating dialogue with the author’s ideas of the studied work. By these means, one’s experience is enlarged and one’s passion for design is refreshed.

Seeing architecture as an activity added to by one’s work is admittedly out of step with the current fashion for originality and self-expression. It is not bad that it does not necessarily lead to stylistic expression or neo-classical thinking. Rather, the activity of notational drawing suggests understanding architectural design is a knowledge-based activity using architectural cultural production as an informed resource for contemporary practice. Clearly, the cultural values and meaning of a given building or site shift from time and place, but the techniques of notational drawing are applicable anywhere. And the lessons of hand drawing still have strategic relevance as a design heuristic.

Notational drawings process
The notational drawings I have accumulated thus far were all done in situ from direct observation. Each page was considered for its format and the desired observations to be drawn. Relationships to context, precedents, organization, proportion, and spatial disposition were a few of the major interests under examination while at work. And the lessons learned and experiences accumulated become the subject for later thematic development in design projects that are currently under way at Kevin Sloan Studio. Drawings are constructed by observation and fact, generally by a four-step process.

Step One—Reconnaissance. Upon arrival, the first drawing is made in the mind after walking about. Formulate and refine a verbally descriptive picture assessing the situation‘s generative characteristics such as plan shape, sectional proportion, relationship to other buildings, and orientation to the sun—to name a few.

Step Two—The Armature. Begin by lightly drawing a simple line armature: a scaffold that describes the critical boundaries, generative form (square, rectangle, ellipse, etc.), and major points and edges of articulation observed. Notational drawings are “constructed” by building and layering observations over this scaffolding. Select and match the representational convention with the noted observations.

1. Plan reveals organization and the generative idea
2. Section favors ideas that may be sequentially driven
3. Axonometric is used for recording observations that involve spatial volume or impulses for the making of objects.

Step Three—Development. By working over the top of the lightly drawn armature, the addition of detail and articulation by means of increased line weights adds layers of understanding and realization. Note how patterns in thinking reveal themselves and how exceptions break the patterns by design. Cultivate your technical skills so that the armature lines remain visible upon completion so that the observer retains the ability to compare the drawn artifact with its constructional underpinnings.

Step Four—Synthesis and Diagrams. After completing the conventional drawings—i.e. plans, sections, axonometrics, etc.—make a set of summary diagrams. These drawings are intense simplifications that synthesize the observations in the first three steps. These diagrams are the key to the purpose of the entire activity because they go to the essence of the idea and will become the material you remember, recall, and compare between works observed and designed.