McGill University School of Architecture ARCH 221 Architectural Drawing Course Outline - Fall Term, 2011

Course faculty: Professor David Covo (david.covo@mcgill.ca) Professor Robert Mellin (robert.mellin@mcgill.ca) Note: this outline will be revised during the term (check the course web page regularly for updates): http://www.arch.mcgill.ca/prof/mellin/adfall2011/index.html 1. Course description (from the University Calendar): The purpose of this course is to provide a critical overview of theory and practice in relation to architectural drawing, and to develop familiarity with methodologies for generating appropriate drawings at every stage of the design process. 2. Supplementary course description: This is not a course with step-by-step instructions on the purely technical aspects of manual drawing and the construction of physical models (there are literally hundreds of books on the technical aspects of these subjects you may wish to refer to or even to add to your personal library, and further guidance will be provided by your studio instructor in conjunction with studio projects). Although many technical aspects will be discussed throughout the term, representation is the underlying theme of this course, providing an introductory overview that connects intentions and values with the selection and use of materials and methods. If you have taken an introductory drawing course at another university, as a U1 student you are not exempt from ARCH 221. We hope to arrange occasional field trips to the CCA to view drawings in their archives. The drawing course meeting time (early Thursday mornings) will not permit CCA field trips at that time, so these field trips will be arranged either for Tuesday afternoon or Thursday afternoon during studio time.

Manual drawing techniques will be used for all assignments (the use of the computer for drawing and physical modeling is not permitted, but the computer may be used for the scanning of photos/documents, for the editing of images with Photoshop, for assistance in desktop publishing with programs like Adobe InDesign, and for printing if required for your portfolio or for other purposes). 3: Schedule - Weekly presentations/assignments:

Sept. 1: Sketching/Analytiques [Robert Mellin]

Part One- Field sketching: Keywords, subjects: journals/sketchbooks/diaries: Moleskine requirements, drawing in Moleskines, Moleskine precedents (web examples), content, graphic design, watercolours (materials, methods, precedents), Sketching School examples (2011), Le Corbusiers sketches/diaries, Steven Holls watercolour sketches/diagrams. Part Two- Analytiques: Keywords, subjects: Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Frascari, Rossi (Ryle- analogy), R. Mellins analytiques, and presentation strategies, Scarpas drawings. Readings: Written in Water (Holl), pdf files, Le Corbusiers Carnets, R. Mellins Tilting analytiques (pdf file), Holl art gallery project. Assignments: the documentation of a particular location in the City of Montreal. You may collaborate with others within your group for the purpose of sharing basic information (city maps, photography, measuring). Note that this first assignment is integrated with the first assignment for ARCH 201, and involves two required components; 1)sketches in your landscape-oriented 5 x 8 Moleskine (graded for ARCH 201), and 2), an analytique (graded for ARCH 221) on one sheet of white Arches watercolour paper (22 x 30, hot pressed surface, 140lb., portrait orientation).

Using your Moleskine sketchbook, prepare quick, annotated analytical sketches using pencil and/or watercolour(possible topics: details, materials, light, assemblies, colour, form, procession, scale). On your Arches paper, prepare an analytique using pencil and/or watercolour (no ink or felt pens), keeping in mind the analogical purpose of such drawings in analyzing form, construction, details, and materials. The analytique may include orthographic drawings in various scales (site plan, site elevations, building elevations), as well as freehand or with instruments instrument drawn details. Do not glue or tape anything to the Arches paper. Note: make sure your name appears clearly on the inside of the cover of your Moleskine, and also on the front of your analytique. These assignments are due on Wednesday, September 7 @ 6:00pm.

Sept. 8: Analytiques cont., Watercolours [Robert Mellin] Topics: Analytiques continued, Ecole drawings, Anne Meredith Barry, watercolours, sketching vs. painting, Steven Holl, Sketching School examples, Toni Onley, Emile Nolde.

Readings: Toni Onleys books (A Silent Thunder), Gadamer (Truth and Method: chapter titled The Ontology of the Work of Art), plus a critique: http://sam-gill.com/Lecture%20PDFs/Play%203%20Gadamer.pdf http://sam-gill.com/PDF/Play%20(gill).pdf

No Assignment

Sept. 15: Drawing Instruments [David Covo] Keywords, subjects: history of the pencil, and many other drawing instruments and drawing aids.

Readings: Tools of the Imagination by Susan Piedmont-Palladino, Drawing Instruments by Maya Hambly. Assignment: design, name, and construct a simple manual drawing instrument or aid to manual drawing of your own invention, describing its relationship to any precedents for traditional drawing instruments, if any. We welcome the weird, wonderful, curious, incongruous, monstrous, and mysterious in this assignment. Submit one 8 x 11 portrait orientation drawing on high quality, white heavyweight paper documenting the instruments design and construction and providing instructions for use, plus an example of your use of the instrument on a separate sheet of white heavyweight paper. Assignment due Sept. 21 @ 6:00pm.

Sept. 22: Physical modeling [Robert Mellin]

(Work Inc., Piano, Chipperfield, student models, Slow House model, hypothetical models, realistic models, Ghery film- models) Readings: Model Making by Megan Werner (New York, Princeton Architectural Press, 2011). Assignment: to be announced. Due: Sept. 28 @ 6:00pm.

Sept. 29: Mind/eye/heart/hand [Heather Midori Yamada]

Readings: Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards (New York, Penguin, 1999), Emile Nolde, Pallasmaa The Thinking Hand. Assignment: Visit the Japanese paper store in Montreal(Au Papier Japonais, 24 Fairmount West). Select three different types of 8 x 11 paper, and submit experimental sketches/paintings. The purpose is to explore and test the use of different media using this type of paper. Due: Oct. 5 @ 6:00pm.

Oct. 6: Orthographic Projection [D. Covo and R. Mellin]

Keywords, subjects: Palladio (realms/intentions), Ecole des Beaux Arts, others (work of contemporary architects: Chipperfield example), Mellin: Tilting, analogy/details, Christopher Pratt paintings. Abalos/Herreros, Axonometrics: Five architects, Eisenman, Holl (house types), Charles Moore (The Place of Houses), Le Corbusier, working drawings, Zumthor (no distinction between design and construction drawings, Pencil Points Journal, In Detail, conventions, Graphic standards (evolution over the years), Readings: Lebbeus Woods, John Hejduk, Eisenman, Hadid paintings, Morphosis (ink drawings/projection), FLWs 3D plans. Readings: Geometry of Design, Eisenman Assignment: no assignment.

Oct. 13: Orthographic Projection [Mellin, Covo], Perspective [David Covo]

Keywords, subjects: Christopher Pratt paintings, narrative drawing with special reference to Piranesis Carceri. Readings: (chapter from Architectural Representation and the Perspective Hinge) Assignment on Piranesi/perspective: to be announced. Due Oct. 19 @ 6:00pm.

October 20: Intangible drawing/modeling [R Mellin]

Keywords, subjects: Andy Goldsworthy film (Rivers and Tides), sculpture Assignment: installation with leaves on McGills campus, documented with photographs and a watercolour sketch on 8 x 11 white heavyweight

drawing or watercolour paper, landscape orientation (different leaf colours should be available, however- depending on the timing of the fall season the date scheduled for this subject and corresponding assignment may change). Due: Oct. 26 @ 6:00pm. October 27: Process/underdrawing/overdrawing/ [Robert Mellin] The Art of the Cartoon [David Covo]

Keywords, subjects Process: palimpsest, history, marginalia, messy media, amnesia, fuzziness, traces, theoros, play, mimesis, A. Aalto, C. Scarpa, F.L. Wright, Renzo Piano. Underdrawing/overdrawing: Freehand drawing: animation (Michael Graves drawings), Renaissance, Disney, animation/graphic novels (Jimmy Corrigan, Walrus cartoon, real estate agent Julis Kniple Real Estate Photographer: Ben Katchor) movement- Chihuly (paintings to studio glass), Kahn: full size circle drawings, Corbeletti drawings, Overdrawing: Lewis Tsurumaki Lewis

Readings: Jimmy Corrigan, Overdrawing article by Lewis Tsurumaki Lewis.

http://www.katchor.com/ No Assignment

Nov. 3: To diagram/collect/document; Process [R Mellin] Layered Drawing/Sketching/Design Sketching [D. Covo]

Keywords, subjects: Marlene Creates, Tuftee, Maps, cognitive mapping, cartography, visual information, collections, connections with place (Onleys brushes, Createss stones/leaves), sketching and ideas. Heritage conservation: documentation with drawings and photographs, scale, process (large to small), precedents (Glassie, Mellin, Holl, Hubka, HAB Survey), measured drawings, HABS.Holl, Schoenauer, Natural History (Herzog/deMeuron) Readings:

Places of Presence, map books, Tuftee, etc., Pet Architecture (Tokyo), Architecture and Field/Work: Susan Ewing, ed. (New York, Routledge, 2011). No assignment

Nov. 10: Freehand Drawing Session [Robert Mellin] Note: meet in the Freehand Drawing Studio Level 5

Reading for the remaining sessions: Architects Draw by Sue Ferguson Gussow (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2008) No assignments: retain your studio session drawings for your portfolio! Nov. 17: Freehand Drawing Session [D. Covo, R. Mellin] Note: meet in the Freehand Drawing Studio Level 5

Nov. 24: Freehand Drawing Session [D. Covo, R. Mellin] Note: meet in the Freehand Drawing Studio Level 5

4) Grading: Sketching (10%) Drawing Instrument (10%) Physical model (10%) Mind/eye/heart/hand (Japanese paper) (10%) Intangible (10%) Perspective (10%) Drawings from the Freehand Drawing Studio (30%) Digital portfolio with a one-page essay on representation [more information to be provided on this] (10%): Due, last day of classes.

5) Digital portfolio: Requirements: digital archive (low resolution jpg images) of your work, configured with a basic Dreamweaver template (Dreamweaver available on the EMF network). 6) Resource Persons: David Krawitz, Admin. Coordinator (room 204) David Speller, Workshop Technician (room G14) Per Kefgen, Media Lab Technician (room G12) 7) McGill Policy Statements: Please make sure you read the information in the section titled McGill Policy Statements on the McGill University web page below: http://www.mcgill.ca/tls/resources/outline/#GENERAL