Category: drawing histories
Sigurd Lewerentz: Siting the Axonometric
17 November 2020
Sigurd Lewerentz: Siting the Axonometric17 November 2020
By Stan Allen
One way to think about an axonometric drawing is as a perspective with the vanishing point at infinity. This means that the lines of projection are parallel, which assures dimensional consistency. Early treatises, for example, spoke of parallel projection as analogous to shadows cast by the sun; not, strictly speaking,… Read More
Bramante: Five Dots
16 November 2020
Bramante: Five Dots16 November 2020
The remote past is distant and faded. Original objects and documents that might be used to study it are scarce. They are often uncooperative and most of the time they don’t tell the truth, because they have been reframed by history’s ‘victors’ over the centuries. We must always bear in… Read More
Paolo Portoghesi: the Field Theory
9 November 2020
Paolo Portoghesi: the Field Theory9 November 2020
Architects mediate the complexity of the world and their ideas through different instrumental modalities. Whether perspective drawings, proportional relationships, descriptive geometry, material prototypes, scaled models, maquettes or three-dimensional models – models serve the purpose of collecting and indexing information into measurable and rational systems so that the architectural project can… Read More
All back to front: D’Aviler’s Cours D’Architecture
9 November 2020
All back to front: D’Aviler’s Cours D’Architecture9 November 2020
In Louis de Boulogne’s drawing, now in the Drawing Matter collection, Architecture appears as a young woman. She sits leaning on an altar with a Corinthian capital at her feet, compasses in one hand and a portrait of Vignola in the other. Behind her are the ruins of Rome. It… Read More
Tree Speech
7 November 2020
Tree Speech7 November 2020
By Sylvia Lavin
The following text is the fourth of a series of four essays on trees in architectural drawings by Sylvia Lavin. The essays were first published in Log 49: ‘Observations on architecture and the contemporary city’ (Summer 2020). Drawing Matter would like to thank the author and the journal’s editors for… Read More
Writing Prize 2020: Hugh Casson’s ‘Diary’
6 November 2020
Writing Prize 2020: Hugh Casson’s ‘Diary’6 November 2020
Hugh Casson did it in the car. He did in in the Opera House, in Westminster Abbey and at the Buckingham Palace Garden Party. He did it in Goa, Mykonos and at Loughborough University. Wherever he went, whatever he saw, he drew. He drew to keep his eyes keen and… Read More
Writing Prize 2020: Held Fast: SITE’s Ghost Parking Lot
3 November 2020
Writing Prize 2020: Held Fast: SITE’s Ghost Parking Lot3 November 2020
By Anna Renken
The scene might not appear unusual at first: cars are parked in a row near a commercial building with pedestrians passing on a sidewalk. On closer examination, though, the edges of the finely crosshatched cars appear softer than those of the building and roads. The cars seem to be draped… Read More
Trees Push Back
3 November 2020
Trees Push Back3 November 2020
By Sylvia Lavin
The following text is the third of a series of four essays on trees in architectural drawings by Sylvia Lavin. The essays were first published in Log 49: ‘Observations on architecture and the contemporary city’ (Summer 2020). Drawing Matter would like to thank the author and the journal’s editors for… Read More
Tony Fretton: Tolerance
27 October 2020
Tony Fretton: Tolerance27 October 2020
By Richard Hall
The following text is an excerpt from AMAG 20 | Tony Fretton Architects. Drawing Matter would like to thank the author and the editors of the magazine for allowing us to reproduce the text on drawingmatter.org. To order a copy of AMAG 20, click here. Tolerance is a measure of… Read More
A New Administration Center For Los Angeles (1936)
27 October 2020
A New Administration Center For Los Angeles (1936)27 October 2020
Excerpted from ‘Architect and Engineer’ 1936 January by William Hamilton.
Trees Move In
22 October 2020
Trees Move In22 October 2020
By Sylvia Lavin
The following text is the second of a series of four essays on trees in architectural drawings by Sylvia Lavin. The essays were first published in Log 49: ‘Observations on architecture and the contemporary city’ (Summer 2020). Drawing Matter would like to thank the author and the journal’s editors for… Read More
Outside In
23 November 2020
Outside In23 November 2020
By Emily Priest
Music plays from behind a curtain. Lights come on and you see that the curtain runs along two sides of a carpet whose centre hosts a leopard skin cushion. There is a chair at one side of the carpet and at the opposite end, a single column. Not before long… Read More
theoretical & imaginary theatre interior drawing matter writing prize 2020