DRAWING FIELD
Fall 2022
Visual Communication 1, HKU
Tianying Li, Hae Jin Lee (teaching assistant)
Architectural drawing oscillates between two types of knowledge: the analytical, and the creative.
To draw is to perceive reality and abstract it. Besides collecting, documenting, and categorizing what is out there, drawing also filters information and further reorganizes it to reveal new knowledge. It uncovers the underlying structure of reality through conscious isolation and removal, and that which to isolate or remove, despite a biased choice, manifests the author’s reading of the space.
Such reading reflects the internal relationships of space, or in other words, its latent tectonics. Meanwhile, drawing traces the history of such relationships. It portrays the sediment of materials and their driving forces through time. The product of drawing is a synchronic section of the object, while the making of drawing is a process of (re)construction.
Yet, the drawing should not be limited to the translation of a preconceived idea. Instead, it is the thinking process itself. It accommodates as many conscious decisions as unexpected discoveries. The accumulation of operations creates space for reading and misreading. It is between such freedom and prescription that drawing functions as a productive instrument.
This course offers students technical and theoretical knowledge of architectural drawing through lectures, tutorials, and three exercises.