Editors: Johannes Käferstein, Heike Biechteler, Dieter Dietz, Jonathan Sergison (Ed.) 

How can drawing continue to be used as a central design tool in communication, research, and representation in the future? This question was discussed at the fourth Lucerne Talks Symposium for architectural educators, “Drawing in Architecture Education and Research,” primarily among representatives from Swiss architecture schools, along with international academics and practitioners.

In these discussions, reference was made to a number of concepts including to disegno, the most important artistic theory of the Renaissance period, which linked the three arts of architecture, sculpture, and painting.
The question as to what extent and whether the concept developed under Vasari is still relevant today, precisely because since the Renaissance the field of architecture has been subdivided into other disciplines, which in turn has also had an impact on drawing, formed an important starting point for the discussions. The concept of disegno opened up a space for debates focus on the entangled cross-connections between drawing as employed in conceptual processes and in construction. This included the questioning of structure and power relations, such as subject and object; authorship and execution; or master and craftperson. On the other hand, this concept of disegno may bring mediating, interdisciplinary abilities to research and practice.
For this reason, the capacity of drawings to stimulate discussions, to lead to new insights, or to provide directions for practice, which transcends social norms, languages, or professions, is thus essential.
The texts and drawings compiled in this publication, coming from various academic and professional contexts, describe what drawing can entail, both as an active process as well as an object to be viewed or discussed:
Drawings embody an approach, they are a means of communication, a key pedagogical tool in architectural education, a research method, and a means of representation.

In concrete terms, drawings can thus explore spaces that convey particular political, economic, and social contexts – in sketch form, as a detailed plan, as a picture, or as a diagram. They serve as forensic tools for making evidence visible or, quite simply, for illustrating history, capturing the present, or narrating a future. All of these methods can be geometrically projected, perspectively represented, or graphically notated.

Participants reflected on their practice or research based on three questions:

– What is the nature of your current and future drawing practices and how do these function as essential tools for communication, research, and representation?
– How does your academic/pedagogical approach relate to your applied/professional drawing methods?
– What role does drawing play in your thoughts and actions?

The answers are in each case accompanied by the author’s own drawings. In addition, in-depth essays provide insights into current research projects as well as pedagogical approaches to teaching in architectural education.
Regardless of their function, each drawing is also considered as an entity in its own right, generated by the particular approach and context. Depending on the viewer, other perceptions may emerge or actions may be triggered beyond those originally intended.
In the building industry, however, it is precisely the mutual, corresponding understanding of intention and action that is necessary. Some of the essays here thus concern discourse that could only arise when all participants are at the table at the same time.
In this way, drawing develops as a collaborative activity that eliminates the distinction between action and object. Drawing is therefore not only to be understood as an independent theoretical concept but above all as a craft that always involves at least two participants in a simultaneous action.
However, this also involves shared, reciprocal responsibility of equal importance to both. This is predicated on a will to understand, to listen, and to engage in collaborative work. It doesn't matter whether this working process is based on existing, traditional conventions or whether new drawing narratives are being created. 

Heike Biechteler
Dieter Dietz
Johannes Käferstein
Jonathan Sergison 

Erhältlich

DRAWING IN ARCHITECTURE EDUCATION AND RESEARCH
https://www.park-books.com