![#](https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F11%2FConstruction-as-Heritage_-A-Case-for-Discrete-Industry-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=68&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=210&s=b8ab642e011f3f4868319de1787040e0 210w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F11%2FConstruction-as-Heritage_-A-Case-for-Discrete-Industry-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=136&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=420&s=32c793e6e50fc9c8fdb2a21c1be7beee 420w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F11%2FConstruction-as-Heritage_-A-Case-for-Discrete-Industry-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=248&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=768&s=0b2a48fe4cbd9995f7747d57e2f1a651 768w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F11%2FConstruction-as-Heritage_-A-Case-for-Discrete-Industry-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=331&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1024&s=a56feeba6674f3d786b29fddb2960750 1024w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F11%2FConstruction-as-Heritage_-A-Case-for-Discrete-Industry-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=453&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1400&s=1d75bd2a313534fa3d07f036f7ba5967 1400w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F11%2FConstruction-as-Heritage_-A-Case-for-Discrete-Industry-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=518&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1600&s=3f236bf3d6105c3755abcc028ce3c0f3 1600w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F11%2FConstruction-as-Heritage_-A-Case-for-Discrete-Industry-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=621&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1920&s=ea67e80cefa2eae476ff5db23d6fa607 1920w)
Construction as Heritage: A Case for Discrete Industry, Joshua Bristow, London Metropolitan University (Unit 8, MArch)
The precision of the digital realm is the antithesis of the searching hand sketch. In the digital realm everything is exact, there is no wavering or erring, just a definite point right here and not there.
It was interesting for me to see Jack Ingham’s submission which uses a digital model to create an image that seems partly to be about the process of drawing, where only part of the digital drawing is rendered with material and shadow. With several drawings the jury discussed the detail necessary in a digital drawing. With digital tools allowing us the infinite capacity to zoom into a drawing can we accept sketchiness, or must we ask for high definition and refined resolution everywhere? A digital drawing also allows, more easily, the build-up of layers of information. The inclusion of ‘objective’ quantifiable information, or measurable data is typical in an architectural drawing. The conventions of architectural projects- plans- axos – scales etc provide us plenty of tools to play with levels of abstraction of that information which is a key skill to drawing architecturally.
![#](https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F11%2FFetching-a-Bucket-of-Steam-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=133&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=210&s=dab81dabb121730c5c48bafda1aa548f 210w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F11%2FFetching-a-Bucket-of-Steam-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=266&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=420&s=7f5c35725c9ec139094bcf82f70dfa2f 420w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F11%2FFetching-a-Bucket-of-Steam-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=487&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=768&s=824ac861abdda357994d53db06644524 768w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F11%2FFetching-a-Bucket-of-Steam-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=650&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1024&s=f6ec505b2b89ec726cc59ee3c3ab00d0 1024w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F11%2FFetching-a-Bucket-of-Steam-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=888&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1400&s=33fb1961083587d8903b6c8e96d6cb6d 1400w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F11%2FFetching-a-Bucket-of-Steam-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=1015&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1600&s=87703e2cb2899b7dc8aa42ba709e1449 1600w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F11%2FFetching-a-Bucket-of-Steam-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=1218&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1920&s=6ef803d2bf5c128749600999eed5dcc4 1920w)
Fetching a Bucket of Steam, Jack Ingham, Newcastle University
The hybrid drawing category shouldn’t, of course, be the best of both worlds. Great drawings are not manifestos of their medium of production. There are as many ways to combine hand drawing with the digital realm as there are hybrid drawings produced; taking hand drawings through digital processes, or combining digital and hand mark making are two quick examples.
The Airplane tower -a stacked section of airplanes abandoned during Covid and adaptively-repurposed, is a witty expression of the twin emergencies of today- the housing and environmental crises. There is a humour and directness that I appreciate in our Covid-moment. Using the conventions of 3 architectural drawing types; the cut-away axo, the perspective, and the frontal elevation, the drawing plays with the capacity to present a measured, precise ‘design’, while allowing it to be a speculative sketch of a concept. By including 3 different architectural views of the same design, the drawing seems to insist this is a ‘real’ design: a legitimate proposal, while the absurd stacking and willful ignorance of details makes it an obvious (dis?)-topia. Perhaps, for me, that is one of the delicate lines that makes a drawing architectural- that it proposes a reality with just enough measured precision to convince us to take it seriously.
Like many of the submissions this year, Airplane Tower conjured the claustrophobia of these recent lock-down months, but with a little optimism, or delightful distraction that a particularly architectural drawing can provide.
![#](https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F11%2FAirplane-Tower-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=69&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=210&s=1156c126ece3da6a07712d0afc0dbf20 210w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F11%2FAirplane-Tower-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=138&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=420&s=326c2116845f1ef76ed82e655d30339b 420w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F11%2FAirplane-Tower-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=253&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=768&s=1b6bd0f395411f776b0a038514d21588 768w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F11%2FAirplane-Tower-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=338&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1024&s=3fe7a56a5e1147c0537346e900cf5909 1024w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F11%2FAirplane-Tower-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=462&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1400&s=33bc5d0075b731c08cd1b610aac45782 1400w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F11%2FAirplane-Tower-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=528&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1600&s=26dc21746328c3e7cac9c4cdc4eef49e 1600w,https://make-arch.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.makearchitects.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2020%2F11%2FAirplane-Tower-scaled.jpg?auto=format&crop=center&fit=crop&h=633&ixlib=php-1.2.1&w=1920&s=453d6d14d0a22931ab3117d91b5dd92e 1920w)
Airplane Tower, Victor Hugo Azevedo and Cheryl Lu Xu, Robert A. M. Stern Architects
This post forms part of our series on The Architecture Drawing Prize: an open drawing competition curated by Make, WAF and Sir John Soane’s Museum to highlight the importance of drawing in architecture. View the shortlist for the 2020 competition or hear from some of the judges at this year’s WAFVirtual as they discuss the shortlist in more detail on Tuesday 1 Deecember at 2pm, register here.