Why Architects Draw

By Edward Robbins and Edward Cullinan

Book Overview

For nearly twenty years Edward Robbins, an anthropologist, has been studying and writing about the system of architectural education and practice in this country and abroad. In this book he examines the social uses of architectural drawing: how drawing acts to direct both the conception and the production of architecture; how it helps architects set an agenda, define what is important about a design, and communicate with their colleagues and clients; and how it embodies claims about the architect's role, status, and authority. The centerpiece of Robbins's provocative investigation consists of case study narratives based on interviews with nine architects, a developer-architect, and an architectural engineer. These narratives from a broad range of practitioners and schools of thought, including leading contemporary architects, offer a rare opportunity to compare different views about the use of drawings. The narratives are illustrated by the architects' drawings (some never before published) from projects in Japan, England, Italy, Germany, Spain, Portugal, and the United States, from conception through realization. Included are orthographic and axonometric projections, perspectives, elevations, plans, sections, working drawings, sketches, schematics, construction, and finished drawings.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0262181576
• ISBN13: 9780262181570
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: MIT Press (MA)
• Length: 315 Pages
• Weight: 3.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 12.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

An insightful and original work

I'm not an anthropologist/ethnographer or an architect, though I've been very interested in both fields (Latour, Le Corbusier, etc.). I found this book, mostly of interviews with architects about how they use drawing in their practice, very accessible for the non-architect, and also, I suspect, very interesting for the architect as well. The architects interviewed have different styles for how they use drawings and these differences are reflected in the structure and process of their practices (the intervews are exclusively with principals or very senior designers). The style of drawings (and models) they like to present in various situations (to junior designers, draftsmen, clients, engineers) forms an interesting picture of the social structure of architectural practice.