THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH

DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2021/2022

Information in the Degree Programme Tables may still be subject to change in response to Covid-19

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : Edinburgh College of Art : Architecture and Landscape Architecture

Undergraduate Course: On Drawing (ARCH10022)

Course Outline
SchoolEdinburgh College of Art CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryOn Drawing is a studio-based programme of visual research focusing on the representation of the architectural site through drawing. Here the architectural site is understood as the extended context for design enquiry; as the ground upon which one might build and the histories that have informed that ground. And representation is defined as the act of drawing as thinking through making, using graphic, photographic, analogue and digital techniques to investigate and invent.

The architectural site drawing is a critical tool for design practice occupying the contested ground between site-data (measure, dimension, gradient and orientation) and site-culture (history, politics, geology and ecology). Over five hundred years the practice of architectural design has enacted an incremental withdrawal from the building site to the drawing studio, from the ground to the page. In this move the architectural site drawing has become the site of design. It is the primary reference for the myriad decisions that play out in the evolution of a design proposal. Sometimes fantastical, always rigorous, the architectural site drawing is a critical coincidence of measure and invention.

The On Drawing course foregrounds the act of drawing as a critical tool for research and invention. The programme of study will focus on the production of an individually authored architectural site drawing through a staged process of: project briefing, lectures, fieldwork and tutorials, drawing investigation, drawing test and drawing refinement to the point of resolution. It will introduce students to a tool kit for visual research including: precedents from architectural and fine art practice, fieldworking techniques, drawing strategies, archive and desk-based research all centring on the key themes of time, scale and point of view in the representation of site. The programme of study will result in the production of a complex and finely wrought architectural site drawing and an accompanying pamphlet publication as both a critical reflection and a documentary record, as an account of the evolution of an architectural site drawing.
Course description On Drawing will introduce histories, techniques and methods for visual research. Following an Introductory lecture and tutorial session in Week 1 you will begin visual research in archives, libraries, online and on site. Working through a series of prescribed drawing exercises informed by a sequence of lectures you will identify your individual interests, themes and methods of working which will go on to form the basis of your final architectural site drawing and pamphlet publication. These Thematic drawing exercises will form layers of visual research addressing key themes relating to: territorial scope, cultural, historical and material concerns. Pamphlet production begins in Week 1 as an ongoing process of collection, collation, annotation and design and runs throughout the programme of study.

The On Drawing course will comprise: drawing, lectures, tutorials and fieldwork, archive, library, interview- based research

The On Drawing studio is concerned with the practice of visual research through drawing and will:

1: Introduce key themes relating to the history of architectural representation and the understanding of the architectural site through the use of precedents from architecture and art.

2: Develop skills in visual research through the deployment of a range of drawing techniques in the context of fieldwork, desk-based research and studio practice.

3: Introduce strategies for the investigation of an architectural site and the subsequent invention of an architectural site drawing.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Students MUST have passed: Architectural Design: Explorations (ARCH10001) AND Architectural Design: In Place (ARCH08007) AND Architectural Design: Any Place (ARCH08006) AND Art and Design (ARCH07001)
Co-requisites Students MUST also take: Architecture Dissertation (ARJA10002)
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Course Delivery Information
Not being delivered
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Demonstrate knowledge of the role of architectural site drawing as a tool for research, analysis and invention.
  2. Demonstrate experience in a range of drawing techniques - graphic, photographic, analogue and digital.
  3. Demonstrate the ability to represent a complex architectural site in relation to a rigorous investigation of a given territory through the medium of drawing.
Reading List
1. From Models to Drawings: Imagination and Representation in Architecture Edited by Marco Frascari, Jonathan Hale, Bradley Starkey Routledge: London 2008
2. Drawing Architecture Edited by Neil Spiller AD:London 2013
3. Architecture and Field/Work Edited by Suzanne Ewing, Jérémie Michael McGowan, Chris Speed and Victoria Clare Bernie Routledge: London 2011
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Ability to undertake visual research in the field and using desk-based resources.
Ability to work critically with a brief.
Ability to produce reflective documentation recording a design process.
Ability to deploy a range of graphic and photographic skills for investigation and invention of a design question.
Keywordsdrawing,architecture,site,fieldwork
Contacts
Course organiserMiss Victoria Bernie
Tel:
Email: vbernie@exseed.ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMrs Rosie Hall
Tel: 0131 651 5802
Email: r.hall@ed.ac.uk
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