Imagining Space. How To Teach Drawing as a Tool to Explore Spatiality?

Teaching drawing in architectural education raises questions regarding the representation of spatial experiences: to what extent can sensory experiences of space be intensified through drawing and observation and what would those drawings look like? In the context of their drawing classes, the authors started to inquire the discrepancy between conceiving and perceiving space and the aptitude of representing spatial concepts upon a two dimensional surface. Through observation and translating observation into drawings, students discover that conventionalised ways of drawing, such as linear perspective, only reveal part of the story. While linear perspective remains the prevailing way of perceiving, the authors started looking for ways of observing and drawing that allow to represent experiential ways of perceiving. As such they inquire drawing as an activity which is able to enhance spatial understanding, rather than as a tool to communicate virtual spaces. Next to drawing as a ‘skill’, which can be learnt, the drawing classes started to inquire non-visual aspects of space by analysing attributes of spatiality, which are difficult to convey through two dimensional drawings. Starting from a contextualisation of spatial drawing within architectural practice, the paper examines the discrepancy between geometric space and lived space, in order to reveal the dubious role of linear perspective within (architectural) culture and history. After a brief return to the spatial representation in our childhood, the paper presents a series of practice based examples. Drawing on the authors’ teaching practice, it illustrates possibilities to expand our visual language by exploring space and spatiality through drawing and observation.status: publishe