Architectural Drawing: Not For Construction

Written By Phillip Denny

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Drawing is the principal medium of architecture. If the building is the ultimate effect of architectural drawing then the drawing itself is a means to an end. Alternatively, if the drawing is the product of architectural labor, then the building is a translation of drawings—inevitably an imperfect interpretation, compromised by gravity and contractors. What might it mean, then, to make architectural drawings if not for construction? This exhibition shares answers from four designers: Bruna Canepa, Sean Canty, Adam Charlap Hyman, and Clement Laurencio. Their approaches and concerns differ except for their common commitment to producing works on paper.
      These designers prove that fantastic things can happen when architectural drawing is let loose from its role in guiding construction. The drawings represent nothing but themselves: the line represents a line, and it is always at a scale of 1:1. Unlike digital models, these drawings do not follow the rules of our three-dimensional world. They exploit the liberties of pictorial space, delineating imaginative forms and impossible perspectives. Drawing by hand produces irreducibly real things, a counterpoint to the virtual image. The drawings materialize the decision-making process of design. It is a physically impressive act, as athletic as it is deliberative. Built up on ground, drawings are—like buildings—constructed.

June 3 — July 9, 2021 at a83, 83 Grand Street, New York, NY

BRUNA CANEPA: MINIATURE CONSTRUCTION SITES

Can we look at a drawing as a miniature of a construction site? We gather specific tools, use them with their compatible techniques and a recognizable set of materials and, most importantly, we work with our hands (and our bodies) passing rulers, pens and pencils over the page. Drawings are constructions in and of themselves. Drawings are not flat surfaces but three-dimensional things with materiality: thickness, texture, shape, size. A drawing is also a space for decisions, with the potential for experimentation––the surface of the page is imprinted with our trials and errors, rendering a record of the process and our efforts. The three drawings constructed here are just that: a compilation of gestures made with tools guided by a pair of hands and an intent; a succession of actions made material. Their images? Structures and symbols rupturing, constructed with noisy lines and colors on paper.


Bruna Canepa is an architect based in São Paulo, Brazil. Canepa co-founded the architectural practice Miniatura (2010 – 2014), and has worked as a visual artist since 2008, participating in a series of exhibitions and publications in Brazil and abroad. Canepa graduated from Escola da Cidade in 2013 and is currently studying at FAUUSP (Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da Universidade de São Paulo).

SEAN CANTY: DRAWING DOUBLES

Each drawing in this series depicts a simple gable that has been distorted and deformed through the introduction of curvature. The process of drawing is used to describe how these dissimilar shapes are combined. The use of two axonometric views—a worm’s eye and a bird’s eye—provides enough information to understand the entirety of each object while confusing its legibility as a whole. At each hinge between the two views, the graphic language of the drawings inverts the relationship between fill, line and color.

Sean Canty is the founder of SSC, an architecture practice based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The studio is interested in choreographing unconventional relationships between spaces of contemplation and collective gathering. The work of the studio engages formal combination and juxtaposition at a variety of scales—from objects to interiors—and explores a range of programmatic types—from domestic environments to cultural spaces. Canty is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. In addition to architectural design, Canty has taught classes on descriptive geometry and design media.

ADAM CHARLAP HYMAN: FOUR FRIENDS

"Four Friends" is a cut-paper cycle depicting a small monument's ruin in four stages. Dedications frame each work: for Alfred Flechtheim, for Curt Valentin, for Francesco von Mendelssohn, and for Alphonse Kann.

Adam Charlap Hyman (b. 1989) is a principal of Charlap Hyman & Herrero, an architecture and design firm based out of Los Angeles and New York. In 2009 he studied paper cutting under master paper-cutter Chen Yao in Nanjing, China, and has made cut paper works ever since.

CLEMENT LUK LAURENCIO: SPATIAL FICTIONS

Working predominantly with graphite on paper, Clement Luk Laurencio’s architectural drawings explore atmosphere and storytelling, appealing to an intuitive and emotional reading of spatial representation. Laurencio’s drawings invite the viewer to wander at their own pace. Familiar objects such as teapots, handrails, and lampposts give clues as to scale, while shadow, light, and rain set the mood. The body and senses are the focus of Laurencio’s architectural fictions, which importantly, are devoid of human figures. His experientially-rich architectural fictions call upon personal experiences and embodied memories by drawing spaces in various states of occupation and abandonment.

Clement Luk Laurencio is a Filipino-French architectural designer. He was born in the south of France, where he now resides. After completing a Bachelor’s of Architecture ARB/RIBA Part I at the University of Nottingham, he worked for Bernard Tschumi Architects in New York and later joined an architectural firm in Geneva. He subsequently completed a Master’s of Architecture at the Bartlett School of Architecture in London. Laurencio now teaches at the Bartlett while pursuing his independent drawing practice. He gathers inspiration from many sources, including theorists and philosophers such as Juhani Pallasmaa and Gaston Bachelard, writers Jorge Lluis Borges and Italo Calvino, architects Balkrishna Doshi, Carlo Scarpa, and Sverre Fehn among many others.

Photography: Vincent Tullo

Phillip Denny
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