Come listen to Richard Hill from NYU London lecture about questions of representation in architectural drawings, arguing from a philosophical perspective that architectural drawings are pictorial mediums, rather than epistolary or diagrammatic tools. It is on Tuesday, October 22nd from 6:30pm to 8:00pm in Silver 301.
Perspective views of buildings are generally regarded as pictures, but working drawings, plans and sections are not: they are considered to be diagrammatic, “conventional” representations. I believe this is wrong and that all architectural drawings are pictures. They employ special conventions, for sure, but the key point is that they show what something looks like, and that is what pictures do.
The philosophy of pictures is currently a branch of aesthetics, based largely on the study of works of art. But almost everything that is manufactured or built has to be drawn. If I am right in thinking that such drawings are pictures, the scope of the theory of pictures would be vastly extended. Some problems acquire a new urgency. For example for an architectural drawing to be useful to a builder it needs to be true, but how can a picture be true? As every architectural student knows, the worst insult a teacher can deliver is that a drawing is merely “a pretty picture”. The implication is that a drawing is true and reliable only when it is diagrammatic and that the feminine charms of pictures will lead us astray.
I aim to correct such entrenched views. I hope that my illustrations will show that plans, sections and working drawings are pictures that can be alluring, interesting and true – like Cezanne’s basket of apples perhaps.
Richard Hill studied at Cambridge University. After qualifying as an architect, he worked at first on social housing projects in London. But for many years he managed to evade standard professional practice, working in teaching, research and construction management. In 1999 Yale University Press published his Designs and Their Consequences: Architecture and Aesthetics. By degrees he moved back into the centre ground of architectural practice. He was project manager for the design team at the V&A British Galleries and in 2004 began work with Richard Griffiths Architects where he led the Practice’s involvement in the regeneration of St Pancras station. He has worked on many other design and conservation planning projects, including the University of the Arts London, at Kings Cross. Richard has been involved with the NYU MA course since its inception. His design for a new house on the Hebridean island of Colonsay is under construction. It will be stone on the outside and brightly modern on the inside. Richard worries a great deal about whether Ruskin would approve.