Drawing landscape and drawing architecture can be two quite different things. This week, we’ll look at drawing architecture and why it’s also important for landscape architects.
Despite being landscape architects, we usually find it much easier to draw a building or an urban environment rather than a landscape. The reason for that is because of anthropogenic elements, such as architecture, which have very distinct and clear shapes and are thus easier to draw. A landscape, on the other hand, especially if it’s a natural landscape, is much harder to draw. There are fewer obvious patterns and clear shapes that our eye can recognize and translate into drawing. Still, there are a few things one can remember about drawing architecture that can benefit you as a landscape architect.
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I draw architecture in a similar way to how I draw landscape – from an analytical point of view. When drawing architecture it’s important to remember that most of the time it’s not the building itself that is of interest to us, but the relationship between the building and its surroundings. Each building creates a certain kind of space around it, which can then be connected to its surroundings or stand out from it. Whats is of interest to a landscape architect is how the building relates to the landscape around it.
The image above is a sketch looking out from Palladio’s Villa Rotonda. These views of the traditional and cultural Campagna landscape were the ones that dictated the villa’s position and design. The villa has a special connection to its surrounding, and that interested me the most as a landscape architect.
In the video below is the Karlskirche church in Vienna, Austria. I was interested in the view of the church from the park, as well as its plan and shape.
Linescapes is a project focused on exploring drawing techniques for recording and analyzing landscapes. It also tries to promote hand-drawing in landscape architecture.
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