This course will revolve around what we call the sketchbook. The sketchbook is a device used by students and practitioners to draw and record existing events and visualize concepts in the design process. The immediate nature of sketching requires work to be done by freehand. The choice of theme is individual and voluntary: processes, approaches, tools and expression are motivated and guided by the student’s personal position and interests. Analytical freehand drawing, concerned with the different modes of spatial representation, is fundamental to all aspects of this course. The intention is to raise the student’s awareness and understanding about the potential and limitations given the various modes when communicating visually; an issue that is also raised when discussing the practice of sketching in the multiple contexts of art (painting, sculpture, graphic arts, and installation), architecture and industrial design. A critical reading of texts concerned with representation, and its relation to language and symbolic form, will take place in group sessions, ending up with a presentation and discussion based on visual examples. The course will end with an exhibition of student work.

Keywords: Sketching, sketchbook, analytical freehand drawing, design process, method, creativity, representation, language, visual and verbal communication.

To acquire methods and develop skills of sketching as a means of visualization in the design-process.

To further develop acquired skills and knowledge in analytical freehand drawing.

To acquire an understanding about various modes of representation within architecture and design; their specific potential and limitations in visual communication.

To develop awareness about representation as symbolic form.

Lectures, studio, croquis, excursion to exhibition, critical readings, exhibition of works executed in course

Attendance required at all events in studio, along with preliminary and final evaluations.

Hand in of sketchbook, with a revised digital version

The course is assessed as pass/fail, subject to the Regulations for Master's degree programmes at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design, § 6-14.

Mandatory reading:

Ching, F. D. K., & Juroszek, S. P. (1998). Design drawing. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.

Cooper, D. (1992). Drawing and perceiving. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.

Uddin, M. S. (1997). Axonometric and oblique drawing: a 3-D construction, rendering, and design guide. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Recommended reading:

Arnheim, R. (1974). Art and visual perception: a psychology of the creative eye. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Barthes, R. (1999). Mytologier. [Oslo]: Gyldendal.

Bois, Y.-A. (1981). Metamorphosis of Axonometry. Daidalos (no.1), p. 41-58.

Chandler, D. Semiotics for Beginners (link to the essay).

Evans, R. (1997). Translations from drawing to building and other essays. London: Architectural Association.

Foucault, M. (2002). The order of things: an archaeology of the human sciences. London: Routledge.

Fraser, I., & Henmi, R. (1994). Envisioning architecture: an analysis of drawing. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.

Gibson, James. The Perception of the visual world. Greenwood Press Publ. Westport, Connecticut.

Glent, E. (1987). Perspektivkonstruksjon. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.

Gombrich, E. H. (1968). Art and illusion: a study in the psychology of pictorial representation. London: Phaidon Press.

Krech, D., Crutchfield, R. S., & Livson, N. (1974). Elements of psychology. New York: Knopf.

Le, C., Vowinckel, A., & Kesseler, T. (1986). Le Corbusier: Synthèse des Arts : Aspekte des Spätwerks 1945-1965. Berlin: Ernst & Sohn.

Lissitzky, El. Art and pan geometry

Panofsky, E. (1991). Perspective as symbolic form. New York: Zone Books.

Pérez-Gómez, A., & Pelletier, L. (1997). Architectural representation and the perspective hinge. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.

Robertson, S. Basic perspective form drawing. Hollywood, CA: Gnomon Workshop.

Salgado, T. G. Anamorphic perspective & Illusory Architecture (link).

Scolari, Massimo. (1985). Elements for a History of Axonometry. Architectural Design (volume 55, no 5-6).