Architectural Drawing: Exercise 2 - Mindbenders

As I said in my first post over architectural lettering, lettering is not the only thing that makes up the "backbone" of architecture. Drawing is the second part of this backbone.

An isometric drawing, which includes top, front, and side views.

Drawing in architecture requires you to translate two-dimensional information into three-dimensions, and three-dimensional information into two-dimensions. During our first week, we completed two assignments: one on architectural lettering and the second one on translating 2D info into 3D on paper, which is the subject of this post. This requires a good understanding of how perspective works. Some people are naturally gifted at manipulating 3D objects in their minds. For others, it takes practice to fine tune this ability.

I truly believe my time playing Minecraft helped me with understanding and visualizing a space in three-dimensions, but it did not prepare me for translating 2D info into a 3D drawing.

For this assignment, we were given three 2D drawings (top, front, and side views of a simple cube) and had to translate this information into an isometric paraline drawing, like the middle cube seen below.

The key to succeeding on this assignment is to first draw a basic cube and temporarily ignore the 2D info on the left. After drawing the cube, you can start "cutting" the pieces out by adding the relevant lines. But how does one draw a perfect cube like this? It is actually very simple. All you need is a protractor for the angles and a ruler for the straight lines. For my cubes, I chose a 30 degree perspective. And for the length of the lines, I chose 1 inch. Each line has to be the same length to create a perfect cube.

After lightly drawing the frame of the cube, you can begin to translate the 2D information. However, there are lines you have to add yourself that are not shown in the 2D views.

For instance, take a look at cube 2 below.

Cube 2

Even though I was given the information for the right diagonal, highlighted in blue, I was not given information for the left diagonal, highlighted in red. This is where spatial awareness comes in to play. Based on the 2D side view, you must understand that this cube had its top left side sliced off, creating a cube with a slope on one side. To complete the drawing correctly, the red diagonal must be drawn.

Before we move on, take note of the degree marking on cube 2. If this was 45 degrees, the cube would look like the axonometric drawing in the picture shown earlier. On the other hand, if the degree was 15, the perspective would be lower to the ground, and we would see more of the front and less of the top, as seen in the perspective drawing.

Cube 3

Cube 3 was very tricky. Dashed lines indicate lines you could only see if you had x-ray vision. The dashed lines on this front view indicate that there is a wall blocking these lines. The top and side views are fairly simple, yet the front view provides the most important information.

We know this cube has been cut in half and made into a triangular prism. The top and side views tell us that a small square has been cut out. The front view, with the dashed lines, tells us that there is a wall on the front blocking the view of the small square.

With that information, we can construct this:

Cubes 4-11

Here are the rest of the cubes. Many of them were quite difficult in the sense that it took some critical thinking to figure them out, but the assignment did not take long. (Cube 1 was an example provided by the assignment.)

And here's a wider shot of the entire three page assignment.

Talk about mind-benders. Did I know what each cube was going to look like? No. But once I started drawing the relevant lines, it began to make sense.

What I quickly learned was this: 

- Draw the basic cube first. 

- Then cut the pieces out. 

This cube assignment would turn out to be very important. In fact, it has helped me complete multiple assignments through an understanding of how paraline drawing works, which we'll take a look at in upcoming posts.

References:

>> Architectural Drawing: Exercise 1 - A Tale of Skydiving

>> Why architecture?