Forget what you have Learned: Spontaneous Drawing for the Genesis of Architecture

Abstract

In the course "Analysis of Architectonic Forms" in the Higher Technical School of Architecture in Valencia (ETSAV), the students experience the possibilities of freehand drawing as a tool for understanding the genesis of the architecture, and use the sketch as a strategy to understand its key elements : geometric composition , proportions, rithms ... ), spatial organization, function, relationship with the environment , etc. Teaching follows a structuralist thought, based on the study of the individual parts and their relationships to compound the final form. However, there exist contemporary buildings which are hardly understood from purely rational parameters, and which are somehow related to artistic trends such as Dadá , Surrealism and Expressionism ( forms of spontaneity and subconsciousness) that want the architectonic shapes to emerge in a free manner, without being modulated by linear thinking . How should these architectures with casual forms be analyzed? A good method is to reproduce the graphic conditions in which these shapes were generated, to understand the creative process that made them possible. Therefore, it is necessary a process of "unlearning", in which the student who has already internalized the basic fundamentals of drawing and architecture, is able to propose new architectonic forms not based on logical thinking. To reach so, we point out a number of educational objectives based in concepts (I), processes (II) and attitudes (III), which are supported by the practice of spontaneous drawing and ultimately result in a more complete training for future architects.