Architectural Note Taking Sketching

Lutyens - A tangent

Snmichele - a tangent to a tangent!

Two quick note-taking sketches from the weekend... I read a great quote and wonder what building it refers to...I look up a few books from my library(a building I know little about) and it was influenced by another building (which I know even less about) so I look that up.... 10 books off the shelf now... where is the book I started reading???

The point of these sketches is to sketch as quickly as I can (so I can get back to reading my book) and also by the act of sketching to remember the important features of the building I was researching.

By the way, the book that I started to re-read (which started this adventure) for the 10th time is
The Classical Language of Architecture by John Summerson.
The BEST book that I read in my early years as an architecture student and a book that I would recommend to anyone to read who wants an introduction to Classical Architecture. I owe a lot to that book!

Its all Greek to me..,,

I have been having a break from posting but still trying to do a spread a day in my sketchbook to record the random events of the day. These two pages, from a few weeks ago start a little adventure I plan to have during my evening post dinner cup of tea. I am going to start exploring what I see as essential elements of architecture. Having a knowledge of these things help enormously when sketching architecture.

I am going to start with the classical orders (fancy name for different types of columns and the bits on the top) There are 3 of them: Doric, Ionic and Corinthian ... In fact they became five during the renaissance (tuscan and composite were added) My history of architecture is not to be totally trusted and will be ultra simplified but I will try not to be too incorrect. The 3 orders were codified by the Romans...but they got them from the Greeks. So I am starting with the Greek Doric.

Anyway... Here are my fun, too late at night, sketches of the Doric order. Including the mistakes I made along the way because I drew first and looked second!?!

When I posted the above page on flickr, Maarten pointed out that I was a little narrow in my definition of THE orders. Last night I could find any Chinese, Aztec or Mayan columns easily in my library BUT I found these....
So I hope I didn’t offend any one in this regard?!?! I am very grateful to Maarten for pointing my shortcomings... It is great to get such feedback and to then lead me down a little tangent...so thanks!!!