Understanding Architectural Drawings
Learning from Drawing
In this section we see how Soane’s pupils and assistants learnt from drawing. We see a young architect measuring one of the great Roman temples and we see how, in England, the art of perspective developed in the sixteenth century and the kind of books from which one could learn about architectural design and perspective. Lastly we see one of Soane’s pupils drawing on site to record and learn about the process of construction.
Young Architect Measuring the Temple of Jupiter Stator, Rome
23/9/3
See what trouble architects and students touring Italy took to measure the buildings they so admired from the past. This drawing is probably not literally correct – the ladder would have to have been very long! Also the real building, being built in the 2nd century BC, is really rather ruined with bits worn away and falling off, but it does give you an idea of what they did. Notice the architect’s long ruler and top hat! He would shout the dimensions to a colleague on the ground who noted them down.