"Thinking Perspectives" and "Communicating Perspectives": Thinking through Architectural Knowledge and "Architectural Design Refined by Hand"

Even now, when perspective generation via CG and AI has become commonplace,
I feel that the role of perspective in architecture has not been lost.

Rather, its value as a
thinking tool for understanding, contemplating, and communicating space to others seems to have become clearer than before.

This time,

• "Architectural Knowledge, October 2019 Issue"

• "Architectural Design Refined by Hand" (Shigenobu Nakayama)

Through these two books, I would like to re-examine the meaning of perspective in architecture.

"A magazine that was always by my side"—The existence of Architectural Knowledge

"Architectural Knowledge" was one of the magazines I kept within reach ever since I was in Japan.
It is a book with a sense of distance where I don't just read specific issues, but open it when necessary and reread it if there is a feature that interests me.

After moving my base to South Korea,
due to differences in laws and systems, the opportunities to open its pages gradually decreased.
To be honest, there are fewer situations where I refer to it directly in my practice.

Even so, when I went to Japan and stopped by a bookstore for the first time in a while,
this issue dealing with "perspective and background art" caught my eye.
Although I didn't buy it on the spot, the content and visuals wouldn't leave my mind, and I ended up buying it on Amazon after returning home.

"Perspectives for communicating" as shown by Architectural Knowledge

This issue of "Architectural Knowledge" is not a thick special feature issue.
However, because of that, the information is well-organized, and
the essence of background art and perspective expression is packed in with very high density.

Material expression using colored pencils, watercolors, and hatching.
Rather than "drawing architecture accurately," it was impressive that the focus was placed on
how to convey texture, depth, and atmosphere.

As I read on, I felt that
its worldview is somehow connected to the highly artistic visual expressions seen in recent animation.

Architecture, illustration, animation.
Even though the fields are different, the question of "how to show space and how to make it felt" is common.

Another origin—"Architectural Design Refined by Hand"

On the other hand, the other book, "Architectural Design Refined by Hand," is a
book whose first edition was published in 2006.

I bought this over a decade ago when I was in Japan, and it is a book that
helped me significantly in drawing perspectives.

It is very easy to understand visually,
and at first, I would practice by copying the sketches included in it
over and over again.

This book is
not a "book for drawing beautifully."
I believe it is a book for learning how to perceive and organize space while drawing.

Drawing = Thinking

What I became strongly aware of through "Architectural Design Refined by Hand" was the
sense that the act of drawing itself is a process of thinking.

How to draw a single tree.
How to handle the depth of a street.
How to place people as staffage.

These are not decorations, but
tasks for understanding the scale and character of a space.

The author, Mr. Shigenobu Nakayama, is an architect who worked at Mayumi Miyawaki's office, and I have mentioned him in a previous book review article.
It is no exaggeration to say that through this book, I learned not only the importance of perspective, but also

the significant role that staffage plays in spatial understanding.

"Perspectives for Showing" and "Perspectives for Thinking"

What I felt upon re-reading these two books this time is that
they each serve completely different roles.

• Architectural Knowledge
  → Perspective for communicating to others

• Architectural Design Refined by Hand
  → Perspective for the designer to think

Neither one is sufficient on its own.
Because there are traces of thought, it becomes a persuasive perspective.

Vanishing points and drawing theory are important, but
they are ultimately things that can be organized later.
First, draw, notice something that feels off, and then verify the logic.
That order feels right in professional practice.

Conclusion | Perspectives Cultivate the Ability to See Architecture

A perspective is not merely a technique of expression.
It directly reveals how one sees space.

The two books introduced here
before asking 'how to draw',
asked 'how are you seeing' and 'what are you trying to understand'.

In a previous article,
I organized thoughts on how to experience and see space,
and the content here is an extension of that.

See → Draw → Communicate.

Being conscious of this cycle
is something I still believe is essential in architecture.

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