interview chapters
why do architects still draw?
Author of Why Architects Still Draw, and numerous publications in leading architecture magazines, Paolo Belardi is an Associate Professor of Design for Engineering-Architecture in the University of Perugia. In his book, he shares his insights on the importance of drawing. Drawing is not just a paper and pen technique, but it starts with a cerebral action in your mind, and this is why everyone still draws.
drawing as a process
Using the act of drawing, Belardi is able to come to new ideas and solutions. He describes the power of sketching as influential, and how it even becomes part of the creator with repetition and practice.
archaeology of architecture
An insight on thinking spatially and with defined planes. Belardi discusses his teachings of always designing architecture via section. To start thinking and sketching on paper or in your mind, one must treat it as though it were an archaeological site, 200 years in the future.
"Beauty. Beauty is important, and if you draw beauty, beauty enters in your mind."
"I have some little paper sheets for notes, or in good situations, or when I got bored. Often during conventions when people speak a lot, I like drawing very much, without purpose."
"Design is a picklock that opens the doors to the beauty. Beauty is behind a door...we do not have the key, but design helps us in forcing this door to see the beauty, even if it’s from the keyhole."
"My teacher taught me to consider my projects as if they are archeological ruins. They have to be beautiful even if they are just ruins."
This interview was conducted by: Alex Honyewell + William Leung