51656 - Descriptive Geometry Basic Principles and Applications

Learning outcomes

The course aims to provide students with knowledge regarding the rules and conventions of technical drawing, the projective foundations of object representation in space, the theories and methods of representation; students also acquire basic knowledge about drawing theories, techniques and methods, also from the point of view of their historical development. Students therefore learn how to represent simple and complex shapes in spatial terms by using the most appropriate means of representation, how to describe and interpret the architectural space through drawing, and how to represent the main structural elements of building plans.

Course contents

The course aims to provide students with theoretical and practical skills for the interpretation, understanding and representation of architecture through drawing, to be understood as a visual and graphic language.

Lectures will focus on graphic techniques for representation; the relationship between design, art and photography; classical orders; dimensioning systems and graphic conventions; drawing instruments.

Particular attention will be paid to architectural design drawings at different representation scales, as well as to the formal and technological elements which form buildings: arches, vaults and floors; stairs, lifts; door and window frames; coverings; coatings and other exterior definition elements.

Historical background

Design and style
Idea, sketch, draft

Drawing tools

Representation techniques

Optical illusions

The architectural model

Ergonomics and proxemics

Representation scales

Geodesics

Spirals, helices, helicoids

Parametric curves - fractals

Drawing and Photography

The classical orders

Architectural drawing in the figurative arts (Escher, De Chirico, Magritte)

Nature e Geometry

Computer-aided drawing - Computer-aided design

Project representation: plans, sections, elevations, details

Hatching and chiaroscuro

An introduction to surveying

Manuals and treatises

Rendering

Readings/Bibliography

M. Massironi, Vedere con il disegno, Padova 1982

AA.VV., Teoria e metodi del disegno, CittàStudi, Milano 1994

J. Guillerme, La figurazione in architettura, Milano 1982

G. Bertoline, E. Wiebe, Fondamenti di comunicazione grafica, The Mc-Graw Hill Companies Publishing Group Italia

T. F. Banchoff, Oltre la terza dimensione, Bologna 1993

Further references on specific topics will be provided during the course.

Teaching methods

A series of lectures on specific topics will introduce the theoretical portion. Lectures will alternate with classroom drawing exercises aimed to support the students' learning. Periodic drawing tests will be given which are mandatory for admission to the final oral examination.

Assessment methods

COURSEWORK

Coursework is carried out in order to apply and analyse in greater detail the topics dealt with during theoretical lectures.

Coursework will be done either in class, during the hours of lessons, or outside the course hours, according to a schedule to be announced from time to time by the lecturer.

Technical notes for the preparation of drawings/documents related to the "long coursework":

Students will be asked to deliver two or more A1 sheets (at least one sheet for each of the two modules).
Grid and texts should be identical to those used in the design laboratories.

Original sheets will be submitted on transparencies (if final sheets are obtained photocopying on A1 transparencies or by digital editing, the original drawings should also be submitted).

They must be line block drawings, using black.

The use of other colours must be agreed with the lecturer.

The use of adhesive screens of any kind is not permitted.

Backgrounds should be filled by hatching (simple, cross, etc.).

Texts should not be handwritten (use transferable characters or adhesive acetate).

The use of CAD must be authorised by the lecturer.

Sheets must contain a series of drawings, mainly bi-dimensional and axonometric or perspective, representing the most important architectural elements of the assigned building.

Students will lay out the pagination of their sheet (or sheets), which is to be approved by the lecturer.
 
Students are also required to submit a photocopy or heliographic board copy of sheets in A2 format; this copy must be coloured (graphic technique, board colour, execution methods to be discussed with the lecturer). 

EXAMINATION

Evaluation

The final evaluation will take into account the results of partial tests (or, possibly, of written and oral tests) related to the Fondamenti e Applicazioni di Geometria Descrittiva (Fundamentals and applications of descriptive geometry) module, the oral discussion for the Disegno (Drawing) module, and the result of coursework.

Teaching tools

Video projector, computer, blackboard, overhead projector, laboratory

Office hours

See the website of Alessandro Marata