Drawing from Ground
(Drawing Ground)
“It is thus time we return to the thickness of landscape – its temporal and sectional thickness, as well as the thick complexity of the cultural processes that shape it.” (Hirsch, 2016, p. 145). To engage with natural entities such as the ground, designers must recognise and rethink the active, living nature of ground. Though addressing the thickness of Ground with the intention to be open to how this ontological shift in process could provide alternative, unconventional ways of conceptualising architecture.
Architectural Drawings are partial views. Omitting certain information provides clarity in communication. The information below this surface cut is seen as white emptiness. In the instances when Ground is considered, an orthogonal cross-hatch is used. Both examples seem to exemplify a clear expression of the limits of the designer’s enquiry. If a drawing is understood as a critical space for construction and exploration of architectural questions, the communication of Ground should be have more primacy. (Carlisle & Pevzner, 2012). Especially in Aotearoa where there is a shift towards a reciprocal existence with land as a living entity.
This design is re-sketching of The Dominion Museum Building. The building’s solidity is dissolved, and it is reimagined through intense, turbulent sketches, emergent from thinking about the Ground beneath the building.
