Anssi Lassila Participating in a Colloquium on Hand Drawing
Anssi Lassila is participating in a colloquium on the role of hand drawing in the practice of architecture at Carnegie Mellon University on February 17, 2024. The Colloquium, WHY STILL DRAW: The enduring Importance of Freehand Drawing for Architects in the Digital Age, will engage cognitive scientists, practicing architects, and teachers of architecture.
The event is convened by Douglas Cooper, Andrew Mellon Professor of Architecture. He is a long-time teacher of freehand drawing at the School of Architecture at Carnegie Mellon University. He is an artist and muralist known for his work that combines story, history, and memory into panoramic images of cities. To provide a platform for discussion on the pivotal question of why hand drawing still matters in architecture, Cooper has put together a day-long program featuring scientist and practitioners of architecture. The symposium is supported by the Doug Cooper, A 1970, Fund for Drawing and Architecture.
- For more information on the and colloquium to register to attend, see HERE. It is possible to follow the event also online.
Hand Drawing: Why it Still Matters for Architects in the Digital Age
The colloquium addresses the question: What is the case for freehand drawing for architects in the digital age? Today, architecture students draw less and less by hand as they develop their proposals predominantly with design software. To understand what this shift in the practice of creating architecture might mean, the symposium enlists practitioners, teachers, and scientists in addressing the visual/haptic content of freehand drawing and the value it still has for the field.
- WHY STILL DRAW
- A Symposium with perspectives from embodied cognition, neuroscience, teachers, and practitioners.
- Saturday, February 17, 2024
- 9:00 a.m.—5:00 p.m.
- McConomy Auditorium, Cohon University Center
- 5000 Forbes Avenue
- Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Perspectives from Science and from Practice
The day-long colloquium is composed around two thematic sessions. The first session will provide perspectives from science. With presentations by Barbara Tversky and Mark Hewitt it will address cognitive aspects of hand drawing. Barbara Tversky is Professor Emerita of Psychology, Stanford University and author of Mind in Motion: How Action Shapes Thought. Mark Hewitt is author of Draw in Order to See: A Cognitive history of Architectural Design. The session will be moderated by Milton Shinberg, Principal Emeritus Shinberg Levinas Architects, Adjunct Professor of Architecture School of Architecture and Planning Catholic University. He is author of Building on Architectural Intuition in Practice and Education, A Pragmatic Framework.
With Anssi Lassila of OOPEAA and Brian MacKay-Lyons, MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects, Halifax Nova Scotia, Canada, the second session will focus on perspectives from practice. Moderated by Stefani Danes, Carnegie Mellon Architecture, the session will address the changes in the practice of drawing and the role of hybrid practices combining hand drawing with digital tools as part of the process of creating architecture today.
Following the two thematic sessions, the program features Juhani Pallasmaa as the keynote speaker in the afternoon. He is former Professor of Architecture at Helsinki University of Technology and author of The Eyes of the Skin; The Thinking Hand; Architecture and Neuroscience (with Harry Mallgrave, Michael A. Arbib); and The Architecture of Image: Existential Space in Cinema.
Hand Drawing in the Practice of Architecture
- Conversation 2: Perspectives from Practice
- 11:00 a.m.—12:30 p.m.
- Moderator: Stefani Danes, Carnegie Mellon Architecture
- Presenters:
- Anssi Lasilla, OOPEAA Office for Peripheral Architecture, Finland, Professor of Practice in Contemporary Architecture at the Oulu School of Architecture, Finland
- Brian MacKay-Lyons, MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects, Halifax Nova Scotia, Canada
In their presentations, Anssi Lassila and Brian MacKay-Lyons will highlight the role of drawing as an essential part of their practice. The following questions will be discussed in the conversation after the presentations:
- In your practice, when do you tend to use freehand drawing the most? When the least?
- What skills needed in architectural design are still improved by hand drawing?
- Do you seek freehand skills in your recruits? What characteristics do you look for?
- What hybrid practices have proven most useful?
- What changes and development in hardware and software might make freehand drawing more useful in design?
In his presentation, Anssi Lassila will discuss the role of drawing in the process of developing a work of architecture from the concept phase to a full blown realized project. He will discuss several projects of different scales to illustrate the use of drawing in his work. Examples will include the Kärsämäki Church, Puuhi Community Space and Villa Koivikko, among others.
