ABSTRACT
An architect mixes personal and conventional methods for describing architectural elements, the primary aim of drawing being to foresee and understand a proposed project. The American and Spanish architects Louis Kahn and Enric Miralles were also deeply interested in the role that their drawing media could play in drawing-out their designs. Kahn's drawings frequently show a bold hand altering and reworking, emphasizing edges and boundaries with the tip of a charcoal stick. In his plan of the Kimbell Art Museum, immersed in the making, the use of charcoal resists Kahn's ability to erase or recompose his plans, forcing him to build up lines or parts to create emphasis relying on smudging-out and over-drawing. Peter Zumthor places great importance upon the role that the facture of his drawings played as an aid for developing the design of his Vals Thermal Bathhouse, showing that the constructive imagination is rooted not in the form but in the resistance of material.
