Michaela Tomaselli

Despite computers and digital renderings, architectural hand drawing remains an essential tool for capturing the world, addressing spatial questions, and developing a personal vocabulary of ideas and design. This sketch manual is a wonderful introduction to the world of hand sketches by and for architects. It was created in collaboration with students from TU Vienna, guided by their professor, Swiss architect Thomas Hasler, and Viennese architect Michaela Tomaselli. With over 250 detailed drawings, thematically organized and elegantly compiled, the book demonstrates how aspiring architects delve into the essence of architecture through drawing, thereby developing a new, personal perspective on the art of building.

The abstraction of drawing leads to a focus on the essential, sharpening the perception of the significant characteristics of form, proportion, and the arrangement of materials. The analytical sketch structures the content of an immense variety of building methods. It creates hierarchical orders, accentuates and elevates the primary design elements, and thus crystallizes the inner logic of structures.