Drawings have capability to hold memory and fix experience. I had casually drawn some of the plans of the rooms i had stayed which i found interesting. Going through my old sketchbooks, i think casual exercise might have more potential. As a small test, i have picked up some sketches here (most of them are not bigger 5″ wide, drawn in the corner of the page) and try to write from memory what i can remember of those spaces. To my surprise, they have some triggered some strong memories of being in that place : like the balcony jutting into the street, mosquito net over bed, a study table.. Looking back i think it is the study table, which has triggered to make these sketches. A place to draw is also important to support the act of drawing. Another unique trait of these drawings are dimensions. They make the experience of the specific. It allows one to mentally appropriate a place. I get a sense of relief, when i guess and get the size of the room right (which does not happen always). The dimensions help to understand scale better. Here are some of my drawings (1 to 4) and from others (5 to 7) which i admire.
01 : The room on the left is the one i stayed in Galle in 2016. I very vivdly remember this room for the small balcony (4’6″ wide by 1’6″ deep) which cantilevered into the street. It was a secondary street, so not much noise. A balcony door which also was a window, so we had to engage with its constantly. So i had to keep it open most of the time. The room on the right was a room in Colombo. Even though it was a small room, it was carefully done. Just simple white walls and elegant wooden furniture. Geoffrey Bawa is a household name here. Both the hosts (non-architects) were aware about his works. This was also the first time i tried Airbnb. So both these rooms were homestays. Looking at a place by staying at a home stay carries a different texture, by giving a sense of the non-touristic view of the city.02 : I vaguely remember the details of this room in Sri Lanka (2010) . Again this was part of a homestay. I remember having authentic SriLanknan breakfast in this place. I think there was a old and heavy study table by the window looking at the corridor. This was more like a hostel. And a very strong memory of sleeping inside mosquito net on the posts of the bed. It was like a room within a room.03 : This drawing (2018) is from practice. A dead end enquiry (one of many) on a small renovation. I like this drawing, because I think I got the proportion of the rooms bit right here when compared to the top two. A little yellow makes the interior bit distinct. I also used a digital tape here, a useful tool for single-person-practice like mine.04 : This drawing (2019) is from a resort in Masinagudi. A great room with wonderful views. A distinct nature of this room was that you arrived at a small foyer from the verandah in the front. This foyer had room length mesh with blinds but no glass, which had a distinct quality which was neither that of the verandah nor of the room inside. It captured a subtle shade of enclosure in between them.05 : Chris Eckersley won the Jerwood Drawing Prize in 2011 for this drawing. Chris is my recent find and can’t stop admiring his drawings. This measure drawing is of his stay at Le Corbusier’s Unite d’Habitation in Marseille. It captures the the atmosphere of the room through dimensions. Each and every object in the room is measured here. He writes in his website “I’m interested in proportion, anything from Serlio to the Modulor. Is there such a thing as ‘good proportion’? – certainly some things look more ‘right’ than others, and so this has led me to the idea of measuring as a way of finding out. I’m always amazed at what measured drawings can reveal. This type of drawing need not be to any scale, but has something of a survey about it. It can tell you quite a lot”05. Another brilliant one by Chris from his Instagram 07 : Foster’s mesaure drawings of the Post Mill Cambridgeshire as a third year student shows inclination of inner workings of technology. A trait very evident is his later practice,
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