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After ten years, drawing indiscriminately the neighborhoods of Valencia, for no other reason than to observe and represent every corner of the city, we finally decided to use the communicative capacity of drawing as a tool to reclaim El Cabanyal’s negletic state of abandonment, that has been going through for many years, regardless its political burden. After setting this goal and analysing the morphological and social history of this neighborhood, we decided to travel the streets and rooftops of El Cabanyal, talk to its people, and draw, in situ, those different spaces, shapes, colors, atmospheres ... giving rise to dozens of drawings that immortalize the (still alive) remains of this urban ecosystem. Paper-shaped witnesses sketched with latent architectures, persecuted and threatened by oblivion that will accompany us during the course of this paper. After ten years, drawing indiscriminately the neighborhoods of Valencia, for no other reason than to observe and represent every corner of the city, we finally decided to use the communicative capacity of drawing as a tool to reclaim El Cabanyal’s negletic state of abandonment, that has been going through for many years, regardless its political burden. After setting this goal and analysing the morphological and social history of this neighborhood, we decided to travel the streets and rooftops of El Cabanyal, talk to its people, and draw, in situ, those different spaces, shapes, colors, atmospheres ... giving rise to dozens of drawings that immortalize the (still alive) remains of this urban ecosystem. Paper-shaped witnesses sketched with latent architectures, persecuted and threatened by oblivion that will accompany us during the course of this paper.

In this paper we analyse the Soca Chapel in Canelones (Uruguay), which was built in 1960. This was the first religious building designed by Antonio Bonet Castellana (1913-89) and the only one he completed. Using data stored in the architect’s archive, we have re-drawn the entire work, reconstructing the chapel’s ritual path and including as active elements both the adjoining pavilion and the outer walls to create new graphical documentation that provides previously unpublished information. We also discuss another chapel that appears in the Soca files held in the architect’s archive. The analysis presented in this paper will provide additional data for anyone interested in better understanding this architectural work.

The work presented below is part of the results of a research project at "Universidad Politécnica de Madrid". In this paper we analyze the project for Murcia airport, which was done by Fernando Higueras under the guidance of Félix Candela. Some of the unpublished original documents of the project are included in the paper. The source of them are the Official Colleges of Architects of Madrid and Cataluña. In addition, the authors of the paper have done a 3D reconstruction that allowed to analyze the airport. The project is compounded by hyperbolic-paraboloid surfaces, such as those that Candela developed during the 50s. If it had been built, it would have become the largest cantilever done by Felix Candela using the "umbrella" structure.

The aim of this work is the submission of first document related to graphic skills for latests years in Architectural Degree program before entering a PHD program. Through selected study cases like this one of Pérez-Piñeros project, this paper open a discussion about graphic methodologies suitable for latest years in Architectural Degree. Thanks to Felix Candela collaboration, Pérez-Piñero developed the deployable hypercubed stained-glass window for Museo Dalí (Figueres, Girona, 1971) in which glass pieces worked together with the structure for the stiffness of the skeleton, whose fundamentals were inspired in the ones designed for Convertible Theater (London Competition, 1961). This paper reflects some fundamentals from both projects and proposes a procedure to obtain free shapes using parametric tools, which can be followed through Sandra González PHD research (2014) and René Ploch Graduation Project (2014), being referenced to latest MIT scissors researches (Rosenberg 2009).

This paper describes and analyzes three watercolors by the Valencian architect Manuel Cortina (1868-1950) titled Iglesia Parroquial (Parish Church) Casa de Recreo en una posesión de caza. (Country house in a private hunting preserve) and Fuente Monumental. (Monumental Fountain), focusing on the influence of C. N. Ledoux, O. Wagner and E. E. Viollet-le-Duc’s drawings on Cortina’s paintings. The paper also describes this transparent and distant painting method as emblematic of a period, the Belle Époque, and a movement, the Vienna Sezession of the late 19th century, and its photographic, cinematographic and oneiric imagery.

This paper presents the way of proceeding graphically, through architectural drawing, during the rationalist period in the Canary Islands. For this purpose, we have used a paradigmatic figure among the architects who developed their professional activity in the islands, his name is Miguel Martín Fernández de la Torre, who estudied architecture at the Madrid School of Architecture. The architectural proposals made in his professional development have been carried out in the different islands of the archipelago, we are going to concentrate on some works of his large graphic production, these exemplify his production; some of these works are registered in the Iberian DOCOMOMO. The drawing of rationalism in the Canary Islands, seen through the drawings of this architect, is framed within the coordinates of Spanish rationalism, which confirms that the communication networks between professionals functioned in a fairly fluid manner; likewise, the contribution of international information is also confirmed.

The increase of the population age drives to a new focus of study, the elder people. Specifically, the impact of architectural environments on physical, sensory, and cognitive capacities of the elderly is a study subject of growing interest. And so, it becomes necessary to research about the interaction between the elderly and the constructed environment. Accordingly, architectural simulation through VR goggles provides an environmental perception introducing the “immersion” concept and allows for the research tasks using innovative techniques. Aiming to fill the gap in the research field regarding the senior people and their visual perception of architectural space, this paper develops a virtual simulation system of architectural environments to conduct the colour research within the framework of a broader research project (MODIFICA). Thus, an online interactive tool is created, considering the user visual ergonomics, to be used to assess architectural environments from anywhere with an internet connection. Finally, this tool has been validated through its application in a concrete practical case, with senior participants.

The teaching of colour in the basic course of the Hochschule für Gestaltung Ulm is an evidence of the revolutionary renewal of the teachings of the German school in the second half of the 20th century. The basic training of the future designers and architects of the new industrial society undergoes an innovative change of direction in which colour overcomes its exclusive condition as a plastic element. The paper develops the pedagogical itinerary from the colour applied as a hue to the colour used as a code. The review and comparison of teaching experiences reveals the influence of the courses given by the former members of the Bauhaus on the transformative work carried out by Tomás Maldonado. The initial teaching fluctuates between an analytical and an experimental perspective to culminate in problem solving in which color is one more parameter of a programmed process.

The problem of the Working-class houses in Spain was taking shape during decades due to different socio-economical causes. The promulgation of the 1st ‘Casas Baratas’ Act in 1911 was the first response of the State as an awareness of this serious social problem, but in the meanwhile, different solutions for the Workingclass dwelling were proposed by a variety of agents (private companies, building societies, public administration, etc.). This paper collects some significant projects in the area of Cartagena and contrasts their graphic proposals, from the simplest works to the outstanding solution provided by the project of the first Spanish competition of social housing in the twentieth century, approaching the construction of two Working-class quarters in Cartagena. Finally, some most common aspects and features of this kind of representation for housing production are shown.

The work presented below is part of the results of a research project developed at Polytechnic University of Madrid. The Architecture Competitions reveal the aspirations of the participants to present the most attractive proposal that will gain the attention of the jury, in addition to responding to the problems and motivations that originate the call. The graphic communication becomes the link between theviewer and the foreshadowing of something that could become a constructed project. By analysing the graphic instruments used in several calls for architectural competitions supervised by the COAM, the aim of this paper is to show the role of visual communication in reading and evaluating a proposal. The tool of the diagram allows to visualize and find the graphic variables most used by the competitors, as well as to specify which of them are drawn on the awarded projects.

Nowadays, the name of Antonio Flórez has a significant value for us. In both aspects of his work as an architect –school buildings and intervention in remarkable monuments– drawing played a predominant role. In this paper, we shall discuss the far-reaching import of this fact. To the interest of his professional drawings, in line with the idea of architecture that he proposed, it is necessary to add the esthetic value of his manner of wielding his pencil. In Flórez, we always find the architect drawing –thought and action–; but, at the same time, there is also the act of the artist (a figure he always felt close to, and whose training he held was rooted in that of the architect). Even given his uniqueness and his skill in drawing and watercolour, Flórez is nevertheless a clear testimony of what the practice of drawing represented for the architects trained at the Madrid School of Architecture, in the first decades of the 20th century.

The idea of a transportable architecture has been present throughout history. Different architects have experimented with this concept, managing to materialize it in typologies such as the pavilion at international exhibitions. Along the same lines, the museum, as a typology that seeks to get closer to the masses, has found a useful variant in the portable building. If temporary exhibitions acquire their value in their constant contact with the public, the idea of bringing the exhibition together with the architecture becomes relevant. Thus, this paper analyses the paradigmatic experience of the Guggenheim Foundation, a leading museum institution in the competition for a temporary museum in Tokyo. Through the analysis of the proposals of Ban, Nouvel, and Hadid, it will be observed how architects use the full force of their representational styles whilst facing a typological innovation, aiming to appeal and to communicate the original architectural content that will be the main object of the exhibition.

This paper describes the transformation of the Plaza de la Virgen in Valencia between 1700 and 1870, approximately, and includes the graphic support of a photogrammetric model created to obtain digital reconstructions of both stages. The aim was to contribute to a critical review of urban spaces with obvious image problems, such as those described here, by means of a method based on a combination of graphic and visual analyses.

This paper presents the results of the graphic analysis carried out on its most representative example to determine its possible tracing strategy, the imperial staircase of the Royal Monastery of San Miguel de los Reyes (Valencia). With the support of a telemetric survey using a 3D laser scanner, it has been verified the existence of an accomplished graphical method of design. The research has considered the operations recommended by stonecutting manuscripts and the constructive tradition of its predecessors, the «honour» staircases of the Mediterranean noble houses. This has allowed to consolidate a useful strategy for the study of this constructive variant; validate the proposals of the treatise writers and confirm the validity of the Late-Medieval methods of shape control using directional curves.

During the sixteenth century the new Renaissance forms were introduced in Spain, but the Gothic procedures continued to be used due to their proven validity for the architectural design. The renovation of the architecture was heterogeneous and different for each master, according to his previous training and his knowledge of the new Italian forms. This involved a hybrid and plural context in the Spanish architecture of the 16th century. The changes and continuities of the architectural design process during this transitory stage are investigated in this paper, based on significant texts and graphic documents of this period. The analysis is structured based on three substantial architectural categories, which are simultaneously interdependent and autonomous: space, mass and ornament.

In this paper, we analyse the Fernando García Mercadal’s drawings, with which he studied Mediterranean architecture during his stay in Rome, in the early twenties of the 20th century 1, comprehending them as a manifesto. The traveller nature of this architect, who acted as a link between the Spanish and European avantgarde, strongly influenced the development of his drawing and the character of his work, to the point of turning them into transmitters of the new ideas. The use of the image of popular architecture as a code, which acts rather by convention than by analogy, allows us to interpret it as a manifesto, and to relate it with his later work.

With the development of the avant-garde in the early twentieth century, the debate, long before started, about the relation of art with architecture and furniture, was revived. The paper explains how those new artistic forms permeate through the development of those disciplines, and represent an image of modernity to some architects who take on that formal language and integrate it into their works. This research explores the case of the Studio of the Spanish architects Joaquin Labayen and Jose Manuel Aizpurua, who not only used Neoplasticism in their early works, following architects such as J.J.P. Oud or P. Mondrian, but also proposed a new interpretation of the modern vanguard through their personal perspective. Beyond a particular aesthetic, the artwork is used as a spatial solution.

The Earls' Palace in Oliva, which was declared a National Monument in 1920 but today has almost disappeared, was a point of reference of the Valencian late-Gothic architecture. The aim of this paper is to detail a graphical restitution of one of its great halls, Hall 12. The work started with the graphic information dating from between 1219 and 1920 that was collected by the Danish architects Fischer and Lauritzen. These data were processed in order to define and draw each of the singular elements that went to make up the Palace, together with the whole complex, following a rigorous method allowing us to visualise and understand this unique architectural space. The result is a comprehensive graphical restitution of the Hall by means of a thorough geometric definition that allows a deeper analysis and understanding of the architectural complex, for use in further studies. At the same time, it also allows this monument of great historical and heritage value to be made known to a wider public.

This paper focuses on texture accuracy for a reliable simulation of construction materials present in some important historic monuments on the World Heritage List, dating back to Late Antiquity in Ravenna (Italy). A series of novel strategies will be explained in order to take advantage of automatic texturing solutions of 3D digital models created by Structure from Motion (SfM) applications. These monuments will be used as case studies toillustrate a shadow removal technique on Lambertian surfaces (stone, mortar, bricks, etc.) from apparent colour texture and a rapid approach for optic simulation of mosaic decoration. The latter consists of splitting a single apparent colour texture into a set of images whose purpose is to supply render engines more suitable shaders for representing coloured mosaic tiles in an optically reliable way.

Spatial skills are essential tools for engineers and architects during their training and career. However, consecutive curricula, in particular those in the European Higher Education Area, are assigning increasingly less credits to Graphic Expression courses, resulting in insufficient attention to the development of those skills. Considering this situation, over the past few decades many Graphic Expression teachers have conducted studies that analyse several methods for training spatial skills. This paper describes some of the main studies and their results, in which a major conclusion is that freehand sketching exercises are the most effective to develop spatial skills, more than modelling with CAD software or using innovative tools and specific applications.

The virtual reconstruction of architectural heritage is a fundamentally theoretical work that can address the problem of physical intervention in ruinous groups of buildings. The advantage of this work methodology is to provide, in addition to graphical database, three-dimensional visualizations in a digital architectural model. The heritage management according to this system allows the realization of previous studies evaluating the feasibility of a future reconstruction project. The virtual nature of the method provides non-invasive theoretical results that allow an adequate disclosure. This paper, in addition to establishing the methodological framework, provides a practical example of application in the virtual recovery of Al-Munastir Castle.

This paper on the three concepts of the title (abstraction, transparency and system) provides a brief insight into the evolution of architectural graphic processes in the Early Modern Era. In particular, it identifies specific structural aspects that emerged during this historical period in relation to drawing, art and architecture. The purpose is not so much to reveal what was but what we have inherited, what is imprinted on the genetic code of our contemporary instruments.

Spatial visualization and sketching are essential skills for engineers and architects during their training and career. However, successive curricula, in particular those resulting from the European Higher Education Area, have caused a marked decline in spatial skills of students pursuing technical degrees. This paper describes the methodology introduced during the academic year 2012/2013 in several technical degrees at the University of Granada (Spain), designed to enhance the spatial and sketching skills of students by means of a series of complementary activities in Graphic Expression courses. The standardized tests administered to students at the beginning and at the end of the course revealed a major improvement in those who participated in these activities.

Since the early twentieth century, the Church of St. John’s Hospital has been the focus of multiple projects and interventions in order to recover its value. Some of these projects have been accomplished while others have remained on paper. This article lists some of the drawings and blueprints that were developed for each of the proposals, including some unpublished and unknown.

Although studies on Le Corbusier appear to have covered almost all the topics possible, strange though it may seem, the few visits he made to Britain have still not been investigated in detail. A recent publication under the title Le Corbusier and Britain at first sight appeared to cover this gap, but the book in fact concentrated solely on the reception of the Swiss architect in England, as seen through an anthology of texts given over to critical reviews of his writings or comments on his work. The present paper is intended to provide further details, especially on the basis of unpublished letters between Le Corbusier and Wells Coates from 1938, of letters between the architect and his family, and of projects included in his complete works 1.

This paper examines the use of little models in the pedagogy of teaching Graphic Expression, notably in the Analysis of Architectural Forms. In order to verify the effectiveness of this already tested method, the authors expound several processes of making models from some twentieth century architects, contrasting the opinion on analytical models from various authors, and simultaneously relating the making of models in architecture and in other contemporary art objects.

The painting and drawing of complete trees, including all their branches and leaves, in a wholly realistic way is an unreachable goal. As an alternative, artists have opted for taking a part of the tree’s structure as their model, or choosing examples of small trees, with which they can work on the exact definition of each detail. This paper analyses the nature of the problem and some of the solutions found.

Pursuant to the Royal Order of July 25, 1946, issued by the Ministry of Government, the Council Architect of Alicante Emilio Jover Pierron made the General Plan of the city of Alicante. His work, which started immediately in 1846, led to a document which contained the alignment of the buildings existing at the time, and also the future plans, consisting in the modification of some previous buildings and the creation of new ones. This plan was the first graphical instrument of this nature affecting the whole of the city; nevertheless, such an interesting item has been now missing since 1990. This paper summarizes the study of the only remains of the document and the work leading to its recovery through digital reconstruction.

This paper analyzes two perspectives drawn by the architect Lorenzo Gallego Llausás for two urbanization plans in the area of Madrid to the East of the Retiro. The target is to investigate why two drawings predictably made by the same author and so close in time use graphic resources so different for its task of depicting the city that is been planned. The study of the circumstances that conditioned its gestation will serve us to understand how these differences respond mainly to the urban approach of the proposals they convey. These drawings illustrate how the features of the container (the drawing of the city in this case) are intrinsically related to the intention of the contents: that is, the urbanization plan.

In this paper we address the academic curriculum in architecture during the postwar period in Spain. The autarkical regime established in those years implied the isolation of Spanish architecture regarding international cultural trends. Simultaneously, the new political regime turned its back on the modern architecture of the previous decade, associated to some extent with the Republic. Alternatively, it promoted an architecture that inquired into the historical styles of the past. In this context, we take a look at the training received by two architects from Alicante at the Architecture School of Madrid during those years (1942-1953): Francisco Muñoz Llorens and Juan Antonio García Solera. Through their drawings and experiences, as well as based on specialized journal reviews, we can attain a better understanding of the academic curriculum followed by the Spanish architecture students of that period.

There are a number of architectural elements in the Turia riverbed which have been developed over the centuries: bridges, embankments, ornamental elements, etc...Their capital importance for the historical and artistic heritage of the city of Valencia along with the little attention they have received so far, raised the need to pursue their study and cataloging. This paper analyzes one of the most emblematic elements integrating the Turia riverbed from a morphological and geometrical perspective, that is, the Puente del Mar bridge. The backbone of the present research focuses on deepening the potential of graphical representation tools for recovery, preservation and enhancement of the architectural heritage, coupled with the consideration that the drawing itself has, i.e. be the generator of architectural production.

In 2012, the Institute of Architects of Barcelona commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of the inauguration of its headquarters. An ambitious project that emerged with the intention of displaying an avant-garde image of Catalan architecture, making it visible in the heart of the city. Xavier Busquets won the contest with an architectural plan of great simplicity and purity composed of simple volumes, designed in the International Style of architecture. Following publication of the award, Gio Ponti, a member of the jury panel, handed the architect a set of drawings and notes that developed a critique of the award-winning draft project. In this paper, we study the relationship between the recommendations made by Gio Ponti and the architectural proposal of Busquets, in the architectural context in which the construction project developed up, until its inauguration.

In this paper we propose a typology of patterns -or composition systems- for the morphological definition of horizontal surfaces in landscape design. Specifically, we state that the basic ways to define such horizontal surfaces in landscape design fit four possible composition systems or organizational patterns, which we will call Carpets, Paths, Mosaics and Strata. After identifying the characteristic and differential features of each of these patterns, which we will validate by contrasting them with exemplary works taken from historical and contemporary landscape architecture.

The central part of the Portal de Quart, one of two surviving gates of the Mediaeval city walls of Valencia, includes a skew ribbed vault, placed over the central tribune, that eschews, for the first time in Hispanic Gothic, the usual solutions based on ribs and severies, using instead only whole ashlars. Such choice poses a number of new geometric problems connected with the design and execution of the vault, which are closer to Renaissance stereotomy than Gothic stonecutting. All this makes the vault a member of outstanding importance for Iberian Construction History. In our paper we present a precise photogrammetrical survey of this vault and, building on it, a study of its geometrical form and construction.

This paper explores the dynamic and tactile values that may be involved in the historical emergence of the line as a fundamental graphic resource. It attempts to look beyond the paradigm of visual-perceptual abstraction that is commonly associated with our concept of the line, suggesting that those core values form part of a long, slow and open historical process in which a primary graphic exercise indissolubly linked to the materiality of objects gradually collected a series of geometric empirical findings and, generation after generation, compiled an imaginary store. Eventually, the first geometric treatises imposed a strict syllogistic structure on this collection of individual geometric models. In addition to this material, dynamic concept of the line, the author argues that the first architectural drawings were a translation of sequential orders, an experience closely akin to the profound nature of ritual

Given some recent planimetric upheavals and the architectural intervention in which they worked, the authors of this paper dicuss the architectural schemes of the Convent of Montesión in Seville. Comparing these schemes with other works of the same period in Seville and its surroundings, ascribing, for the first time, their authorship to architect Hernán Ruiz II.

This paper focuses on the use of information technologies in the field of archaeological representation. It is part of a series of studies on the Villa Adriana in Tivoli which have led us to investigate the decoration of the Maritime Theatre (Emperor Hadrian’s personal residence) and other famous archaeological structures located within this UNESCO World Heritage listed site. The richness of detail that characterise the curved entablature pieces of this landmark building stimulated our research team 1 to develop new methods of representation, allowing the interactive assembling of digital models of a high geometric detail obtained by means of laser scanning. This article explains a new methodology for optimising digital survey data in the archaeological field which has previously been developed in other research sectors but not yet implemented in digital survey programs.

This paper examines one of the hypotheses I have formulated in my work on Friars Minor churches in Galicia, related to Moessel’s theories and medieval symbolism. This hypothesis is concerned with the origin of the geometrical model that could have been adopted for the design and construction of the Franciscan church in Orense. The goal is both to identify the procedure used and the method of proportion adopted for the design and formal control of the church, and to define which could have been the regulating lines and the geometrical basis on which it was planned. In a word, we will try to find out what architectural composition rules and general design were used in order to carry out the construction of the floor plan, the sections and the elevations, employing the rigorous analysis of graphical representations s as a starting point.

The use of diagrams as design tools has enriched recent architectural debate and has produced an alternative course for the process of ideation in architecture. However, diagrams and schemes are often confused with each other ignoring the constraints that the topological conceptualization of the latter entails. The paper attempts to examine the analytical and generative qualities of the diagrams using Eisenman’s architecture and his theoretical discourse as a reference, while establishing the connections between his work and the philosophy of Deleuze. Half way between being and becoming diagrams differ from drawings or schemes operating as mediators between matter and form.

The methodology proposed in this educational investigation is the case studies developed in three groups of students from different countries, who have had to work on similar projects using assisted design tools in combination with traditional techniques for models making. From the final results evaluation several statements can be affirmed: Ease and adaptability of this methodology to all students and countries whether they are digital native; integration advantages from the digital method and fast paper prototypes to avoid the continuity induced by the processes exclusively digitals and the inclusion of new methods for the generation and geometric control of shapes and complex spaces.

Immersive virtual reality constitutes a powerful tool for the vivid exploration of virtual spaces. The feeling of presence produced in the user by the action of seeing the digital space just pointing the view in any direction is greatly enhanced when adding the capability of walking physically during the experience. This paper describes aspects related with the experimentation of this hybrid space, real and virtual at the same time, that was implemented by the authors in an immersive virtual reality museum installation called “The Empty Museum”.

The Death Christ of Andrea Mantegna was a leap forward in the evolution of art and painting of the Renaissance because of its innovative and transgressive perspective. This paper presents a new enhancement of the work based on geometric analysis and culminating with a perspective correction; attending primarily on the change of the observation distance between the artist and his model.

The article reviews the work of Emilio Pérez Piñero, a designer of unfolding structures and geodesic domes, who leaped directly from isolated, impoverished Spain to the international forefront of technological development and died tragically a few years after. The paper describes the main aspects aspects of Piñero's work and explains how his foldable, movable structures embody some key issues of the architecture of the nineteen-sixties, anticipating a number of proposals by Rayner Banham, Ron Herron or Peter Cook.

This article reveals the first two drawings of the New Tower of Zaragoza, Mudejar building more important of the city, that was demolished in 1892 and that only we can know their images. The first is the view of Wyngaerde 1563, and the second is the engraving of John-Frederick Lewis, 1834. During that period of time, the New Tower suffered severe structural damage that resulted in different alterations in the body from its base and its spire. Only the comparison of the drawings and research papers can afford to know the original state of the building.