2.

Frontal and Flat

We like to draw through orthographic projection; as most architects do. We tend to make physical models to confirm the decisions we have
But our resistance to virtual models and our ambivalent relationship already made in the drawings. The photos we select of our buildings are
to physical models may signify a deeper relationship to orthographic part of the same process: the flat and frontal photographs of the building
projection than other architects. are a physical confirmation of the drawings we have made.

21 Evans, R. Evans speaks of ‘the wall [becoming] a petrified drawing’21 through

(Summer 1986).
orthographic projection. The phrasing of this sentence is interesting. It
Translations from
Drawing to Building. seems obvious to me that, because the drawing is made in the service of
In AA Files, No. producing the wall, the drawing should be considered a flattened wall.
12 (pg 8). London:
Architectural
But Evans made me stop and think: the wall is a petrified drawing
Association School of
Architecture. (rather than the other way around). Perhaps sometimes for us like
Evans suggests, the relationship of the drawing to the building is
reversed; maybe the building is, in a sense, produced in the service of
the drawings?

I have said that in our mental space, the digital drawings make a ‘proto-
building’ composed of lines and hatches and that, for me, this isn’t a
resolved 3 dimensional object; instead the building is composed of a
series of flat, horizontal and vertical slices.

We are very protective of our buildings before they are built. We

make constructional sections at a very early stage (even before we are
appointed by the client), to ensure the project is a tangible thing in our
minds. We don’t like things to change – the building design is fixed
as soon as possible. We make many, many detailed drawings to avoid
potential unforeseen circumstances having an effect on the building. For
a while, we think of the drawings as a building.
The construction, and even the actual experience of the building, is
22 Sometimes we often short-lived22 - in comparison to the drawn-out design process. It
may only visit the
makes sense to me then, that the photos we choose, show our buildings
finished artefact
a couple of times, in the way that we are used to seeing them in our minds – frontal and
especially in the case flat – like in a drawing produced through orthographic projection. This
of private houses is how we have envisaged, and grown connected to the building, for the
majority of the life of the project.
Next Pages
From the outset, we have an image of the building in our heads. After initial design, this image is fixed and rarely
changes. For me, the mental image is a flat 2-dimensional drawing, rather than a 3D object. Our flat and frontal
photography of our buildings enables us to confirm and reinforce the original mental picture, completing the circle
of realisation.
Images
Fig 19 Competition elevation drawing, 2011
Fig 20 Planning application elevation drawing, 2012
Fig 21 Presentation model, 2012
Fig 22 Construction elevation drawing, 2013
Fig 23 Photograph of Merrion Cricket Club, 2014
Fig 19-23 Building as Confirmation of the Drawing, Merrion Cricket Club

41 How We Work 42