100 Details: 100 Zeichnungen voller Präzision und Inspiration / 100 Drawings full of Precision and Inspiration -9783955536787

描述

Architectural visualizations are a statement of intent, architectural photography focuses on surfaces, and architectural models convey proportions. And architectural drawings? As a tool of abstraction, they describe complex planning relationships with a depth that is usually only readable and understandable by experts. Detailed drawings document successfully tested solutions that serve as references.

80 hours. That’s the average time it takes to create detailed drawings documenting a project. Based on experience, the CAD team in the detail department estimates about ten working hours per page. The range of project documentation extends from small single-family homes to complex cultural or stadium buildings; for large projects, a single overview drawing can sometimes require a week of detailed work. The result is technical architectural drawings, from floor plans at a scale of 1:100 to detailed sections at scales of 1:20, 1:10, or 1:5, which depict a section of a project exactly as it was built: a drawn representation of reality.

Several generations work together in Detail’s CAD team today; some have over three decades of experience and still create unique pieces with ink, while others are about to graduate or are at the beginning of their careers. Working closely with editors and writers, the illustrators jointly develop the plans for the final layout: What should be depicted and how, where will the cuts be made, and what does the Detail tell us about the project? The drawing process begins long before the first line is drawn.

The first step involves requesting detailed information and planning documents for the project from the architectural firm. The detail team bases its work on construction drawings, not publication plans. The latter are typically created by firms as a presentation of a design before completion; reality can often deviate from this. Construction rarely proceeds exactly as planned. Architecture emerges on the construction site and always as a sequence of various processes. Context and circumstances during the construction phase necessitate decisions that can hardly be summarized in a single plan. And for architectural firms, what ultimately matters are milestones like the topping-out ceremony and handover of the keys, not the perfect architectural documentation of a building with all its details.

Observe, understand, construct
Construction drawings show what was actually built – but with an immense amount of data: plumbing, electrical, ventilation – all levels that are irrelevant for detailed documentation. The first step is to clean up the files and prepare them for editing. During the workflow, the editorial and drawing teams usually realize very quickly how much information about a project and its details is still missing. Then begins a phase that, like detective work, requires a keen eye and a lot of patience. For initial assumptions about how something might actually be built, construction site photos or answers from the project management team help in gathering evidence. In addition to a multifaceted technical vocabulary and solid architectural expertise, this requires a strong ability to observe and combine information; experience is also helpful. The communication necessary for good documentation takes time. A processing time of at least six months before the planned publication is allocated for dialogue with the architectural firm. During this six-month period, the editorial and CAD teams immerse themselves deeply in the building.

The standards are high. A preliminary layout helps in deciding on the scale. Besides this precision, a core competency of Detail is the high quality of its printed drawings. For this, Detail has always relied on a proprietary matrix of scales and corresponding line weights. Drawing is knowledge and perspective. The level of abstraction and the depth of information in each drawing require thorough preparation so that the final Detail drawing can be published clearly and comprehensibly on a single page. This results in some unique characteristics: Detail drawings do not differentiate between soft and hard insulation, nor do they highlight load-bearing components. Detail’s plan drawings are designed to be presentable.

The essence of the drawing
While the drawing team experienced the transition from ink on paper to computer-aided drawing in the late 1990s, prompts and AI tools are not yet suitable for simplifying or even replacing CAD work. The fact that the early ink drawings appear more aesthetically pleasing than today’s CAD plans is due to the approach taken in their creation: Drawings were typically made 20 percent larger to achieve the delicate line weights in the booklet, which are virtually impossible to achieve by hand at a 1:1 scale—a huge difference that cannot be simulated with CAD. Even back then, there were established guidelines for the correct spacing of the hatching, ensuring that everything fit perfectly in the reduced