2008, Laurence King (UK) and Norton (USA)

This project uses drawings in orthographic projection, the main tool of the architect, in an attempt to bridge a gap between practice and theory by using the drawn case study as a tool of comparative analysis. Presenting drawings to scale allows for an immediate comparison. The plan – used as part of the language of analysis in the process of designing a building – also has a role as a descriptor of function or use. In housing design it is closely related to the everyday rituals of ordinary lives, as a reflection of the patterns of occupation. Work like this was done, significantly in the 1930s and then again in the 1950s, with the seminal ‘picture books’ of FRS York and Frederick Gibberd. Since then, with very few exceptions, most histories tend to focus on architecture in the context of theoretical and cultural discourse. This study is a return to the study of buildings themselves as architectural output.

This ‘picture book’ features around 90 of the most influential modern housing designs of the last 100 years by some of the best-known architects in the field. Each project is explained with a concise text and photographs and drawings to scale, including floor plans together with site plans, sections and elevations. The projects are organised in a roughly chronological order in six chapters tracing the history of both public and private housing around the world.

2006, 2009, Laurence King

Historical and critical surveys of housing, particularly in the UK and many parts of Europe, are most often focused on the politics of provision – i.e. in terms of 'solving' the 'problems', particularly of an urban nature, associated with a need to accommodate the poor efficiently and cheaply. Housing studies for architects and their clients share an intricate language of the minutiae of housing which is impenetrable to the uninitiated. By contrast Hilary French’s contribution to architectural design discourse looks beyond the political and economic aspects of provision to include all types of multiple housing, considering it in relation to other architectural typologies as a key part of the urban environment fabric.

The Phaidon Atlas of 20th Century World Architecture contains information about 1,000 buildings sited across the world. Each building is indexed and located within the atlas according to a geographical hierarchy: by world region, subregion, country, city and district. Each building is described by drawings and photographs with captions, a list of data (geographical coordinates, client and building area), and a short text.

Rather than an historical or stylistic categorisation the atlas defines a geography of twentieth-century architecture, with the best buildings from each world region selected to illustrate the architectural culture of that region. Hilary French's contribution is housing projects. The descriptive texts have three principle aims: geographical significance, architectural significance and physical qualities. Geographical significance considers the physical location and siting of the building and the relationship of the building to its regional political and economic context. Its significance in the context of architectural history includes influences from local national or international culture of the period on the design of the buildings, and the influence the building had on any subsequent architectural developments. The building’s physical qualities – form, function, structure, construction and materials – are described in a way that assimilates the principal architectural concepts defined by the architect with contemporary interpretation.

This paper was prepared for the Interrogating Theories and Methodologies strand. It explores, briefly, the practical aspects of the production and keeping of architectural drawings as historical evidence of built spaces and their use in the publication of architectural research. It looks at the role that drawings have played in the constructions of histories of architecture in the field of residential design, through a series of published examples the twentieth-century ‘picture books’. For architects, the case study – a written appraisal of recent building work, illustrated with drawings and photographs – has long been the staple of professional magazines and journals.

Published studies of new buildings fuel contemporary discourse and in time form the basis of much architectural history. During the last few decades case studies have changed, in particular the carefully drawn black-and-white plans and sections appear far less frequently. In journals they are often replaced with the more lavish, glossy colour photographs and online, drawings are reduced to low-resolution PDFs. We might have expected that the change in production from hand drawings to computers would have made drawings much more readily available, however this is not the case and the ongoing development of digital technology poses more questions for publishers and for collectors and archivists without software skills and uncertain of the value of a ‘virtual artefact’.