Thursday, 10 December 2015

Architectural sketch: Robie House

Architectural sketching is neither dead nor irrelevant—and it’s a delight to watch a master of the craft at work: drawing, in this case, a quick pen sketch of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House.

PS: I suggest you either turn down the music, or cue up something more appropriately playful. Fats Waller, maybe.


  1. Frank Lloyd Wright - recently came across this in "Vision and Art, the biology of seeing" by Margaret Livingstone. Wright was wall eyed, in that one or more eyes turn out (exotropia) { Strabismus is a condition in which the eyes do not point in the same direction.Could be in, up, down as well as out}
    This makes gauging distance and depth harder, and so with depth perception lessened, maybe the world looks flatter, and thus there is less trouble "flattening" a scene onto a piece of paper. {3D into 2D}
    Eyes misaligned cannot see stereoscopic depth because corresponding parts of the image end up in different parts of the primary visual cortex, so the visual cortex cannot compute the differences in the two eyes'images that constitute stereopsis.
    Author mentions Rembrant, Klimt and Picasso as also having divergent gazes
    Well there's a bit of useless information for you

  2. Easy in principle - a horizon line and two points behind for perspective. It is a simple combination of clean lines which may be why its so appealing. Lovely though and nicely done by someone who, I suspect, can see naturally what many cannot. Talent lies within.


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