TRANSPARENT RUINS

Architects love ruins. I think that is because that thru the general decay of a building over a long period of time, the essence of the building is revealed. It is as if the process of decay thereby yields a level of transparency to the building.

So when I was teaching a bit ago, I introduced medieval ruins to my students. I asked them to design a modern program into an existing stone ruin. That was actually a great project. It brought out the student’s love of ruins for the first time. And it required that while designing the new fabric, that the existing ruin could not be modified, which introduces a certain sense of historic preservation.

And as we all know, if things go as they should, the teacher learns just as much as the students. So as to get more familiar with the general massing, proportions and planning of ancient monasteries, I made various transparent drawings of various churches and monasteries. I had great fun studying the basic planning principals of medieval religious structures. And of course I found that my studies informed my knowledge of this building type. Thus my critical “professorial” comments were somewhat more informed as a result of my Transparent Drawings.

In my research, one ruin that I happened across was Fountains Abbey. So the drawing at the top of the page is a Transparent study of principally the naive, cloister and tower. However this is just an excerpt of the fabric as the overall complex was far more elaborate with all sorts of extensions, houses, etc.  And my drawing is somewhat a fantasy as I combined the cloisters and the naive in a way that they are not in real life.

Although the naive was built in the 15th century, to my eyes, it can be categorized as thoroughly modern, given the long and low throw of the naive. Indeed I might only characterize this building as having modernist planning principals only because it is a ruin.  Or possibly only because I drew it transparently.

Modernist or not, ruins are great things to draw. And I believe that the drawings that you end up making are very sympathetic to the ruin. There is something about Transparent Drawing and ruins that make them go well together.