Photo by Philip Arnold
On October 5, Paul Lewis, Associate Professor of Architectural Design at Princeton University, and Principal of New York-based LTL Architects, presented a lecture titled “The Manual of Section”. Lewis explained both some of the firm’s notable projects, and their research process for compiling the set of drawings in their recently released book of the same title.
While architecture often explores spatial qualities described through plans, Lewis argues that sectional drawings are fundamental to good design, but there has been little analysis on the subject. Sections have commonly become an afterthought, a drawing produced only after the architecture is complete. Even the history of the section lends itself to being seen as just a technical tool, and nothing more.
The book itself, featuring 63 buildings mainly from the early 21st century, categorizes the drawings into a set of 7 taxonomies that are derived from their basic typologies. Beginning with “Extrusion”, Lewis describes this category as “lifting or producing a space that is just high enough to contain the program. It’s the most evident, ubiquitous section,” he continues, “it tends to be extremely banal, but there are moments in extruded sections when the building takes on a sublime character.” Philip Johnson’s Glass House and The Palace of Labor in Turin, Italy were two of the notable projects which Lewis mentioned in the “Extrusion” category.
Throughout his lecture, Lewis was able to weave in LTL’s impressive portfolio of past and current projects with spreads from “The Manual of Section”, Lewis explains how their exploration of section becomes an argument for visual representations. “Too much architectural history is done through words, and not enough is done through the expression of drawings. What we thought would be a two year process, took us five years. Each drawing takes about 150 to 200 hours each.”
After the lecture, Lewis’ gallery instillation, also titled “The Manual of Section” opened to the public in the Banvard Gallery. The show features 64 music stands circling through the gallery, each displaying one spread from the book. Lights illuminate each of the spreads so that in a sense, each book is put on display. The gallery will run through November 4.
Photo by Philip Arnold
Photo by Philip Arnold
Photo by Philip Arnold
Photo by Philip Arnold
This blog will be a feeder for recent news, events and student work occurring at the Knowlton School at The Ohio State University. Posts will typically center around updates from the school's lecture series, exciting projects from recent student reviews and updates from other school events.
1 Comment
great lecture
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